Five Years Went Quick
February 8th, 2026
Night of nights.
It seems like we were living in a different world.
Five years ago the Bucs actually attacked quarterbacks. Five years ago the Bucs were feared. Five years ago the greatest quarterback not named “Joe Montana” led the Bucs, kicked the franchise squarely in the arse and willed it to be a Super Bowl champion.
Five years ago last night.
What an awesome time that was.
Joe was at that game up in the press box seated next to the Sage of Tampa Bay sports, Ira Kaufman. Joe will never ever forget after the first half in a game where the Bucs throttled the great Pat Mahomes, Ira turned to Joe and yelped about Mahomes, “HE STINKS!” Joe was utterly shocked by Ira’s words.
Joe knew all about how Mahomes was an absolute magician in pulling out wins. Joe never, ever thought the Bucs had the game in the bag, despite the lopsided score, because Joe respected and feared Mahomes that much.
Not until Antoine Winfield flashed the deuce in Cheetah Hill’s grill after an incompletion late did Joe start to feel safe. Then Devin White picked off Mahomes on a tipped pass late in the game.
Watching the confetti pour onto the field as the cannons fired non-stop for what seemed like 15 minutess with the Bucs wildly celebrating seemed absolutely unreal. This was the very same team that just a few months before missed the playoffs (yet again).
The Bucs were the long-running joke of the NFC for a decade and in about nine months were transformed into champions.
What a wild, wild ride that was. And it seemed like only a couple of years ago.
My, how things change so quickly.
Five Years Ago Tonight
SUPERBOWL LV
February 7, 2021Playing on their home turf — Tampa's Raymond James Stadium, the #Buccaneers steamroll the favored #Chiefs, 31-9.
Appearing in his tenth Super Bowl, Tom Brady wins his seventh ring — both records for a player. With three… pic.twitter.com/Qy3Ow5kOEN
— Kevin Gallagher (@KevG163) February 7, 2026
February 8th, 2026 at 12:25 am
Best night of my life, I’m so glad I got to be next to the stadium to experience that moment. It was amazing!
February 8th, 2026 at 12:43 am
A team that was lead by a WINNER as HC!
All downhill since then!
February 8th, 2026 at 2:07 am
But the man who throttled the Mahomes-led Chiefs is now the head coach and defensive coordinator, so Bucs fans are set. Last year, it was clear, everyone else failed except Todd Bowles.
2026, return to dominance.
February 8th, 2026 at 3:46 am
I was just going to say earlier, that the Brady culture is long gone. This is a DEAD franchise with WEAK, LAZY “leadership,” that doesn’t know what the hell they are doing. It’s Over.
February 8th, 2026 at 3:57 am
Brady KNEW what he was walking into here, too! And, he immediately went to WORK changing the culture of this franchise. I mean, HE even made the DEFENSE better! Old DWhite and that young secondary played THEIR ASSES OF FOR HIM. The entire TEAM was scared of letting HIM down. It’s just a shame that they couldn’t have found a way to offer him a piece to stay. Though, I guess, he already had that relationship with the Raiders’ Mark Davis. We were just L’Oréal lucky to have him for as long as we did, and that Gruden REFUSED HIM. Davis wanted him and he was going to play there, until Gruden said HELL NO. So, really, Gruden gave us TWO Super Bowls.
February 8th, 2026 at 4:25 am
We replaced Suh with a 270 lb “DT” who can’t stay on the field- what a surprise!
We replaced Shaq and JPP with YaYa and no one else…..
DWhite was replaced by an even worse ILB in Dennis – he is bad, bad, bad
Gronk for Otton….ugh
Worst and most damaging of all is swapping Bruce for Todd the clown
5 years seems like 50….
February 8th, 2026 at 4:37 am
I think we’re headed for a great year, actually. Already some good hires- now let’s follow that with an excellent free agency haul and huge draft!
February 8th, 2026 at 4:44 am
Let’s be real. Five years ago, the Bucs defense was great. That was because of Todd Bowles. It’s not really different. Lots of lousy coaches came in and diluted the scheme and the players’ understanding. Now they’ve been fired. Lookout NFL.
