The Buccaneers will be hard to watch in 2023 … except for the one game they wear creamsicle throwbacks.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not be an easy team to watch in 2023.
Tom Brady’s retirement left a gaping hole at quarterback — one the team tried to plug by signing Baker Mayfield. Mayfield, a former top overall pick, finished 2022 as the worst starting QB in the NFL by a significant margin.
He’ll be bolstered by a rushing offense that averaged a league-worst 3.4 yards per carry. On the other side of the ball, he’ll inherit a defense that allowed at least 30 points in four of its last six games, including 31 in a home loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.
That means, despite a very winnable NFC South, the best Buccaneers fans may be able to hope for is a washout season and a place at the top of next spring’s NFL Draft where stud quarterback prospects Caleb Williams and Drake Maye will be waiting. But, at the very least, there will be one game where Tampa Bay looks awesome.
In Week 6, right after the club’s too-early bye, the franchise will reintroduce Buccaneer Bruce back into the NFL’s ecosystem. Tampa Bay’s orange-toned swashbuckler will return to the team’s helmets as Mayfield, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Devin White don the creamsicle jerseys that defined the Bucs’ first two decades in the league (that, and losing). Thanks to relaxed rules that allow teams to wear multiple helmet designs over the course of the season, these gorgeous and/or tacky relics will make their first appearance on the field since 2012.
Tampa Bay isn’t the only team to use the new helmet rule to embrace some long gone but never forgotten throwbacks. The Philadelphia Eagles will return to their (vastly superior) Kelly green roots this fall. New England ditched the flying Elvis nonsense of its 2000s look for the warm embrace of Pat Patriot and shoulder stripes last fall.
So while the Buccaneers will be bad in 2023, they’ll look good. For one game, at least. Depending on how you feel about the color orange.
