Tampa Bay Buccaneers 'Got To Get Better At Everything' Next Season
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers surprised a lot of people this season by winning the NFC South Division, a Wild Card Round playoff game, and making it to the Divisional Round before exiting the postseason tournament.
First-year Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales impressed so much as a rookie play-caller that he got the head coaching job for the Carolina Panthers.
And quarterback Baker Mayfield surprised everyone and is expected to draw a multi-year offer from Tampa Bay because of it.
Still, falling short of a Super Bowl is always going to be considered falling short of team goals, and coach Todd Bowles wants to see his team get better in 2024. At every level.
“We’ve got to get better at everything," Bowles said when asked where he wants his team to improve next year. "Coaching-wise, you want to get better at situational football all the way around. Defensively, I know for sure third downs we’ve got to get better at. We used to be good in two-minute [situations] – we gave up some two-minute plays. We could look back and point at a myriad of things. We’d like to get the running game even better than it was – it got better, but we could get it better. We’d like to have a better return game on special teams. There’s a lot of things we can get better at from a coaching standpoint. There are a lot of things to get better at from a teaching standpoint and from a playing standpoint. That’s just coaching. That’s constant football for us.”
It's going to be hard to get better on offense considering most quarterbacks regress in their first year with a new coordinator and system.
Obviously, if Mayfield returns to the Buccaneers he'll have a new offensive coordinator, and assuming that coach is one he hasn't played for yet in the NFL it'll be his eighth in seven years.
Given how often the quarterback has had to adapt to new coaches perhaps its his version of normal, but once again we'll be resigned to asking what would happen if Mayfield got some consistency.
Meanwhile, Bowles will be aiming for improved offense, despite the changes coming.
Stick with BucsGameday for more coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout the offseason.
