Seven Sad Predictions From NFL.com
August 29th, 2013
Prediction season continues to be unkind to the Bucs.
The four members of the Around The League crew at NFL.com previewed the NFC South and not one thinks the Bucs will have a winning record.
Buccaneers are not our sleeper team
This might be the deepest division in football. There’s only room for one surprise team, and our crew wasn’t buying Tampa Bay. An in-season quarterback change would not be a shock considering Josh Freeman’s erratic play; he’s also in a contract year. Three of us had the Buccaneers under .500, with Marc Sessler being the exception. Greg Schiano and company have gathered up enough talent through the draft and free agency to make our predictions of last place look bad come January.
In this NFL.com video, another three analysts, including Deion Sanders, don’t think the Bucs stack up in the division.
Jimminy Christmas! The Buccaneers added two true superstars in Darrelle Revis and Dashon Goldson, yet loads of NFL insiders don’t think they’ll improve.
There’s really no excuse, barring major injuries, for a lack of improvement in Year 2 of the New Schiano Order.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:11 am
A sleeper team is the team no one expects to be great. If they predict a team to be a sleeper team, it isn’t really a sleeper, is it?
August 29th, 2013 at 11:14 am
Barber was quite good last year. Goldson won’t really be a huge upgrade as FS. Revis is the only thing we really upgraded. Our horrible pass rush got worse, our below average got worse, and most importantly…our QB is still an inconsistent bum that can’t think fast enough to be effective most of the time. All these predictions of 5 to 9 wins are spot on.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:16 am
7-8 wins is attainable. But QB inconsistency, lack of a pass rush (Thanks Dom) and a stacked division will prevent a winning record from happening.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:16 am
haha its because knowbody trust Josh Freeman!!!
Carolona: They like Cam so they have a chance
Saints: They love Brees so they have a chance
Falcons: Matt Ryan has been in the playoffs the past two years
Its all about the QB … they dont care about Revis Island and Goldson
August 29th, 2013 at 11:16 am
I’ve only heard Deion Sanders mock the Bucs, year after year. This is no surprise.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:17 am
It is because we have a God awful QB.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:18 am
@ YourMom
Barber and Goldson play different positions … Barber was a Strong safety in the box and Goldson is a free safety
Now barron will be in the box where he played his whole career and Goldson will take Barrons spot where he never plays
August 29th, 2013 at 11:20 am
The funny thing about predictions is that they’ll change after every game. I don’t really care what these guys think right now.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:22 am
It’s because we’re the Buccaneers, that’s really all that needs to be said. If Peyton Manning was drafted by the Buccaneers, he wouldn’t be considered one of the best QB’s of all time, if Bill Belichek coached the Bucs, he wouldn’t be considered one of the best coaches of all time, and even if the Bucs went 16-0 this year, no analyst would pick us to win the Superbowl. We’re just the Bucs.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:25 am
Yup, the red headed freckle faced step child of the (N)ot (F)or (L)ong.
eh, Im used to it….
August 29th, 2013 at 11:25 am
Ive said it before and Ill say it again. None of these “analysts” are going to stick out their necks anf give the Bucs a shot. They take a single look at the QBs in our division and based on that we dont havr a shot in hell. Freeman hasnt been helping himself during the preseason and the knee jerk reaction media response is that the bucs are screwed. Let the talkers talk.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:28 am
Pre-season display gives fuel to these arguments. Then again, how accurate are the prognosticators each year? It’s up to teh Bucs to outperform. The bar has been set low and we are known for underperforming “the bar”.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:29 am
Tampa Bay Buccaneers destined to be the Browns of the NFC. How depressing.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:33 am
Deon sanders never liked the bucs, he’s always got a joke but i love it…being underestimated isnt a bad thing but but if were the team we think we should be,as soon as they start jumping on the bandwagon without admitting how they ranked us, then its time to throw it back in their faces.
if josh throws for 4000 yards this year minus the two games he seemed to throw an int everytime he drops back, we will be at the top of our division, julio jones is a stud but roddy is on the decline….we have a good run defense so they dont scare us, someone that was in the playoffs last year wont make it this year, it happens every year
August 29th, 2013 at 11:35 am
@Dennis
Actually, Barber was a FS who happened tp play in the box. That’s why when Black rotated in, he often played high. That was also part of the problem with Barron’s development.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:35 am
Deion Sanders is an elitist. If you are not Brady or Manning you’re not even worth his time to look into. I used to love this guy on Gameday, but the last few years he has been getting more and more annoying. I have no respect for his thoughts one iota. The other guys though I do respect.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:38 am
Look this is how it works with these TV buffoons. The Bucs are not a media story. We keep things relatively quiet down here. Our coach doesnt say moronic things (see Rex Ryan), our players dont run their mouths (see Richard Sherman), we dont have a marquee QB. We are boring for Sportscenter. Good.
