And then there were the Bucs.
Football season began with sky-high expectations for our state’s college and NFL teams.
In college football, the Florida State Seminoles were coming off an undefeated regular season and were considered the favorites to win the ACC and an automatic bid to the first College Football Playoff. They finished with a historically bad 2-10 record and coach Mike Norvell fired several of his coaches and restructured his exorbitant contract to appease the angry masses.
In its second year in the Big 12, UCF felt ready to make a shot at the conference title behind big-name transfer quarterback KJ Jefferson. The Knights finished 4-8, Jefferson was benched after just five games and coach Gus Malzahn was so distraught that he quit after the season to take the offensive coordinator job at FSU.
The Florida Gators? Well, coach Billy Napier saved his job – there you go.
Miami hurricanes? Credit them for winning 10 games, although losing three of their last four games and missing a chance to win the ACC championship and make the playoffs put a huge damper on the season.
And then there were the Bucs.
In the NFL, the Jacksonville Jaguars, according to owner Shad Khan, entered the season with the most talented team in franchise history and were poised to prove that the late 2023 collapse n It was just an aberration. This was not the case. The Jags finished 4-13 and just fired coach Doug Pederson.
The Miami Dolphins were actually picked by many experts to topple the Buffalo Bills in the AFC East and advance to the Super Bowl with an explosive offense featuring Tua Tagovailoa and Tyreek Hill. The Dolphins finished with a losing record, Tua spent much of the season sidelined with injuries, and Hill left the team in the final game and said afterward that he wanted to leave Miami.
And then there were the Bucs.
The Tampa Bay Bucs.
The team that was supposed to be toppled in the NFC South by the promising Atlanta Falcons and their expensive new quarterback Kirk Cousins.
The franchise that was supposed to undergo a massive rebuild after Tom Brady retired.
The organization that, for the longest time, was the laughable underdog of professional sports. They were called the Yuks – or maybe it was the Yucks – and began their existence with an NFL-record 26 game losing streak.
Now look at them.
A model of stability in our state of football disarray.
The Bucs host a playoff game again on Sunday against the Washington Commanders after winning their division for the fourth straight season.
No, the Buccaneers aren’t the most dominant team in the NFL, but they have become one of the most consistent. Winning four straight division titles isn’t that easy. In fact, only 15 teams in modern NFL history have done so.
Sustained success is rare with a salary cap, free agency and an NFL system designed for parity. The Bucs became the benchmark for success in the state with an astutely managed team that became the model of consistency.
General manager Jason Licht has been on the job for 11 seasons and is one of the longest-tenured executives in the league. Coach Todd Bowles is in his fourth year at the helm of the team, but he inherited the position from his mentor Bruce Arians who held the position for three years and still serves as a consultant to the team. Record-breaking wide receiver Mike Evans has been with the team since he was drafted in the first round 11 years ago.
Some might say the Bucs were lucky because their streak of success only began when they won the Brady sweepstakes in 2020, when the greatest player of all time was looking for a new team after 20 years in New England. But it’s no accident that Brady chose Tampa Bay. While other franchises circled and hawed, fumbled and stumbled, the Bucs went after the GOAT smartly and aggressively.
Compare Tampa Bay’s strategy when acquiring Brady with how the Dolphins handled him and you’ll better understand why the two franchises are viewed so differently. The Dolphins had to forfeit a first-round draft pick and team owner Stephen Ross was fined $1.5 million and suspended for tampering with Brady.
Translation: There’s a reason the Bucs have won a Super Bowl and four division titles in the last five years while the Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game in 25 years.
Licht continues to make smart decisions and build the Bucs through the draft. A total of 23 of their last 24 draft picks are on the current roster, including rookie running back Bucky Irving, who was chosen in the fourth round and has rushed for 1,122 yards with an average of 5.4 yards per carry .
And then, of course, there’s quarterback Baker Mayfield, who has revived his career. Amazingly, Mayfield’s reputation has transformed from Cleveland’s braying underachiever to Tampa Bay’s fiery overachiever who is third in the league by the way.
The Bucs rescued Mayfield from the scrapheap with a one-year deal before last season and rewarded him with a relatively modest three-year, $100 million contract after he made the Pro Bowl and led the Bucs to a victory brilliant against Philadelphia first. round of the playoffs before narrowly losing to Detroit in the second round.
While the Bucs got their franchise quarterback relatively cheaply; The Jaguars and Dolphins signed their two injury-prone quarterbacks – Trevor Lawrence and Tagovailoa – to long-term contracts worth $55 million per year, even though both had years left on their previous contracts and did not. never really won anything. Both ended the season on the sidelines, injured.
The season started with so much hype and hope.
On a pigskin peninsula that was once home to some of the nation’s most dominant college football programs and the NFL’s all-time winningest coach, Tampa Bay has become the new standard-bearer.
And then there were the Bucs – the last man standing in our state of football despair.
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