The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a lot of issues, and it’s a big reason why the team is 1-5 six weeks into the 2026 season.

Poor coaching decisions, bad execution, poor fundamentals, bad luck, and not knowing how to finish games have all been at play during the rough start. However, one of those problems stands above the rest when it comes to why Tampa Bay is struggling so much: the poor fundamentals, especially tackling.

The Buccaneers’ missed tackle problem isn’t going away

I noted after Week 3 that the Buccaneers were one of the worst teams in the league when it came to missed tackles.

At the time, Tampa Bay had a league-leading 20 missed tackles through three weeks. That far outpaced the NFL average of 10.7 per team over the same stretch. The Bucs also had seven players with at least two missed tackles, which led the league as well.

Flash forward to Week 6 against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Buccaneers have the same problem. Except it may be getting worse.

Per Pro Football Focus, the Buccaneers missed 11 tackles between 10 different players on Sunday. That is absurd, and it’s something that simply cannot happen at this level.

It’s not like one guy missed four or five tackles on his own, inflating the numbers, either. This was a collective issue, with nearly every starter on defense missing a tackle when accounting for the 11 players on the field at a time.

That is deplorable, unacceptable, and nearly unfathomable.

It’s the first thing Todd Bowles pointed to after the game when asked about his thoughts on the catalyst behind the loss.

“We missed some tackles, number one,” Bowles told reporters. “I thought we missed a couple of tackles, and we got off the ball late one time, for sure. I’ll look at the tape, but I know we missed some checkdown tackles that should have been [stopped] where they were.”

Recognizing it is one thing, but fixing it is another. And so far, it doesn’t look like this is going to get fixed anytime soon. And if it doesn’t – that’s a major indictment on the defensive coaches.

Todd Bowles and Tampa Bay’s defensive coaches have to get back to the basics

Look, NFL players should know how to tackle at a consistent and efficient rate at this point in their careers. There’s no doubt about that.

At the same time, it’s on the coaches to make sure that happens, even for players who have been playing football for a long time. In this case, Todd Bowles and the Buccaneers’ coaches clearly aren’t doing a good enough job of getting back to the basics. The defensive players can’t even figure out how to tackle at a league-average rate, which is absurd.

We’re not talking about a team sitting at average or barely below average, either. We’re talking about bottom-of-the-barrel mistakes that are happening way too often. Yes, someone always has to come in last, but this is simply bad.

That’s what makes this so frustrating. Tampa Bay’s defense is made up mostly of veterans or players with at least a couple years of experience under their belt. Most of them aren’t rookies or inexperienced guys adjusting to the speed of the NFL game. They’re experienced players who are letting ball carriers slip free and pick up extra yards after contact on a weekly basis.

Again, it all comes down to coaching. Bowles and his staff have to find a way to get this group to shape up and start taking guys down when they have the chance.

If they can’t, the Buccaneers are going to lose plenty more games over the course of the 2026 season.