Todd Bowles isn’t pretending he has the Buccaneers figured out at the trade deadline, and that honesty says plenty about where Tampa Bay stands right now.
After Sunday night’s road loss to the Chicago Bears, the Buccaneers slipped to 3-6, a result that left them short of a chance to move into first place in the NFC South. Tampa Bay fought hard and took advantage of several strange Chicago mistakes, but it still wasn’t enough to get the win in primetime.
With the NFL trade deadline coming later this week, Bowles made it clear the Bucs are keeping every option open. “Bowles said the Bucs will listen to all calls at the trade deadline, both as buyers and sellers, but didn't have a sense of which, if any, is more likely by Tuesday's deadline,” reported Greg Auman of FOX Sports on X, formerly Twitter.
That leaves Tampa Bay in a tricky middle ground. A team sitting three games under .500 usually doesn’t look like a buyer, but the Buccaneers have at least given themselves something to think about. They have blown out two divisional opponents recently, and even in defeat against Chicago, they showed enough to suggest they’re still in the mix in the NFC South.
So the next move may come down to the market itself. What the Buccaneers can get back for some of their key players could end up shaping whether they lean toward adding help or dealing pieces away.
For now, Tampa Bay is off until November 22, when it returns from its bye week to face the Detroit Lions.
In Other News...
Baker Mayfields Turnover Night Made This Bears Loss Sting Even More
Caleb Williams and Baker Mayfield turned a Bears-Buccaneers matchup into a turnover-heavy afternoon, with the two quarterbacks combining for six interceptions in a game that still somehow stayed tight all the way through. Chicago and Tampa Bay traded mistakes, but the Bears were able to keep enough of their footing to leave with a narrow victory in a game that never felt clean for either offense.
Mayfields rough night only added to the frustration for Tampa Bay, especially because the Buccaneers had chances to make the Bears pay for their own errors. Instead, the turnovers kept swinging the momentum back and forth, and Chicago did just enough in the closing stretch to survive the chaos and finish off the win. [Read more 🡒]
Buccaneers Wasted A Rare Edge And Now The Offense Is Under Fire
The Buccaneers came out of Chicago with a loss they could not afford, falling 27-24 to the Bears and slipping to 3-6 despite a defense that repeatedly handed them chances to take control. Tampa Bay forced five turnovers and still managed only 10 points off those takeaways, a wasted edge that made the afternoon feel like a missed opportunity from the opening quarter onward.
Bucky Irving gave the Bucs a spark with two touchdowns in his hometown, and Jamel McCollum added two interceptions as part of a defense that did its job and then some. The problem was everything around it, from an offense that never fully cashed in to the decisions that left points on the table, leaving Todd Bowles and Zac Robinson facing a familiar kind of scrutiny as the season keeps slipping away. [Read more 🡒]
Todd Bowles Just Put Tampa Bays Biggest Problem In Focus
The Buccaneers left Chicago with a familiar kind of frustration, one that made Todd Bowles postgame message hard to miss. Tampa Bays defense did its part by creating extra chances, but the offense could not turn those takeaways into enough points, and the result was a loss that felt like a missed opportunity more than a simple setback. Bowles made clear afterward that the issue was not on the defensive side, where the unit continues to give the team a chance to win.
Baker Mayfields two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, only sharpened the concern around an offense that has not matched the standard set by the defense. The Buccaneers now head into their bye week with a problem that is easy to identify and harder to fix, because the talent is there but the execution has not been. For a team trying to stay in the race, the next stretch is less about what the defense can do and more about whether the offense can finally meet it halfway. [Read more 🡒]