By: Andy Davies

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have endured a torrid start to the 2022 NFL season.

Not one person, whether they are members of the media or just your regular fan down the street, would have predicted the Buccaneers to start the season 3-5.

Shock losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Carolina Panthers, who both had one win prior to beating the Buccaneers, were then followed by a loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens.

This is the first time in Tom Brady’s career that he has lost three games in a row. With a division that appears wide open, there is every chance that the Buccaneers end up making the playoffs and all is well again. However, there is also the possibility that a team that has won a Super Bowl and narrowly lost in the Divisional Round during the last season, could miss the playoffs entirely this season. Here are three reasons why this could happen.

A Tough Schedule

It does not get any easier for Brady and the Bucs when looking at their schedule. Their next game is against current Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams. Whilst they are also coming off the back of a loss and have a 3-4 record, this is not exactly a game that head coach Todd Bowles will want even with an extra few days’ rest. 

After the Rams game, they face the 5-3 Seattle Seahawks in the first ever regular season game to be played in Germany. They will not want to play a team in form, let alone in a neutral venue with jetlag. 

After their Week Eleven bye, the rest of their schedule features games against the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, and Atlanta Falcons. 

This is not an easy ride, so expect the Bucs to be challenged right the way until the end. 

With four teams ahead of them in the race for the Wildcard spots, and two of those with three more wins, the Bucs better turn things around quickly, otherwise they will be watching the playoffs from their living rooms. 

Tom Brady’s Personal Life

Brady’s personal life has been the subject of much media coverage of late, with Brady addressing the rumours on Instagram, confirming their divorce. 

This is bound to have played some part in Brady’s slump in form. 

Lack Of Protection And Receiving Help

Brady lost his good friend Rob Gronkowski and the drama of Antonio Brown meant that Tampa Bay went from four elite pass catchers to just two. 

Mike Evans has still been excellent as ever, if you exclude the dropped catch against the Panthers, ranked as having the eighth-most receiving yards (577) and Godwin (368) has done well considering the comeback from injury. Running back Leonard Fournette (273) is their next best receiver, which shows the issues at hand. 

Russell Gage and Julio Jones both came in during the offseason in attempts to give Brady as much help as possible, but Gage has just 231 receiving yards and Jones has been non-existent with just 97 yards from 11 targets and six receptions. Cole Beasley came and went in the space of a couple of weeks.

Whilst Brady is second in the league for passing yards, he is tied for 17^th in passing touchdowns. This shows the struggles Brady and the team have had in getting it down the end zone. According to FantasyPros.com, Brady is eighth in the league for passing yards in the red zone and eleventh for passing touchdowns. This also shows the issues Brady has had, a lot like Aaron Rodgers this season, with receiver help.

Brady has already been sacked thirteen times this year, which means he is projected to finish the season with just under 30 sacks. This would be the eighth-highest total of his career. To put it in perspective, he was sacked ten times at this stage in 2020, and twelve times at this point last season. The loss of Ali Marpet to retirement has been huge, even with the addition of former teammate Shaq Mason. Ryan Jenson’s injury has had a big impact also, with Robert Hainsey and Luke Goeseke seemingly failing to deliver in their absence.

There is still plenty of time to go, but the Buccaneers certainly have cause for concern at this present time.

The post Three reasons why the Buccaneers could miss the playoffs appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Reese Nasser

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2020 season was historic, to say the least. Led by 43-year old Tom Brady, the Bucs pulled off the improbable. An 11-5 season came to an end with the Lombardi trophy making its way to Tampa Bay. Everything went right for this team. A near-perfect draft, a solid free-agent class, and everything else that needed to happen happened for this squad.

But a super bowl run is no easy thing to accomplish. Even with the Bucs returning much of their roster, and all 22 starters, another trophy may not be in their future. A team hasn’t won back-to-back super bowls since 2003 and 2004. Which team was that you ask? The 2003 and 2004 New England Patriots, led by Tom Brady himself.

Would it be impossible for the Bucs to repeat? No, it wouldn’t. But that doesn’t make it any more likely. Here are three reasons why the Bucs won’t be back to the super bowl next season. 

More Talent in the NFC

Many other teams have made strides to be better this upcoming season. Either through free agency, the draft, or players returning from injury, the conference will undoubtedly be better than it was in 2020. 

When looking ahead, a team such as the Los Angeles Rams, at least on paper, has become much more of a threat than they were last year. The addition of longtime Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford could make this team the true #1 group in the NFC. This squad was 10-6 last season and the addition of Stafford should attribute at least two to three more wins. 

The teams that the Bucs face in their own division may prove to be a true problem. While the Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons both had down years in 2020, they have proven to be valiant opponents of the Bucs. Both of these teams will also be much improved from last season.

The Panthers will have star running back Christian McCaffrey back in their backfield. McCaffrey, who played in only three games last season, will give this Carolina team at least a chance in every game that they play in. 

The Atlanta Falcons have added tight end Kyle Pitts, the fourth-overall pick in the 2020 draft who will look to make an instant impact. He will be put into an offense that has star wide receiver Julio Jones (at least for now) and wide receiver Calvin Ridley. This offense, led by veteran quarterback Matt Ryan, should be explosive and could give this Bucs defense real problems. 

