Bucs Hit No. 3 In A Power Ranking
September 17th, 2024
Mike Florio of NBC Sports.
So how good are the Buccaneers?
Joe believes they have the potential to be the best team in the NFC.
Are they already? Mike Florio thinks so. The ProFootballTalk.com/NBC Sports guru has issued his post-Week-2 power rankings and the Bucs sit at No. 3 overall, up from No. 6 last week.
1. Chiefs (last week No. 1; 2-0): They’ll need a solid replacement for Isiah Pacheco to stay here.
2. Bills (No. 7; 2-0): Josh Allen is the early-season MVP.
3. Buccaneers (No. 6; 2-0): It’s becoming harder and harder for people to not regard them as an elite team.
4. Lions (No. 2; 1-1): They need to keep these games from being coin-flip affairs.
5. Texans (No. 8; 2-0): Next, Stefon Diggs will return to the place where he helped make a miracle.
Prior the season, Florio picked the Bucs to reach the NFC Championship game and he appears to be their strongest supporter among the big-name national media types.
Joe can only assume Florio’s opinion of the Bucs has been bolstered given that they’ve beaten the Commanders and Lions in consecutive weeks. He had Washington and Detroit as Wild Card selections in the NFC.
September 17th, 2024 at 11:49 am
Personally, I like it better when people think we suck.
September 17th, 2024 at 11:52 am
NFL.com totally disrespected the bucs on this week’s power rankings. Shameful
September 17th, 2024 at 11:58 am
I am certain there are pundits who regard the Bucs as 3rd in the NFC South, currently.
Maybe three South teams in playoffs this year? They all get two freebies from Panthers, lol.
Bucs win Sunday at home against Denver, that’s like being 5-0, counting two wins over Carolina!
September 17th, 2024 at 12:04 pm
I really think Florio is trolling on this one.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:05 pm
@glo.
he is not. simms has been hyping/repping the bucs all offseason. Simms confused me when he picked Falcons to win the division.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:06 pm
Lets not get to full of ourselves
September 17th, 2024 at 12:11 pm
The players should be constantly reminded of what has happened in the past when they got too full of themselves. Perhaps requiring they watch some of the bombs previously laid would help.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:16 pm
NFL.com is left wing media.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:16 pm
The media pundits tend to overreact. In the preseason they had the Bucs ranked too low, based on the departure of a couple expendable players… Shaq Barrett (since retired) and Devin White (since benched). Now, after just two games they’re overreacting the other direction. Let’s just say the Bucs are in the top 10 in the league, and sit back and watch them earn a top 5 spot, and then watch them earn a top 3 spot.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:21 pm
Way too high at no. 3. Let’s see how the schedule plays out. Bucs still need to improve drastically at the running game, passes to the TE and edge rusher.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:28 pm
It was an ugly win over a very good team in their very loud home. I’m not going to get too high on the Bucs until this Denver game. It looks like a trap game. The Bucs’ vets need to bring down the young guys and remind them that any given team can win any day in the NFL. A destruction of the Broncos is possible if the Bucs keep learning and stay hungry.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:28 pm
I saw one power ranking at 8 and another at 9, so I’m not offended by those at all. We get healthy we can maybe get to 3, still too many starters missing.
And I haven’t really read anything about the health of Baker and Evans. I know they didn’t leave the game injured but Evan’s had a tackle where he looked like he landed on his head and that couldn’t have feel good on his neck. That would have given more fragile football players a concussion by itself.
And then Baker got sacked so many times but on one play he’s going for a first down and look like he got bent backwards a bit and he was stretching his back. I bet that probably hurt more than any of the Hutchinson hits. He looked to be fine in the press conference but I think he and Mike are probably nursing minor stuff at least. Both tough dudes!
September 17th, 2024 at 12:32 pm
Mike Florio and Chris Simms were giving Baker, as a standalone quarterback, recognition and credit way back last year (Summer of 2023), when the Buccaneers were pretty much predicted (by pro football media) unanimously (except for Buccaneers fans who actually watch all the games and know-well the quality of the players, individually) to win only 3 or 4 games.
So, it’s not a big surprise that they’ve paid closer attention to the overall Buccaneers team, and changed their opinion early-on this year.
September 17th, 2024 at 12:41 pm
“Well, let’s not start sucking each other’s d—s quite yet.”
~Winston Wolf
September 17th, 2024 at 12:45 pm
I don’t put any weight on polls until about week 6.
September 17th, 2024 at 1:08 pm
Eat it Florio! Go Bucs
September 17th, 2024 at 1:21 pm
Keep underestimating them instead. They have A LOT of room for improvement.
And all we heard is Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta turns out people should be paying attention to the Bucs and New Orleans. New Orleans is worrying me.
September 17th, 2024 at 1:49 pm
As a Bucs fan, #3 is too high. The RBs last week averaged 2 Yards/Carry. That will not get it done over the course of 17 games. They are only playing with 4 OL since there was nobody playing RT last week. Too much to clean up.
