The Devalued Bowl

July 8th, 2023

Center Ryan Jensen

Joe enjoyed this segment on Stay In Bed because the BSPN feature not only was highlighting/lowlighting the Bucs, it put a spotlight on Week 1, just 64 short days away.

The roundtable crew included, among others, NFL super insider Jeff Darlington, the pride of Seminole High School, and longtime Bengals receiver Andrew Hawkins. The crew tasked itself to name the 2022 NFC playoff team that will not make the postseason in 2023.

It was a split decision.

Two chose the Bucs and two chose the depleted Vikings. Hey, that’s the opening day matchup when Tampa Bay heads to Minnesota!

“We’ve seen what a Tom Brady departure looks like for a team, and we’ve also seen what a Baker Mayfield-led team looks like,” Hawkins said in support of choosing Tampa Bay to sit home in January.

Darlington gave a light spanking to his colleagues picking the Bucs, saying that was “the easy and obvious choice” (huh?). He went with the Vikings citing their personnel losses that include Dalvin Cook, as well as Minnesota winning a historic number of tight games last season.

Joe can’t play the “one-score-game” silliness with Darlington. Good teams win tight games. However, the Vikings seem to have taken a full step back from their 13-4 selves of 2022.

Joe certainly would have put the overhyped Giants in the conversation.

Regardless, up next are these Vikings and Bucs, a game that could have playoff tiebreaker implications come January.

18 Responses to “The Devalued Bowl”

  1. SB~LV Says:

    Established coaching staff > new staff and roster

  2. Hodad Says:

    Why the picture of Jensen? You devaluing him Joe? Watched some of the Raider Ram game today the first game for Baker. I came away impressed. Not so much by Baker, although he played well for only being with the team to days. Who really impressed me was Gaines. He’s very disruptive. Fast off the ball, and gets in back field. Looks like a great pickup.

  3. Stanglassman Says:

    Hodad- I watched that recently too. I also watched the hour game cut of the Christmas day game vs the Steelers. Baker lit them up for 50+ in a blowout. Definitely worth checking out.

  4. Crickett Baker Says:

    Meh. They have 32 teams to figure out and need to rush it. Not to mention they are usually wrong. I agree with what someone said on another post. If someone wants to make a lot of money (with a lot of work) just set up a site that scores the biggest pundits on their predictions. THAT would be a site worth watching and a lot of entertainment would be had by us watching them defending their positions. 😀

  5. Crickett Baker Says:

    There could be a bunch of interesting names for a site like that. lol

  6. Mr. Editor Says:

    Please, Joe(s), more intel on the Vikings! The X factor might be Kirk Cousins, who got punished the last time that our beloved Bucs played the Vikings. Yes, I liked that! Still, he might have the potential of being listed among those mediocre QBs, such as Case Keenum and Derek Anderson, who look like All Pro, All World, Hall of Famers against our defense.

  7. Mr. Editor Says:

    I meant to add that Cousins has extra motivation because this is essentially a contract year for him.

  8. SB~LV Says:

    Kirk Cousins also had a breakout game against the Bucs when he was with the Redskins

  9. Chris@Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa Says:

    Of course I want the Bucs to beat the Vikings opening day, but my head tells me otherwise.
    The Vikings play tuff at home, and even depleted are heavily favored to kick our Butts.
    Jerk Cousins really lit the Bucs up in the past, and might do it again if we have no pressure.

  10. Arn platz Says:

    Problem is all these pundits are writing off the Bucs because we went from Brady to Mayfield. They ignore the fact that we still have a good defense, O-line will surprise people, still have Godwin and Evans. I like our chances, Go Bucs.

  11. AnonymousBuc76 Says:

    I’m loving it…

    The media love affair is over now (thank goodness) that Brady is gone and it’s easy to kick us while we’re “down”…
    There’s plenty of bulletin board material by now and more to come…Meanwhile I’m sure every Bucs player not named Devin White is listening to all of the doom a gloom, jokes, and punchlines waiting for the chance to prove all of these clowns wrong…

  12. Oddball Says:

    Why the picture of Jensen?

    Kinda wondering that too.

  13. Buccos Says:

    It all depends on the coaching. This could easily be a 10 win team with the current talent on the roster and the easy division and extra game. Bowles needs to bring his A game if he’s got one and Canales is auditioning for the HC job

  14. Steven007 Says:

    Defenses typically start out hotter than offenses at the beginning of the season, so this might give us a slight edge as well.

  15. garro Says:

    Geez… I can not wait till we have something besides BS experts uninformed opinions about teams that haven’t played any real footbal yet.

    Maybe some actal footbal games and how the team actually played!

    Geez this is getting old!

    Go Bucs!

  16. Scubog Says:

    As usual, all of the so-called “experts” just echo each other with the all too common, short-sighted narrative, that concludes that Brady is gone and that alone means the Bucs will “suck” and win no more than 6.5 games. Sure is a bit disrespectful to the other 52 players on the team who may even be a little anxious to get out of Tom Brady’s shadow.

  17. Slimy Toadface Says:

    Google Demar Dotson in today’s news Joe. It’s sad?

  18. Joe Says:

    Google Demar Dotson in today’s news Joe. It’s sad?

    Read about it yesterday. Really hoping it’s not true. Demar Dotson is one of the kindest guys Joe has ever dealt with. That story is so, so unlike him. Very sad.