The Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2024 preview, presented by Floricua

Everything to know about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before the 2024 season

Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

By Floricua Staff

August 2, 2024

The NFL preseason is officially underway. Here’s everything you need to know about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t experience too much of a dropoff in 2023 after losing quarterback Tom Brady to retirement. With journeyman Baker Mayfield under center, the Bucs improved on the previous year’s record, won their third straight NFC South Championship, and notched a dominant playoff victory over the defending conference champion Philadelphia Eagles.

But 2024 doesn’t care what happened in 2023. Now, there are coaching changes in Tampa and divisional competition is heating up with the arrival of Kirk Cousins in Atlanta. With the NFL season right around the corner, we’re breaking down all the biggest storylines surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Offense

The Quarterback

There’s a lot that can be said about Baker Mayfield, but he played well last year. With a completely ineffective run game, the Buccaneers needed him to lead a dynamic passing attack, and he delivered to the tune of 28 passing touchdowns and more than 4,000 yards.

Of course, Mayfield has been inconsistent throughout his career. By Pro Football Focus’s grades, he’s careened from highs of 81.6 (great) in 2020 to lows of 52.2 (bad) in 2022.

In fairness to Mayfield, he has never had the same offensive coordinator for consecutive seasons, and in 2022, he worked under multiple coaches over the course of a single season. Unfortunately, that trend will continue in his seventh NFL season, as last year’s coordinator, Dave Canales, has moved on to a head coaching position with one of Mayfield’s old teams, the rival Carolina Panthers.

Replacing Canales is Liam Coen, who Mayfield does at least have some familiarity with: Coen was OC for the Los Angeles Rams when Mayfield played five games there. His offense likely won’t look dramatically different from what we saw last year, so there’s at least some reason to believe Mayfield can repeat his impressive performance of 2023.

The Playmakers

The Bucs have had one of football’s best pair of pass-catchers for years in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Evans will be 31 years old when the season starts and Godwin turned 28 in February, but they’re both still very good. Even at 30, Evans led the league in passing touchdowns last year. And Coen has already indicated that he plans to use Godwin primarily in the slot, similar to how he deployed Cooper Kupp in Los Angeles. That spells promise for Godwin.

Tampa also has a chance to develop a couple of young wide receivers behind Evans and Godwin. Last year’s sixth-round draft pick Trey Palmer brings speed to the receiving corps (something that Evans and Godwin lack), while third-round rookie Jalen McMillan of Washington showed a consistent ability to get open in college.

In the backfield, Rachaad White and fourth-round rookie Bucky Irving of Oregon are both capable pass-catchers. As far as actual rushing abilities, they have similar profiles and are competent, if not exciting. Neither are likely to break off huge plays, but both should make the most of what their offensive line gives them.

The Blockers

Tampa Bay’s offensive line is anchored by left tackle Tristan Wirfs, who just became the highest-paid lineman of all time. It’s hard to say he hasn’t earned that contract. By PFF grades, Wirf’s worst performance came his rookie year, when he still put up a great grade of 81. On the opposite side of the line is Luke Goedeke, who, while not as flashy as Wirfs, looked good last season.

The problem for this line comes on the interior. Center Robert Hainsey was just plain bad last year, as was second-round rookie guard Cody Mauch of North Dakota State. That all translated to a terrible run game, with no holes for Rachaad White to hit.

The Buccaneers spent their first-round draft pick on offensive lineman Graham Barton of Duke this year, and they’ll likely plug him into one of the interior spots. A tackle in college, he profiles best as a center but theoretically has the athletic tools to play in any spot on the line. If Barton can run-block at a decent level right out of the gate, Tampa should be able to look less one-dimensional this year.

The Defense

The D-Line

The star of Tampa Bay’s defensive line is, without question, Vita Vea. The 347-pound defensive tackle threatens to wreck opposing offensive lines on any given play, but he does have consistency issues.

Overall, the line was good against the run last season, and could get even better. Last year’s first-round pick, Calijah Kancey of Pittsburgh, had a decent start to his career as a pass rusher, but was a total liability against the run. It’s hard to overstate how bad he was in those situations– it’s almost impossible for a defensive tackle to be worse. A lot of that may come down to a size issue: Kancey is 6’1”, 281 pounds, which puts him at a disadvantage playing on the interior. But if he can improve at all, that could go a long way to making this one of the hardest defenses in the league to run against.

A run defense improvement on Kancey’s end would also help the team with rushing the passer. That’s because if he can improve, he’ll see the field more on less obvious passing situations, and as things stand, he’s better than a lot of his teammates at applying pressure.

Ultimately, the Buccaneers may be best served by bringing in a free agent edge defender to help with their current pass-rushing woes. Former New York Jet Carl Lawson remains unsigned, and could likely contribute right away. If the Bucs do go the way of free agency, other options include former Chicago Bear Yannick Ngakoue and former Detroit Lion Romeo Okwara.

The Secondary

Antoine Winfield is probably the best safety in the NFL right now, and with an $84.1 million contract, he’s certainly paid like it. Winfield’s playmaking abilities give the pass coverage unit a high ceiling, while cornerback Jamel Dean gives them a decent floor.

But the Buccaneers aren’t settling there. This offseason, they brought in a pair of free agents to take the secondary to the next level. Former Houston Texan Tavierre Thomas has been one of the best slot corners in the game for a while now, and there’s no reason to think that won’t continue in Tampa. And former New York Jet Jordan Whitehead should be a serviceable safety opposite Winfield.

Even after trading away cornerback Carlton Davis to the Detroit Lions, this should be a pretty good secondary.

Overall Outlook

Sportsbooks are putting the over/under of Tampa Bay wins at 7.5. For context, that’s the same line from a year ago, when the Bucs ultimately finished with a win-loss record of 9-8.

Plenty of Tampa fans are concerned about Atlanta, and rightly so. They’ve been Tampa’s biggest competitor in the division despite terrible quarterback play over the last couple of years. Now, they have a new coaching staff (led by former Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris) and a new quarterback: Kirk Cousins. The former Minnesota Viking was in the middle of one of the best seasons of his career when he went down with an Achilles tear last year, and could be great again with a clean bill of health.

Even still, Tampa Bay is probably the best team in the NFC South. The nucleus of last year’s team is still there: Mayfield, Evans, Godwin, Wirfs, Vea, Winfield. As long as Mayfield doesn’t regress without Dave Canales, this should be a team that wins 8 or 9 games again. And if Liam Coen can take Mayfield from good to great, and a free agent pass rusher like Carl Lawson breathes new life into the defensive line, they could be even better. A Super Bowl bid seems unlikely, but stranger things have happened.

On the other hand, if Mayfield makes more mistakes without Canales on the sideline, and the pass rush continues to be anemic, then Atlanta or New Orleans may have a legitimate chance to take the division crown, and the Buccaneers may only manage five or six wins.