Tag: bucs news

Important offseason dates for Bucs fans to know

With the end of the Super Bowl, we’re officially in the offseason — here are some important dates to look out for:

With the Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl (again), the offseason has officially started for the NFL — and naturally, that includes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bucs are set to enter the offseason with a number of free agents needing signing and some holes to plug during the draft, and they’ll have the opportunity to do that for the remaining months until football season starts. There are a few dates coming up that mark important milestones for any football team, and you can see what they are and how exactly they apply to the Bucs in our handy list below:

Former Bucs TE Rob Gronkowski again misses field goal in FanDuel promotion

Gronk is 0-2 in Super Bowl Sunday’s FanDuel event. Tight end might be more his speed.

Former Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski has attempted a field goal as part of a FanDuel promotion for the past two Super Bowls, and based on his results, he may want to stick to playing tight end.

Gronkowski participated in the “Kick of Destiny 2” on Super Bowl Sunday, a follow-up from last year’s event. FanDuel gave out $10 million in free bets dispersed among users who correctly predicted a make or miss. Last year, Gronk kicked it wide left. This year, it was much of the same in the opposite direction.

Gronk’s 25-yard kick went wide right this time, much to the dismay of anyone on FanDuel who truly believed in him this time around. Whether or not there will be a “Kick of Destiny 3” remains to be seen.

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WATCH: Las Vegas Sphere displays Bucs Super Bowl rings

The Sphere in Las Vegas cycled through 57 Super Bowl rings ahead of the big game Sunday, so residents and fans got a good look at both of Tampa Bay’s rings.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl rings, have always looked good, but they’d never quite looked like this.

Super Bowl LVIII is being held in the Fabulous Las Vegas, of course, and that means that the new Sphere is working overtime to add to the presentation. One of the things it showed during the lead-up to the Super Bowl was showcasing all 57 Super Bowl rings before the 58th iteration of the game, and of course, the Bucs appeared twice.

The Sphere showed both Tampa Bay’s XXXVIII and LV rings, and both of them look glorious projected onto the big screen of the Sphere. Check out the video of the rings displayed above.

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WATCH: Tom Brady tosses the Lombardi Trophy in Tampa

Three years ago Saturday, Tom Brady drank a little avocado tequila and created one of the NFL’s most iconic moments at Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl parade.

Three years ago today, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrated their Super Bowl win with a boat parade in Tampa. And it led to one of the NFL’s most iconic post-Super Bowl moments.

Quarterback Tom Brady had been with the Buccaneers for just a year, but that was all it took to win his 7th Super Bowl — and Tampa Bay’s second. He was certainly feeling the love from Bucs fans during the parade, and he would go on to create a legendary moment for the city and the NFL in general.

Brady wound up and tossed the Lombardi Trophy from his boat to the one across from him, and it was caught by then-Bucs tight end Cameron Brate to the applause of the crowd. The moment immediately wormed its way into the hearts of the Bucs faithful, but Brady has said later that he’s very thankful Brate caught the trophy.

“First of all, I was not thinking at that moment. It was not a thought,” Brady said on James Corden’s Late Late Show. “It was, ‘This seems really fun to do. Not to mention, when you get your hands on one of those trophies, there’s a lot of really sharp edges on the bottom. … I found out later, had that been an incomplete pass, that would have went down like 80 feet. I’m so happy that (tight end) Cam (Brate caught it).”

Check out the memory below:

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Bucs HC Todd Bowles, former OC Dave Canales receive 2023 award votes

They didn’t come close to winning, but both Bowles and Canales received votes (however few) for Coach of the Year and Assistant Coach of the Year, respectively.

They didn’t come remotely close to winning, but two Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaches received votes for two year-end awards for the 2023 NFL season.

Both head coach Todd Bowles and former Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales both were among the coaches receiving votes for Coach of the Year and Assistant of the Year for the Associated Press. On the player side, quarterback Baker Mayfield and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. were up for Comeback Player of the Year and Walter Payton Man of the Year, respectfully, but neither won those awards.

Bowles received one third-place vote for Coach of the Year in the system’s ranked-choice voting, earning him just one point and leaving him in a three-way tie for 10th. Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel and Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott were the other two coaches with just one point.

Former Bucs OC and now current Carolina Panthers HC Dave Canales also finished 10th for Assistant Coach of the Year, netting two points with two third-place votes. He finished one vote ahead of San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and one point below Minnesota Vikings DC Brian Flores.

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Hall of Famer Ray Lewis calls Devin White one of NFL’s best linebackers

White is a free agent this offseason — do you want to see him back in Tampa Bay?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Devin White’s tenure in Tampa Bay has been a controversial one, but he recently garnered some praise from one of the best LBs to ever play the game.

