Buccaneers starters gave fans plenty to get excited about in preseason finale

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers ended the preseason on a high note, beating the Miami Dolphins but doing so much more than that in just a single drive.

That's all the starters played, but it was all they needed to give Bucs fans something to get really excited about. Baker Mayfield started the game, his first since the NFC Divisional Round game back in January, and what happened felt like a total light-switch flip from what we saw out of the offense last season.

Dave Canales might have cracked the door last season while pulling the offense out of the darkness it had fallen into, but Liam Coen is ready to blow it off the hinges. It's a small sample size, and one that came in a preseason game, but the Buccaneers' lone drive with its starters on the field looked absolutely brilliant.

Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers starters gave Bucs fans plenty to get excited about

Something that plagued the Bucs last year was the team's inability to capitalize on opening drives. Time and time again it felt like whatever momentum the team might have started to muster up would fizzle out and end in nothing more than a field goal.

Beyond that, an annoying carryover from the 2022 debacle was Tampa Bay's inability to get any sort of redzone offense going. That was one of Canales' fatal flaws and it held the Bucs back from potentially having an even better season than they did.

All of that looked completely different on Friday night.

The Bucs needed just seven plays to go 70 yards and score a touchdown on their opening drive against Miami. Baker was 3-for-3 with 54 yards and a dime to rookie Jalen McMillan that will go down as his first highlight reel play. Rachaad White added 16 yards and punched in a touchdown from four yards out, which is notable in that the Bucs managed to get into the redzone and make something of it.

It's impossible to overstate how exciting this development is, but it's more than just the fact that the team was able to capitalize in ways it didn't last year. Coen's playcalling was brilliant, blending a mix of passes and run plays in what was one of the most even offenses we've seen in a while.

Judging the Bucs based on one preseason drive and assuming that's how things will go is foolish, but it's also not wrong to get very excited about what we saw. Last year was an improvement but there were still plenty of things that felt like they could have gone better. Coen was brought in to level up what Canales started and the first true drive of his tenure -- one with starters -- suggests this season is going to be a lot of fun for Tampa Bay's offense.

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