Much has been said about the uniquely elite level of camaraderie within the Bucs’ locker room.
Joe cannot verify much of it, but the locker room certainly is a closer more united group of men than Joe has seen in past eras of Bucs football — from the Gruden years to end of the Bucco Bruce Arians reign.
So what does that really mean?
Well, one would think it translates to better performance, guys playing smarter and harder for each other with improved communication.
Starting right guard Cody Mauch tried to put a finger on it recently during a chat with Rondé Barber for WFLA-TV (Joe saw it in a YouTube short).
> “You just look at what our locker room is, like the people that we have in there, you can definitely tell that they’re drafting a certain type of person,” Mauch said. “We have a great locker room. There’s anyone in that locker room you can sit down with and really just hang out with and drink beers for a couple of hours. Like, that’s the kind of locker room you want. Just great people.”
Ahhhh, the beer test; it has its place in life. _Could I kill three Red Stripe bottles with this dude for 2 hours?_
Now the Bucs must take all of that love and harmony and turn it into the [“killer instinct”](https://www.joebucsfan.com/2025/04/killer-instinct-must-be-enhanced/) Todd Bowles says the team collectively lacks.