The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2025 season can best be described as a classic tale of two halves.
In the first half, the Bucs were 5-2 and riding high, looking like a genuine contender, but then things went wrong. Really wrong.
Tampa Bay would lose seven of its last nine games, along with Baker Mayfield not playing up to his usual standard.
Baker finished the year with 15 fewer TDs than last season, nearly 1,000 fewer passing yards, and a worse completion percentage. We knew Mayfield was dealing with injuries as well, but we didn't know how many.
Former teammate Lavonte David was on The Arena podcast and detailed everything Baker went through last season.
"I'm telling you, Baker was going through a lot," David said on The Arena podcast. "Baker had a lot of injuries that you didn't expect a quarterback to play through. He had the oblique injury, he had the shoulder injury, he had a lot of things -- like ankle injury, knee injury -- he had a lot of stuff he was going through.
"The season's over now, I can talk about it, but he had a lot of stuff that he was going through and he was really trying to push and really trying to be the player that we needed him to be. To be honest, we was doing his thing for the most part."
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Buccaneers set for 2026 bounce-back?
Well, they have to, don't they?
Todd Bowles was on shaky ground last season, so if the Bucs start 1-3, then the noise around his job security will be deafening.
Plus, with Mayfield on the final year of his deal, another poor season could make the front office think twice about a big extension.
So, there is a lot at play for Tampa Bay in 2026, but the biggest key is for the franchise to avoid the injury bug. Having gotten bitten badly over the last two seasons, there has to be some respite, right?
Fans are hoping that respite comes in 2026.
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