“They Brought The Band Back Again”
May 18th, 2025
Not quite elite says former PFFer.
Could the Bucs make a run at the No. 1 seed in the NFC? One former high priest of the PFF tribe thinks the Bucs are in the discussion.
Breaking down the Bucs in the weeks after the draft, former minor league pitcher Steve Palazzolo and Sam Monson, the former head chiefs of the PFF tribe until they bolted to The 33rd Team, broke down the Bucs as underwear football is just days away.
Monson thinks the Bucs could be a challenger for the No. 1 seed because they return every starter — and maybe added another starter — to an already top-three offense.
“They brought the band back again,” Monson said. “They kept a lot of the players that they were in danger of losing, and kept a really good nucleus intact for this team to do well again, like Baker Mayfield.
“[Mayfield] has settled, I think, now, into this like high-level quarterback who maybe isn’t elite, but is in the next group down. And then he’s got weapons to play with.
“Mike Evans, Chris Godwin is back, albeit coming off his injury. [Jalen] McMillan is there now. You add Emeka Egbuka in the first round. You’ve got Bucky Irving. You’ve got Rashad White, Sean Tucker. Like the backfield is incredibly good.”
Monson then added he sees no reason why the Bucs offense cannot be as good as last year’s.
“This is a good group of weapons and a pretty good offensive line,” Monson said. “This should be a good offense within a division that is always there to be won, until, you know, one of these other teams sort of takes a significant jump forward.”
The NFC South is the Bucs’ house until proven otherwise. Yeah, Joe likes that.
But Monson has a strong point. The Bucs likely didn’t reach their 2024 potential because of injuries. If the offense can find a way to stay healthy, who knows how far it could carry the Bucs in January, or beyond.
May 18th, 2025 at 8:20 am
Good nucleus of weapons on offense, lots of optimism on defense and a ton of skepticism about the head coach! My issue as a 47yr Bucs fan is this. How can the team….JL and Glazers…address the weaknesses of the team and pursue excellence but fail to do anything to improve the head coach position? They fired Tony Dungy for a helluva lot less than this mediocre coach has provided.
May 18th, 2025 at 8:38 am
I wonder if a reunion with gruden is in the works if Bowles can’t get it done
May 18th, 2025 at 8:40 am
I don’t understand what the criteria is for “Elite” QB play at this point. If having the most touchdowns in the league the last two seasons, top 5 in yards, leading a top 3 offense last season and 2 straight division titles all without a defense isn’t considered elite, then idk what is.
Also, “pretty good” offensive line? Its like
No matter what we do, we never quite get the credit we deserve. I appreciate that he still considers us contenders, but that’s a very tepid description that I don’t think is accurate.
May 18th, 2025 at 8:55 am
Bucs MY. Baker Mayfield is not a elite quarterback you can’t be a elite quarterback playing for 4 different teams. And again Baker is 30 years old he’s not 27 years old. He don’t have 3 or four more years to get to a super bowl he’s never played in a conference championship game. We can’t keep blaming the defense because if need the 02 bucs defense to win a Superbowl then we will never win a Superbowl with Baker Mayfield. NFC Championship or bust no more excuses for a 30 year old quarterback with the weapons he has on offense and with a ok defense. When the defense was ranked 7th and he threw a pick to lose the lions game in the playoffs y’all blamed the defense. I watch Jaden Daniels will his team to victory’s in the playoffs his rookie year and Baker Mayfield has way more than Daniels to work with.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:02 am
Baker Mayfield is a top 5 quarterback and I think he is going to be in the discussion for MVP this season.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:03 am
Stillabucsfan Says:
May 18th, 2025 at 8:38 am
No.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:10 am
Time will tell.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:29 am
Buc ML, elite is just a throw away word the useless talking heads use to make content. Kind of like a couple of years ago when “dynamic” became something.
The same people that blathered on and on about Kenny Pickett’s preseason qb rating a couple of Augusts ago will soon start with the “Is (fill in the blank) elite?” For a while it was Dak, this year it might be Baker. Regardless it’s all opinion.
Then again I can be totally wrong. Apparently Oneilbuc has found a specific set of rules regarding how many teams someone can play for before being ineligible for elitism. Hopefully he can share a link so we can all read from the official rule book of the elite.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:35 am
Baker isn’t perfect but neither are any of these other QB’s. If you think one QB will get us over the hump you are wrong. Maybe I would take Josh Allen, but Lamar is a choke job in the playoffs, and Mahomes is assisted by the refs except against Brady. Though this last Superbowl he did so bad that even the refs couldnt help him. Lawrence, Tua, Watson all make/made more than Baker and have provided what? I cannot even think of any other QB’s other than Purdy and he led his team to a Superbowl but probably due to coaching and elite talent surrounding him. I think a seriously drop off continues for the 49ers.
