The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are living through one of the roughest stretches in the franchise’s recent memory, and the numbers are ugly no matter how you slice them.
Since their bye week in 2025, they have gone 0-12 against the spread - the longest such streak in the Super Bowl era, according to Action Network. Tampa Bay entered eight of those games as the betting favorite and lost them all outright, including three in which it was favored by at least a touchdown. The results have been just as bleak in the standings, where the Buccaneers are 2-10 over that span.
That backdrop hangs over everything right now. The team is 0-3 to open the 2026 season, Todd Bowles is facing heavy scrutiny, and Baker Mayfield left Sunday’s 23-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings with a dislocated thumb. For a team that was 6-2 at its 2025 bye and looking like a postseason lock, the collapse since then has been hard to ignore.
Bowles, though, isn’t interested in letting last year define this one.
"We understand that, but it's this season now," Bowles said on Sunday after a 23-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. "Nothing counts last year no matter who you are."
He’s right in the narrowest sense: the 2026 playoff race is still alive. But the larger picture is a lot messier, and the tail end of 2025 has become the lens through which this season is being judged. That is part of why Bowles is seen as carrying limited job security, and part of why there’s already debate over whether Tampa Bay made the right call by committing so heavily to Mayfield.
The quarterback situation only adds to the tension. Mayfield and the Buccaneers were locked in a high-profile contract standoff this summer before striking a deal just ahead of Week 1. The agreement was a three-year extension worth $55 million per year, tying him as the third-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL on an annual basis.
At his peak, Mayfield has looked like money well spent. He was a dark-horse MVP candidate two years ago and made two Pro Bowls in his first two seasons with Tampa Bay. But he slipped in 2025, and the early returns this year have been even worse.
Among qualified passers, Mayfield ranks 31st in EPA per dropback at -0.30, 28th in passer rating at 80.0, 27th in passing touchdowns with two, and 21st in completion rate at 63.5%.
Then came the injury. Mayfield exited Sunday’s loss with a dislocated thumb, leaving the Buccaneers to turn to undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels late in the game. The team has not offered a timetable for Mayfield’s return.
The 0-3 start leaves Tampa Bay in a strange spot. There are only five winless teams through three weeks of 2026, and the Buccaneers are the only one in the NFC. They’re tied with the Miami Dolphins, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans and Los Angeles Chargers in the early chase for the No. 1 pick in the 2027 draft, which is not where this team expected to be after entering the year with playoff hopes.
The NFC South does offer a small opening. It is the only division in football where all four teams have losing records, and Bowles pointed out that the Buccaneers are still just a game out of first place.
"The funny thing is we're 0-3 and we're a game out of first place," Bowles said. "We have to get our stuff together.
We gotta reach down and do more -- to a coach, to a person, to a player. We gotta do more, figure out what we can do more, how can we be better and come back tomorrow and get ready to go."
But the margin for error is shrinking fast. If this were just a short losing streak, there would be room to believe Tampa Bay could steady itself.
Instead, the Buccaneers are carrying a 12-game run with no cover and 10 losses since last October. That’s the reality now, and it’s why this start feels bigger than three games.
In Other News...
Bucs Loss Exposed A Bigger Problem Than Fans Wanted To See
The Buccaneers 23-16 loss to the Vikings in Week 3 was more than just a one-score setback. Tampa Bay kept bumping into the same problems on both sides of the ball, with the offense never finding much rhythm under coordinator Zac Robinson and the defense undone at key moments, including an 86-yard punt return touchdown that tilted the game in Minnesotas favor.
Baker Mayfield finished with a 50% completion rate, one touchdown and one interception, then added a right hand injury late in the game to an already frustrating night. There were also rough stretches for players such as cornerback Jacob Parrish and right tackle Luke Goedeke, leaving the Bucs with an uncomfortable reminder that the issues exposed Sunday go well beyond a single bad sequence or a single phase of the game. [Read more 🡒]
Baker Mayfield Injury Just Raised The Stakes For A Reeling Bucs Team
Tampa Bays rough Week 3 got even messier late in the loss to Minnesota, when Baker Mayfield dislocated his thumb near the end of the game. The Buccaneers were already dealing with the sting of another defeat, and the injury to their starting quarterback quickly became the biggest concern coming out of the night.
Todd Bowles said Mayfield will undergo an MRI to get a better read on the injury, leaving the team waiting on a clearer update. Mayfield was replaced by rookie Jalon Daniels after leaving the game, and for a Bucs team trying to steady itself, the timing of the setback only adds to the pressure heading into the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Loss Exposed Problems Fans Wont Stop Arguing About
The Buccaneers latest loss did more than dent the standings - it reopened the same arguments that have followed this team for weeks. Between the defenses uneven stretches, the offenses uneven rhythm and a special teams sequence that left plenty of second-guessing behind, the game against Minnesota became the kind of all-around mess that forces a closer look at how Tampa Bay is being coached and why so many drives still seem to stall at the wrong time.
Todd Bowles now has a familiar debate on his hands, because the scrutiny is not just about one bad afternoon but about how the Bucs handled key moments through the first three quarters. Baker Mayfield, Bucky Irving and a few others had their moments, but the bigger issue is whether the teams decisions and execution can keep matching up against good opponents when the game starts tightening. [Read more 🡒]