Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Pewter Plank Madden franchise part 1

With summer vacation starting for this teacher, a great way to fill some time is by playing Madden 20. Here is a look into a recently-started franchise.

We are still several months away from watching the Buccaneers take the field during the 2020 NFL season. The anticipation is hard to shake off, and an easy way to make the time pass quicker is by playing Madden.

Madden is great for playing with friends, but the best mode is Franchise, where you take control of your favorite team and play your way through the season, with the ability to make trades and plan for the draft.

Setting the stage, this franchise picks up back at the start of the 2019 season. A five-game away stretch may not affect the players in the game as much as in real life, but this season will still be brutal to play again.

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While the timeline starts at the beginning of the 2019 season, all of the rosters were updated to their current status in real life. Therefore, the 2019 schedule is being played with the 2020 roster. The game is played on All-Madden (of course) with several additional sliders toyed with to make the gameplay a bit more challenging.

Lastly, let it be clear that Madden is a game. Everyone plays the game differently, and making crazy moves with the roster is the majority of the fun.

Jumping in, the start of a new franchise in Madden wouldn’t be complete without some ridiculous moves to start the preseason. Donovan Smith and a fourth were sent to the New York Giants for a first-round pick, and Jason Peters was signed as a replacement.

Next came the most significant move. Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and a first-round pick were sent to the Ravens for Lamar Jackson. Anyone who has ever played Madden knows that speed kills from the quarterback position, and Jackson is practically game-breaking.

The final move was the one that hurt the most. Wide receiver, in real life and in the game, is a position that doesn’t need a mountain of capital to find success. There are plenty of receivers in the game that are gimmicky and don’t cost nearly 13 million dollars. Mike Evans and a first were sent to the New York Jets for Jamal Adams.

The Bucs got the raw end of the deal in a way here, but freeing up that cap space will come in handy down the road. The same thing was done with Cameron Brate. He was traded to the Patriots for a second and a third, which were used to trade for wide receiver Curtis Samuel from the Panthers.

With most of the bad contracts off the roster, the next focus was the defensive scheme. Unsurprisingly, Jamal Adams is actually a better linebacker than safety in Madden. This presented a unique opportunity to switch back to a 4-3 with Lavonte David and Jamal Adams as outside linebackers and Devin White as the middle linebacker.

The final two signings for the preseason were cornerback Logan Ryan and safety, Tony Jefferson. The Buccaneers have good depth at both of these positions and future starters on the roster, but EA Sports hasn’t shown enough love to Jamel Dean or Sean Murphy-Bunting for either to play well in the game yet.

With the roster mostly set and around 40 million dollars left in cap space for future contracts, the Buccaneers are ready to take another shot at the 2020 season. We’ll see you guys at the bye week.