Baker is in the MVP conversation if he reduces his tendency to get happy feet and throw INT’s though the Saints game was an anomaly and really messed up those stats lol.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:36 am
Any QB who throws for 4500 yards, 41 TD’s, and a 71% completion percentage with a 106.8 passer rating is elite. At least for that season.
And Bake is definitely elite talent-wise and with all the intangibles, and I think his performance on the field will reflect that from now on and he will be an elite QB for the rest of his career here.
Haters gonna hate, that’s just the nature of things.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:49 am
The secret sauce is health and D.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:55 am
Why do people continue to embarrass themselves here with their Bowles takes?
“a ton of skepticism about the head coach!”
From who? Trolls on a blog? Certainly Bowles hasn’t hurt the team’s record. He’s the 3rd winningest coach in Bucs history. Admittedly not saying a ton given the expansion start but still that’s a significant number of coaches after the growth pains. What NFL “expert” has said the Bucs have suffered because of Todd’s coaching?
Here’s the kind of dumb takes you can read here.
“I wonder if a reunion with gruden is in the works if Bowles can’t get it done”
WHY? In 3 of the 4 years following his SB win with Dungy’s team, Chucky went 7-9…5-11…rebound with 11-5 and then a “stellar” 4-12!!!!
Chucky wasn’t FIRED after those three HORRIBLE seasons. He got two more years of 9-7 and if his team hadn’t collapsed in that final year he probably would have gotten more!
Bowles has yet to stink it up like Chucky yet some of you Gomers want to run him. Because he doesnt’ have a loud mouth? What other reason is there. Because YOU don’t agree with his methods. Is it a results driven league or do blog posters know more than the league.
May 18th, 2025 at 9:58 am
Oniel still cleaning Winston’s dirty diapers I see
May 18th, 2025 at 10:11 am
We yet again have the worst division in football.
So we should make the dance…
Then who knows?
May 18th, 2025 at 10:36 am
Gruden was stinkin it up with the Raiders before the scandal.
His coaching days in the big leagues are over. At least here, hopefully.
May 18th, 2025 at 11:29 am
regarding bowles ‘debate’ comparing him with gruden is kinda impossible by using team records. GMs give the coaches the players, and bowles only calls the D. gruden only calls the O (using wayback machine). bowles gets the worst version of this division all-time, probably, while riding on coattails of a Brady-built team that was guaranteed to get whatever it wanted. Arians helping the offense behind the scenes in all likelihood. that being said, bowles had to deal with what, a 90-mill salary cap shortfall when brady left? then an unassisted leftwich as his OC? Dungy was fired because he couldn’t come up with 10 points to win a playoff game his team clearly should have won, and because he thought he could play Shaun King-safe and win all the important low-scoring games. Gruden’s job was entirely to take Dungy’s players the rest of the way, which he did thanks to smart signings including QB Brad Johnson and Keyshawn and um McCardell I think and Christy etc. Gruden enjoyed a perfect season, then proved to be no-good at dealing with successful veterans and the team got flat, which never would happen under Dungy, or even Bowles. The point is, how the heck can anyone tell who’s a good coach? all we know is they almost all suck at something, even the good ones. Bowles is great at the stuff you don’t see, and terrible at some of the stuff that’s impossible to hide. Gruden is great at the stuff you see and terrible at the stuff you don’t see. At least with bowles, it’s theoretically possible to put smart guys under him so he can just watch with pride and focus on the other six days of the week
May 18th, 2025 at 11:30 am
No they didn’t. THEY DIDN’T BRING BACK TRYON BRITT & NEAL. WE NROKE THE BAND UP!😃
May 18th, 2025 at 11:42 am
In Dungy’s 1999-2000 NFC Title Game 11-6 loss to Rams both automatica’s FGs were under 25 yards. WR corps was very small, and Dave Moore had only TE catch. Refs stole critical catch from Emanuel. Next year automatica missed at Lambeau to cost us division, and we laid 21-3 egg against Philly in WC. Gruden was seen as a savior lol. By the way, Bucs had easiest Super Bowl win of all-time, facing Raiders team that was falling apart, had a guy missing in Mexico, and quarterbacked by Gruden’s former QB. They never had a chance.
May 18th, 2025 at 11:43 am
Excellent article Joe, and the title (‘They Brought The Band Back Again’) actually says it all for me. Bucs developed a great chemistry last year on offense, and our defense (although suffering lots of injuries) gained tons of experience. That defense gave up 26.6 PPG average prior to our BYE (10 games), but buckled down after that (last 7 games) and only surrendered an average of 17 PPG. That 10 PPG difference is HUGE, and among other things it’s probably representative of the fact that our youngsters got lots of experience in those first 10 games.
