The Buccaneers finally got into the win column in Week 5, but the schedule doesn’t exactly ease up from there. Tampa Bay heads into Sunday at 1-4 and staring at a Pittsburgh Steelers team that arrives in town at 3-2. That sets up a game with a few obvious pressure points for Todd Bowles’ group, and a few questions that could swing the day.
Start with the most difficult one to pin down: Jaylin Warren. He’s not just contributing in one phase - he’s doing damage as both a runner and a receiver, which makes him a tough cover for any defense.
Warren has 410 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground, plus 230 receiving yards and another score through the air. His +0.131 EPA/play ranks him sixth among NFL running backs, and Bowles didn’t exactly downplay what makes him so dangerous.
“I mean, he's been playing outstanding at running, blocking and pass receiving. You really don't see [all of that] from one guy," Bowles said.
"He's doing everything. He's a very good pass protector.
He's an outstanding runner, and he can catch the ball very well, and he makes you miss. [If] you miss a tackle, a guy like that, if you don't wrap up, he's going to take it to the house.
So, he's been playing great football.”
That makes Warren the player Tampa Bay has to account for on every snap. If the Buccaneers lose track of him, he can hurt them in more ways than one.
Then there’s the run game on the other side of the ball, where Bucky Irving gave Tampa Bay a big jolt in Week 5 with 165 rushing yards against the Dallas Cowboys. A repeat of that kind of performance would be a lot to ask, but the broader question is whether the Buccaneers can keep that momentum going against a Steelers defense that has been solid against the run. Pittsburgh is allowing 103.4 rushing yards per game, good for 13th in the league, and its 4.0 yards per rush allowed ranks 17th.
Tampa Bay’s rushing numbers suggest there’s a real path there. The Buccaneers are averaging 4.9 yards per carry, which ranks fifth in the NFL, and their 133.0 rushing yards per game place them seventh.
If they’re going to beat Pittsburgh, they likely need the ground attack to keep moving. Irving gave them reason to believe last week; Sunday will show whether that was a one-game spike or something more reliable.
And then there’s the issue that has been hanging over Tampa Bay’s defense: the pass rush. Aaron Rodgers has been sacked on 6.97% of his dropbacks this season, which is the 11th-highest sack rate among NFL quarterbacks. The problem for the Buccaneers is that their own defense has struggled to finish plays, with a sack rate of just 3.49%, which ranks 30th in the league.
Rodgers may not move around the way he once did, but that doesn’t mean Tampa Bay can assume the sacks will come. If anything, his tendency to get the ball out quickly makes the task harder.
That puts even more weight on the rush coming from the inside, where Calijah Kancey could be the kind of player who changes the game if he can collapse the pocket. If the middle gives way, Rodgers won’t have many places to escape.
The broader question is the same one Tampa Bay has been asking for a while now: can this pass rush finally show up when it matters? Sunday offers a real chance for players like Kancey, Yaya Diaby and Rueben Bain Jr. to answer it.
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Todd Bowles Is Suddenly Coaching For His Buccaneers Future
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The schedule offers little room to ease into that challenge, with Pittsburgh, Carolina, Atlanta and Chicago all ahead before the Week 10 bye. If Tampa Bay keeps slipping, the conversation around Bowles will only get louder, because the margin for staying competitive in the division is already thin and the next month could define whether this season is merely frustrating or something far more consequential for the coaching staff. [Read more 🡒]