Four things that could impede on the Buccaneers winning a Super Bowl
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the 2020 season as legitimate postseason competitors for the first time in more than 12 years.
The Buccaneers have made several big-time moves during the offseason that have them considered one of the hottest teams in the league and there’s no reason to believe they can’t make major improvements this season.
While no one here is saying that the Buccaneers are Super Bowl favorites, Tampa Bay certainly has an opportunity to compete. Here are four things, though, that could stop the Bucs from winning a Super Bowl.
4. The secondary falters
Perhaps the most questionable position group on the team heading into this season is the secondary.
It’s not because the Buccaneers don’t have talent in the defensive backfield, it’s simply because there’s still so much youth and inexperience in the position group.
Guys like Sean Murphy-Bunting, Jamel Dean, Mike Edwards, Antoine Winfield Jr., Andrew Adams and others have to step up and make an impact. The Bucs have one of the best starting front-sevens in the league, but that won’t make a difference if the secondary gives up big plays and can’t allow the front-seven an opportunity to make plays.
3. Young team loses focus, can’t handle the big stage
This is a young team and no one can argue with that.
The Buccaneers enter this 2020 season with the vast majority of its roster never having even played in a postseason game, much less knowing how they will react once they reach the playoffs.
There are some veterans- such as Tom Brady, Lavonte David and Rob Gronkowski– who have played quite a bit over the course of many seasons, but it won’t be an easy task for this team to remain focused during the regular season and then being able to come out with the right mindset and mentality once the playoffs begin.
2. The Saints become dominant
The biggest threat to the Buccaneers this season might be NFC South rival New Orleans.
The Saints enter this season as one of the favorites in the NFC, along with the San Francisco 49ers who won the conference last year, and New Orleans has done nothing but improve over the course of the offseason.
The Bucs don’t have the depth that the Saints possess and it’s clear that Tampa Bay is going to rely upon some of those young players to make an impact and build depth so that this team can legitimately compete.
Perhaps one of the biggest roadblocks in the way of Tampa Bay winning a Super Bowl will be the dominance level of their own divisional rivals.
1. Tom Brady regresses
Tom Brady doesn’t have to win the MVP for the Buccaneers to win a Super Bowl.
Brady doesn’t have to throw for 5,000 yards or set all kinds of records. Instead, he just has to simply not regress.
Brady, at the age of 42, knows what he’s capable of and what’s he’s not. Tampa Bay needs to accentuate these strengths and play to them and Brady can’t by any means regress.
If Brady can’t be a solid quarterback who plays at the level that we’ve seen him at in the past- as recently as last year- Tampa won’t win the Super Bowl and there’s no doubt about that.
It all starts and ends with Tom Brady for the Bucs this season. The Buccaneers go as far as Brady goes and it’s really as simple as that.