Bucs Actually The NFC Powerhouse
February 22nd, 2025
Slighted.
Team of the Decade? We’re halfway through the third decade of the 21st century and one could claim that the Bucs are the NFC Team of the Decade.
When Bucs All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs spoke with Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team in New Orleans from the Super Bowl site, Meirov was asked why the Bucs are such an afterthought in the broad scope of the NFL.
Wirfs confessed he didn’t know, but he suggested Lavonte David is a victim of this oversight by those who sit in big offices in New York and Los Angeles.
For example, if the 49ers or the Rams or any NFC East team or any NFC North team had the best record for five years running in the NFC, the four-letter couldn’t talk about them enough. FS1’s hollering shows would go crazy with the chatter.
But, there’s the ol’ Bucs. Stuck down there on the west coast of the east coast. Florida Man’s team. Who cares? Pffttt.
If you haven’t caught Joe’s drift yet, the Bucs this decade have the NFC’s most wins. And that includes a Super Bowl win, playoff appearances each season this decade and four straight division titles.
Only the Chiefs and Bills have more wins than the Bucs. You’d never know it watching BSPN, FS1 or NFL Network.
The national talking heads will give you plenty of talking points about the Lions and the Packers and beat you over the head with the GD Bears. The NFC East? Don’t get Joe started.
Yet this decade, the Bucs are above all of them. The way national media covers the Bucs, it’s as if the franchise at times doesn’t exist. #Sad
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:18 am
Let’s rebuild our defense first, then we can talk about being the NFC Powerhouse.
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:19 am
gotta be philly…our SB was the last decade
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:20 am
Powerhouse
While I do not at all disagree. Legacy media, NFL, ESPN folks are spewing coffee all over their fancy desks. That is not the click bait spin they sell in the executive meetings on a daily basis.
The mental image I got on that one made me giggle Joe. Thank you sir!
57 wins?!? Wow That one surprised me.
Go Bucs!
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:45 am
Hell yea Joe! We rule and they drool.
LFG Bucs!
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:59 am
Could be. Should be. The offense is there. Can the defense match 30% of the offense’s excellence?
February 22nd, 2025 at 1:27 am
A historically (or hysterically) impotent pass defense will cause a lot of coffee spewing. Ya. Go Bucs.
February 22nd, 2025 at 3:10 am
Retool our defense. Win 14 games and get the bye. Win a Super Bowl. This team isn’t treading water. Heck, the whole team oughta be playing with a chip on their shoulder. This team is steadily getting stronger. Every team that has Tampa Bay on their schedule this year is going to have their hands full. This oughta be more fun than a barrel of monkeys. I can hardly wait.
February 22nd, 2025 at 4:47 am
Lol…powerhouse? Philly just won the chip, what do you call them?
How can you be a powerhouse and lose to a rook in a home playoff game with a defense that can’t force a punt?
I’m all for looking at the brightside but this is delusional. Fix the defense and offensive turnovers, get to the NFC Championship game then talk powerhouse.
February 22nd, 2025 at 6:18 am
I completely agree with you, Joe.
However…
Two things.
No. 1. It’s about eyeballs and eardrums. With a few exceptions, the East, North, and West divisions in both conferences are larger markets (population bases), which means more eyes and ears. The cost of producing a segment or story doesn’t change based on the size of the market the team is in. More stories about those major market teams tends to keep more eyes and ears tuned in, which is a bigger bang for the advertising buck$ being spent. Nor does the cost to advertise change based on the size of the market the team being reported on, is in.
No. 2. It’s about aura, mystique and W-L records. For example, the Cowboys. I submit a lot (but not all) of it is because Jerry Jones keeps himself in front of the media and isn’t afraid to step out of the “corporate-speak” zone. He fires volleys and can be a flame-thrower. Another example is the Steelers… to this day, people still talk about the famed Steel Curtain. Or, Green Bay and the legendary Lambeau Field…. the frozen tundra. Aura and mystique developed over a long period of time attracts attention and interest.
All three of those teams are good. Decent to very good W-L records, but they also have the aura and mystique. (I’m being nice to Dallas).
KC, the Ravens, the Bills, 49ers, maybe the Bengals… all pretty much at the very top of the W column these past few years and in the playoffs or SB as well. (Yes, SF and Cincy fell off this year). The W’s attract attention even though the aura and mystique isn’t there.
The public’s perception is the public’s reality, and it doesn’t matter what the truth is.
Unfortunately, the long-term perception (aura and mystique) of the Bucs is not that of a winner. And, I don’t mean that unkindly. But changing a perception (aura and mystique) like that is also a long-term process.
