The Tampa Bay Buccaneers achieved one of their biggest goals heading into 2026 — they boast one of the best defenses in the NFL.

That hasn't been winning them games, though. The Buccaneers are 3-6 at the moment, and despite a weak NFC South keeping the team in the hunt, they've generally struggled throughout the year. There are a few places to attribute those struggles, but the main culprit is the other side of the ball — Tampa Bay's offense has been greatly failing it.

But just how good is Tampa Bay's defense, and just how bad is its offense?

The Bucs Defense is Elite...

To say that the Bucs defense is playing great football right now might even be an understatement. They're playing some of the best defense in franchise history.

The Bucs defense boasts the best EPA/play in the NFL, per SumerSports (-0.21) and the sixth-best defensive success rate (41.73%). They're first in the league in EPA/dropback (-0.253) and fourth in the league in EPA/rush (-0.141), and they're the seventh best team in the league when it comes to stopping explosive plays of 20 or more yards.

Their real success this season, however, has been turnovers. Tampa Bay leads the league with 16 interceptions, three more than the second-place Green Bay Packers, and they lead the NFL in total turnovers with 21. Incredibly, 12 of those 21 turnovers have come in their last three games.

The Bucs are generating turnovers at an unsustainable rate, so that may dry up at some point. But even so, they have the passing game and running game prowess to suffocate defenses, and that makes them one of the NFL's best units.

This is the unit head coach Todd Bowles has wanted out of his defense all along. It should be winning them games, but it isn't — and that's because his team's other unit is losing them.

...But Their Passing Offense is Among the NFL's Worst

Tampa Bay's rushing offense has been inflated a tad analytically due to its incredible rushing efforts against the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons, but it remains elite — it's the best rushing offense in the NFL in yards per game, ranks 10th in rushing EPA/play and fourth in explosive rushing plays of 12 or more yards.

That's not the problem. The passing offense is.

Tampa Bay's passing offense ranks dead last in EPA/dropback (-0.297) and 28th in explosive pass rate. The team's quarterback, Baker Mayfield, also ranks dead last among 33 qualified quarterbacks in EPA/dropback (-0.324), ranks 27th in completion percentage (60.6%) and net yards per attempt (5.27) and 30th in passer rating (74.9).

Mayfield also continues to take unnecessary sacks that hurt his team. His 10.59% sack rate is 31st in the league despite facing just the 16th-most pressure.

No wide receiver in Tampa Bay has over 300 receiving yards, and Emeka Egbuka leads the team with 278. Nothing about the pass game works or is even average, and it's dragging the entire team down week after week — especially when the Bucs have to play good opponents.

Tampa Bay needs to figure out its passing game fast if it wants to do anything meaningful in the postseason (should it even get there at all). the Bucs have an excellent defense that can hang with any team, but with a passing offense that can hang with none of them, that defense is largely going to waste.