Here's Where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Finished Statistically in the NFL
Expectations entering this season were sky-high for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after six-time Super Bowl champ quarterback Tom Brady made the decision to leave New England and find a new home in Florida.
The idea of Brady being able to pass to key targets like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin was enticing, plus Brady brought along his old friend tight end Rob Gronkowski out of retirement to the Bucs. Add in running back Ronald Jones II and it became clear the Bucs would be a force to be reckoned with offensively.
Defensively, it was known Tampa Bay would feature a stout defensive line with players like defensive ends Ndamukong Suh and Jason Pierre-Paul and linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White.
When the regular season was all said and done, the Buccaneers finished with an 11-5 record, which is tied for the second-most wins in a single season in team history and the first season with at least 11 wins since 2005.
So far, expectations have been met, but anyone inside the Tampa Bay locker room will tell you that the job is not done. With that in mind, let’s recap the 2020 regular season and see where the Bucs finished statistically, both individually and as a team, compared to the rest of the league on offense, defense, and special teams.
Offense:
Brady finished his first season in Tampa Bay with 40 touchdown passes, the most ever by a player in his first season with a team. His 40 touchdown passes are tied for second in the NFL, with Seattle’s Russell Wilson, and behind only Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who threw 48 touchdowns.
As Brady’s number one target, Evans caught 13 touchdowns and finished the season with over 1,000 receiving yards for the 7th straight season. Only three receivers in the NFL caught more touchdowns than Evans this season.
While Brady and the Bucs finished the regular season with the 4th most passing yards, 4,776 yards, Tampa Bay finished near the bottom of the league with only 1,519 rushing yards. Jones carried the ball for the majority of those yards but finished just short of 1,000 yards after missing two games after ending up on the team’s reserve/COVID-19 list and dealt with a fractured finger.
Despite at times struggling on third down, the Bucs ended the season strongly and finished with a 43.5% conversion rate, which ranks 11th in the league. In total, the Bucs recorded 364 total first downs.
Scoring-wise, Tampa Bay scored 59 total touchdowns, which is tied with the New Orleans Saints for fourth-most in the league. With those touchdowns comes a lot of points and the Bucs average 30.8 points a game, the third-highest behind only the Bills and the Packers.
Defense:
Throughout the entire season, we had seen the Bucs shut down opposing teams’ rush attack and in the end, Tampa Bay allowed a league-best 80.6 rushing yards per game. The next best rushing defense, the Colts, allowed an average of 10 more yards per game.
While the Bucs had the number one rushing defense, the team’s passing defense was average, at best. Tampa Bay allowed an average of 246.6 yards per game, which is inside the bottom third of the NFL. Despite this, the Bucs were still strong on defense and only allowed 327.1 total yards per game.
Individually, linebacker Devin White recorded 140 total tackles, the fifth most in the NFL by a single player. Cornerback Carlton Davis recorded seven interceptions, which is tied for seventh in the league. Pierre-Paul finished tied for 11th after recording 9.5 sacks and not far behind at 14th overall, is White who recorded 9.0 sacks.
In total Tampa Bay recorded 48.0 sacks, tied for 4th most in the NFL. And let’s go back to that stout rushing defense: Tampa Bay has now led the NFL in run defense in each of the past two seasons under coordinator Todd Bowles, becoming the first team to accomplish that feat since the Minnesota Vikings (2006-08).
Special Teams:
Buccaneers kicker Ryan Succop scored 136 points this season, setting a franchise record for the most points scored by a player in a single season.
Succop’s 90.3% field goal conversion rate ranked 15th in the NFL.
Succop attempted 31 field goals this season and made 28, which is tied for 9th-most in the league. Succop’s 136 points scored this season are the 6th most among kickers.
