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Recent times for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been nothing short of miserable. However, all that appears to have changed this offseason with the addition of Tom Brady.
Tampa Bay haven’t been a part of the postseason since 2007 and were one of the worst performing teams in the 2010s. The last time the Bucs made the playoffs LeBron James hadn’t won a NBA championship, the Seattle SuperSonics hadn’t relocated to Oklahoma, the first IPhone was six months old, Justin Bieber had yet to be introduced and Jameis Winston was 14 years old.
After years of rebuilding Tampa Bay finally expect to be in contention in the NFC South. Signing Brady signals that the Buccaneers are in win-now mode and must capitalise their Super Bowl window. Tampa Bay further underlined that commitment to contend with Brady by acquiring long-time Brady target Rob Gronkowski from the Patriots and moved up in the draft to take Tristan Wirfs to solidify the right tackle position.
The Bucs still needed to retain three key names on their incredibly underrated defensive front and managed to keep that core intact. This was done by franchise tagging last season’s breakout star Shaq Barrett and re-signing both Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh.
How much time does that give the Tampa Bay Buccanneers to win a Super Bowl?
At the very least that gives the Bucs a one year window to chase a Lombardi trophy. Chris Godwin, Lavonte David and Barrett will all be free agents in 2021, with limited cap space available all will be hard to replace. If the Buccaneers make the postseason this year they will be picking towards the backend of the draft, potentially making it harder to replace those players.
Thankfully for the Pewter Pirates they have an opportunity better than most. Tampa Bay’s offense looks like one of the league’s most potent. Brady will be working under Bruce Arians, a coach known for his offensive prowess. The former six time Super Bowl champion will also have a plethora of weapons at his disposal.
Any defense that can stop Mike Evans, Godwin, OJ Howard, Ronald Jones, Cameron Brate and the returning Rob Gronkowski deserves a medal. Giving the best quarterback in NFL history a plethora of weapons spells trouble for the NFC South.
Why the Bucs should be confident in their roster
However, the Bucs will need their defense to perform again, in order to stop NFC South rivals Atlanta Falcons and New Orleans Saints.
Thankfully for the Bucs they should at least replicate their 2019 performance.
Tampa Bay finished fifth in takeaways, seventh in sacks, first in run defense and were first in passes defensed. Retaining that key core enables the Bucs to potentially improve in 2020. Sensationally, the Buccanneers were the third best team in the league in terms of scoring last season. This was despite Jameis Winston’s problem with turnovers.
Tampa lost six one-score games during last year’s 7-9 season and was either leading or were tied in the fourth quarter of 11 out of 16 games. Winston threw 30 picks while putting up 5000 yards and 30+ touchdowns. If Winston can produce in this system, Brady minus the picks, shouldn’t have any issue.
