By – J.T Olsen
Bucs Report – Special to Sports Talk Florida
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in training camp and preparing for the regular season. This projects to be an exciting year where they should once again be in contention for a division title and will likely be a difficult out in the playoffs. Everyone should be feeling very good about where the Bucs are at this point.
But where is the line between excitement and high expectations versus unrealistic insanity? To be honest, it can be a very fine line at times. I try to find the sweet spot with five bold predictions for the 2024 Buccaneers season.
5) Calijah Kancey Breakout Year
Calijah Kancey was always a brilliant combination of incredible athletic ability and advanced technique as a pass rusher. The only question was how he would hold up as an undersized defensive tackle, which is why he slid in the draft. Now after a year playing in a bigger, faster, stronger league we have seen that he can more than hold his own.
As a rookie, with basically no training camp or preseason, he put up the type of production that the great interior pass rushers typically put up in their second season. This is usually the year before they make the jump to that Pro Bowl or All Pro caliber seasons. So why can’t Kancey make that jump now if he was already a year ahead of schedule?
With the way coach Todd Bowles will use him, constantly moving him around and keeping offenses guessing as to where he will come from, Kancey should be extremely disruptive this year. We saw it on full display in two playoff games last year where he had a sack in each game against the two best offensive lines in football. Now I expect him to take the jump from 4.0 sacks as a rookie to around 9.0 to 10.0 this season.
4) Baker Mayfield Sets New Career Highs (Again)
Last year, I predicted that Baker Mayfield would set new career highs in passing yards and touchdowns. This was as much of a reflection of Mayfield not being as bad as some believed and the new offense coming to town was going to be a very quarterback friendly situation. Of course, that is exactly what happened.
This year, I’m doubling down and saying he’ll do it again. Despite the change of offensive coordinator, this is still very much the same offense in many ways. The biggest difference is the support that Mayfield will have around him.
The addition of rookie Jalen McMillan at wide receiver will only give him another weapon in the passing game to throw to. That gives him three very good wide receivers along with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. The interior offensive line is also expected to be much improved, so that will give him more time to pick defenses apart.
3) Buccaneers Are Top Half Of The League In Rushing Yards
Over the last few years, the Buccaneers have had the worst rushing attack in the NFL. Improving that was a big focus going into the offseason and the Bucs invested in this part of their game. They spent a first round pick on center Graham Barton. They also spent a fourth round pick on running back Bucky Irving to take some of the burden off starter Rachaad White.
I mentioned that the offensive line is expected to be improved and that is a big part of this prediction. Barton was known as an aggressive and nasty run blocker coming out of Duke last year. We are also expecting to see a big jump from second round guard Cody Mauch, who now has a year of experience at the position under his belt and put on 15-20 lbs in the offseason.
It now feels like the Buccaneers have their identity in terms of how they want to run the ball. They have great athletes on the offensive line and that will allow them to pull and get into space as well as any team in the NFL. I expect a more spread out rushing attack that will take a big step forward this season.
2) Antione Winfield Jr. Wins Defensive Player Of The Year
Last year Antoine Winfield Jr. finished 6th in defensive player of the year voting. His 122 tackles, 6.0 sacks and 9 takeaways put him on the national radar and earned him first team All Pro recognition (despite not making the Pro Bowl). Now the league is on notice as he enters 2024.
There is every reason to believe he can put up similar numbers this year as he did last season. Winfield Jr. has always been around that 100 tackle mark, so even if he isn’t quite at that 122 number, he will likely still be around 100-115. Same with his sacks and tackles for loss, his numbers last year are pretty consistent with what he has typically done.
The big challenge will be continuing to force turnovers at a high rate. Last year he set new career highs in both forced fumbles and interceptions. However, it still felt like he let a lot of interceptable passes slip through his fingers. If he can capitalize on a few more of those then he should be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year even more in 2024 now that he is on the national radar.
1) Bucs Win The Super Bowl
Okay, not even I totally believe this one. However, I don’t think it’s unrealistic either. While I don’t believe the Bucs are the best team in the NFC (let alone the NFL) I do view them as a top three team in the conference.
It’s more than fair to expect the Bucs to go as far as they did last year in the playoffs and frankly I would be disappointed if they didn’t make it to the NFC Championship this year. If those are the expectations for a team, then it’s not a far stretch to say that they can and will win the Super Bowl.
Keep in mind that the best roster doesn’t always win it all. If that were true then Tom Brady would have nine championships under his belt and the Philadelphia Eagles would have never gotten over the hump. So when I say the Bucs will win it all, it would be along that type of pathway.
But if this very talented offensive line has gelled together by then and the rest of the team is playing as expected then I believe that this team can beat anyone in the NFL. If they outperform expectations just a little then the Buccaneers will be Super Bowl champions in 2024.
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