The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, despite a 7-9 season, are looking like contenders.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the 2020 season with their most optimism since they won the Super Bowl in 2003. The excitement has nothing to do with the team’s 7-9 record in 2019 but everything to do with the upgrade they made in the league’s most important position. Out went Jameis Winston and his 30 interceptions in 2019. Now, in walks Tom Brady and his six Super Bowl wins along with 29 interceptions over the last four seasons.
Brady’s arrival in Tampa Bay has sent shockwaves throughout the NFL. He has legitimized the Buccaneers as a true championship contender and has inputted the team into household conversations and put the team back on the map. Along with Bruce Arians, the team now has pieces with both personality and résumé.
Along with Brady, the Bucs have also added his running mate Rob Gronkowski to their already talented tight end group and they also boast perhaps the league’s most dynamic wide receiver duo in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
The offseason has been nothing but a win but the hard work has only just begun. Getting through the NFC South will no easy feat for the Buccaneers, but the organization is counting on Brady and his winning pedigree to guide the pirate ship through any rough waters.
The Buccaneers are a team filled with hope and a boom or bust mentality. They have brought back all of their important free agent pieces on defense and are counting on another year in the same system to aid with improvement. There is a ton of hype for the upcoming season and the Buccaneers aim to make it their reality.
5. Does Tom Brady still have enough left in the tank?
What Tom Brady has left will be the most important question for the Buccaneers for at least the next two seasons. The team has gone all-in with Brady and there is a far drop off between him and Blaine Gabbert if he is forced to miss any playing time.
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Although the team has shown huge excitement and embraced what could be for this season, the elephant in the room is Brady’s age. He will be 43 when the 2020 regular season begins and although he clearly has taken good care of his body, he is still entering unchartered territory.
Brady is already the oldest player to win a Super Bowl two years ago at age 41. He is also the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl after age 40. Although he won at age 41, the Patriots had scaled down their offense during their playoff run to make their Super Bowl win possible.
If Tampa Bay wins, the offense will have to be led by Brady’s arm and no one including Brady himself knows how much more punishment his body can take.
Learning a new system and adjusting to new teammates is hard enough for a quarterback at any age. Brady is attempting to do both at a point when most quarterbacks have been retired for at least two seasons. If Brady can accomplish a Super Bowl victory with the Buccaneers it will only add to his legend.
4. Can the defense continue to improve under Todd Bowles?
Despite the perception of the Buccaneers defense being an afterthought, they did experience improvement with new defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. During the first half of the season, the team ranked 30th in passing yards allowed to ranking 20th after Week 9. When it came to stopping the run, the team finished first in the NFL in rushing yards per game and first in yards per attempt.
Those stats were indicative of the strength of the defense being in the front seven. Shaq Barrett thrived in his first year playing for Bowles with a career-high 19.5 sacks. Not to be completely outdone, Jason Pierre-Paul was able to total 8.5 sacks in just 10 games. Lavonte David was also his normal self at one of the middle linebacker position.
Although things got off to a rocky start, the Buccaneer defense became a strength by the end of the season. With continued improvement and familiarity with the Bowles system, the team is expecting bigger and better things for 2020.
Provided health, Bowles will have a talented group of players to work with for year two with the Buccaneers. The team managed to bring every significant peace back for at least one more season. With a season of understanding and comfort with the system, Bowles will also be able to add more wrinkles into his play-calling and there has been no doubt about his abilities as a defensive coordinator.
3. What can the team expect from Rob Gronkowski?
Along with Tom Brady, the Buccaneers were able to bring in another former member of the New England Patriots when they traded for tight end Rob Gronkowski. There’s no doubt about Gronkowski’s Hall of Fame resume, but he did not play during the 2019 season and even visibly lost weight and muscle mass during this time. Although he has proclaimed he will be ready for the upcoming season, no one knows what he can still bring to the table.
The Buccaneers also still have O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate returning at tight end, so Gronkowski is more of a luxury than a pure need. His presence alone should be a boost for the development of Howard.
His experience with Brady will help provide great insight in the tight end room. He can help the other tight ends to understand how Brady prefers routes run and where he likes to place the ball. For Howard especially, he can provide an example of how to be a professional and prepare for games in every facet.
On the field, Gronkowski has not played a full season since 2011. At times, his games missed have only been precautionary, but it still underlines the potential for his physical style of play to take a toll on his body. He will now be 31 and there is no guarantee he can survive the wear and tear of a typical NFL season.
The Patriots had to conserve him in 2018 and at times he still looked to be hobbling. With two other tight ends, the Buccaneers may look to be conservative with not just the number of routes he runs, but also with his snap count.
2. What level of winning will it take for the season to be considered successful?
The Buccaneers have high expectations for 2020. By committing to Tom Brady for the next two seasons, the team has embraced the realization of needing to win in the present and no longer waiting for other players to grow into their prime.
While it is unsure if and how many fans may be in the stadium, the Bucs will host the next Super Bowl. There is no doubt Tom Brady wants to lead his new team to become the first franchise to play in a Super Bowl in their host stadium. The franchise has not completely put all of their chips to the middle of the table, but they have very few left.
By bringing in Brady and Gronkowski, the team sacrificed most of their salary cap space. The rest went to Shaq Barrett on the franchise tag. The team does have a good mix of youth and veteran talent on both sides of the ball. Winning often accelerates growth and Brady’s presence on and off the field should bring a positive influence towards this growth.
If the season completely falls apart, it is possible the team would not have many of the veteran players back. This would prompt a mini rebuild and also could leave the team once again searching for a franchise quarterback.
The question remains, is an improvement on 7-9 and a playoff game enough? Does the team have to win the division for the season to be successful? Are fans, media and the front office expecting nothing less than the Super Bowl or at least the NFC Championship game?
1. Can the team get enough out of their running backs?
The production of the Buccaneers’ running backs was underwhelming in 2019. Getting more out of this group for 2020 will be a big and necessary boost to the success of the offense. The team ranked 24th in the league in yards and 28th in yards per attempt. Ronald Jones II led the team with only 724 yards but he did show promise with 4.2 yards per attempt. Dare Ogunbowale served as the passing down back and had 35 receptions.
With Tom Brady as the quarterback, both of those statistics will need to improve. Brady has historically relied on running backs in the passing game in his career, but he might not have a back with the abilities of James White, Shane Vereen or Kevin Faulk.
To this point, Jones has not been trusted in the passing game and has not flashed anything to make coaches think this needs to change. He is not a liability, but it doesn’t seem like a big strength. Ogunbowale was reliable last season but did not show big-play ability evidenced by his 286 receiving yards.
The team did draft Ke’Shawn Vaughn out of Vanderbilt and there is hope he can bring a big-play element to the running back group. He showed some ability in college, but he is rookie and Bruce Arians has been tough on his younger backs in the past. With Brady now at quarterback, Vaughn will have to show an ability to pass protect for the coach to carve out a role in the offense.
If Jones can take a step forward this season he could add a big element to the offense. He was considered a bust going into last season and although his production was a bit of a roller coaster, he did show some of the talent the team saw when they drafted him in the second round in 2018. If he could help add the rushing element and show an ability to be trusted at least on early downs in the passing game, the offense will not have to be as one dimensional as it was last year.