The Buccaneers are slowly getting most of the gang back together again for another Super Bowl run.
Fortunately for the Bucs, Tom Brady decided to unretire, which started the domino effect that would be expected from the GOAT deciding to run it back for one more year, where key players began to resign with the team.
- Guard, Aaron Stinnie, agreed to a 1 year deal.
- Center, Ryan Jensen, agreed to a 3 year deal.
- CB, Carlton Davis, agreed to a 3 year deal.
- WR, Chris Godwin, agreed to a 3 year deal.
- RB, Leonard Fournette, agreed to a 3 year deal.
- DE, William Gholston, agreed to a 1 year deal.
- Offensive Tackle, Josh Wells, agreed to a 1 year deal.
All of these guys were key players in Tampa Bay’s 2020 Super Bowl winning season. So having them all back helps the Bucs’ shot at another Championship. And the 3 year deals will help the team post Brady, unless of course Brady wants to keep playing after this season, fingers crossed.
Unfortunately for the Bucs, they lost pro bowl guard, Ali Marpet, with an unexpected retirement and fellow starting pro bowl guard, Alex Cappa, to the Bengals. Also starting safety Jordan Whitehead signed with the Jets. Marpet is the biggest loss here. Cappa can be replaced again by Stinnie, who replaced him during the Bucs 2020 Super Bowl run in the playoffs. Whitehead can be replaced by Mike Edwards, who in my opinion is a better player.
The Bucs were also quick to make moves to fill some of these vacancies as well as add to an already stacked roster in free agency and via trades.
- WR, Russell Gage, agreed to a 3 year deal.
- Guard, Shaq Mason, was acquired via a trade with the Patriots for a 2022 5th round pick.
- Safety, Ryan Logan, agreed to a 1 year deal.
- Offensive Tackle, Fred Johnson, agreed to a 1 year deal.
Russell Gage is a flat out beast in the slot. While in Atlanta he caught 67.2% of the passes thrown his way and is coming off his best season catching, 70.2%. Gage is only 26 and has had back to back 700 plus yard receiving seasons. Gage will immediately be WR2 if Godwin isn’t ready at the start of the season and when Godwin is back he will fall into the Antonio Brown WR3 role. Which, when Brown was actually on the field, was a very key role in the Bucs high powered offense.
Both Shaq Mason and Logan Ryan were teammates and starters on the Patriots back when Brady was still there. They were also key contributors in 2 Super Bowl wins with Brady and the Patriots.
I am about 99.9% sure that the Bucs will find a way to bring back both Rob Gronkowski and Ndamukong Suh on incentive ladened 1 year deals, and they need to. I don’t see Jason Pierre-Paul (JPP) coming back, but second year and former 1st round pick, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka (JTS), is ready to take over that starting spot on defense. Bringing JPP back would really just be a bonus for the Bucs, and it still could happen, so I’m not ruling out that possibility just yet.
So, with all that being said, what else do the Bucs need to do to make another run at the Super Bowl in 2022? The answer is, the NFL Draft. I will give multiple draft scenarios for the Bucs round by round picking potential players for each pick that the Bucs should draft. I used The Draft Network mock draft simulator for each draft scenario.
I will continue to update this article with free agent signings and add more draft scenarios as we get closer to draft day.
The Bucs currently have the following draft picks.
- Round 1, Pick 27, 27th Overall.
- Round 2, Pick 28, 60th Overall.
- Round 3, Pick 27, 91st Overall.
- Round 4, Pick 28, 133rd Overall.
- Round 7, Pick 27, 248th Overall.
- Round 7, Pick 40, 261st Overall*
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