Tampa Bay Cardinaleers? WTH?

The title kind of speaks for itself, but it doesn’t do it justice. Fans, media, and many others have made a lot of connections to the future look of the Bucs and the past looks of the Cardinals. While that’s not as insulting as a comparison, considering the staff is around 70% of the staff the Cardinals had when Bruce Arians was the coach there and they had some very successful years under his leadership, it may not be entirely fair to label us that.

Let’s get down to it: Yes, Bruce Arians has brought in some of his old players and coaches from the Cardinals. But that’s not a bad thing. A lot of the free agent players he’s bringing in have had some of their best years under his guidance. He knows what kind of skill set they bring, what they can and can’t do, and he knows how hard he can push them. They also welcome his style of coaching, and most have said they were excited to be around him again, meaning they want to play for the Bucs because they liked playing for him. They’re improvements on necessary parts, and he can work around them.

There’s also a flip to that point, however, and it’s that the playbook will be built around the players, not the other way around. Each play and strategy will be planned out to bring out the best qualities of the players on the roster, and familiarity only makes that job easier. It’ll also allow more looks on both sides of the ball, and easier game planning when the season begins and all of that will be unique to our roster and their strong suits. So before people start laughing and saying we’ve lost our identity, we haven’t. We’re not the Tampa Bay Cardinaleers we’re the Buccaneers! Let no one tell you otherwise.