Bucs A Preseason Top-Five Team
June 1st, 2020
Preseason forecasting.
If the 49ers could do it, why not the Bucs?
That’s basically the gist of a point made by hot dog eating contest-protesting, mock draft-scowling, L.L. Bean-wearing, Second Amendment abolitionist, Mike Florio-arguing, parrot-insensitive, chewing-with-his-mouth-open, soup-gulping, California-train-romancing, anti-football proliferation, outhouse-admiring, airline-napping, steerage-flying, Yogi Berra-worshiping, urinal-picture-taking, video-game-playing, Taylor-Swift-listening, pickpocket-thwarting, Bucs-uniform-frowning, Allie-LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, craft-beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball-box-score-reading, NPR-honk, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training, Budweiser-tolerant, baseball scorecard-keeping, pasta-feasting, vomit-dodging scrooge, Kay-Adams-following social activist NFL insider Peter King of NBC Sports.
Today, in one of his final columns before his annual weeks-long summer siesta, King decided to rank each NFL team from 1-32. Last year King caught flack for ranking the 49ers so highly.
Now, the Bucs are this year’s version of the 49ers. King has the defending champion Chiefs as his top team and he has the woeful Jags as the top contender to pull off a successful Tank-for-Trevor campaign.
The Bucs? King has them listed in his self-described “exercise of idiocy” at No. 5.
Last year, my email bag got overstuffed with zingers after I picked the 49ers, coming off 6-10 and 4-12 seasons, number seven in my spring power rankings. You all turned out to be right about my misjudgment of the Niners, sort of. Actually, I underrated them. So I learned my lesson: I’ve inflated the Bucs. It’s part Tom Brady. The turnovers are one thing—last year, the Bucs threw 30 interceptions; in the last five years, Brady threw 29. And it stands to reason Brady will lift a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff games since Brady’s first season as a full-time starter, 2002. I do not believe he’s fallen off some cliff at 43; it’s a cliché. He’s not going to be the deep-ball thrower coach Brice Arians would most want at the position—but he will be the kind of player/leader this franchise has lacked at the position for a long time.
This is also about the team Brady inherits. Last year, the Bucs entered the final two weeks on a four-game win streak, 7-7, with winnable home games against Houston and Atlanta. Three Jameis Winston picks in the first 16 minutes doomed Tampa against Houston, and Winston’s overtime walkoff pick-six lost the Falcons game. So easily, with just a little ball-security, the Bucs could have been 9-7. Anyway, Tampa Bay was close to being the Next Big NFC Thing. Brady and maybe tight end Rob Gronkowski (assuming he’s still Gronk) should make an explosive offense more efficient. The defense needs to be a tick better. Keeping Shaq Barrett, Ndamukong Suh and Jason Pierre-Paul, and continuing to build around defensive keystone Devin White at middle linebacker, are smart moves. Developing a better secondary, the team’s Achilles heel, should be helped significantly by second-round safety Antoine Winfield Jr. Nothing’s guaranteed, particularly in a season with the tough AFC West on the schedule. But I think the Bucs have a good chance to be 2020’s breakthrough team.
Will an OK, average version Tom Brady be enough? That’s the key. King seems to believe the Bucs will play as good or better defense than in 2019.
That’s a reasonable assumption but can we really expect NFL sack king Shaq Barrett, now that he’s on every team’s radar, to match his franchise record-setting season of 19.5 sacks? That’s a helluva tall order.
We all saw what happened to Shaq once teams started clamping down on him. A healthy Jason Pierre-Paul freed up Shaq by midseason.
Just like Joe believes the key to the Bucs offense is keeping Brady upright, Joe also believes keeping 31-year-old JPP healthy for 16 games will be equally important on defense.
June 1st, 2020 at 8:08 am
Pshhhhh………..Peter King……….used to write good articles in the early 2000s…………now he just writes “blah”
I see this team being 10-6 all day long……..and if they don’t make the playoffs this year……..it’ll be a major fail on this organization’s part.
They better make the playoffs……………….just saying.
June 1st, 2020 at 8:19 am
King says:
“I do not believe he’s fallen off some cliff at 43; it’s a cliché. He’s not going to be the deep-ball thrower coach Brice Arians would most want at the position—but he will be the kind of player/leader this franchise has lacked at the position for a long time.”
“So easily, with just a little ball-security, the Bucs could have been 9-7. Anyway, Tampa Bay was close to being the Next Big NFC Thing.”
What I like about this: us Bucs fans/local football junkies know this, but it’s great when the national level sport media says the same. And frankly, with just a few less turnovers the Bucs could have been even better than 9-7. Cutting down more on mistakes at QB alone would have added to the win column, one or two more games at minimum.
June 1st, 2020 at 8:52 am
This team needs to add another impact player on defense. Licht is getting too much credit for Tom Brady. Tom Brady wanted to come here Licht himself could not understand why. He probably thought why in the he’ll would he want to come here. Anything less than 10 wins is a failure. Jamal Adams would be nice.
June 1st, 2020 at 9:37 am
Assuming that the Bucs could have been 9-7 in the absence of the interceptions King references in his piece, the question is, “Are the Bucs a better team this year than they were last year?” I think they are. I think the defensive backfield will be better. I think the O-line will be better. I think the receiving corps got better with the additions of Gronk and rookie Tyler Johnson. Not to mention QB play. So yeah, even if the RB position doesn’t take a step forward this year, I think the 2020 Bucs will be better than the 2019 Bucs. So logically, you have to think the Bucs will be better than 9-7 and that should put them in the playoffs. And, you’ll note, I purposefully did no mention the FG kicker. Hope Gay gets his act together. If he does, that would certainty put us over the hump.
June 1st, 2020 at 11:38 am
Technically, we can say Matt Gay lost 1.5 to two games, with the .5 coming in teaming up with Winston to lose vs ATL. And like Winston, he’s got to be more consistent or he too will be gone–much sooner given he was a lower draft pick. I still have confidence he will straighten it out. The skill is there–especially in strength, but the mental piece looks to need to come around.
It is perform or go. Results or go. Lovie and DK with M. Smith got the axe, as did Winston…all justifiably. I think they let DK go too early, and Wnston too late. JL should have gone, but his reprieve if of course, Arians. For the sake of Bucs fans (meaning we are winning) JL will stick around for a bit. But he’s probably next.
June 1st, 2020 at 7:26 pm
I think if we can get Freeman, Matthews for depth, and a decent kicker that can make extra points and FGs inside of 40 yards this team can go deep in the playoffs.
June 1st, 2020 at 8:01 pm
PSL Bob Says:
“… you’ll note, I purposefully did no mention the FG kicker. Hope Gay gets his act together. If he does, that would certainty put us over the hump.”
.
.
I tend to want to compare Gay to Janikowski, because of the similar leg strength. Gay’s rookie season was actually better than Sebastian’s, so I am hopeful.
June 1st, 2020 at 9:08 pm
Are we forgetting Winston threw 30 interceptions. Sorry but turnovers are the #1 stat in football so even if the defense plays average they won’t need to bail out the offense each time