The Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster is set, the schedule is on the table, and Week 1 is just days away. Now that we’ve got all the pieces in front of us, it’s time to have a little fun. There are four Buccaneers players who have a legitimate shot at earning their first Pro Bowl nod in 2026, and the situations around each of them make the case even stronger.

Quick caveat before diving in: the Pro Bowl game is dead, and the NFL killed alternates too, thank God, because that just made things confusing. There’s no way Shedeur Sanders should have ever had a Pro Bowl nod on his resume after last year. With all due respect, it was a farce at that point.

But the NFL is still handing out the accolade, and now that we have a straight line to follow, a Pro Bowl selection actually means something tangible again.

So, with all that being said, let’s go ahead and break it down.

1. EDGE Rueben Bain Jr.

This is probably a popular name among Buccaneers fans, and for good reason. Bain Jr. is the odds-on favorite to win Defensive Rookie of the Year at +470 per FanDuel, with Jets pass rusher David Bailey behind him at +500.

Here’s the key: since 2014, every Defensive Rookie of the Year winner except Joey Bosa, Will Anderson, and Shaquille Leonard (three players out of 10) has also made a Pro Bowl or earned first-team All-Pro honors. Leonard was a first-team All-Pro and Anderson made the Pro Bowl as an alternate, which doesn’t really count in this situation. Carson Schwesinger in 2025 didn’t make it either, but he was playing for the Browns, and since fan voting makes up one-third of a Pro Bowl nod, not a lot of people were watching Cleveland or paying attention. I know I sure wasn’t.

Regardless, the trend is obvious. And if Bain Jr. wins Defensive Rookie of the Year, odds are the Buccaneers’ pass rusher is making the Pro Bowl because Tampa Bay is a good team. They’re not the Browns. They should not finish below .500 in 2026 and should make the playoffs because the NFC South is just the NFC South. They are the better team when you survey the entire landscape.

That sense of high optimism really wasn’t there during the offseason until Bain Jr. fell to the Buccaneers at 15. He’s balled out during training camp and the preseason, and the path is laid out for him. Yaya Diaby on the other side forces teams to account for him. Vita Vea, A’Shawn Robinson, and Calijah Kancey line up in front of him. Alex Anzalone and Josiah Trotter are linebackers who can blitz and then there are guys like Al-Quadin Muhammad, David Walker, and Anthony Nelson who can give Bain Jr. breathers so he can come back in and wreak more havoc.

The history is there and the present setup is there. That’s why he’s No. 1 on this list.

2. OT Luke Goedeke

One of the highest-paid right tackles in the league, Goedeke no longer has Penei Sewell to compete with for right tackle recognition now that Sewell has moved over to left tackle.

When you look at Goedeke’s ascension over the last few years, the numbers tell a clear story. Yes, he was hurt last year, but he had one of the best seasons of his career. He finished with his highest overall PFF grade in terms of blocking, his highest pass-blocking grade, and his second-best run-blocking grade. PFF grades aren’t the end-all be-all, but they give you a decent sense of where a player stands.

Goedeke was also one of only two tackles to surrender zero sacks and zero quarterback hits out of a true pass set last season, with Andrew Thomas being the only other qualifier among 53 tackles with at least 416 pass-block snaps. That tells me he has a great shot at making his first Pro Bowl this year.

The Buccaneers, when healthy, have one of the best offensive lines in the league. Goedeke is an athletic, long, mean tackle who loves to pummel his opponents into the dirt. If the offensive line stays healthy, it’s going to push the offense into that top-10, top-12 range where people notice. Goedeke will be a big part of that equation.

3. DL Calijah Kancey

Yes, Kancey has battled injuries over the first three years of his career, and they’ve held him back in terms of what he’s been able to show on the field. But this is the year for Kancey to break out, if he can stay healthy.

Baker Mayfield talked about it on the Green Light podcast with former Buccaneers defensive lineman Beau Allen, describing just how quick and twitched up Kancey is and how much of a menace he can be even against the short passing game. Quick two-step, three-step drop, get the ball out fast, and Kancey is still a factor.

If he’s back there pummeling quarterbacks and running backs in the backfield and racking up sacks, which he should be able to do with the counterparts lined up around him, this is Kancey’s year. The Buccaneers face a couple of questionable offensive lines in the Bengals and Browns in Weeks 1 and 2, and when you look at the full schedule, this defensive line is set up for success. It’s the deepest unit on this team, the most talented unit on this team, and it can be a disrupting factor with Kancey potentially leading the way.

When you consider that Vita Vea is probably going to get slowly ramped up over the first couple weeks of the season, that opens the door even more for Kancey to do his thing and show his value. If the Buccaneers defensive lineman catches early fire, he could ride that momentum into the rest of the season and right into his first Pro Bowl nod.

Wouldn’t that be great if he stays healthy for the first time in his career and it leads to exactly that? It just shows you what he’s truly capable of.

4. WR Emeka Egbuka

Mayfield, again on the Green Light podcast, talked about how the Buccaneers kind of took advantage of just how smart Egbuka is, which is why he was playing all over the place last year. Now that he’s settling in at the Z position, that can unlock a whole new world for him in terms of production.

We saw last year that Egbuka can carry a passing attack. There’s no question about that. He was on a Pro Bowl track until the back half of the season when everything fell apart for Tampa Bay. Now that he’s firmly entrenched in one position and can concentrate on using his leverage, his athleticism, his route running, and his intelligence, that can unlock a whole lot of things.

The pieces around him in the Buccaneers passing attack should only help. And that’s the key with all of these guys: they’re all in great situations with the right parts around them to flourish. Egbuka has the toe he’s dealing with, but he should be ready by Week 1. Everything is set up for him to pick up where he left off last year and elevate from there.

Four Buccaneers, four legitimate Pro Bowl candidates, all with the supporting casts and situations to make it happen. If even two of these guys break through, it tells you everything you need to know about where this roster stands heading into 2026.