16. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers strong position group is the offensive line, and that is certainly a good thing. The issue, though, is that the Bucs really don’t have much ‘great’ outside of the OL. Baker Mayfield is good. The wide receivers are good. The running back is good. The defense is, well, not that good right now. The Bucs did take strong ownership of the NFC South for years before a shocking non-title season in 2025, but they’ve just never been a team we’ve looked at as being a legitimate contender.
The Bucs really encapsulate what a ‘middle class’ team in the NFL looks like. They’ve got a litter of competent players all over the place, but not a ton of great and not a ton of mediocre, either. Until the Bucs enact some notable change, which may look like a future upgrade at QB and head coach, for example, they won’t ascend into that next tier.
15. Jacksonville Jaguars
Losing a stud running back and a stud linebacker in free agency is going to hurt, and even with those two in the mix, the Jacksonville Jaguars weren’t a suffocating roster. With that said, this is only year two of the current era, as GM James Gladstone and head coach Liam Coen are still new to this team, and I’d have to assume the vision they want to bring to the franchise is far from complete right now.
Gladstone does still need to give QB Trevor Lawrence a slam-dunk option at running back and perhaps another starter or two along the offensive line. The defense could use a true difference-maker as well, but overall, they have a nice group.
This is a team, though, that was clearly elevated by coaching, as many of the same players before the Coen era were present with the team, so this wicked turnaround they made was absolutely a coaching thing.
Add us as a preferred source on Google