Super Bowles.
February 8th, 2026 at 5:51 am
“Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end…”
February 8th, 2026 at 6:37 am
I know this’ll go to the dungeon Joe and not come out, but just in case YOU haven’t yet seen this article:
AP Sports published an article yesterday entitled “How Aggressive Free Agency Moves Led the Patriots and Seahawks to the Super Bowl” written by Josh Dubow Feb 7, 2026). It’s at https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-free-agency-04e345041045d83de810406fa60c0da
One of the key paragraphs tells how the Patriots did it …
“The Patriots handed out the most money on the unrestricted free agent market, with more than $364 million in contracts — nearly $100 million more than the next-highest team — handed out to 19 free agents, according to Spotrac. New England also led in guaranteed money spent, with nearly $175 million of those deals fully guaranteed.”
The Seahawks weren’t that far behind in using free agency …
“The Seahawks came in fourth in free agency spending at more than $205 million, led by a three-year, $100.5 million deal for quarterback Sam Darnold as well as smaller contracts to edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence and receiver Cooper Kupp.”
The Bucs pretty much did a similar thing in 2020 when we brought in Brady, then Gronk, Antonio Brown & Fournette, although it was mostly Brady who brought those guys on. But without them, I doubt we would’ve won that Super Bowl.
The Patriots GM, Eliot Wolf, provide a great analysis on free agency in that article …
“We felt like we needed a total culture shift. We spent a lot of time doing work on the type of people that we brought in, and it’s crazy to say, but I don’t know that we missed on a person. Not every player has been the greatest free agent signing ever, but all the people that brought in during free agency have been phenomenal.”
February 8th, 2026 at 7:11 am
Mahomes with a decimated offensive line, and a future HOF or two on defense
February 8th, 2026 at 7:19 am
My youngest daughter and I were fortunate enough to get Club Level tickets to the game for face value from the Bucs. I knew when the Chiefs could only muster a field goal after the half that the game was over. Then when Playoff Lenny followed Marpet’s block into the end zone, the defense put on a show. Just like the defensive display in San Diego. Fortunate enough the be at that one too with wife, oldest daughter, and son. I miss those days when our defenders dominated.
February 8th, 2026 at 7:21 am
The winning/champion attitude left the building when Brady left (I believe on account of TB being the coach)! You can see, and feel the losing mentality creeping back into this franchise. I think BAD management and ownership decision are taking us back down to the seller! What a shame!
February 8th, 2026 at 7:30 am
My son is a Bucs fan by birthright( sorry kid) but he was too young to really remember the first Super Bowl so all he really knew was losing. When we got to the second SB he didn’t know how to react but he was nervous. As it became clear late in the game that we would win, and then eventually did, I swear I got more satisfaction out of seeing his reaction then my own euphoria. Emotional but awesome. Go Bucs!!!
February 8th, 2026 at 7:37 am
Brady was to licht as gruden was
to dungy. if you look at those highlights gronk, fournette and brown scored the tds. Fournette and gronk with big games. The downfall began the draft of that year when licht made a statement predraft the bucs are drafting from a position of luxury. That mindset drafted kyle trask in the second round and jts in the first round. He has been a lousy gm since the super bowl. and was a mid gm before it who was saved by brady
February 8th, 2026 at 7:50 am
Miss Arians as our coach. Sending him a quick recovery from his heart surgery.
Any update Joe?
February 8th, 2026 at 7:54 am
Thats what happens when you hire the 2x Coach of the Year and sign the Goat. You bring winners in and you win. Now you see what the Bucs have at HC and QB and you see the results because they’ve gotten those same results on other teams.
Thats a good point by Oxy, the draft after the SB would’ve been to reload the roster for another run, but oh well.
I’m sure thr Bucs will coach it better and play it better this upcoming season.
February 8th, 2026 at 9:03 am
How much of a say so did BA have in the defense? I can’t imagine Todd was left totally alone (like he is now) in calling the defense he calls now.
February 8th, 2026 at 11:08 am
Half a decade ago!
Licht and Arians living off a SB win 5 years ago.
