***Official Free Agency Thread***

[Central_Buc]

36 y/o Cousins with 0 career playoff wins and a bad achillies.

Over/under he's out by week 4.

Correction, 1 career playoff win.

Stand corrected, he's 1-4. Carr is the one with 0 wins.

[Phantom]

What about Lions free-agent WR Josh Reynold? He’ll be great 4th wide receiver behind Evans, Godwin, and Palmer

[Doctor]

It's really self inflicted misery.

If the Bills, Eagles, and 49ers never win a SB with their current QBs either, why do they get to enjoy the ride but not us with Baker?

Because they’re in the conversation. Always. Power Rankings and what not. Paper Champions.

Baker will be one of those guys who will always be doubted forever. Then even if he does win a championship here he’ll be lumped in with Johnson, Dilfer, and Foles.

The Falcons signed Cousins and immediately the Bucs seemed irrelevant. Go figure.

Glad we get to play the games.

So media.

You let the media decide if you are happy or miserable.

I'll let Baker, Evans, LVD and co, who were a bad quarter of football away from the NFCCG, be my hype guides.

[Phantom]

Just one bad quarter of football away from the championship game? I mean, seriously, what game are you watching? The Lions practically dominated the second half of the game and the Bucs manage to catch up.

[Doctor]

Literally tied going into the 4th, but sure, squabble over 15 minutes.

[Phantom]

If the Bucs had the 2024 schedule for 2023, they wouldn't make it to the playoffs.

But yeah we get to play the games.

[Bootz]

What about Lions free-agent WR Josh Reynold? He’ll be great 4th wide receiver behind Evans, Godwin, and Palmer

Reynolds is exactly the kind of veteran depth at receiver you'd want.. I'm surprised he's still available.

[BucsNBills]

What about Lions free-agent WR Josh Reynold? He’ll be great 4th wide receiver behind Evans, Godwin, and Palmer

Reynolds is exactly the kind of veteran depth at receiver you'd want.. I'm surprised he's still available.

Do it Dom!

[Bootz]

Literally tied going into the 4th, but sure, squabble over 15 minutes.

Wanna guess how many minutes we led that game? I'll give you a hint. It's not "non zero".

But go ahead. Tell us how we "almost" made the NFCCG

[Doctor]

NFL games are hard? You don't say. Wanna guess how many minutes the great Chiefs trailed for in their SBs?

[Phantom]

And they won.

[Bootz]

NFL games are hard? You don't say. Wanna guess how many minutes the great Chiefs trailed for in their SBs?

I said tell us how WE almost made the NFCCG. You deflect talking about the difficulty of NFL games and the Chiefs. Speaks volumes.

[Sdbucs]

If the Bucs had the 2024 schedule for 2023, they wouldn't make it to the playoffs.

But yeah we get to play the games.

Feel like I'm taking crazy pills with people saying how "good" we were last season.

We BARELY won the worst division in football. By all advanced metrics, Baker was middle of the pack to below average.

The Falcons and Saints could have easily taken the division from us last season. Would you call either of those teams good? No.

But Baker is a "fiery competitor" so that means he is somehow better

[kaimaru]

If the Bucs had the 2024 schedule for 2023, they wouldn't make it to the playoffs.

But yeah we get to play the games.

How is a weaker schedule going to make it harder to win games exactly?

2023 SOS Buccaneers — 138-148-2 (.483)
2024 SOS Tampa Bay Buccaneers 138-151-0 0.478

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2023 ... it-easier/
https://theredzone.org/strengthofschedule

[Phantom]

If the Bucs had the 2024 schedule for 2023, they wouldn't make it to the playoffs.

But yeah we get to play the games.

How is a weaker schedule going to make it harder to win games exactly?

2023 SOS Buccaneers — 138-148-2 (.483)
2024 SOS Tampa Bay Buccaneers 138-151-0 0.478

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2023 ... it-easier/
https://theredzone.org/strengthofschedule

Cool? I don't give a shit.

[Phantom]

If the Bucs had the 2024 schedule for 2023, they wouldn't make it to the playoffs.

But yeah we get to play the games.

Feel like I'm taking crazy pills with people saying how "good" we were last season.

We BARELY won the worst division in football. By all advanced metrics, Baker was middle of the pack to below average.

The Falcons and Saints could have easily taken the division from us last season. Would you call either of those teams good? No.

But Baker is a "fiery competitor" so that means he is somehow better

well said @Sdbucs I agree with everything you said, especially about Mayfield.

