Bucs 2024 Season in Review
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ season ended just a few short weeks ago in a home wildcard loss to the since-eliminated Washington Commanders. It was an eventful season, from top to bottom, front to back, and before we look at the offseason that lies ahead of them, we should rewind the clocks and look at what happened from last offseason to now.
Coaching Changes
With Dave Canales leaving for Carolina to coach the bottom-feeding Panthers, it left the offensive coaching staff splintered. John Van Dam would move from Tight Ends coach to passing game assistant, Thad Lewis and Jordan Somerville would stick around to coach the Quarterbacks and Skip Peete would stay in the Running Backs room. Wide Receivers coach Brad Idzik would follow Canales to Carolina.
They brought in Josh Grizzard, a longtime Miami Dolphin assistant to be the passing game coordinator. Bryan McLendon, longtime assistant and coordinator in the college ranks, made the jump to the NFL to be the Wide Receiver coach. They also brought in two new offensive line coaches, Kevin Carberry and Brian Picucci. And of course, Liam Coen would lead the offense and call plays.
The defensive coaching staff was largely unchanged, but the special teams staff saw a change with Thomas McGaughey taking over for Keith Armstrong who retired at the end of last season.
Bucs Rookies played an important role across the board for this team as they attempted to get younger. As a matter of fact the Bucs were the second youngest team in the league in 2024. So let’s look at GM Jason Licht’s latest rookie class.
2024 Bucs Draft
1.26 C Graham Barton
Barton walked in as an immediate upgrade over Robert Hainsey, the swiss army knife who started last season. While his natural position is Tackle, his discovery of his affinity (after everyone got hurt) of playing Center at Duke led to what the Bucs viewed as an easy decision in the first round. While I personally lobbied for Jackson Powers-Johnson at the time, I have been swiftly proven wrong this year. Expect big improvements for Barton next season.
2.25 EDGE Chris Braswell
Braswell was largely absent this year, with more recognizable names starting ahead of him. He took 185 snaps as a pass rusher, fourth among edge rushers. He did manage 3 sacks on his 20 pressures, but there is plenty of room for improvement in a relatively empty room.
3.26 NCB/S Tykee Smith
Smith had pretty few expectations outside the Bucs building, but the coaching staff was pretty excited. And rightfully so! Smith tied for the team lead in fumbles forced and interceptions, and tied for second in passes defended. Had he played the full season, he absolutely would deserve a DROY nomination. His shades of Ronde Barber make him absolutely pivotal as an every-man in 2025.
3.29 WR Jalen McMillan
The preseason hype wasn’t met until late in the year, but once he figured out how to play in the NFL, he was certainly good enough to justify his playing time. While the play has been there, the bone headed mistakes and penalties need to be improved upon. From unnecessary personal fouls and celebration penalties, to having the ball ripped out of his hands in the Cowboys primetime game, the rookie mistakes were out in full force. However his play at the end of the year definitely made some question who the best Washington Husky receiver was this season.
4.25 RB Bucky Irving
Where should I start? The Oregon product led all rookies in rushing, finished sixth in all purpose yards, became the first 1,000 yard rusher for the Bucs since Doug Martin, and became an instant fan favorite, all while splitting touches in the backfield. There’s no more perfect story than a guy named Bucky getting drafted to the Bucs. Irving is poised for an even bigger season in 2025, given that he took over the featured role in the offense to end the season.
6.44 OG Elijah Klein
Klein only played 9 snaps on offense and 81 on special teams all year, but he was fine in those snaps. The backup offensive lineman was essentially a four year starter at the University of Texas El Paso, and may serve as a potential replacement should starting Right Guard Ben Bredeson leave in free agency.
7.26 TE Devin Culp
Culp was part of an incredible offense at Washington in college, and felt like a bit of a steal in the 7th round, but he was inactive for all but five games this season. When Cade Otton went down with injury late in the year, Culp stepped up with some big time catches, and finished with 88 yards across two games. Though he figures to remain the third tight end on the roster, Bucs fans should keep an eye on his development next year.
