Special to Sports Talk Florida
Obviously the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have a different look this season. With the retirement of quarterback Tom Brady and the departure of offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich combined with the hiring of new offensive coordinator Dave Canales and the signing of quarterback Baker Mayfield, it’s a new look for the Pewter Pirates.
So aside from Canales and Mayfield, how did the Buccaneers do re-loading their team this offseason?
Fortunately PFF’s Sam Monson graded every team’s offseason after the NFL Draft. And the Bucs probably did better than most of you think with a “B+” grade by Monson.
“Tampa Bay’s offseason has been surprisingly good, except the answer at the most important position in the game seems to be to allow Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask to battle it out for the starting spot post-Tom Brady. Mayfield played for two different teams last season and earned an awful 50.5 PFF grade between the two stops. Matt Feiler, Greg Gaines and Ryan Neal are nice, low-cost additions in free agency, and the Buccaneers’ draft was a very good one.
Calijah Kancey was arguably a top-10 player in this draft, and they were able to get him at No.19 overall. Their Day 2 selections should both contribute, and on Day 3 they acquired players big on potential or intriguing traits, such as speedster receiver Trey Palmer and incredibly productive edge rusher Jose Ramirez.”
The additions of Calijah Kancey, Cody Mauch and YaYa Diaby via the draft look to have an instant impact on the team’s trajectory heading into the 2023 season. While being graded with a “B+” is great, the draft picks and free agent signings all need to live up to that grade if not exceed it for this team to contend.
