Tampa Bay Buccaneers Camp Opens Under a Cloud: Vita Vea Requests a Trade

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not even held their first training camp practice yet, and they already own the most combustible storyline in the NFC South. On Monday, July 27 — the same day coaches and rookies reported to the AdventHealth Training Center — NFL Media's Mike Garafolo reported that Vita Vea has requested a trade after failed attempts at a contract extension. That is the headline atop a week of Tampa Bay Buccaneers news that also included the release of the initial 90-man roster, the quiet finality of life after Mike Evans, and a first camp under new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. Veterans arrive Tuesday, pads and whistles start Wednesday morning, and Todd Bowles begins his fifth season as head coach with a locker room that looks meaningfully different from the one that finished 2025.

Vita Vea Wants Out, or at Least Wants Paid

Start with the big man. Vea, 31, is entering the final year of the $71 million extension he signed in January 2022, carrying a base salary reported in the $17-18 million range — an annual average that now ranks just 19th among defensive tackles. He skipped the spring program, attended mandatory minicamp without participating, and has now formally asked out after extension talks stalled. The nuance: he is still expected to report to camp, since staying away would cost him up to $50,000 a day in fines. That points toward a classic hold-in — present in body, absent from team drills — which puts Bowles and general manager Jason Licht in a delicate spot. Two-time Pro Bowler, 35 career sacks from the nose, the gravitational center of the NFL's third-blitziest defense — you do not shrug off that player. But you also cannot let a trade request become the template for every contract squeeze. How Tampa Bay handles the first week of practices will tell you which way this breaks.

Life After Mike Evans Officially Begins

The other seismic shift got its visual confirmation this week: the initial 90-man roster came out, and for the first time since 2014, Mike Evans' name is not on it. Evans signed a three-year deal with San Francisco back in March, ending a 12-year run that included eleven consecutive 1,000-yard seasons — tied with Jerry Rice for the longest streak in NFL history — and 108 touchdown catches. His final Tampa season was ruined by a concussion and a broken collarbone that limited him to 30 catches in what became a farewell nobody wanted.

So the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' receiving corps now belongs to the kids and the comeback stories. Emeka Egbuka, who caught 63 balls for 958 yards as a rookie, moves into the featured "Z" role and gets the chance to prove he is a true No. 1 rather than a beneficiary of Evans-shaded coverage. Chris Godwin enters camp with a full, healthy offseason behind him. Jalen McMillan is back from the neck injury that wiped out most of his 2025 — he returned in Week 15 and hung a 100-yard game on Miami in Week 17, which is why the staff remains bullish. Third-round rookie Ted Hurst III and second-year burner Tez Johnson round out a room that is younger, faster and far less proven than it was a year ago.

Baker Mayfield's Contract Year, and a New Play-Caller

Quietly sitting underneath the Vea drama: Baker Mayfield is in the final year of his own deal. Since arriving in 2023 he ranks third in the NFL in passing yards and second in touchdown passes with a 97.4 rating, and reporting out of Tampa suggests the team would like to extend him but that talks could realistically drift into next offseason. He will run his fourth different offense in four Buccaneer seasons — Zac Robinson, the former Falcons coordinator, replaces Josh Grizzard and brings wide-zone runs, heavy pre-snap motion and two-tight-end packages. The good news for continuity: the projected starting offensive line of Tristan Wirfs, Ben Bredeson, Graham Barton, Cody Mauch and Luke Goedeke enters camp healthy after an injury-scarred 2025, and the backfield pairs Bucky Irving with Sean Tucker (a team-high eight touchdowns last year) plus Kenneth Gainwell, imported from Pittsburgh after a 1,023-scrimmage-yard season. Behind Mayfield, Jake Browning holds the No. 2 job while rookie Jalon Daniels — a scrambler by trade — battles pocket passer Connor Bazelak for QB3. Keep an eye on Cade Otton, too: the tight end caught 59 passes for 572 yards last year on nearly a thousand snaps, and Robinson's two-tight-end tendencies suggest an expanded role is coming.

A Defense Remodeled Around Its Departures

The defense Bowles brings to camp is the most changed unit on the team, starting with the two absences that hurt most: franchise legend Lavonte David retired, and cornerback Jamel Dean left for Pittsburgh in free agency. The response was a genuine spending spree. Alex Anzalone arrives from Detroit (52 solo tackles, 2.5 sacks, an interception in 2025) to fix the middle-of-the-field coverage that haunted this defense, with Christian Rozeboom (122 tackles for Carolina) adding depth. Up front, A'Shawn Robinson, Rakeem Nuñez-Roches and Al-Quadin Muhammad — 11 sacks last season — join first-round pick Rueben Bain Jr., the Miami edge taken 15th overall who impressed throughout the spring with his bend and speed-to-power conversion. He slots into a rotation with Yaya Diaby, whose 19 sacks over three seasons and top-ten pressure rate make him the incumbent headliner, and the draft class runs deeper still: second-round linebacker Josiah Trotter, fourth-round defensive back Keionte Scott and fifth-round run-stuffer DeMonte Capehart all arrive with plausible paths to snaps. Bowles blitzed on 35 percent of pass-rush snaps last season, third-most in the league; the stated goal of all this investment is to finally generate four-man pressure so he does not have to. Calijah Kancey returns from the torn pectoral that cost him most of 2025 to pair with Vea, assuming Vea is actually practicing. The secondary storyline to watch: Jacob Parrish versus Benjamin Morrison for the CB2 job Dean vacated, with Morrison's recurring hamstring trouble giving Parrish the early edge, while All-Pro Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tykee Smith anchor the back end.

Injuries and Camp Battles Worth Tracking

Tampa Bay reached report day in decent physical shape, but a few situations bear watching once pads come on:

• DT Vita Vea — reporting, but practice participation is genuinely unclear
• CB Benjamin Morrison — hamstring issues cost him minicamp and could cost him the CB2 battle
• WR Jalen McMillan — full-go after the 2025 neck injury, but reps will be managed
• DT Calijah Kancey — healthy after the September pectoral tear
• S Miles Killebrew — working back from a knee injury

The roster technically sits at 91 players, with German lineman Paul Rubelt occupying the International Player Pathway exemption. And a small note with big special-teams implications: veteran coordinator Danny Smith takes over that unit, while kicker Chase McLaughlin could see an extension before the opener.

What's Next for the Buccaneers

• July 29: First practice of camp, 8:30 a.m.
• July 30: First of eight open practices at the AdventHealth Training Center
• Aug. 14: Preseason opener at the Jets
• Aug. 22: Preseason vs. Kansas City
• Aug. 24: Joint practices with Jacksonville, then the Aug. 28 preseason finale at the Jaguars
• Sept. 13: Season opener at Cincinnati, followed by the home opener vs. Cleveland on Sept. 20

This week's Tampa Bay Buccaneers news, then, is really one question wearing several jerseys: how much of the old core do you pay, and how much do you replace? Evans is gone. David is retired. Vea is agitating. Mayfield wants long-term clarity. The franchise's answer so far has been to bet on youth — Egbuka, Bain, Irving, McMillan — while surrounding it with targeted veterans, and the next six weeks in Tampa will show whether that bet holds together. Wednesday morning, mercifully, they finally get to play football.