If healthy, Bucs will be fun.
You may have heard: Joe celebrated starting a 19th season banging on a keyboard covering all things Bucs. It’s been a wild ride. Still is, in fact.
The only time the Joe typing this here post ever thought about walking away from this here corner of the interwebs was back in the dreadful, lousy Lovie Smith days. There were so many things wrong.
Very bad coach. Bad! Very arrogant coach. Boring coach. Heinous quarterback. Prehistoric offense. Bad, boring football all around. It was like Joe was back in detention in high school, like selling aluminum siding.
It was a Vikings-Bucs game. The Vikings were winning 3-0 in the third quarter. Joe had to leave the press box and start walking around the common area behind the press box. The game was boring, grotesque.
Joe actually paced back and forth, thiniing, “Is this really what Joe should be doing with football Sundays for decades to come?”
A week later, former Bucs beat writer Mark Cook came up to Joe in the locker room and said, “This team is so boring. It needs a jolt of drama bad.”
Thankfully, that drama came a few months later when the Bucs drafted America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston. This Joe was rescued from the brink.
Joe brings this up because Ben Solak of BSPN crafted a fun ranking: putting each and every team based on a fun/watchable meter.
Solak thinks the Bucs are both watchable and maybe even fun [at No. 14](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/49734084/2026-nfl-season-most-watchable-teams-ranking-excitement-bears-rams-lions-chargers#TB).
> It’s a “nobody believes in me” year for quarterback Baker Mayfield, which means you have to tune in. Mayfield is at his best when he’s proving the doubters wrong, and because he and the Buccaneers failed to get an extension done before this season, that means the whole front office is now among his doubters. Mayfield has perhaps never been more doubted.
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> In all seriousness, a healthy Mayfield behind a healthy offensive line should produce a pretty exciting passing attack. The Bucs were fifth in explosive pass rate through five weeks last season before the offense deteriorated. Still, they played 12 one-score games as they gritted it out. After the additions of Rueben Bain Jr. and Josiah Trotter, the defense should be faster and more capable of producing splash plays.
Oh, the Bucs are very much watchable and fun when Mayfield is healthy. Just go see what he did last year before the bye. That was some of the most entertaining football you can find, mostly thanks to Mayfield.
But when the Bucs played defense last year, specifically after the bye, it was time to go out to your backyard and play catch with your dog while nursing a cold beer. Or worse, go drop a No. 2 because that’s exactly what the Bucs defense was doing.
The Bucs’ front-seven now looks rejuvenated. And yes, Rueben Bain and Josiah Trotter and Keionte Scott are fun!
That No. 14 ranking might even be a bit low.