The Buccaneers’ Week 6 meeting with the Steelers offers Tampa Bay a chance to back up last week’s first win with something a lot more convincing. At 1-4, the Bucs are still digging out of an ugly start, but they’re only 1.5 games behind in a weak NFC South.
Stack a second straight win on Sunday on top of Baker Mayfield’s return from injury in the coming weeks, and the outlook changes fast. Lose again, fall to 1-5, and the conversation gets a lot harsher.
If Tampa Bay is going to beat Pittsburgh, it’s going to need a few major performances to land all at once. Here are three bold calls for how that happens.
Zyon McCollum finally gets his first interception of the season
McCollum has already built a strong case as one of the league’s toughest corners this season. He’s been locked in against elite receivers like Ja’Marr Chase and CeeDee Lamb. The only thing still missing is the takeaway.
That could change against Aaron Rodgers. The veteran quarterback usually protects the football, but he has had a strange time against Tampa Bay.
Rodgers has thrown 11 interceptions in seven career games against the Buccaneers, and two of his six career three-interception games have come against them. Since Todd Bowles took over the defense in 2019, Rodgers has also been picked off at least once in all three matchups with Tampa Bay.
That history points to chances for the Buccaneers’ secondary, and McCollum looks like the guy to cash in. His first interception of the year could come Sunday, and there’s even a chance he turns it into six.
Bucky Irving keeps rolling with another 100-yard game
Irving was the engine behind Tampa Bay’s first win of the season, piling up 175 total yards and two touchdowns against the Dallas Cowboys. If the Buccaneers want another upset, especially with rookie Jalon Daniels at the helm, they’ll need the ground game to show up again.
That effort starts with the offensive line. Last week, it finally played like the group the Buccaneers believe it can be, giving the quarterback time and creating big running lanes. Against a physical Steelers front, Tampa Bay will need that same version again.
The prediction here: Irving goes over 100 rushing yards for the second straight week.
The Buccaneers’ run defense puts Jaylen Warren in a vice
Warren has become the center of Pittsburgh’s offense lately. He’s run for at least 90 yards in three straight games, and he also led the Steelers with 87 receiving yards last week.
Now he runs into one of Tampa Bay’s biggest strengths. The Buccaneers enter Week 6 ranked second in the NFL against the run, giving up just 72.8 yards per game.
That sets up a real collision of strengths and limitations. But this is where Vita Vea and the rest of the front should take control. The Buccaneers should be able to choke off Warren’s production and keep him under 50 rushing yards, which would go a long way toward steering this one in Tampa Bay’s favor.
In Other News...
Buccaneers Face A Huge Week 6 Test After That Cowboys Breakthrough
The Buccaneers Week 6 meeting with Pittsburgh comes with a little more intrigue than usual after Tampa Bays breakthrough against Dallas, a result that helped sharpen the conversation around where this team stands in the NFC race. The weekly upset watch around the league also put the focus on other matchups, but Tampa Bay is part of the same conversation because of how much that win changed the look of this stretch.
Bucky Irving has been one of the reasons for the optimism, coming off a 165-yard rushing performance against the Cowboys that also included both a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown. Against a Steelers team that can make life difficult in plenty of ways, the Buccaneers are trying to show that the Dallas performance was the start of something more stable, and not just a one-off jolt in an otherwise uneven home start. [Read more 🡒]
Buccaneers Head Into Steelers Game With A Quarterback Problem Fans Feared
The Buccaneers week took a sharp turn after their recent win over the Dallas Cowboys, with the team now trying to keep its momentum going under far less comfortable circumstances. Tampa Bay announced that Baker Mayfield will not practice, leaving the quarterback situation suddenly in flux as the club turns its attention to an upcoming trip to face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
For now, Jalon Daniels is lined up to take the first snaps in Mayfields place, giving the Buccaneers an entirely different look at the games most important position. It is the kind of development Tampa Bay had hoped to avoid this late in the week, and it puts added pressure on the rest of the roster to carry over the energy from last week while the quarterback situation sorts itself out. [Read more 🡒]
Todd Bowles Is Suddenly Coaching For His Buccaneers Future
Todd Bowles standing in Tampa Bay has shifted quickly in the first five weeks of the 2026 season, with the Buccaneers off to a 1-4 start and pressure building around a team that still believes it can matter in the NFC South. ESPNs Bill Barnwell framed the next stretch as especially important for Bowles, pointing to the reality that the Bucs need to stay relevant while Baker Mayfield is sidelined if the coach is going to have a path to keeping his job.
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 🡒]