Question is … ‘Will that be passed on to 2025?’ Yes & No I think. Last year’s guys SHOULD continue to improve (Tykee Smith & Braswell). This year’s rookies (Morrison, Parrish, Walker, Roberts), will probably take some time to work into the rotations, but as long as they’ve ‘evolved’ by the 2nd half of the season then my guess is that we’ll be fine.
Personally I’d be elated if our offense just produces what they produced last season, albeit more consistently. They were knocking on the 30 PPG door constantly last season (ended with 29.5 PPG average); that’s a pretty high standard to exceed. If our offense stays in the Top-10 (we ranked #4 last season), and our defense improves back into the Top-10 (ranked #16 in 2024 but #7 in 2023), no reason we can’t be in the hunt for the Super Bowl this year.
May 18th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
Unfortunately the band includes the HC\DC that can’t scheme a defense.
And goes ultra conservative on offense with the game on the line.
He’s worse than Dungy was because there was no offense for Dungy.
If the offense is so elite and you trust the defense, why not play to win?
In the end Bowles has no business as a HC.
“Just gotta get better” _- Todd Bowles
May 18th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
Becker
Rich, McKay and Tony Dungy signed Keyshawn Johnson, and then Brad Johnson the next year. They were already here when Gruden got here.
May 18th, 2025 at 12:37 pm
Traded for, not signed.
May 18th, 2025 at 12:40 pm
The general fan base. As much as Joe personally likes Todd Bowles, he’s not a popular coach with many Bucs fans.
May 18th, 2025 at 1:10 pm
thanks guys, tried to do it without looking stuff up (except philly score lol) so mccardell was the WR that proved key addition that year. some of the team’s incoming/outgoing guys those years, man, little help coming and a lot leaving
May 18th, 2025 at 1:13 pm
Additions Subtractions
WR Keyshawn Johnson (Jets) QB Trent Dilfer (Ravens)
G Randall McDaniel (Vikings) TE John Davis (Vikings)
C Jeff Christy (Vikings) T Paul Gruber (retirement)
DT Brad Culpepper (Bears)
WR Bert Emanuel (Dolphins)
LB Hardy Nickerson (Jaguars)
that’s what going for it looked like in 2020, and draft was of course rough without a first and a fourth. so many huge names
May 18th, 2025 at 1:14 pm
sorry it left out the tabs, all subtractions except for Keyshawn, McDaniel, Christy
May 18th, 2025 at 1:28 pm
FWIW, Gruden’s winning percentage in regular season games as coach of the Bucs is lower than Bowles’ winning percentage. And realistically, outside of the the SB season, Gruden’s teams were pretty mediocre. Also, the guy was a disaster in the draft. I feel these points need to be repeated whenever some id10t floats the idea of Chucky as coach again.
May 18th, 2025 at 2:21 pm
Joe..
Had them on the team..
May 18th, 2025 at 2:31 pm
Sorry for the “Kool Aide Drinkers” (the few in a bubble mind you) that believe Bowles has done Almost Anything well!
The ONLY impressive feat the man has done is pick decent OC’s. I’ll give him that much. And that’s about IT…
DO WE REALLY NEED TO LIST THE OBVIOUS REASONS WHY THE MAJORITY WOULDN’T SHED A TEAR TO SEE HIM KICK ROCKS, ONCE AGAIN? DO YOU PEOPLE REALLY NEED TO BE REMINDED AGAIN????
Don’t worry. This IS THE LAST YEAR of his contract! There IS a BIG REASON as to “WHY” the organization ISN’T Falling Over Themselves to extend him!
Why don’t You Geniuses FIGURE IT OUT! This IS his Last Chance!
May 18th, 2025 at 2:40 pm
No chuck…🔥 todd
May 18th, 2025 at 2:50 pm
I get why in the past fans were skeptics of Bowles, but it seems the last few years when the team is healthy, on both sides, they are a solid squad. I know Dungy was fired for not producing in the playoffs too, but if the team and players love their coach does it matter what the fans think? Nope. Just odd that Gruden is showing up all of a sudden, but then again it is a milestone season at 50 years. 2025 should be interesting in Tampa. Go Bucs!
May 18th, 2025 at 3:00 pm
Bringing the band back together has not produced another ring or even a nfc championship game. The Band is only good enough for a division championship but I guess thats better than nothing.
May 18th, 2025 at 3:02 pm
WeakSecondary … ‘Unfortunately the band includes the HC\DC that can’t scheme a defense. In the end Bowles has no business as a HC.’
