Cade Otton makes his goal for 2024 season crystal clear, and Bucs fans will love it

The doldrums of summer are quickly setting in, as the fast paced action of the offseason has calmed down and all eyes are turning toward the slow march toward Week 1.

That means offseason camps and players starting to set goals that could dictate how this season ends up going. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a high bar to clear, one set by themselves given how well things went last season.

After being picked to be among the worst teams in the league, Tampa Bay ended up playing its final game in the NFC Divisional Round and nearly made it to the team's second NFC Championship Game in four years.

Falling short only emphasizes how important this season will be for the Bucs, and how well positioned the players in the locker room are to succeed like never before.

Cade Otton has his sights set on making the Pro Bowl in 2024

One of those players is tight end Cade Otton, who has been TE1 for the last few seasons but has his eyes set on a higher level of success than he's ever achieved before.

“I want to be in the Pro Bowl,” Otton said. “I mean, obviously a lot of receiving stats go into that but I want to be a great blocker, too. That doesn’t always get recognized by the media or anything like that. But just amongst our team be known as someone they can count on to run behind or take care of guys on the back side or our runs. So it’s hard to kind of quantify those things, but just building trust in our offense for blocking.”

A big ol' hell yeah brother to that.

Otton has slowly settled into his role as the top tight end of Tampa Bay but he's hardly solidified his place on the team. That was evident in experts predicting the Bucs would eye Brock Bowers in the NFL Draft this year, despite having more glarring needs elsewhere on the roster.

That doesn't mean Otton is a bust, but it certainly indicates that the pressure is on for him to start finding his groove. Making the Pro Bowl this year would be quite the proclamation that he's ready to be The Guy, and he's shown flashes of that in the past.

Last season Otton finished with 455 yards and four touchdowns, which was slightly up from where he was in 2022. It's marginal growth, but it's clear that both the Bucs and Otton expect much bigger things this year. With another year of continuity under his belt with Baker Mayfield, the opportunity is no doubt there for Otton to take a massive step forward, and doing so will unlock yet another level to an offense it feels like has only started scratching the surface of its potential.

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