[Phantom]

I have no personal issues with Mayfield, but he is who he is. I am ok with him as an above-average quarterback. I believe he is better than at half of the quarterbacks in the league. I'm satisfied with that.

[kaimaru]

How is a weaker schedule going to make it harder to win games exactly?

2023 SOS Buccaneers — 138-148-2 (.483)
2024 SOS Tampa Bay Buccaneers 138-151-0 0.478

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2023 ... it-easier/
https://theredzone.org/strengthofschedule

Cool? I don't give a shit.

I know you don't, bc you have an agenda

[Doctor]

Depends on what you mean by "we were good last season".

If you mean taking the entirety of the season and grading out how it, and we the bucs, played in each game and as a whole like you are judging some movie trilogy, sure, it was absolutely mid.

But if you mean how good we were last season. As in the levels we can and did reach when the team was clicking, those absolutely were good levels. Unlike many teams we were good last season. It DID happen. Unlike the Falcons who may be good with Kirk or whatever.

The team has another year together. That's huge. If we can sustain those good levels more, and take them even higher in the post season, heck yeah.

[Phantom]

Take them even higher in the postseason? Possibly, but we'll have to see how Mayfield performs with Liam Coen as the OC.

[Central_Buc]

From what I hear of Liam Coen is he is a lot more polished playcaller than Canales. Granted Canales was a Rookie OC last year.

The expectation should be the offense improving especially now Baker is settling in and we have a more experienced OC. The running game is key, hopefully it gets address late in the draft.

[Bootz]

From what I hear of Liam Coen is he is a lot more polished playcaller than Canales. Granted Canales was a Rookie OC last year.

The expectation should be the offense improving especially now Baker is settling in and we have a more experienced OC. The running game is key, hopefully it gets address late in the draft.

Canales had zero playcalling experience past the high school level prior to last year. And that happen 20 years ago.

That said, playcalling wasn't as big of an issue as on field execution. Namely the OL. Best playcalls in the world can't account for a line that can't block. If that's not figured out this offense won't take the next step.

Licht seems hellbent on addressing the OL like the Rays address their roster. With as many misfit toys as possible to see which ones fit the bill. It's equated to one of the worst lines in football.

[Central_Buc]

From what I hear of Liam Coen is he is a lot more polished playcaller than Canales. Granted Canales was a Rookie OC last year.

The expectation should be the offense improving especially now Baker is settling in and we have a more experienced OC. The running game is key, hopefully it gets address late in the draft.

Canales had zero playcalling experience past the high school level prior to last year. And that happen 20 years ago.

That said, playcalling wasn't as big of an issue as on field execution. Namely the OL. Best playcalls in the world can't account for a line that can't block. If that's not figured out this offense won't take the next step.

Licht seems hellbent on addressing the OL like the Rays address their roster. With as many misfit toys as possible to see which ones fit the bill. It's equated to one of the worst lines in football.

Losing personnel on the OL since 2020 will do that. But The bright side is Godeke made huge strides last year, Mauch is developing nicely. We should take one of those centers in the 1st round if not JPJ then the one from Duke that also has a high grade.

[Phantom]

Cool? I don't give a shit.

I know you don't, bc you have an agenda

\Who give a shit if I have an agenda or not. I don't believe believe the Bucs will go to playoff with that 2024 schedule period.

[Bootz]

Canales had zero playcalling experience past the high school level prior to last year. And that happen 20 years ago.

That said, playcalling wasn't as big of an issue as on field execution. Namely the OL. Best playcalls in the world can't account for a line that can't block. If that's not figured out this offense won't take the next step.

Licht seems hellbent on addressing the OL like the Rays address their roster. With as many misfit toys as possible to see which ones fit the bill. It's equated to one of the worst lines in football.

Losing personnel on the OL since 2020 will do that. But The bright side is Godeke made huge strides last year, Mauch is developing nicely. We should take one of those centers in the 1st round if not JPJ then the one from Duke that also has a high grade.

Agreed. Marpet & Jensen have been huge shoes to fill and so far we haven't come close. I'm not overly optimistic about Mauch for the same reason I wasn't optimistic about Goedeke playing inside. He probably should stick to being an OT. Problem is you can only start 2 and Wirfs ain't going anywhere. Goedeke seems to have filled that role at RT, even though he was pretty bad in the playoffs.

Licht believes because we were able to convert Ali Marpet from outside to inside we can do it with anybody. It hasn't worked since. Not much with Cappa. Not with Hainsey. Not with Goedeke. And to this point not with Mauch.

[Grahamburn]

Losing personnel on the OL since 2020 will do that. But The bright side is Godeke made huge strides last year, Mauch is developing nicely. We should take one of those centers in the 1st round if not JPJ then the one from Duke that also has a high grade.

Agreed. Marpet & Jensen have been huge shoes to fill and so far we haven't come close. I'm not overly optimistic about Mauch for the same reason I wasn't optimistic about Goedeke playing inside. He probably should stick to being an OT. Problem is you can only start 2 and Wirfs ain't going anywhere. Goedeke seems to have filled that role at RT, even though he was pretty bad in the playoffs.

Licht believes because we were able to convert Ali Marpet from outside to inside we can do it with anybody. It hasn't worked since. Not much with Cappa. Not with Hainsey. Not with Goedeke. And to this point not with Mauch.

I don't see how you can say it didn't work with Cappa, and I don't think we know yet on Mauch. The jury is still out. I'll give you Hainsey. Looks like he is getting replaced. We don't know how it would have worked with Goedeke. It didn't work when he was a rookie, but he held his own at RT this year.

It seems to take a year. I do wish Licht would stop doing it though. Yes, it "works" occasionally, but it would be nice to just get a guy who is ready to play the position.

[Bootz]

Agreed. Marpet & Jensen have been huge shoes to fill and so far we haven't come close. I'm not overly optimistic about Mauch for the same reason I wasn't optimistic about Goedeke playing inside. He probably should stick to being an OT. Problem is you can only start 2 and Wirfs ain't going anywhere. Goedeke seems to have filled that role at RT, even though he was pretty bad in the playoffs.

Licht believes because we were able to convert Ali Marpet from outside to inside we can do it with anybody. It hasn't worked since. Not much with Cappa. Not with Hainsey. Not with Goedeke. And to this point not with Mauch.

I don't see how you can say it didn't work with Cappa, and I don't think we know yet on Mauch. The just is still out. I'll give you the rest of them. We don't know how it would have worked with Goedeke. It didn't work when he was a rookie, but he held his own at RT this year.

It seems to take a year. I do wish Licht would stop doing it though. Yes, it "works" occasionally, but it would be nice to just get a guy who is ready to play the position.

Cappa had the fortune of being sandwiched between Wirfs & Jensen. Then at LG you had Marpet. Make no mistakes though he was not very good here and he's been even worse with the Bengals.

With Mauch, what you're banking on his him thriving in the new position he's being forced to play. Same with Goedeke last year.

The main issue is these guys don't have the talent around them to feed off of like Cappa had. Cappa was clearly the weak link on a line comprised of Wirfs, Smith, Marpet, & Jensen. Now there's no clear weak link because the talent simply is no longer there.

[mdb1958]

We still couldnt run block.

[Bootz]

We still couldnt run block.

2020-2021 it wasn't a matter of "couldn't" because we absolutely could. We didn't because Bruce Arians preferred to air it out with all of the weapons he had. Brady throwing to Evans, Godwin, AB, Gronk, Brate.

2020 we averaged 4.1 ypc. 2021 it went up to 4.3. But in terms of attempts we ranked 29th in 2020 and 31st in 2021. Our identity was passing the ball and we did that well.

Meanwhile 2022-2023 we've ranked dead last at 3.4 ypc. NOW we CANT run it. We knew that in 2022 after Marpet retired, Jensen got hurt and Goedeke bombed at LG. So our solution? Fire Leftwich, move Wirfs to LT, move Goedeke to RT, keep Hainsey at C, put a rookie OT at RG and John Doe at LG. Results were similar if not worse and to this point not much will change in 2024.

[Phantom]

Damn

[Central_Buc]

Damn

Just a visit but yeah I doubt he's not leaving w/o a contract with a chance to play with Lamar

[mdb1958]

Assuming Licht walks into a miracle and kills the first four picks with no detrimental trades we still have to find a boatload of players for camp.

[Buc2]

Assuming Licht walks into a miracle and kills the first four picks with no detrimental trades we still have to find a boatload of players for camp.

…says every team in the NFL.

[Doctor]

If only thousands of prime athletes were trampling each other to get to teams camp.

[mdb1958]

If only thousands of prime athletes were trampling each other to get to teams camp.

If only you could address them by name!