TURN THE PAGE GLAZERS
Licht is .449 winning % over 12 years. That’s with Brady.
Licht sucks. Clean house.
February 8th, 2026 at 11:35 am
The night Mandarin Bob and coach Billy took a beating. Unforgettable.
February 8th, 2026 at 11:39 am
“My, how things change so quickly.”
And this is why so many fans are sick of hearing about the ‘culture’ Todd and Licht have instilled in this organization. Everyone can see it, this team has reverted back to a soft, stale, boring brand.
February 8th, 2026 at 11:49 am
Congrats you got to experience that in person. What a gift! Was just chatting about all the teams fans that have never had the feeling and chemical rush of their team wing s Superbowl. So sad for them, atl, buff, det, to name just a few. My wife (of20 years) is a Patriots fan I’m a Bucs fan after today we will have 9 Superbowl victories in this household. So grateful we aren’t fans of loosers ha ha. Go Bucs!
February 8th, 2026 at 12:24 pm
A glorious night it was. Lightning in a bottle…although the following season could have ended with another…but it didn’t. Licht nailed the top 2 picks Wirfs and Winfield Jr. Since that draft…we’ve seen a JTS, a Logan Hall, a Kyle Trask, a Chris Braswell, Benji Morrison ( early but he looks burnt toasty so far ) picked in the 1st 2 rounds. Grace period is over for all at One Buc Place in 2026.
February 8th, 2026 at 1:03 pm
Here we are on SB Sunday. Stuck with Bowzo for another year. Guess alls we can do is suffer through it and hope for a miracle. Ready for BLUNDERBALL.
February 8th, 2026 at 1:43 pm
What are you talking about Aqualung?
We had JPP, Suh, and Barrett with Vea up front.
More importantly, Mahomes was behind a decimated OL, made our patchwork OL last year look like All Pros in comparison.
Any DC in the league could have delivered those results. The proof is in what Bowles has done since then.
February 8th, 2026 at 1:47 pm
So, so many memories.. AWJ31 flashing Cheetah the duece, and Chris Collinsworth completing f’n up the call, forgetting that’s exactly what Cheetah to AWJ31 during the regular season as he ran past him into the end zone. Calling the SB and not knowing that! Inexcusable! I too was in Club level seats. Remember all the cardboard cutouts because of Covid? Stupid. I was lucky enough to sit by Gronk’s girlfriend Camille, who could not have been nicer. She also danced with me during The Weeknd’s halftime show. I also got to walk out with Ali Marpet’s dad. But the absolute cherry on top was the streaker! Running towards the end zone in a hot pink unitard with his a$$ out with the crowd going wild, then getting tackled a yard short of the goal line. No one saw it who wasn’t there at the time because none of it was shown on tv-at the time. The Best!!!!
February 8th, 2026 at 2:00 pm
HC Grover … ‘Stuck with Bowzo for another year. Guess alls we can do is suffer through it and hope for a miracle.’
I’ve said many times that I wish that Bowles would give up the DC hat. BUT … I look back at 2023’s defense and that was the best defense we’ve had under him for his whole 7-year stretch as our DC. Bucs’ defense ranked 7th on the year, only gave up 325 points (19.1 PPG average), generated 26 takeaways (13 INT & 13 FR). The secret in my estimation was that although we gave up a bunch of yards (5852 yds ranked #23), we held beautifully in the Red Zone (only allowed 23 TDs in 54 attempts for 42.6%, ranked #3 in the NFL).
And the strange thing is that we had already lost our bulls on the defensive front: Suh, JPP & RNR. Our biggest sack producer was Diaby with 7.5 sacks. Heck, Shaq only gave us 4.5 sacks & Devin White only provided 2.5 sacks. And yet on the season our defense still generated 47 sacks, with only 136 pressures. There was some good news though: our Missed Tackle Rate that year was only 6.3% and explosive plays were held down. IOW, we made our opponents really ‘work for it’.
There were a lot of youngsters on that team (2 years or less experience), yet they produced. For example, Izien (undrafted) gave us 17 games, with 719 def snaps (64%). McCollum had a good year, giving us 17 games, 785 def snaps (70%). Winfield really balled out that year, playing all 17 games with 100 def snaps (98%), 3 INT, 6 sacks, 122 tackles.