Former Baltimore Ravens LB and Hall of Famer Ray Lewis was asked who his top linebackers in the NFL were at the Pro Bowl in Orlando, and he made sure to give the Bucs props. He specifically mentioned White by name, but his praise was moreso all-encompassing.

“Oh man, that’s gonna be hard,” Lewis said when asked. “Roquan Smith, Fred Warner. I love Bobby Wagner. Oh, and probably Devin White or one of them boys in Tampa.”

The “one of those boys” line certainly carries some weight. White’s status as a top linebacker in the NFL hasn’t been the consensus for some time now, and it’s entirely possible that the Bucs may not even re-sign him in free agency this year after teammate K.J. Britt began to take more and more of his snaps in the latter part of the season. David, meanwhile, has still been a force of nature even in his old age and still showcases some of the better linebacker play across the season.

Both White and David are free agents this year, with White approaching the end of his rookie deal and David coming off a one-year contract given to him by the Bucs at the end of the 2022 season.

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Baker Mayfield finishes third in AP Comeback Player of the Year voting

Mayfield was beat out by Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin and the winner of the award in Cleveland’s Joe Flacco.

Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield may have won FOX’s fan-voted Comeback Player of the Year award, but the Associated Press award was not to be.

Mayfield was up for contention with a number of players for the award, but he lost out when it was revealed at the 2024 NFL Honors ceremony. Mayfield placed third in voting for the AP Comeback Player of the Year award, coming in behind Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin and the winner of the award in Cleveland Browns quarterback Joe Flacco.

Mayfield had 10 total first-place votes, 10 second-place votes and 13 third-place votes through the ranked-choice voting that the AP now conducts for seasonal awards. Interestingly enough, Hamlin had by far the most first-place votes with 21, but Flacco’s 26 second-place votes were enough put him over the top as the winner of the award.

As safety Antoine Winfield Jr. did not win the Walter Payton Man of the Year award, no Buccaneers players came away with any awards on Thursday night.

Saints DE Cameron Jordan takes shot at Ryan Jensen on ‘Up & Adams’

For someone who claims the Bucs and Saints don’t have a rivalry, Cameron Jordan certainly thinks about the Bucs quite a bit.

For someone who claims the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints aren’t rivals, Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan seems to talk about Tampa Bay an awful lot.

Jordan was on Kay Adams’ show “Up & Adams,” and the two played a game where a Plinko-type board determined what type of question Jordan had to answer. When tasked with “Guy on another team you’d most like to fight,” Jordan answered by alluding to former Bucs center Ryan Jensen but claiming he couldn’t remember his name.

“The trash can,” Jordan said. “Tampa Bay, center, got hurt two years in a row, I always forget his name, the redhead … big holder, after-the-snap guy.”

Jensen announced his retirement a week ago after a knee injury limited him to one game in the past two seasons. Jordan seems to have a great memory when it comes to Tampa Bay despite claiming that the Bucs and the Saints are not rivals. The last time Jordan played against Jensen was in 2021, when the Saints won 9-0. Tampa Bay scored zero points that game, which is coincidentally the same number of Super Bowl rings held by Cameron Jordan.

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Ranking all 32 teams (including the Bucs) by 2024 strength of schedule

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may be playing a first-place schedule, but thanks to the general woefulness of the NFC South, their overall strength of schedule is among the league’s lowest.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are once again playing a first-place schedule in 2024, but thankfully, the division they’re in will be kind to them.

The Bucs won the NFC South in 2023, but they did it with a 9-8 record — as such, their first-place schedule in the NFC South is one of the easiest in the entire league per strength of schedule, and the rest of the teams in the division will face similar opponents. On the flip side, teams in a brutal division like the AFC North are set to have one of the hardest schedules in football next year, and that particularly applies to teams like the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns.

Here’s a complete ranking of every team’s strength of schedule in 2024, including the Bucs:

WATCH: Baker Mayfield’s hilarious mic’d up moments from the Pro Bowl Games

Never change, Baker.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback [autotag]Baker Mayfield[/autotag] had the opportunity to participate in the Pro Bowl Games after Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott could not play due to injury, and he certainly made it count in Orlando.

Mayfield won the Precision Passing event on Thursday before throwing two touchdowns on Sunday and serving as the MVP of the games. He also happened to be mic’d up, and with a guy like Mayfield, you know that’s always going to be entertaining.

From Mayfield’s outer monologue from warmups, his support of teammate Tristan Wirfs on the sled pull event and his words with the flag football referees, check out some of his hilarious clips from the Pro Bowl Games below: