Will the roller coaster rides ever end for the Buccaneers?

Buccaneers’ stay at the top is always brief.

Ever wonder why teams like Green Bay (Starr, Rodgers), Kansas City (Mahomes), Pittsburgh (Bradshaw, Roethlisberger) Dallas (Staubach, Aikman), 49ers (Montana, Young), New England (Brady), were, and are able to stay at or near the top for long stretches of time winning multiple Super Bowls in most cases? The obvious answer is stability and a high level of play from the quarterback position. But, it in no way is limited to that factor. Even the GOAT needed playmakers around him; they all did and do. All of those teams listed above were very good at talent evaluation and made mostly spot-on choices on draft day. The Buccaneers, on the other hand, have needed stretches of 20 to 30 years of building and rebuilding to reach the pinnacle. That fact reflects directly on their talent evaluation on draft day: the hiring of head coaches and general managers and the inability to develop players into stars that they draft.

Clinging to the success of 2020/2021.

Personally, I don’t believe One Buc is being realistic moving forward. I believe that much of that is based on the recent hiring of Dave Canales as the offensive coordinator. My belief is that the problem in 2022 was Tom Brady, not Leftwich. That was Brady’s offense we saw being run last season. Leftwich is a Biscuit Disciple. He learned from Bruce Arians. He would not have changed his philosophy on offense that drastically from one season to the next. Arians left the sidelines, and Brady filled the vacuum; even saying after the Cleveland game that the Biscuit offense was no more. In the one game that the offense did revert to downfield passing, the results were beautiful, clinching the NFC South. The very next game, they went back to dink and dunk and lost to the lowly Falcons and then again in the playoffs to the 49ers. It’s possible, of course, that the Bucs will find more success than last season, but will that be good enough to accomplish anything of note? My thought is that they will not win the division and, therefore, should have begun to rebuild this season. It’s going to take draft choices to return to prominence; the more the team gets, the faster it can happen. It’s certainly not a popular thing to trade away your team’s stars for draft choices. Yet, that is the formula that gets the job done. For example, just 3 seasons ago, the Eagles were 4-11-1, and this season own three picks in the first round. Of course, not many teams turn it around that fast, but it can be done. Even if it takes two to three times longer, that would be very acceptable for a team that usually takes decades to regroup. No matter where your draft picks are positioned, you have to make them count (see; Tom Brady and Gronk.) there are always gems to be found at any position in the draft. That is what the Bucs must do, draft consistently well and keep the talent flowing. Be smart with the cap, allowing for the future, not just today and tomorrow. Somewhere along the line, they must find a quarterback. If it’s not Trask or Mayfield, then they must snag one from the draft at some point. I’m not convinced that Trask couldn’t be that quarterback. Sadly, we will probably never find out while he is in Tampa. Fingers crossed, Go Bucs!!