Which External Free Agent Should The Bucs Sign?

A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough Bucs question. This week’s prompt: Which external free agent should the Bucs sign in 2026?

Scott Reynolds: ILB Quincy Williams Can Be An Ideal Value Signing

The Bucs have a lot of roster holes to fill this offseason and only about $50 million in cash left to spend on this year’s payroll. On defense, Tampa Bay needs a starting outside linebacker to replace Haason Reddick, a defensive tackle to replace Logan Hall, who is a starter in Todd Bowles’ base 3-4 defense and two inside linebackers – one to replace Lavonte David in case he doesn’t return, and one to challenge SirVocea Dennis. On offense, the Bucs need a starting tight end to replace Cade Otton and perhaps another receiver in case Mike Evans moves on.

That’s a lot of bases to cover – possibly seven new starters – with just $50 million. So expect general manager Jason Licht and assistant G.M.’s Rob McCartney and Mike Greenberg to go looking for some value free agents, as the team has done in the past with former one-year, prove-it deals for Shaq Barrett in 2019 and Baker Mayfield in 2023. Jets inside linebacker Quincy Williams could be an ideal target in free agency due to his expected low price tag.

Williams, a former first-team All-Pro linebacker in New York in 2023, is coming off a down year. He underwhelmed with just 83 tackles, eight tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks last season, in part due to a shoulder injury that caused him to miss four games. Prior to 2025, Williams had four straight seasons with 100-plus tackles, including a career-high 139 stops in 2023.

Williams, a former third-round pick by Jacksonville in 2019, has spent the last five seasons in New York and has racked up 613 tackles and 61 tackles for loss over his seven-year NFL career. With sub 4.6 speed, Williams can go sideline-to-sideline and play well in coverage. Despite being just 5-foot-11, 225 pounds, Williams, who turns 30 in August, can pack a punch in run defense and would be an upgrade over Dennis or the 36-year old David, who has lost a step.

A one-year deal worth $4 million should incentivize Williams and add more speed and talent to Tampa Bay’s linebacker corps.

Matt Matera: ILB Alex Anzalone Is An Ideal Fit For The Bucs

Don’t let Alex Anzalone’s age – 31 – fool you and think this is just another older addition to the Bucs linebacker room like they did a season ago with Anthony Walker Jr. This is completely different. Anzalone has been a starter for the Lions and a leader on the defensive side of the ball in Detroit. He won’t be the first or second linebacker off the board in free agency, making him more affordable than others.

Anzalone has a very high football I.Q. as he often can diagnose the play before the ball is even snapped. There’s no replacing Lavonte David if he were to retire, but Anzalone can be the guy to usher in a new era post-David with the thought that the Bucs will draft some rookie inside linebackers to eventually take over in the coming seasons.

Anzalone is a great tackler and can hold his own enough in pass coverage. He recorded 95 tackles in 16 games last season in Detroit. The previous seasons in which he’s played at least 16 games he’s had 125 and 129 tackles, respectively. When available, Anzalone simply does not miss tackles and would clean up a lot of the mistakes the Bucs had in the middle of the defense a year ago. The 2026 version of the Buccaneers would be better with Anzalone on the team.

Adam Slivon: OLB Khalil Mack Could Still Bring Juice To Bucs Pass Rush

Khalil Mack, one of the best pass rushers of his generation, is once again a free agent. Mack is no longer the absolute menace he was with the Raiders back in the day, nor the double-digit sack guy he was with the Chargers as recently as 2023. What he can provide, though, is the type of juice and physicality that has been missing along the Bucs front seven.

Pewter Report has written about him being a fit for Tampa Bay in recent seasons, but the 35-year-old has stuck around in Los Angeles. Could he leave L.A. to don the red and pewter in 2026? For more than one reason, such a move makes sense. 

Even in his 30s, Mack’s 240 pressures over the past four seasons are the 11th most among all edge defenders. That alone would create cleaner one-on-ones for Yaya Diaby and open things up for defensive tackles Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey. In 12 games last year, he had 5.5 sacks and four forced fumbles while remaining stout against the run.

He would have been the Bucs’ second-leading sacker in 2025, and they likely could squeeze one more season of similar production out of him. His snap count has dipped to around 60% over the past two seasons, which is noticeably less than the 80-90% of snaps he was playing in his prime. Rather than that being a deal breaker, that makes him even more of a fit.