These analysts predictions mostly reflect last season’s final standings and the final scores/stats they see in preseason. Except for the Saints. Sean Payton is back and Rob Ryan is running their defense. They are gonna be so sick. That is until we run them out of our building come Week 2 and ESPN is gonna wonder how it happened.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:40 am
I know we have not looked good so far and tonight will not be a sign of improvement because 1st team will not be playing but naysayers beware!!!!!
Josh is starting to get his head together and we might not Win the division but we will be improved. Watch us start getting better press about second or third game.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:42 am
atlanta drafted two rookies corners and asante samuel that was knocked out by doug martin….how are they more athletic than what we have? osi is a big name on the d line but he’s no jonathan abraham, their d line has just as many questions as our but these foolish analyst keep coming back to one thing the qb…thats just stupid because vikings didnt make it to the playoffs because of christian ponder…jay cutler is better than free and they get picked every year just like the cowboys…i cant wait until we play the saints in week 2 to shut them all up
August 29th, 2013 at 11:42 am
Can’t wait till week 10 when Carolina is once again in the 2-8 range. Hasn’t anyone else noticed that they aren’t that good? Horrific secondary, no skill players worth a damn outside Steve Smith, and Cam is still showing the attitude that will make him a mediocre player.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:45 am
A defense that is transitioning into a scheme they dont have personnel for, Rob Ryan is overrated, three starting defenders on IR, and Drew Brees is gonna have to bring his A game every single game means the Aints are gonna have a rough go this year.
But how sweet it would be to take em out wk 2 to shut the talking heads up.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:49 am
After this Mersa episode, I wouldn’t be surprised @ 2-14 this season.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:51 am
Deion Sanders is an elitist. If you aren’t Tom terrific or Manning, you aren’t worth his time to even look into. I used to love this guy on Gameday, but the last couple years he is getting more and more annoying. I have no respect for anything he says. Not one iota. The other guys though, I respect them. They haven’t proved to be snobby, uppity, high society clowns like Deion has.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:53 am
lol Are you kidding me? I waited for 10 minutes before I re-typed that dang comment again and looky, there it is now.
August 29th, 2013 at 11:57 am
LOL no premise outside of ?-man (freeman)
August 29th, 2013 at 11:57 am
I could careless what they say. Nobody knows whats going to happen. However, I can not blame them for thinking the way they do… it’s not like we’ve been winning lately. This is a huge year. LETS GO BUCS!!
August 29th, 2013 at 11:58 am
all their gonna say if we beat the saints in game 2 is that they are still in transition and they’ll be better after 4 games….the fact that they dont have a good defense means nothing to these guys i guess because they have a known name in rob ryan….even when we have a top defense and warren sapp we didnt get props, even used tampa two for every other team that started to run it not giving us the credit for it very often….we made what the cowboys are running a big time defense
August 29th, 2013 at 12:02 pm
Our fortunes this season, imo, will be determined by three things.
The first is obvious – injuries. Will we stay healthy enough?
Second, will we have a pass rush? I’m not sure either way.
Third, how is Freeman going to play? Again, I’m not sure either way.
If we get a solid pass rush, stay relatively injury free, and Freeman plays anywhere close to his potential – then we could do great things this season. Still, they’re huge question marks and we won’t know the answer until we play the games.
August 29th, 2013 at 12:12 pm
Nobody denies we have talent. But ultimately who have to have that QB. No one trust Freeman , it’s all about Freeman. If he plays well they will be singing a different tune by week 8.
August 29th, 2013 at 12:14 pm
Lol … Perfect ! Can’t wait !
