_“He shouldn’t talk about my team like that, Mike.”_
Jamel Dean thinks the [current Bucs are better](https://www.joebucsfan.com/2025/10/inaugural-sack-for-jamel-dean-veteran-stands-by-his-prediction/) than the 2020 Super Bowl team. His teammate of that glorious season has a similar mindset.
Vita Vea was as huge part of the 2021 Bucs, the club that ran away with the NFC South crown and lost to the Rams in the playoffs.
Those Bucs started 5-1, too. Vea thinks the current edition is better.
> “It feels like this team is better than that team,” Vea told the Buccaneers Radio Network. “Yeah, I would say in, in certain areas. It feels really good but at the same time, I think in college our coach always told us, ‘never listen to the outside noise.’
>
> “…Start listening to it and you get soft from it and you buy into it. So you just gotta try to stay rooted and locked in on the task at hand. I think enjoy it for the moment. But there’s still a lot more work to do. I think 5-1 is pretty good, but there’s a whole lot of more games to play.”
The 2021 Bucs, of course, didn’t have as many injuries as this year’s team. Even when Tom Brady was targeting bottom-of-the roster receivers Cyril Grayson and Tyler Johnson late that season, they still had Rob Gronkowski and Mike Evans on the field.
Joe still wonders what would have happened if Antonio Brown hadn’t lost his mind on the January day in New Jersey. His presence might have been enough to go the distance.
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