The Bucs head into their bye week sitting at 3-6, but they’re still very much alive in the NFC South race. That’s the reality in a division where every team is bunched together, with Carolina and New Orleans at 3-5 and Tampa Bay and Atlanta at 3-6. After Sunday night’s 27-24 loss at Chicago to a 7-2 Bears team, the Bucs get a reset before opening the final eight games of their schedule at Detroit against a 6-2 Lions team in Week 11.
At the midway point of the 17-game slate, it’s the right time to sort out the team’s midseason awards. Pewter Report will roll out more categories later in the week, but the first order of business is the MVPs on offense, defense and special teams.
On offense, the answer is Bucky Irving, and it’s not much of a debate. Irving followed a rookie season in which he piled up 1,122 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns with a second year that was derailed by injuries.
He missed seven games in 2025 and finished with only 588 rushing yards and one touchdown after averaging 3.4 yards per carry. An offseason shoulder surgery helped set the table for 2026, and Irving has looked like a different player ever since.
While Tampa Bay’s passing game has been the league’s worst-ranked unit, Irving has powered the NFL’s top-ranked rushing attack, which is averaging 163.9 yards per game. Through nine games, he has 825 yards on 167 carries, a 4.9 average, and seven touchdowns.
He’s averaging 91.7 rushing yards per game and is on pace for 1,558 yards, which would put him past James Wilder’s franchise-record 1,544 yards from 1984. Irving is also expected to top 1,000 yards for the second time in his career.
His biggest outings have come in bunches. Irving has three of his five 100-yard games this season, including 165 yards at Dallas with a career-long 76-yard run, 106 yards at Carolina and a career-high 170 yards against Atlanta in the Bucs’ franchise-record 324-yard rushing performance. He nearly got there again Sunday night in Chicago, finishing with 97 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
More than the production, Irving has become the pulse of the offense. He brings energy, emotion and a tone that the Bucs feed off every week.
Defensively, the spotlight goes to the cornerback pairing of Jacob Parrish and Zyon McCollum. Rookie inside linebacker Josiah Trotter deserves mention too after taking over the team lead with 76 tackles, 26 more than the next Bucs defender. But Parrish and McCollum have been the difference-makers in a secondary that had plenty of questions entering the season after Jamel Dean left in free agency.
The Bucs expected a battle between Parrish, a 2025 third-round pick, and Benjamin Morrison, their 2025 second-rounder, for the starting job. Morrison’s hamstring injury ended that competition early, and Parrish, who had a strong spring in OTAs, seized the opportunity. He leads the league with 14 pass breakups and has added two interceptions.
McCollum’s turnaround has been just as important. Working under new cornerbacks coach Rashad Johnson, he’s looked sharper, more composed and far more confident.
He’s matched up with and held his own against some of the league’s top receivers, including Cincinnati’s Jamar Chase, Dallas’ CeeDee Lamb and Carolina’s Tetairoa McMillan. McCollum has four interceptions, a career high, and 11 pass breakups.
Together, Parrish and McCollum have combined for 25 pass breakups and six interceptions, making them the league’s best cornerback duo at the halfway point of the season. Both are playing at a Pro Bowl level.
Special teams has a much simpler answer: Chase McLaughlin. The kicker is putting together an All-Pro season, and through nine games he has not missed. He’s 22-of-22 on field goals and perfect on extra points, making him one of only three kickers in the league still flawless through Week 9, alongside Buffalo’s Tyler Bass at 19-of-19 and Cincinnati’s Evan McPherson at 12-of-12.
Because Bass and McPherson are in the AFC, McLaughlin has to be viewed as the front-runner for NFC Pro Bowl honors. He’s also making a strong case as the NFL’s best kicker overall, especially considering every attempt has come outdoors.
That includes three field goals and an extra point in a monsoon during Tampa Bay’s 16-0 win over Atlanta. He’s also 4-of-4 from 50 yards or longer, including a 59-yarder this season.
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For a team that has spent stretches leaning on its defense to stay in games, the frustration is that the offensive side has not matched it. The Bucs have been getting the kind of playmaking that usually changes a season, but the results have not always followed because the offense has struggled to capitalize on those stops and turnovers. It leaves Tampa Bay with a familiar kind of tension, one where the defense is doing enough to win and the rest of the team still has to catch up. [Read more 🡒]