Well, not much doubt about where you stand on the Todd Bowles issue. Some folks spend a lot of time talking about his perceived limitations (time management in games, mediocre pass defense, etc), but never address any of the improvements he and JL have made over these past 3 years.
Our Offense has undergone a transformation to be sure, and Todd Bowles has now done that with FOUR different OCs. Care to pick another HC who can say that? He also hand-picked our QB, and we’ve made some significant changes on our OLine, in our RB room & even among our WRs during that time. But no, Todd Bowles had nothing to do with any of that I’m sure.
Defensively we’ve undergone dramatic changes IMO. Players still remaining from 2021 are: (1) LVD; (2) Vea; (3) Winfield; (4) Nelson; (5) Dean. That’s it; the big guns (Suh, JPP, Shaq, etc) are all gone. Think of all the new YOUNG pieces that’ve been added, and all the development that’s gone into getting them prepared. Bowles has overseen a 3-year almost total rebuilding of our defense (and we’re not finished yet), but hey, let’s make sure he gets no credit for that.
Reality to me is that Bucs are still a work in progress, but this team has proven to be very competitive for these past 3 years. And there’s no reason IMO that we won’t be competitive again this year.
May 18th, 2025 at 3:18 pm
Thanks @DR for your usual balanced, data driven, objective post.
May 18th, 2025 at 3:23 pm
If this team can field just a 15th ranked defense sky is the limit. Offense is set. It’s on you todd
May 18th, 2025 at 3:38 pm
I have a gnawing suspicion that since Todd has no check and balance, as he is his own boss and therefore gives himself performance reviews, he can trick himself into believing the hype that he is a defensive guru because of his “exotic blitzes.” We all saw what they produced in 2024 — easily picked up blitzes, pass rushers who can’t cover and coverage guys busting their assignments due to confusion about their specific role on a play call.
Time to simplify, coach up the players, get pressure with 4, play more press man, and clog the middle. Then we can be on the road to improvement. Otherwise, decline will continue.
May 18th, 2025 at 5:08 pm
It’s nice to see that they dropped Tucker’s name in this article. He is a very talented runner and deserves more of White’s touches.
Todd is a defensive genius yet he has such bad defenses?! However, he has mastered the WAO (Wide A$$ Open) defense & it all starts with drafting cover corners to play 10 yards off the ball, especially on 3rd & 3!?
“But the defense had a lot of injuries last year.” Do you know who else had a lot of injuries last year? Our top five ranked offense. Wirfs missed at least two games. Geodeke missed three or four games. The Starting Center (name eludes me) & White missed the game in New Orleans. The starting tight end (again, a blank) missed a game or two. Evans missed three or four games and of course Godwin missed several games. The offense still performed well. I can’t say this for certainty but, it probably performed well, because the playcalling and schemes were good. Even the most ardent, Todd fans must honestly struggle to say the same thing.
He keeps winning the worst division in the NFL. He has done it a time or two around the .500 mark, with the GOAT no less. He even showed the GOAT to his only losing record in 23 years! Real owners are courageous enough to cut a mediocre coach, even after they win their division and/or are a one-and-done in the playoffs. They see the present and attempt to predict the future. “Maybe his ceiling has been reached”, they think, so they upgrade whenever it’s time to upgrade.
To Todd’s credit, I think he has gotten better and has learned on the job but, he should not remain if progress with the record or his defense isn’t made this year. If Grizzard turns out to be a good OC, we should not lose our third OC in a row in Leau of Todd. We can find a high school coach that can lead our bottom five defense.
For those of us paying attention, it has nothing to do with his Dungy-like attitude. It has much more to do with his rotten defensive schemes that he seems too stubborn to change. Does anyone remember the announcers during the Dallas game, wondering what Todd Bowles was doing on defense? The only offensive weapon they had was Lamb and that defense was diced up by Cooper Rush!? With the playoffs on the line, the Bucs should have smoked that team!
There are many more examples of Todd’s poor performances but, I’m done for now. Todd is the biggest obstacle between our Bucs & the Super Bowl yet, I pray he proves me wrong. The wrong coordinator left.
May 18th, 2025 at 5:36 pm
Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen , Lamar Jackson , Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Jaden Daniel and Brock Purdy has proven to be better than Baker Mayfield. With the weapons Baker Mayfield has all of those quarterbacks would get to at least the conference championship some of them has played in Superbowls and won . Top 5 quarterback please he will never be a top 5 quarterback at this point of his career because he’s already 30 years old. Those quarterbacks are still in their 20s and they have already pass Baker Mayfield. And all of them plays in divisions that the bucs with Baker Mayfield will not win in those divisions. All you have to do is look at the records the past 2 years. I just hope we get to the NFC Championship game first then we can talk about the Superbowl next year. If we get to the Superbowl this year is a bonus!!