Bucs Aren’t Just Leftovers
July 18th, 2025
Credit where credit is due.
Yes, we are inching toward training camp next week — next week!
Joe has typed a lot about disrespect, especially this summer. This player is disrespected, that player is disrespected, hell the whole franchise is disrespected from national know-it-alls who scoff at the Bucs despite having a 3-1 record against the Eagles and Lions since January 2024 (and that one loss was a one-score game — with a two-point conversion thrown in) and making the playoffs five straight seasons.
NFL humorist/data man Mike Tanier, typing for Aaron Schatz’s FTN Football Almanac 2025. believes a big part of the widespread dissing of the Bucs is a misperception by those who mock the Bucs as a contender.
Tanier noted the Bucs are not living off the 2020 Super Bowl win, and are not “classic rockers touring the state fair circuit without their lead singer.” Instead, Tanier noted, the Bucs are a solid young team that just happens to have two or three veterans still playing top-shelf football who remain with the Bucs from that magical 2020 season.
And for that, Tanier said Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and Bucs coach Todd Bowles deserve a lot of credit for keeping the Bucs a playoff team and maybe being able to make a run this winter.
What Bowles, general manager Jason Licht, and the Bucs have done in the post-Brady era should not be trivialized. They gave their fans not just wins to enjoy and playoff games to attend but long-tenured stars such as [Lavonte] David and Mike Evans to root for: guys whose jerseys can proudly be worn to the tavern on game day forever.
The 2023-2024 Bucs also took the legacy of Super Bowl LV back from Brady to a degree. That 2020 championship was not just Brady’s final grace note or the work of some mercenaries for hire, but part of a sustained period of excellence for homegrown stars. Bowles has pivoted out of Arians’ shadow and now sends his offensive assistants out into the world as hot young masterminds. Licht has proven that a team built for short-term success around a living-legend quarterback could be rebuilt without some sort of purging/tanking drama. All it took was some mutual respect. And a state with zero income tax. And an easy division. But it’s wise to leverage all the resources at your disposal.
Well, there is one guy who gets it. And Joe thinks Tanier hit the nail on the head that too many people think the Bucs were just Tom Brady and his 52 dwarves.
The Bucs were not. And are not.