Ever since Tom Brady retired three offseasons ago it seems the Tampa Bay Buccaneers can’t help but get Rodney Dangerfielded. No respect, no respect at all, at least not from the national media.
After Brady retired Peter King infamously dubbed Tampa Bay the second-worst team in the league. The Bucs followed that up by winning the NFC South while marching all the way to the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Despite this success, the Bucs were once again dogged last offseason for not doing enough to improve the roster. Baker Mayfield signing a $100 million deal was waved off as an overpayment for a guy who will regress; he went on to have an MVP-level season while leading Tampa Bay to a fourth straight division title and fifth consecutive playoff appperance.
So you’d think folks would have caught on by now. Unfortunately, you’d be as wrong as pundits have been about the Bucs for what is now three straight offseasons. FOX Sports’ Colin Cowherd is kickstarting the disrespect, but did so in an absolutely baffling way.
Colin Cowherd boldly says the Buccaneers roster is ‘getting old’
While breaking down his predictions for each NFC division, Cowherd tossed out an absurd assessment of the Buccaneers and why they’ll miss the playoffs this year.
”The Bucs are getting old,” Cowherd said with baffling confidence. “They’re bringing back the entire offense. Sometimes that good, sometimes it’s not. I like the trajectory of Atlanta and I’m a big Michael Penix fan.”
It’s fine that Cowherd didn’t pick the Bucs to win the NFC South because the team being doubted in the offseason isn’t anything new. In fact it would almost be weird to heard them getting any sort of praise this time of year since it rarely comes their way from the national media.
What tips the hand that some of these pundits and personalities have no idea what they’re talking about is Cowherd calling Tampa Bay ‘old’. That’s not only a bad take, it’s factually incorrect.
Tampa Bay has one of the youngest rosters at the start of last season, with an average age of 25.4 years old. That was second to only the Green Bay Packers, and the Bucs didn’t get much older this offseason with the moves they’ve made.
When the season starts the Bucs will have just four players who are 30-years-old or older on the roster.
- Lavonte David (35)
- Mike Evans (31)
- Haason Reddick (30)
- Vita Vea (30)
That’s it, and it makes up less than 10 percent of the entire roster.
A specific point of pride in Tampa Bay over the last few seasons has been how the roster has remained so young but hasn’t lost a step with talent. It’s a testament to the job Jason Licht’s front office did to identify talent in the draft, something John Spytek did so well that it earned him the top front office job with the Raiders.
The reason the Bucs were able to so successfully emerge out of the Brady Era — a roster that was old — is because of the young talent stepping up. It’s one thing to insult the team by betting against them but it’s another to be so confidently wrong and pick against them without realizing why they’re so good in the first place.
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