The Brutal NFC South
April 6th, 2026
Need more than NFC South titles.
When the Bucs boast they have been the beasts of the NFC South in this decade (but have done little else since the Super Bowl win), Joe can hear Bucs fans groan from Bartow to Venice.
NFL owners love winning divisions for obvious reasons. It’s an extra home game and all the rivers of revenue that come with it. NFL people, from coaches to suits, like to say winning a division is hard.
Joe doesn’t dispute that. But fans, rightly so, don’t care after maybe one division title.
For fans, a division title is not something to brag about. If a team can’t do anything but win a division, that’s not a humble brag for fans, it’s an embarrassment.
A division title is nothing more than a stepping stone for fans. If a team can’t do more, then fans believe there is something wrong.
At SI.com, Nicholas Selbe ranked each NFL division. He has the NFC South as the worst.
Joe agrees and also believes Selbe described the Bucs’ plight of many division titles but zero NFC championship appearances since 2020 to be spot-on.
The Buccaneers are talented, but they usually play down to the competition level of the teams in the weakest division in football, which might explain why the NFC South seems to constantly come down to the final weeks of the regular season.
The Bucs often play down to opponents. How often in the last four years have the Bucs blown out an opponent? Not nearly as much as they should have.
Too often, the Bucs play close games (6-6 in one-score games last year). And when you play close games, guess what? You keep the opponent in the game. And when you keep an opponent in the game, you are setting yourself up to lose.
Playing close games isn’t a quality brag. If anything, team leaders often should hang their heads in shame for allowing a lesser opponents in a game, or worse.
April 6th, 2026 at 7:47 am
“For fans, a division title is not something to brag about. If a team can’t do anything but win a division, that’s not a humble brag for fans, it’s an embarrassment.”
This is funny, because winning the division gets you a top 4 playoff seeding and a postseason home game. So talking as if it is meaningless says more about the folks downing it than it says anything about the guys on the field playing for it.
I do agree on the close games, you’ve got to be able to score and stop the other team from scoring. Trying to win games with long spells of nothing on offense, paired with equally inconsistent defense. You end up with 70% of your schedule being games decided by 7 or few points. Can’t win long term like that, and you damn sure can’t make THAT your identity as a team.
April 6th, 2026 at 7:47 am
Spot on post Joe. And yet – the Bucs keep. “coaches have done all we can do” Coach Bowles. SMH..still.
April 6th, 2026 at 8:10 am
Amen, Joe. Winning the NFC south (only) is NO reason for any coach to keep his job. It’s a garbage conference that should be an easy path to the playoffs and masks those coaches swimming naked.
April 6th, 2026 at 8:12 am
NFC East and AFC North–both won fewer games last year
April 6th, 2026 at 8:17 am
Have done little else in the last decade?
Super Bowl counts for nothing? Spoiled rotten
April 6th, 2026 at 8:50 am
Yawn
April 6th, 2026 at 8:57 am
In any other division the Bucs aint cutting it, but still they kept this [Easy man. That’s a bit over the top. — Joe] coach.
April 6th, 2026 at 8:57 am
Pretty sure Joe mentioned that in the second paragraph.
April 6th, 2026 at 8:58 am
Pretty sure Joe mentioned that too.
The Super Bowl was, now, a different time and a different coaching staff and mostly different players.
April 6th, 2026 at 9:01 am
hopefully, this team develops some sense of urgency!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
April 6th, 2026 at 9:17 am
Lovie 2.0 scared to loose mentality. It’s a Bucs life.
April 6th, 2026 at 9:19 am
King of Turds
April 6th, 2026 at 9:20 am
We lost almost all of our Super Bowl team which means there has been huge amounts of roster turnover in the past 5 years. The same thing just happened to Seattle- they lost a lot of players. Look for their defense to drop dramatically in rankings this year. With all the changes, it takes a bit to fully gel.