And oh ya, that was the last year for Devin White, and although he kinda whined himself off the Bucs, he actually had a pretty decent year (14 games with 2 INT, 2.5 sacks, 83 tackles & a 67.4% Pass Completions Allowed).
Point being … Todd somehow got that defense to produce very well, even though the talent level wasn’t great. Since then we’ve lost Davis, White, Shaq, Gholston, JTS, Neal & a couple others. None of those 6 were spectacular that year, but Todd still made it work somehow. I’m trying (desperately) to keep an open mind about our 2026 defense. Add in several quality free agents, have a quality draft focused on defense, add in a couple of good assistant coaches and who knows what we MIGHT end up with.
February 8th, 2026 at 2:40 pm
If it weren’t for everyone else except Todd Bowles, the Bucs could be playing today.
February 8th, 2026 at 2:55 pm
DR
Bowles hasn’t brought in anyone on the defensive staff that would possibly push back on his terrible performance as DC. That’s no coincidence.
What have we heard from Licht? Crickets.
He’s gone back to his Homer Simpson fading into the hedge routine..he should, until he can be replaced.
February 8th, 2026 at 3:46 pm
Five years ago we had the same DC.
February 8th, 2026 at 4:39 pm
We were told Devon White was whining at the time, but I think he saw Todd Bowles defense for what it was
Minous of us knew that back then too
February 8th, 2026 at 5:04 pm
Brady was HC, DC, OC, Gm
February 8th, 2026 at 5:43 pm
Jmarkbuc … ‘Bowles hasn’t brought in anyone on the defensive staff that would possibly push back on his terrible performance as DC. That’s no coincidence. What have we heard from Licht? Crickets.’
Like I’ve said before Jmark, I really wish that Bowles would relinquish his DC hat & let the new DC pick his own staff. Bucs desperately need some new blood on the defensive staff.
Todd took over as HC in 2022, and our defense ranked #13 that year (after ranking #5 in 2021). But the defense bounced back in 2023 to a #7 ranking. Then the bottom fell out (might have had something to do with getting rid of Davis & White as starters?). We fell to a #16 ranking in 2024 (surrendering 60 more pts than we did in 2023), then even further to a #20 ranking in 2025 (giving up an additional 26 pts that year).
Obviously our defense has been moving in the wrong direction, but why? Well, we had a number of new starters in those 2 years, PLUS we sustained a BUNCH of injuries. The latter is only significant IMO IF you have lousy DEPTH. Yup, that be us … lousy depth. Every level of our defense needs upgrading, and I think most JBFers are in agreement on that. It’s gonna take some smart FA moves and some great drafting for us to fix this.
Maybe that’s why we haven’t heard crickets from JL to this point. Free agency doesn’t start until Weds, March 11th and the draft doesn’t start until Thurs, April 23rd. Not much for JL to say until he can start working some deals.
February 8th, 2026 at 6:09 pm
Pretty sure that was a factor.
February 8th, 2026 at 7:38 pm
2023… “that was the last year for Devin White, and although he kinda whined himself off the Bucs, he actually had a pretty decent year (14 games with 2 INT, 2.5 sacks, 83 tackles & a 67.4% Pass Completions Allowed).”
——-
And why was White ‘whining’? Because Bowles changed the defense – went from the aggressive man-to-man defense that won the SB to laying the soft zone garbage that has plagued the team since Arians left and isn’t around to yell Bowles to stay aggressive. Carlton Davis also complained for the same reason, was also ran out of town because of it.
February 9th, 2026 at 12:08 am
Sask – Bowles coached up those players, and it’s everyone else’s fault that he’s had two losing seasons out of four, including Tom Brady’s only losing season of his whole life. Bowles got them to 6-2 this year, then everyone else checked out. Not his fault. He runs a masterful defensive scheme and rigorous, detailed practices.
His record speaks for itself.
Super Bowles.
February 9th, 2026 at 2:44 am
5 years ago was
“Nobody runs on the bucs and no risk it no biscuit”
Good ol’ Arians time