And then there is the New Orleans Saints. This Saints team finished first in the division with a record of 12-4. Longtime quarterback Drew Brees has finally stepped away from the game of football and retired. Brees appeared in 12 games last season and had a record of 9-3. In the four games played by the other rostered quarterbacks, the Saints went 3-1. Led by whoever the Saints choose to play at quarterback, most likely being Jameis Winston, this team will still have a valid shot at beating out the Bucs. Star wide receiver Michael Thomas will also make his return. Thomas played in just seven games last season due to a lingering ankle injury. And Alvin Kamara will still be on the team, and that alone makes this offense a problem. 

Age

This team will not be getting any younger and at times last season, injuries were an issue. Tight End Rob Gronkowski is 32 years old. Antonio Brown will be 33 come to the start of the season. And Tom Brady will be 44. Brady has lasted this long and looked incredible at points last season. His age has not stopped him yet and it might not next season, but there is always a chance.

While a majority of this team is young and has plenty of football in front of them, it can be difficult to dictate how a season will go when some prominent players are getting older. There is no guarantee that injuries won’t derail their 2021 season. 

The Likelihood of Making it Back

Simply put, nobody makes it back to the super bowl. Just seven teams in NFL history have gone back to back. As previously noted, Tom Brady did happen to lead a team on back-to-back trips in 2003 and 2004 but it is something that simply does not happen. 

With other teams improving and the Bucs getting another year older, there is no guarantee that this team will play near the level that they did in 2020. As the saying goes, the Bucs may have found “lightning in a bottle” last season. Their improbable run could also have been a thing of luck. 

All signs point to this team still being a legitimate threat in 2021 and they will certainly make another run. But it is incredibly hard to win the Super Bowl twice. It’s hard to even return twice. The Bucs will have a target on their back next season and the road to another Lombardi Trophy will be no easy one to go down. 

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As pretty much all football fans know by now, the Super Bowl LIV matchup this season was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs.  With that said, both teams have had extremely different offseasons in terms of the draft and how they worked on their roster.  The Buccaneers have been more tame and kept all 22 of their SB starters, while the Chiefs have been revamping their roster quite a bit.

In this article, I will be going over which of these two teams is more likely to repeat their conference championship wins and return for SB 56 this coming season.

Signings/Cutting Comparison

Like I mentioned previously, these two teams have had vastly different offseasons.  The Buccaneers retained every starting 22 player from last season, while making a few signings such as:

• RB – Giovanni Bernard
• LB ”“ Ladarius Hamilton
• CB ”“ Nate Brooks
• CB ”“ Dee Delaney

Overall, they have not made too many moves to change their roster from last season, they are taking the “don’t fix what’s not broken” approach to things.  

Meanwhile the Chiefs have had a complete overhaul of a few different positions, and have really been moving their team around.  Their signings and cuts look as such:

Additions:

• OT Orlando Brown (via trade)
• RB Jerrick McKinnon (signing)
• LB Kamalei Correa (signing)
• G Kyle Long (signing)
• G Joe Thuney (Signing)
• C Austin Blythe (signing)
• CB Mike Hughes (via trade)

As well as other depth pieces.  In terms of losses however, they have the following:

• RT Mitchell Schwartz (released)
• LT Eric Fisher (released)
• WR Tajae Sharpe (released)

The Chiefs have definitely added more than they have lost as of now, and have made major additions to their offensive line.  The Chiefs have definitely made more productive moves than the Buccaneers have, as the Bucs were more focused on re-signings and tagging their players.

Major Draft Picks

In total the Bucs had seven draft picks that they used, and the Chiefs had six, so they were relatively close in quantity.  In terms of quality, the Bucs had a first round pick while the Chiefs did not (due to the Orlando Brown trade).  With that said, both teams got relatively even value our of their picks, both for future needs and current needs.

The biggest three players I would mention for the Buccaneers are Joe Tryon LB from Washington, Kyle Trask QB from Florida, and Jaelon Darden WR from North Texas.  Tryon will be a fantastic addition to the Bucs 3-4 defense, where they already have Jason Pierre-Paul (may move to edge with this draft pick), Devin White, Lavonte Davis, and Shaquil Barrett.  Kyle Trask is much more of a future pick, where he will learn from Tom Brady up until his eventual retirement, in which Trask will be prepared to take over.  Jalen Darden is just a nice speed addition to the receiving core who will likely fill the role of Antonio Brown once he either retires or leaves.

The three biggest Chiefs picks were Nick Bolton LB from Missouri, Creed Humphrey C from Oklahoma, and Cornell Powell WR from Clemson.  Nick Bolton will be a fantastic addition to the Chiefs front-7 where his run stopping and pure strength based game will be hugely helpful for KC.  Creed Humphrey will fill the center role likely between Thuney and Kyle Long, where he can learn from both while starting at this rate.  Finally Cornell Powell, who while being a relatively raw prospect could take over as WR2 in a year or two time.

Conclusion

Overall, factoring in divisions and offseason moves, the Chiefs should have the better shot to make the Super Bowl again next season.  Despite the Buccaneers retaining their starters, the Chiefs have new weapons to work with and hypothetically what should be an easier division depending upon how the Saints, Panthers, and Chargers all perform.

The post Are the Chiefs or Buccaneers more likely to return to the Super Bowl? appeared first on Pro Football Mania.