Where are the Bucs in CBS Sports power rankings following free agency?

With the NFL re-shuffling itself through free agency, we now get to see what folks think of teams that re-tooled for the 2026 season. Some teams, like the Las Vegas Raiders, were very active as they get ready to draft Fernando Mendoza to be their franchise quarterback. Meanwhile, teams like the Vikings have been relatively quiet in free agency.

In a new piece developed over the past couple of days, we now get to see where players fit and how they affect the new batch of power rankings. NFL Media's Eric Edholm wrote up the new power rankings and had the Bucs in the middle of it all while being ranked 19th overall. He explained their ranking, writing, "It has been a strange start to free agency after last season's collapse.

The Buccaneers started the 2025 campaign as dandies but ended it in a morass, losing seven of their final nine games and yielding the NFC South to the 8-9 Panthers. And now WR Mike Evans and CB Jamel Dean have walked in free agency. The team was active when it came to adding players, signing RB Kenneth Gainwell, LB Alex Anzalone, DT A'Shawn Robinson and edge rusher Al-Quadin Muhammad.

But can we realistically say the Bucs are  better? I keep going back to Evans leaving. It's more than a player just chasing a ring elsewhere; to me, it reads like a franchise icon saying (without  actually  saying) that he believes his chances of winning a title are greater elsewhere than they are with Baker Mayfield and Todd Bowles.