Jason Licht Gives One Word to Describe Buccaneers' 2025 Season Collapse

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a good thing going for the last few years, winning the division every season from 2021-24. While all streaks have to end sometime, this one probably ended earlier than expected.

The Bucs, headed at the general manager position by Jason Licht, started off 6-2 not just looking like a surefire division winner, but an NFC Contender. Things quickly changed after the bye week, though, and the Bucs won just two of their next nine games to lose out on the NFC South and miss the playoffs entirely.

There's a lot that went wrong in the back half of that year, but during an interview with NBC's Mike Florio, Licht tried his best to sum up those struggles with one word.

Jason Licht gives one word to describe last season

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht stands on the sidelines during the first quarter against the New Orleans Saints | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Licht was asked to use just one word to describe Tampa Bay's 2025 season, and that word shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

"Disappointing," Licht said. "We had such high expectations, and we started off very well, 6-2 at the bye... a lot of things just mounted up."

There were indeed multiple factors at play for why the Bucs declined. Coaching was a part of it, with Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard leaving a bit to be desired in those areas, and the defense arguably didn't have the talent to be a true competitor once the back half of the season started.

The big thing many people talk about when it comes to the 2025 Bucs, however, are injuries. Tampa Bay had a lot of them, with tackles Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke, wideout Mike Evans, running back Bucky Irving and edge rusher Haason Reddick, among a lot of others, all missing time for extended periods last year. That's on top of injuries to young players like edge rusher David Walker and defensive back J.J. Roberts, who got hurt in training camp before the season even started.

Licht acknowledged those injuries, but he didn't want it to be an excuse.

"I've said this so many times today — we don't want to hide behind injuries. There's a lot of teams that have a lot of injuries, and some that still had great success making it deep into the playoffs," Licht said. "A lot of things got thrown off, but it was disappointing. Again, not hiding behind those injuries, but the way we started and the way we ended were two different things."

The Bucs will hope to avoid more injuries in 2026, but even outside of that, Licht has a lot of work to do. The Bucs have holes on defense at inside linebacker and edge rusher and they could have one on offense at tight end, and there are depth issues all across the board that he'll have to fix in the NFL Draft, in free agency and through trades.

Stick with BucsGameday for more coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout the 2026 season.

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