Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Subverting a losing culture (part one)
By Rob Leeds
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reaching nearly two decades of underperformance. This series will examine how they can flip the script on the losing seasons.
To say that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are struggling as a franchise would be an understatement. The Bucs have made the playoffs only twice since 2002, and both times losing in the wildcard round.
Due to a number of reasons, the Buccaneers have stayed at the back of the pack for almost two decades now. During this time, it has been frustrating for fans of the Bucs because in recent years, teams that have struggled for long periods of time have started to turn their organizations around such as the Browns and the Rams.
Since 2002 (16 years) the Buccaneers have five winning seasons to their name. During that time there have been six different coaches, four general managers, and 14 years without a spot in the playoffs. The issues that the Buccaneers are struggling with are not unique to them or to the NFL, but changes have to be made.
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The Buccaneers have faced issues on every front of their team, and these problems are not isolated to one side of the ball or even to the field itself. While the other teams in the NFC South have had considerable success in the last 10 years, the Bucs have been on the outside looking in at teams that have all made it to the Super Bowl.
The NFC South has been a very competitive division in the past decade and the other three teams have had playoff runs that the Bucs likely dream about at night. The New Orleans Saints won a Super Bowl in 2009 and should have been in the big game barring a widely contested call in the game to go in 2018. The Carolina Panthers made it to the Super Bowl in 2015 and the Atlanta Falcons made it to the final in 2016, losing in spectacular fashion to Tom Brady and the Patriots.
While acknowledging every team and their strategies are different, this series will tackle what the Bucs should learn from other teams in the very successful NFC South and the rest of the league to turn the page on this playoff drought.