August 29th, 2013 at 12:22 pm
Its all about #5 as everyone likes to say and Josh Freeman has shown nothing in the preseason that indicates he will be improved from last year. In fact being in the second year he has shown an unbelieveable amount of inaccuracy this preseason. I keep thinking of the Pats game where Brady is throwing lasers and Freeman is throwing into the bleachers!!!!We hear all of the talk about practice how he looks like the next Drew Breeze then the lights come on in the stadium and Josh looks like a deer looking up at those lights. The guy seemingly is greatly effected by pressure and tanks in crunch time of the season. This year will be more pressure than he has ever felt with all of his weapons so he has no excuses. Not looking good Josh please wake up and play ball!!!!
August 29th, 2013 at 12:23 pm
again its not about freeman…stop watching espn. he threw alot of int’s last year but he played well enough for us to get to the playoffs, two bad games and he got all the publicity but they dont talk about our defense without mentioning having the worst pass defense in the league…THE #1 OFFENSE IN THE SAINTS FINISHED WITH A 7-9 RECORD just like us, our defense lost us about 5 games so dont say its all about freeman. yes he has to improve but cant blame him for having two bad games and having a first time offensive coordinator, first time nfl coach, schiano lost us a game too but nobody says that either, when you give an excuse that you ran 3 straight times and punted because you thought our defense could win, thats just stupid…freeman brought us back against philly (defense lost to a rookie qb), he brought us back against redskins(defense lost), he brought us back against the panthers and won the game for us so if your gonna kill him for being inconsistent….give him credit because his rookie year everyone was calling him mr comeback but he had nothing around him on offense or defense and we blamed him. vikings made it to the playoffs but i dont see them getting anyone receiver to the probowl say what you want but vjack didnt throw the ball to himself
August 29th, 2013 at 12:24 pm
I like being the underdog, and lets look at how well these experts pick throughout the season. They all finish right around 500 picking only 5-6 games each week. My girlfriend did better than that in my neighborhood weekly pool.
August 29th, 2013 at 12:29 pm
Buc4life
Your kidding yourself if you can honestly say it’s not about Freeman. You live and die by your qb . Make no mistake this team goes as far as Freeman takes it. Period. There’s the teams that have quarterbacks and the teams that don’t !
August 29th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
YEA OK LIKE CHRISTIAN PONDER IS THE NEXT AARON RODGERS….YOU SOUND KINDA FOOLISH YOURSELF, GIVE ANYONE TEAM IN THE NFL OUR DEFENSE FROM LAST YEAR AND TELL ME HOW FAR THEY GET…..DAMN IF THE SAINTS ARENT ENOUGH PROOF HAVING THE NUMBER ONE OFFENSE THEN I DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE I CAN SAY. FOOTBALL IS THE ULTIMATE TEAM SPORT JUST ASK AARON RODGERS WHO GOT KILLED LAST YEAR BECAUSE HIS O LINE WAS GARBAGE. BEING SUCCESSFUL IN 2012 DOESNT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN YOU WILL IN 2013 LIKE WINNING THE SUPERBOWL ONE YEAR COMING BACK THE NEXT YEAR GETTING BLASTED IN THE FIRST ROUND HAVING THE SAME TEAM AS LAST YEAR
August 29th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
All I gotta say is
TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMPA!
August 29th, 2013 at 12:53 pm
Let’s face it. Nobody had us in the conversation the year we won the Superbowl, “Nobody”. Predictiion’s are like a__holes, everybody has one and you shouldn’t take much weight from them. I understand that Freeman is inconsistent, but I also know that his numbers were pretty good last year. If we had any type of pass defense we would have gone a lot further.
Don’t let the so called “realists” or prognosticators get to you, They know no more than you and I, and of course they are going to talk about the darling teams of the league. I tell you what, it was a fantastic feeling when we won the SB, knowing how underestimated we were. We were a true sleeper team.
Its really sad that so many have given up on the season before it’s even gotten started. Let’s enjoy the season we’ve all waited for and evaluate after we’re done.
“GO BUCS”
August 29th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Did anyone watch the video posted the other day with Freeman preseason highlights? He looks like Tebow. No, he looked worse than Tebow. I’m flummoxed and flabbergasted by his performance. I understand its preseason but come on now. 3rd round pick at your heels? Contract year? Ian’s daily rants? JBF posters? Hes got something to prove and he looks worse than he ever did. He was the man at times last season. Its almost like the entire team has regressed. The tape dont lie on where Freeman is this year. Great if he proves the experts wrong, but damn, I’m exhausted over the team this year. We’ve been waiting so long and endured this rebuilding crap…I digress..The point is 7-9 is being kind if Freeman doesn’t come around or Schiano/Sully/Sheridan aren’t the man. The tape dont lie…Gotta go back to work.
August 29th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
The gamblers in Vegas have a lot more credibility with me. The line opened at over/under 6.5 wins. It’s now at 8 in most places and 7.5 in many others. Hmmmm; the so-called experts–ex-jocks who have poor study habits and low IQs, they hate the Buccaneers, but the gamblers who make a living keep driving the line up. I don’t know a single high roller or credible tout who is taking the UNDER, even now at 7.5 or 8.
You’d have to be totally ignorant not to realize that barring injuries, the Buccaneers defense will be significantly better than last year and has a chance actually to be good. The one FACT we know is that the defense gave up the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter of 5 games last year.
Freeman has to play better, no doubt. But this team has every reason to be considered better than last year, and very little reason to be considered worse.
I think Joe called it right. He expects 8 wins and if Freeman improves, which certainly is possible we get to 9 or 10. Atlanta is in serious trouble. carolina should be much better. New Orleans is hard to figure but must win a lot of 42-35 games.
August 29th, 2013 at 1:16 pm
This is why we play the game. Nobody really knows what to expect. They predicate their predictions on what they have seen and heard to this point. As they believe the Bucs have gotten stronger in some aspects this season they believe that the other teams in our division have gotten better also. We need to win. Plain and simple.
August 29th, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Every year these “experts” pick the aints, patriots,anybody named manning, but who cares . Bucs will be what they will be . Me, I’ll wait till December to make my picks. GO BUCS !!!
August 29th, 2013 at 1:29 pm
We can whine and squabble about it all we want, but the fact of the matter remains that we need to go out there and PROVE IT.
We have stunk, so why would anyone think we are all of a sudden going to be good? Oh, that’s right, maybe because our GM and owernship has finally started to $$$$ utiliize the salary cap $$$?
Either way, we need to come out swining against the Jets. If we see a poor 1st half from the O and the D, it will be concerning.
Joe,
No heads should roll with a loss to the Jets in the opening week, but a loss to that circus only shows us an the rest of the NFL that we, possibly, suck worse than the JETS.
August 29th, 2013 at 1:30 pm
In an era when the NFL is becoming a passing league, much of the team’s success and failure’s are put on the QB… So in a QB-driven league, when your QB has weaknesses in crucial areas the team becomes questionable as well…. It is just a fact of Football!
August 29th, 2013 at 2:17 pm
We don’t get NO BUCIN’ RESPECT I tell ya !!!!!!!
August 29th, 2013 at 2:23 pm
well when you go from 4-12, with a ten game losing streak, then 7-9, with a 1-5 finish, it doesnt get the national media all pumped up.
But they don’t have the local knowledge of the team like we do. If they had that they wouldn’t even consider the bucs as a sleeper, unless they are referring to that long irrelevant period after were out of playoff contention yet again.
Amazing how they just don’t recognize the rock star’s greatness like we do.
August 29th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Per Gruden on saying we will win the NFC South
“I think this is the year for Tampa to win the division and return to the playoffs,’’ Gruden said. “I have a lot of confidence Tampa is going to be a very good football team this year.’’
August 29th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
August 29th, 2013 at 4:41 pm
If we start 8-2 and Freeman plays great them first 10 games they still wont believe until Freeman shows that He and the D can finish the season strong by winning at least 3 of the last 6 games. GO BUCS!!!
Im still syked for this season. If we kick ass and get in the playoffs it will be just that much sweeter with all the doubters. GO BUCS!!!
August 29th, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Buc4life
First off the saints were in disarray last year. If you gave any of the top QB’s our defense last year they would have had a winning record. Deon sanders loved the Bucs last year as his playoff sleeper team , and was singing our praises till we fell of a cliff. Rodgers despite injuries to his #1 , and # 2 wide receivers , awful o-line , poor defense managed to win their division and make the playoffs. Ponder had a running back that was unstoppable , even against loaded boxes, and rushed for 2,000 yards. Hell Peterson’s yards per carry were higher than ponder yards per pass. So your points are ridiculous and the caps even more.