Winning The Offseason
May 17th, 2020
Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.
In the mind of a personnel guy in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Bucs finished second.
No, Gil Brandt, creator of the combine and builder of the Cowboys’ dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s, isn’t saying the Bucs will advance to the Super Bowl before losing to the AFC champion.
But Brandt believes the Bucs damn near won the offseason. That’s for killing it in free agency and in the draft, Brandt writes for NFL.com.
Some might question exactly how much Tom Brady has left in the tank, considering he’ll be 43 by the time the season starts. But there’s no doubting the positive impact he’s already had on this team since signing on to play quarterback. Brady prompted Rob Gronkowski to emerge from retirement and head to Tampa while also giving a massive boost to the franchise’s profile, as reflected in the five prime-time games and four 4:25 p.m. ET kickoffs that appeared on the Bucs’ schedule. There’s nothing like adding one of the best quarterbacks of all time to provide the rest of the players on this roster with the hope that this will be the year Tampa returns to the playoffs for the first time since 2007. One other piece of good news: The defense should be able to build off a strong finish to 2020, especially with the return of the franchise-tagged Shaquil Barrett and the re-signed Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh.
Now if we were calculating who won the offseason by killing free agency and the draft, and bronco-busting the hype monster, the Bucs clearly would lead the way.
Never before and likely never again will the Bucs dominate sports talk like they have this spring. Of course, it took global shutdown from The Sickness for that to happen. Joe sure hopes we never see anything like this again!
As for as winning the offseason, this freaks Joe out because Joe remembers the sad results after the Bucs won recent offseasons.
The last time something good came out of winning the offseason for the Bucs was when the team traded for Chucky.
The Bucs won big time after that!
May 17th, 2020 at 10:04 am
The team roster looks to be in excellent shape. All on paper. Let the practices begin. And the games.
May 17th, 2020 at 10:04 am
And we’ll win big time again #goBUCCS
May 17th, 2020 at 10:21 am
That’s what I been saying go BUCS. Exciting to see what’s going to happen this season, from a optimistic fan.
May 17th, 2020 at 11:09 am
The Browns won last offseason. That’s all they won. Let’s moderate our euphoria.
May 17th, 2020 at 11:36 am
Like the draft from a need perspective…..
RT, S, RB, 3rd WR, Dline Depth, RB/KR……
Not necessarily everyone’s priority order…..but most agree with the needs….
As far as FA……retaining, Shaq, Suh, JPP…..crucial
Acquiring Brady……Gronk (not so much)…..be we will see…
May 17th, 2020 at 11:58 am
I LOVE winning the offseason past history be damned. Again coincidence is not the same as causation.
This is a wonderful time to be a Buc’s fan!!!
Given that the off season was always going to be a major topic of conversation until the season starts…football fans are starved for anything to debate..the “illness’ and sheltering in place have just exacerbated all of that.
So people are going to talk. We can’t ignore it let’s embrace it! Would we rather have them say we LOST the off season?
The winning has to start somewhere…the off season is as good as anyplace to begin.
May 17th, 2020 at 12:15 pm
The Bucs got 5 prime time national games and we had about 1 per year for like the last 5 seasons.
Even if this means more people just see us lose, that’s a win for this team.
Game, set, and match bucs.
May 17th, 2020 at 12:51 pm
Complete domination of sports news around the globe for two months and counting, the Bucs have already won regardless of what happens next. Any success thereafter is simply gravy.
May 17th, 2020 at 1:05 pm
People keep comparing are offseason to the browns and dream team eagles. We didn’t do anything close to what they did. They brought in all new big name free agents. That never played for them. They traded for crazy head case Odell. And signed high priced offensive lineman and defensive lineman. And that rarely works out. Teams don’t let go of real pro bowl guards tackles. Unless they no they are overhyped and not worth 15-20 million a year. We just switched our quarterback from a turnover prone loses you 5 games a year to the goat. So that’s a plus move. I don’t think anyone sees Brady haveing a 30 interception 2500 yard season. He will be steady at the position. Then we resigned are own players. Who we know how they fit on our time. And the draft every team thinks they drafted all pros every year. That’s the only unknown that could flop is the draft pics. And we brought in Gronkowski a future hall of famer who played his whole career with our new QB. So we know that will work also. So in my opinion there is no comparison to our offseason and the browns and eagles dream team of all new high priced free agents. We did it the right way resigned our own and upgraded with proven winners and producers at two positions. One being the most important
May 17th, 2020 at 1:06 pm
Keeping my fingers crossed. Still some ?
May 17th, 2020 at 2:51 pm
Jeff B – Good analysis!
May 17th, 2020 at 3:18 pm
JeffBuc that’s a good point…..We didn’t win this off-season brining in a ton of new faces. Yeah we got Gronk but aside from that all we did was change QBs.
One defense I really like what we did……Which is basically nothing. Build off the momentum we had last year. We gonna see JPP and Shaq compete to be our sack leader while those massive bodies on the DL control the run……..Secondary is the big question mark which is why I loved the Windield pick. Bowles seems to do a fine job developing DBs……Now his got another piece to work with. Everybodies jerked up about this offense(I am too) but I’m really looking forward to seeing this defense……..I don’t think we will this huge too ranked team with yards and stuff. But I think we got a group that can make huge game deciding plays in pivitol moments. It’s gonna be fun.
GO BUCS!!!
May 17th, 2020 at 3:23 pm
Oh and for everybody saying how bad a shortened off-season is for us….Y’all got a point. But it may not affect the defense too bad. We got one rookie we gotta catch up to speed and if he ain’t ready I’m confident in our depth at that position.
Aside from Windield we can literally trot out the same exact starting team we had last year. I don’t know many many teams could say that. I doubt it’s many and that’s a huge advantage for our defense.
May 17th, 2020 at 4:16 pm
JJ – Good comments. I agree about the DB situation. That is my main roster worry. If Justin Evans can’t come back (and it seems unlikely), they don’t have much experience or depth at safety. Probably add an experienced safety sometime during the upcoming “cutting season”.
May 17th, 2020 at 10:34 pm
I’d agree with that. They had some great additions to the offense, and an above average draft. Been studying this Draft Intel article and think they have some good pieces to help their stars. Looking forward to next season.
https://prosportsoutlook.com/most-valuable-intel-from-each-teams-nfl-draft-class/
May 17th, 2020 at 10:35 pm
I’d agree with that. They had some great additions to the offense, and an above average draft. Been studying this Draft Intel article and think they have some good pieces to help their stars. Looking forward to next season.