Ex-NFL lineman weighs in

Last week Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles explained how 2021 is a different season even if you have the same starters. And once a team starts thinking it can waltz through a season, that’s when they get their backsides kicked in.

So as a result, Bowles is already mentally drilling into his players to forget about 2020 because 2021 will be different.

Former NFL offensive lineman Brian Baldinger agrees. He also has a hunch the Bucs’ offense won’t just be different, it could be better.

In an appearance on the “MJ and Dusty Show” on 1080 The Fan in Portland, co-host AJ McCord asked Baldinger who can prevent the Bucs from repeating? Baldinger told her it’s possible the Bucs may not yet have hit overdrive.

AJ McCord: How hard do you think it is going to be for someone to disrupt Tom Brady and Tampa Bay [from going] back-to-back?

Brian Baldinger: Well, their defensive coordinator [Todd Bowles] has come out and said — and rightfully so — you can return the same team but it’s going to be a different year and a different team. It’s great that Shaq Barrett and JPP and Lavonte David — they kept the whole band together, somehow. I don’t know how they did it. They deserve an Oscar or an Emmy or something, the people that did that. But it’s going to be a different year. Health is always an issue. People don’t play the same. They have a different schedule. All of those things will affect [the season]. But, they won it in a year where there was a pandemic. They never got to know each other until the start of the season. There was no preseason. I have a feeling they are going to be really good and really hard to stop.

Health will be the biggest issue. It’s draft season the team loses park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting, handshake-stiffing, jet-ski-losing, biscuit-baking, tequila-shooting, smartphone-phobic, waffle-grilling, trophy-throwing, roller-coaster-scared, numbers-rules-peeved, Bucs-Super-Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady. That’s all there is to it.

The Bucs, especially up on the offensive line, have been very fortunate with injuries. There’s no way to predict them, short of already playing a guy who shouldn’t be on the field.

The biggest speed bump for the Bucs, outside of Father Time? Avoiding the injury bug.