As it stands, the outside linebacker room is led by Diaby, Anthony Nelson, and David Walker, who has yet to play an NFL game. Mack could step right in as the No. 2 pass rusher, mentoring the rest of the room. That should encourage the Bucs to draft another pass rusher or two to be mentored by the nine-time Pro Bowler.

For example, selecting Texas A&M’s Cashius Howell to be this year’s designated pass rusher before taking the starting job in 2027 is not a bad plan to revamp the room in the short and long term. Khalil Mack is projected to command a one-year, $14 million deal – the same as Haason Reddick last year. Mack offers a higher ceiling than Reddick with a much larger track record. He would immediately add credibility and a veteran edge to a defense that needs it.

Bailey Adams: I Love The Idea Of The Bucs Adding ILB Leo Chenal

First of all, credit to my colleague Adam Slivon, who wrote last week about Chiefs inside linebacker Leo Chenal being an intriguing buy-low candidate for the Bucs. I absolutely love the idea of Tampa Bay signing Chenal this offseason, and I love it for a variety of reasons. Chenal has sneakily been very good for Kansas City over the years, even if he hasn’t always been a full-time starter. He has never played more than 53% of the defensive snaps in a season, but he has earned the right to play a full-time role by now.

Chenal is 25 and doesn’t turn 26 until October. Through his first four seasons, he has never posted a PFF grade below 70. He posted grades of 84 and 81.5 in 2023 and 2024 before putting up a 75.1 this past season. He has generated 48 pressures since 2022, meaning he has the blitzing chops he needs. The 6-foot-3, 250-pound linebacker can also hold up pretty well in coverage when he’s asked to, and he’s coming off his career-best coverage grade in 2025 to boot.

Chenal has 218 tackles (124 solo), 17 tackles for loss, seven sacks, 16 QB hits, three forced fumbles, an interception and six passes defensed over 65 career games (44 starts), and that brings me to my next point, which is that he’s not projected to cost bank-breaking money. While Devin Lloyd, Devin Bush, Nakobe Dean and Alex Anzalone are all more established players, they’re also set to cost far more than the $6 million per year that Chenal is projected to get.

At that level of investment, you’re not risking much. Instead, you’re betting that Chenal is at least going to live up to the productive rotational role he played for the Chiefs, which is better than what the Bucs have been running out there recently. If he does that, he raises the floor of Tampa Bay’s inside linebacker room at a minimum.

But chances are, he would thrive in a full-time role. Simply having him play a notch above where Lavonte David and SirVocea Dennis were last year would be big for the defense, and the prospect of pairing him with a early-round linebacker while having enough money to make a bigger, splashier signing elsewhere (edge rusher) has to be appealing.

There’s also the best-case scenario, and that’s Chenal being the type of low-risk, massive reward addition Shaq Barrett was for the Bucs in 2019. Barrett was kind of lost in the rotation in Denver prior to signing in Tampa Bay for $4 million. He then went on to lead the league with 19.5 sacks that year and became one of the franchise’s most prolific pass rushers.

General manager Jason Licht just spoke at the NFL Scouting Combine about how he likes his staff’s process of identifying those value signings who can yield major results. Leo Chenal should fit that bill.

Josh Queipo: ILB Devin Bush Played At An All-Pro Level Last Year

Three of my colleagues have picked linebackers. Who am I to break that trend? But if Tampa Bay is going to bring in a free agent linebacker at a value, why not the guy with the most upside? Devin Bush won’t be a top-of-the-market signing. But his play last year was at a top 5 level.

The former first-round pick by Pittsburgh posted 125 tackles, seven tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, three interceptions, and eight passes defensed in Cleveland in 2025. Bush’s athleticism is undeniable. You hear “sideline-to-sideline speed” all the time, but there are few backers available in free agency who can truly move like he can.

Bush has also shown he can make plays in coverage, be a part of a pass rush plan, mug-and-drop and he’s a damn good tackler. He played in a more straightforward, read-it-out system in Cleveland, which aided in his ascension, but I believe the game has slowed down for Bush and he’s legitimately seeing things better than his time in Pittsburgh.

Bush, who turns 28 in July, has youth on his side when compared to the 31-year old Alex Anzalone and Quincy Williams, who turns 30 this summer. And he has experience and athleticism on his side when compared to Leo Chenal. Plus, he has experience working successfully next to a rookie as he and Carson Schwesinger, Cleveland’s second-round pick last year, were possibly the best linebacker duo in the NFL last year.

Todd Bowles asks his linebackers to do a lot. Bush can do it all.