Building A Defensive Back Room
Going into the offseason there were some glaring holes. The front office and staff were confident enough in Zyon McCollum after his rookie year to move from the slot to the outside, meaning they had a bit of an abundance of talent at the position. With Jamel Dean under contract another 2 years after 2024, and Carlton Davis III needing a new deal sooner, Davis was sent to Detroit along with two sixth round picks in exchange for a third round pick which would turn into Jalen McMillan.
They drafted Tykee Smith, a safety from Georgia who would end up playing some nickel cornerback, and they signed former Jets cornerback Bryce Hall, who played 20 total snaps before going down for the year with an ankle injury. Ultimately not great looking from outside the organization, as Hall had only played one full season in 4 years.
Jamel Dean would spend time on the IR, Antoine Winfield Jr. would miss almost half of the year, Jordan Whitehead would miss significant time with a pectoral injury, and unfortunately got in a severe enough car accident to land him on the non-football injury list to end his season. The injuries in the secondary were severe enough at points that Tyrek Funderburk, an undrafted free agent, and Tavierre Thomas, nearly exclusively a special teams player, saw playing time in important games.
Changes In The Linebacker Corps
The other primarily weak position on defense headed into the offseason was linebacker. They had spent early draft picks on Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, who still hasn’t panned out and Yaya Diaby who has been pretty good when healthy. K.J. Britt was a fifth round pick that stepped up last year when Devin White was benched, and they drafted Devin White just two years before that. Devin White looked elite for his first two seasons before his talent seemed to crater.
With the days of Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul seemingly over, and Lavonte David trending towards retirement, it was clear that changes and additions would be needed. They drafted Chris Braswell in the second round, and while he has yet to see much playing time, he has shown some flashes of potential. They also brought in Randy Gregory who didn’t even show up to camp and got cut.
SirVocea Dennis, who was drafted in 2023, made the leap to starting this year before going down early on with a shoulder injury and did not return from the injured reserve. He looked pretty fantastic in his few games, but he was replaced by K.J. Britt, who was one of the worst off-ball linebackers in the league this season by almost every metric, and he eventually got hurt as well.
Cumulatively, the Bucs defense had 16 players (minimum of ten snaps) miss a combined 84 games. For comparison, the Commanders defense only missed 36 games. A defense simply isn’t going to play well together when they literally aren’t healthy enough to play together.
Creating An Offensive Monster
The offense, on the other hand, was fantastic. Baker Mayfield set personal bests in passing yards, passing touchdowns, yards per attempt, air yards per attempt, passer rating, completion percentage, and rushing yards while tying his career high in rushing touchdowns. As a matter of fact, his 41 touchdowns were the second most in Bucs history to Tom Brady’s 43, and his 378 rushing yards are second only to Steve Young in the history of the franchise.
Bucky Irving also had a historic season, logging 1,122 yards rushing, the first Buccaneer since 2015 to cross 1,000 yards on the ground. His 1,690 all-purpose yards (1,122 rushing, 392 receiving, 176 kick return) was sixth most in 2024, trailing only RB Saquon Barkley, RB Derrick Henry, RB Jahmyr Gibbs, RB Bijan Robinson, and WR Ja’Marr Chase. Even more impressively, he did this while only eclipsing 15 touches two times in his first 9 games. With Rachaad White essentially benched in the last few games of the year, Irving was allowed to flourish, but I would expect a more even split of duties next season.
Speaking of Rachaad White, he once again had 1,000 total yards and his 9 total touchdowns were second only to Mike Evans for Tampa Bay. He continues to be a stellar dual threat in the offense, with his receiving and pass protection more than making up for his rather average rushing statistics. However he continues to have a fumble problem. His three fumbles in each of his first three seasons have been less than ideal. In fact, it cost them a game in primetime, as he got stripped on the final drive against the Cowboys while they were attempting to go the length of the field.
Mr. 1000 Leads The WR Room
Mike Evans threw his resume onto the pile of applicants for the NFL receiving pantheon this year in what may be one of the most impressive seasons of his career. He once again had 1,000 yards, his 11th in a row, tying Jerry Rice’s record. While he started a bit slow (in part due to the season Chris Godwin was having), Evans averaged over 95 yards per game in his last seven regular season games, and if not for injury he would have had a shot at the AP All-Pro 1st team. As a matter of fact he nearly matched his league leading touchdown total of last season despite only playing 14 games.
Jalen McMillan played a pivotal role in the offense at the end of the year, finishing with the third most receiving touchdowns by a rookie receiver in Bucs history, and tied for fourth among all rookie touchdowns with Bucky Irving. McMillan struggled to adjust early in the year, but the final five game stretch saw him garner 68.5% of his season total in yards and 7 of his 8 touchdowns. With Godwin out for most of the year, the “next man up” mentality prevailed in the receiving game, and McMillan figures to play a dynamic role next season as well.
I would venture to say most fans thought of Tight End being the weakest offensive position group on the field headed into the season, but with injuries to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, and the Bucs remaining receivers struggling to maintain any sort of consistency, the Tight Ends, particularly Cade Otton, stepped up. He finished with 600 receiving yards, second on the team, and four touchdowns in what was the most productive year of his career.
When Otton went down with a knee injury, Payne Durham ended up contributing to the offense, doubling his receiving yards from 58 to 115 from 2023 to 2024. Though he only logged a target in five games, he got his first two career touchdowns in back to back weeks. Devin Culp, a late round rookie from the prolific Washington offense, managed 88 receiving yards and in just a two week stretch to end the regular season. And while Ko Kieft once again had an uneventful season on offense, he remains a pivotal special teamer and occasional fullback.
Inside The Trenches
The offensive line took a tremendous leap forward this season. Tristan Wirfs, the franchise defining Left Tackle has turned into everything the Bucs have hoped for and then some. He earned All-Pro honors for the second time in his career, this time as a left tackle, becoming the first player in NFL history to do it at both tackle positions.
Luke Goedeke slid back to Right Tackle starting last season, his natural position, and boy howdy did it work out. His PFF grade jumped from the mid-40s as a Left Guard to consistently in the 70s, ranking in the top half of all Tackles this season.
Cody Mauch also made a drastic leap forward after a pretty awful rookie season, and he ranked in the top ten as a pass blocking Guard, and while he struggled in the run game, he avoided penalties, so expect even more growth next season.
Ben Bredeson and Graham Barton had their fair share of struggles. Both were newcomers to the team, and in a position group that relies on chemistry and communication, there are obviously going to be some issues. They were the most penalized among the starters, but I would expect Barton to be improved based on his performance this season, though it is possible Bredeson opts to sign elsewhere.
The Big Picture
Overall, the offense carried the team. While the defense struggled, the offense kept them in games. Baker struggled with turnovers, but more than a few could be attributed to play calling.
Alas, Liam Coen has left for Duval, and Josh Grizzard has taken the helm. The offense has turned into a kingmaking personnel group, and this is the fourth play caller in four years. With Bowles set to lead the team for a fourth year, he will be the longest tenured head coach since Jon Gruden.
I would venture to say that Bowles has been good enough, probably an unpopular opinion among Bucs fans. The defense pretty much reached its floor last season, and they were slightly below mediocre at worst. Unfortunately for other fan bases there were significantly worse defenses.
The roster got old on him quickly, losing both star pass rushers in Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett within a few seasons of each other, his secondary needing extensions, all while balancing paying super stars on offense.
They tried to shore up the holes this season and it didn’t work out, and so now the eyes shift to this offseason. Do they draft another pass rusher? Cornerback? Or do they make a splash, blockbuster trade for Myles Garrett? There are multiple veteran free agent edge rushers available as well.
It will be an important decision for Bowles, Licht, and the rest of the front office, as I truly believe they are just a few pieces from true contention in the NFC.
