It was only two years ago that a drunk Tom Brady was tossing the Lombardi Trophy from boat-to-boat in the Gulf of Mexico as he celebrated a Super Bowl season.
Two years later, Brady has retired and the odds are long for Tampa Bay to return to the top of the mountain.
The Buccaneers have several issues to handle, from cap space problems with its superstars to finding a new quarterback to replace Brady.
Let’s examine their odds to win Super Bowl LVIII and see what it might mean for them about the upcoming season.
Super Bowl 58 Odds
Bucs have more questions than answers
Tampa Bay is listed at +6000 odds to win Super Bowl LVIII, the 23rd-longest odds in the league.
This means oddsmakers think it’s unlikely for the Bucs to return to the playoffs, let alone win the whole thing.
Even if the team figures out who will be its quarterback by the fall, there’s still other issues to address.
The Bucs have several key defensive players who are impending unrestricted free agents, including: LB Lavonte David, DE Akiem Hicks, DE William Gholston and CBs Sean Bunting and Jamel Dean.
Re-signing all of those players PLUS a new quarterback doesn’t really make sense with the Bucs’ cap space, so some of those players likely won’t return.
That leaves Tampa Bay with a worse-off team than it had this past season where it limped to the playoffs with a losing record.
It might be time to blow it up and rebuild for the Bucs, and the odds would signal it might be the right time to do so.
If you think oddsmakers have Bucs expectations wrong, you can bet on them with these sportsbooks:
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.