Improvement.
To those who think the Bucs did nothing in free agency, think again.
That’s the word from Austin Mock of _The Athletic_. In looking at how each team did in the offseason, Mock used a bunch of statistical gobbledygook to see how each team projects for 2025 based on teams’ transactions since the end of the 2024 season.
Now a lot of the NFL stenographers, especially from the northeast, scoffed at Bucs moves in free agency (yet again). They don’t believe keeping good players improves a team. They consider that status quo and, in their thinking, you can’t get better by standing pat.
Yes, even with signing Haason Reddick.
Mock has the Bucs improving eighth-most (if you believe Mock’s graphic, he has the Bucs [improving by 5.1 points](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6229233/2025/03/26/nfl-offseason-projection-winners-losers-raiders-49ers/). Joe assumes that’s for the season because there just is no way in hell the Raiders improved by 38 points a game just by trading for Geno Smith and no way on God’s green earth did the Jets get 51 points a game worse).
Does this mean Mock puts that much value into a proven, veteran pass rusher? Well, gee. Imagine that.