2011 Offseason: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I realized that Josh Freeman had an incredible year in his second season out of Kansas State. But when I saw that he had only thrown six interceptions all season, my eyes bugged out a little. When you play 16 games and you’re throwing INT numbers similar to those of Brady and Cassel, there at the top of the NFL, that’s saying something. When it’s just you’re second year, it’s a wonder his name wasn’t considered with Brady and Vick as possible MVP candidates.

Freeman will continue to improve, though it shouldn’t be surprising if he throws a handful more picks next year (6 is a hard number to back up). Carnell Williams will hopefully be back, which would help the Bucs big time in terms of stability in the backfield. The main concern on offense will be the front line. They aren’t in any dire need of talent on the offensive line, but if they can get a really good lineman in the draft it would help.

Here’s the thing with Tampa Bay. The team is very young. In some ways, it’s better for the players to be younger when you have a young coach like Raheem Morris. But at the same time, for a young coach to have to enforce the level of structure needed for a young team to be successful is very difficult and sometimes proves to be too much to ask. They Buccaneers had a lot of success this season, but their schedule wasn’t of a particularly high difficulty outside of the Saints and Falcons. Their wins will come much less easily next year so the players will have to help Morris out by being motivated without his constant attention.

Because of this, I think that their needs on defense should be addressed through free agency. It isn’t bad to have older, veteran players. It is only bad when that’s all you have and there is no youth available to supplement it. The draft will be key for the Buccaneers, no doubt. But Tampa Bay is in a fantastic position to start using the draft as a tool to add depth. They don’t need to be getting guys who can start as rookies at this point.

I like the Buccaneers in 2011. They just have to get a group of guys in who can compete as well with the playoff caliber teams as with the teams lower on the food chain. I’m not convinced that they will be a playoff team next season, but I have little doubt that they will be competitive in all of their games next year. It won’t be an easy task to keep them out of the postseason.