Not Just An Old Team
August 7th, 2021
One of Bucs’ young studs.
Generally, when your quarterback is 44, a ferocious defensive tackle is 34, your No. 3 receiver is 33, your Hall of Fame tight end is 32, one of your bookend pass rushers is 32, your legendary inside linebacker is 31 and your center is 30, that often signals you have an old team.
Hold up!
In compiling a ranking of the teams with the best players under-25 for BSPN, Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders believes the Bucs are loaded with young talent. He ranks the Bucs at No. 8.
Why? Because so many of those young players are edging close to the end of their rookie contracts.
8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2020 ranking: 20
Blue-chip players: OT Tristan Wirfs, LB Devin White, FS Antoine Winfield
Notable graduated players: WR Chris Godwin… Their most valuable asset under 25 is probably right tackle Tristan Wirfs, who ranked 11th among all tackles in snaps per blown block. That was well ahead of the other young tackles drafted before him last April. Wirfs turns 23 in January.
Starting safety Antoine Winfield is a physical playmaker, also from last year’s draft class. He turns 23 this month. Inside linebacker Devin White turned 23 in February, and he still has three years in Tampa Bay before his rookie contract runs out. White led all inside linebackers in sacks, hits, and hurries and tied for the league lead in defeats. The Bucs also restocked their pass rush with this year’s first-round pick, 22-year-old Joe Tryon.
The main reason Tampa Bay doesn’t rank even higher in these rankings is that a lot of their best players under 25 have contracts that run out soon. That includes most of the starting secondary. Cornerbacks Carlton Davis, Jamel Dean, and Sean Murphy-Bunting are all 24 years old as of Sept. 1, but Davis has just one more year under contract and Dean and Murphy-Bunting have just two more years. Strong safety Jordan Whitehead is also 24 and has just one more year with Tampa Bay before becoming a free agent.
This is what is so wild to Joe. Often, a team with so much young talent is void of veterans. Or, a team with so many studs 30-and-over has limited decent young players.
Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht has the best of both worlds: older stars with a strong nucleus of young studs.
August 7th, 2021 at 12:03 am
Schatz knows more about this team than me
August 7th, 2021 at 12:16 am
exciting team since the last several drafts!
August 7th, 2021 at 1:50 am
Keeping such a great team together is the real challenge.
The only team I’ve seen in my 51 years of watching nfl patriots.
Belicheat wasn’t perfect but he was very, very good. Brady was a huge part of that.
Unselfish players are hard to find.
August 7th, 2021 at 8:09 am
When you have older players in key positions it’s more important to have quality younger players in the pipeline…..we now have that in Tryon…..Vita, Devin White….Hopefully Tyler Johnson, K Vaughn, K Trask & others will meet our future needs. I think we’re in pretty good shape.
August 7th, 2021 at 8:11 am
But wait. Weren’t we told by the now absent naysayers that the Bucs were blowing the future for a payday in the present? Which the Bucs got!!! Weren’t these the guys that knew so much more and cared so much more about football than the rest of us? And didn’t one of them love the Bucs so much it hurt, yet he turned out to be more of a jilted lover than anything else? Where are you guys? We need some more laughs.
August 7th, 2021 at 8:16 am
Our gm has found a stud in all of his drafts!
August 7th, 2021 at 8:18 am
Good news, NFL will significantly raise the salary cap next year. I don’t see Brady playing more than 2 years, so when he retires, more money will free up to fill in the dead money and resign more young and promising players. I think Licht has a master plan to keep us in the top 5 for years to come. Trask most likely fits in this plan once Brady is ready to hang up his cleats.
August 7th, 2021 at 9:24 am
If you want to retain talent and get quality FA after Brady is done Trask is not that person. For how good the Bucs are projecting to be, there’s a good chance we won’t be drafting Brady’s replacement and getting an older wiser QB in FA.
August 7th, 2021 at 9:54 am
Joe, What is BSPN? A take off of ESPN? What does the B stand for?
August 7th, 2021 at 9:55 am
getting an older wiser QB in FA.
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Well now…
I think that just about rules out A-R
August 7th, 2021 at 9:56 am
Bucman
Think “BS”
August 7th, 2021 at 10:18 am
SufferingSince76, Thanks that was sad and funny and awesome all at the same time. LOL!!
Nice planning to have quality skilled Veteran Players, around promising skilled young players. Veteran players wanting to show these younger players all that they can share to be their best NFL players this season and into their future. So that these younger players can and will carry on and add to these Veteran players’ ATTITUDE!! & WORK ETHIC!!
We do have a good player backing up nearly every starting position player now. Remember when not so long ago, of seasons we wished for simply a solid quality player at all positions. We now have an entire returning Super Bowl 55 Championship starting roster on both sides of the ball. With solid promising backup players at every position learning everything, these Veteran players can and are willing to share.
Building the Buccaneer Culture right before our eyes.
Good Times to be a Buccaneer Fan!
August 7th, 2021 at 10:44 am
Got it. Sometimes, you just hafta ask.
August 7th, 2021 at 11:09 am
Building the Buccaneer Culture right before our eyes.
Good Times to be a Buccaneer Fan!
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I am ever the optimist in everything Bucs ALL the way back to inception.
Right now?
The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades!
August 7th, 2021 at 11:25 am
Building Buccaneer Culture right before our eyes! ✌
August 7th, 2021 at 11:27 am
Building the Buccaneer Culture right before our eyes. ✌
August 7th, 2021 at 1:40 pm
Snaps per blown block? 😬
August 7th, 2021 at 6:01 pm
People need to let that young secondary know that they should not listen to the agents (They obviously want the biggest contract). The dollar goes further here than most places, no state tax, and that they can be kings in this town if they don’t go dollar hunting, ask 40 and 55 if being Buccaneers royalty has paid dividend.