So, despite our outstanding W-L record in the 2020’s, we still face that perception. The best way to change that is to keep winning.
One final note, Joe.
And, you say this all the time.
It’s about the quarterback, even when it’s not about the quarterback.
Starr, Favre, Rodgers, Bradshaw, Roethlesberger, Staubach, Aikman, Montana, Young, Purdy, Dawson, Mahomes, Jackson, Burrow…
Baker is still resurrecting his image.
Thankfully, it’s ingrained into the American psyche to root for the underdog and cheer from the rooftops when the underdog succeeds.
If the team keeps winning and Baker keeps doing what he’s doing we’ll start seeing that media coverage we deserve.
It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.
Go Bucs!
February 22nd, 2025 at 6:52 am
Let’s just look at the last 3 seasons:
2022…. 8 wins and 9 losses 0 playoff wins
2023…. 9 wins and 8 losses 1 playoff win
2024…. 10 wins and 7 losses 0 playoff wins
I’m no math major but that’s only 28 wins in 3 seasons… Powerhouse ????
February 22nd, 2025 at 7:28 am
lol! Nope
February 22nd, 2025 at 7:28 am
A powerhouse amongst a tent city.
This is wear stats fail us.
Come on.
February 22nd, 2025 at 7:29 am
where
February 22nd, 2025 at 7:36 am
We are an edge player away from a Super bowl 🏆 Janson Light get your engine running and make it happen
February 22nd, 2025 at 7:50 am
It would be good for Jason Licht to get his engine running and make it happen also.
February 22nd, 2025 at 9:11 am
Five seasons is a meaningless sample. There has not been an nfc team in that has been consistently dominant during that period. So the top of the worse division wins. Yea!!!!!
February 22nd, 2025 at 9:16 am
Over half those wins came with a different QB and almost half with a different coach, while the current coach has had to madly scramble to make the playoffs each year. So I can see why we’re not put up there with the Chiefs and the Bills.
February 22nd, 2025 at 9:58 am
I’ve noticed the same thing Joe, the Buccaneers get no respect unless we beat it out of them !!
Go Bucs 2025 !!
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:14 am
Not all media overlooks the Bucs. NFL Daily’s Greg Rosenthal is coming around to them being a pretty good team (check out the off season preview for the NFC South episode), and Jourdan Rodriguez of the Athletic is high on Baker Mayfield. The group at Heed the Call isn’t too down on the Bucs either. Where I do see criticism in national media, it’s not really different than what I see here. Maybe we don’t get the respect we’d like because we’re in a weaker division, but that’s changing, I think (the respect and the division, that is).
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:36 am
Bee says that analogy is well we beat lions & the eagles the last 2 seasons just didn’t happen in the playoffs except the eagles last year in the playoffs handily dismantiled them while we lost to skins barely the lions got slaughtered by skins so don’t call the kettle black
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:45 am
Great articulation Jeff…….
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:56 am
Digging a little deeper into those 57 wins …
Bruce Arians (2 seasons)
29 of those wins, including 5-1 in playoffs
Todd Bowles (3 seasons)
18 of those wins, including 1-3 in playoffs
February 22nd, 2025 at 11:32 am
Nope, I’m assuming the Glazer’s did something to the media that would explain it
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:52 pm
Yall who discount this are crazy. This highlights one of the winningest 5 year stretches of Bucs history. Its not about our pass D last year. With the Eagles SB win, they just got onto our level. Remember when we destroyed them in the playoffs just 1 season ago?
February 22nd, 2025 at 12:57 pm
Fishing for compliments from being 3rd runner-up at the dog and pony show. Here’s your participation trophy. Sheesh.
February 22nd, 2025 at 1:33 pm
Didn’t we beat the superbowl champions in September, before they were superbowl champions?
February 22nd, 2025 at 1:57 pm
Vanessa Anne, you nailed it! “it’s about the quarterback, even when it’s not about the quarterback”. The QB will be the driver as this bus lures more “eyeballs and eardrums”-won’t be overnight but we do love us some underdogs! Aura and mystique we’re gonna need some more Super Bowl wins. Teams you mentioned Packers, Steelers, Niners, Cowboys, and Chiefs. All of these teams dominated a decade. Tampa Bay has had a few highlights since 1976 but if we can win a Super Bowl or 2 in the next 5 years the perception of this franchise will have changed. Looking to me like Mayfield and the Bucs are a marriage made in heaven.
February 22nd, 2025 at 1:58 pm
Ja….. how did Todd only have 18 wins in 3 seasons…… and win the division 3 years…. that is 6 wins a year….. Your Math does not Math.