Although it appears that the NFL season has only just begun, we have already reached the end of the road. With the Super Bowl behind us, it’s time to start thinking about the offseason and what teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can do to ensure they’ll be celebrating this time next year.
This summer, Tampa Bay will have to make important decisions concerning the futures of Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans. It appears that the offence — and all hope for next season — is dependent on bringing those two back and ensuring that the Bucs are in the greatest possible position to capitalize on last season’s success.
Baker resurrected his career, Evans had another great season, and the Bucs finished in the NFC Divisional Round, seemingly silencing all skeptics. Regardless of how great things went, the Bucs can’t seem to get a break when it comes to earning any respect from the national media.
Different offseason, same old song.
ESPN’s post-Super Bowl power rankings undervalue the Buccaneers.
ESPN released its way-too-early 2024 power rankings, which, like all of the rankings from last offseason, disrespected the Bucs. Tampa Bay is ranked No. 16, one spot ahead of the Jets and just below the Colts.
It’s an improvement from being named the league’s second-worst squad last year, but it severely undervalues everything the team did.
To make matters worse, the Bengals, Jaguars, and Colts are three non-playoff teams ahead of the Bucs. There’s a legitimate argument for Cincinnati, since Joe Burrow’s season-ending injury disrupted what was otherwise a great season. It is simply incorrect to rank Indianapolis and Jacksonville higher than Tampa Bay.
The Colts barely beat the Bucs in the midst of the team’s infamous midseason losing skid, and the Jaguars were completely annihilated a few weeks later. In terms of future potential, what do the Jaguars and Colts have that implies they will have a better chance than the Bucs of winning the Super Bowl?
It also effectively undermines all of the Bucs’ great momentum this season, particularly late in the year. Whereas Tom Brady’s final season ended with no hope, the Bucs recovered from a 1-6 start to win the division and blow away a playoff opponent before falling two games short of another championship.
Keep in mind that this was a team projected to tank for a high draft pick and is currently in total rebuild mode. Instead, the Bucs are almost expected to re-sign Baker as their franchise quarterback, bring back Evans to complete his Hall of Fame career in Tampa Bay, and have the league’s best safety anchoring a top-ranked defence. Liam Coen was hired to improve on what Dave Canales had done, and the Buccaneers had zero dead cap space and money to spend in free agency to enhance their roster.
Where exactly is the difference between Tampa Bay and two of the higher-ranked non-playoff teams?
It’s par for the course, though, since the Bucs are no strangers to being discarded. Last year, there were genuine reasons to doubt their ability to turn things around, but after doing so convincingly, it’s disappointing to see them still regarded as a middle-of-the-road team.
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