One of the the mock draft sites had the Bucs picking 11th but after this weekend moved them to picking 16th. Let’s keep the disrespect there for more motivation.
September 17th, 2024 at 2:09 pm
OMG, NFL.COM has Bucs at #12 !!!
What the hell??
Get this..:
They have Saints at #8 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Known who’s at #9 ??
THE RAVENS!!!
Hello, they are 0-2 !!!!!!
Sheer STUPIDITY sitting at NFL.COM..
That’s ok, I hope it keeps lighting a fire on the Bucs team.
Make these sites eat their words and embarrass them!!!
Kick some Bronco a$$ this coming weekend!
Put Sean Payton down in the pasture as well, lol!
September 17th, 2024 at 2:10 pm
if it make jmark feel better, I still think the bucs suck 🙂
September 17th, 2024 at 2:19 pm
imo, we should be ranked in the top 10 but #3 is too high lol…bucs play better when we’re overlooked and disrespected…
lets continue to beat the teams we’re suppose to beat and sweep our division…then #3 will be justified lol
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 17th, 2024 at 2:20 pm
After watching the first half of that Saints at San Fran preseason game I immediately switched my Bears playoff prediction to them, & even though I hated to pick 3-teams from THIS Division, I just could not make myself drop ATL out after taking a peak of THEIR schedule again. The Saints are VERY SCARY right now, but teams will start to catch on to what they’re doing on Offense & they must avoid the injury bug. Both, Carr and Kamara have significant recent injury concerns, and Olave can be a little banged-up at times, too! So, it is definitely going to be interesting. Hopefully, the Bucs will get healthy SOON and remain that way! Hopefully, Seattle is a fluke and reverts back to their bad injury history as well… Seems like Walker was already hurt last week best of my memory!!!!
September 17th, 2024 at 2:24 pm
Stephen A. and Cowherd both, had the Bucs in their power rankings… Both, also had the Saints ranked just above. The respect has started being noticed, but they STILL don’t have a lot to say about the Bucs & talk a TON about the Saints and Falcons. It’s really mind-blowing. Last week, I bet if you added up ALL the shows on both ESPN and FS1 all week long, you wouldn’t get 30-minutes TOTAL on that Bucs-Lions Game. And, so far this week… Not even 10-minutes, yet! But, the Saints and Falcons are literally, NONSTOP.
September 17th, 2024 at 2:53 pm
Enjoyed the ranking article. Go Bucs!
Panthers number 32. Broncos a work in progress. Too funny!
September 17th, 2024 at 2:59 pm
Yeah, I hope no one at OBP is listening to Florio. Would prefer we were ranked somewhere in the middle and no one is talking about the Bucs. Both the Saints and the Falcons are going to be tough games. Bucs need to be hungry and pissed off.
September 17th, 2024 at 4:55 pm
I’m with you Jmark.
Some of the rest of ya’ll need to remember that the phrase “any given Sunday” exists for a reason (besides the movie). Players start thinking like that about Carolina, and all of the sudden we’re losing to the worst team in football.
Every week we start 0-0 again.
September 17th, 2024 at 5:08 pm
There is NO way Bucs are the #3 team in the NFL. According to the article, that means top dog in the NFC. No one is a bigger, more loyal Bucs fan than me, but I’m a realist. Good gawd, the Lions, 49ers?? Bucs are getting there but they have a ways to go. First, kick Sean Payton’s azz this Sunday. And please, no more injuries! I know this is a violent game, but sheesh!!
September 17th, 2024 at 5:16 pm
Any wordon Goedeke?
We have a history of losing stud Offensive Linemen to weird/freak injuries…
Aaron Sears, Carl Nicks, etc
I have a semi-bad feeling about the Goedeke situation, and goes he comes back soon if ever.
September 17th, 2024 at 5:18 pm
*hope
I’d put us at 3-5 in the power rankings currently.
September 17th, 2024 at 10:19 pm
Florio is genuine with his picks, yes the picks change every week unless a reason to think otherwise.
September 18th, 2024 at 12:19 am
Agree orl, the Bucs are maybe, at best, the #6 – #8 team… at best!
I’ve honestly never understood why anyone cares about “power rankings” anyways. They’re completely meaningless in every way.
September 18th, 2024 at 9:21 am
What the Bucs have that some of these other teams don’t is depth (except on the offensive line, c’mon Skul? The Niners lose McCaffrey and Samuels and lose at home to an inferior team.
The Lions are still a very good team but offensively they sputtered vs the Rams and now the Bucs. The Cowboys and Eagles are both poorly coached and one of them will only win the NFC East because the Giants are a disaster and the Commanders have no offense.
So at this moment the Saints and the Bucs are the best of the NFC, hands down! The so called “weak NFC South” isn’t the whipping dog any more. Even Atlanta with a lesser offense than predicted has a good defense that plays very physical. Its very possible this year that 3 NFC South teams could make the playoffs.