The NFL is always about adaptation and evolution and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one of several teams that made big offseason changes in hopes of adding more wins in 2026.

As it turns out, the Cincinnati Bengals have made some notable changes, as well. One in particular is the utilization of more plays from under center in order to help Joe Burrow and the offense become more explosive. Which is a scary thought in its own right.

The Bengals have been operating mostly as a one dimensional offense over the last few years. Their under center run game has been mostly inept behind an inadequate offensive line, and with Joe Burrow’s effectiveness of operating out of the shotgun, the ground attack has mainly been functioning out of those formations.

Cincinnati has also been ineffective at generating explosive plays without putting Burrow under center. In short, the Bengals have been behind the times and how to become a more dangerous offense outside of constantly leaning on Burrow to be Superman. The goal is for an increase in both frequency and effectiveness in under center concepts to make the offense more explosive, and also more reliable in critical situations.

Why does this matter to the Buccaneers defense? Well, according to Sports Info Solutions, the Buccaneers’ pass defense didn’t fare well against under center plays in 2025.

Per SIS, teams passed for 1,009 yards against the Buccaneers from under center, which was fourth-most out of all pass defenses during the regular season. The Buccaneers allowed the 10th-fewest touchdowns at seven, but recorded just one interception and three pass break-ups. The latter number was second-to-last in the NFL and only the Carolina Panthers fared worse.

The key aspect with the above numbers is teams threw from under center just 98 times against the Buccaneers, which ranked 19th. Meaning, teams still found plenty of success despite not throwing from under center as much.

Quarterbacks completed 64.3% of their passes, good for 14th and averaged 0.28 EPA/play and a 118.1 rating, which was third- and sixth-worst, overall.

In other words: The Buccaneers pass defense was not good when facing an under-center passing attack.

The run defense had a lot more success, allowing just -0.07 EPA/play and a 37.2% success rate, which finished good for third-best and No. 1 overall, respectively. It was different when facing a rushing attack out of the gun, however, as the Buccaneers allowed the 11th-most rushing yards (973) and eighth-most touchdowns (8), along with a mark of 4.7 yards per carry.

So it’s easy to see why this can present a stiff challenge for the Buccaneers defense, especially when considering there’s not a lot of under-center tape from the Bengals’ side of things over the years. That alone makes the challenge even harder for Todd Bowles’ crew to hit the ground running, even if it’s a lot better on paper than the 2025 version.

But at the same time, these guys get paid millions to figure it out, no matter what. It’ll be very intriguing to see just how the Buccaneers handle this new challenge on Sunday.