New power rankings out; Where do Tampa Bay Buccaneers land?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a lot of work to do to change the national perception of their organization in 2019 after back-to-back losing seasons.

Writers have more data to go off of when making power rankings: the draft, free agency, coaching changes, OTAs, and now mini-camps. NFL Spin Zone’s Randy Gurzi took to the task of ranking all 32 teams after mandatory mini-camps have concluded and ranked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the 28th best team in the league.

After back-to-back 5-11 seasons and a new coaching change, the league and its writers do not owe anything to the Bucs, but this should serve as a bigger chip on the shoulder of the team and its fanbase. Why did Gurzi rank the Buccaneers so low? Here are his thoughts:

"“The former No. 1 overall pick struggles as a leader and has a losing record for his career. He’s also a problem off the field as he proved again in 2018 by starting the year suspended. Then there’s the problem of him being a turnover waiting to happen (Gurzi via NFL Spin Zone)"

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It seems like Gurzi is not the biggest fan of Winston out there, but then again the fifth-year quarterback has not done much to instill confidence in Tampa Bay, let alone the national attentions. It is not only the quarterback play of the Buccaneers that scares him off, but also the weapons lost.

"“Tampa Bay also lost a couple of big weapons in Adam Humphries and DeSean Jackson while replacing the well-respected Gerald McCoy with another potential problem child in Ndamukong Suh. Oh, and they didn’t fix the running game either which was a sore spot in 2018” (Gurzi via NFL Spin Zone)."

In our conversation with The Athletic’s Greg Auman yesterday, it seems like the Buccaneers are comfortable with Ronald Jones and Peyton Barber as their running backs with a change in schemes from last year to today. He did mention, however, the chemistry at wide receiver is in need of some sharpening after the heavy turnover at the position.

While Gurzi may be a bit too cynical, the Buccaneers are going to have to prove media members outside of Tampa Bay wrong before their reputation will change. In Winston’s contract year, under new coach Bruce Arians, it may be the year he puts it together and the Bucs trend upwards.