What’s Up Everyone and Welcome to a special episode of The PewterCast. I am Brent Allen. And I am here today because I got something to say. I have often over the course of Last Season and into this season had something I wanted to say, but not really being in a place where I can commit to coming back and doing this show proper, I let it go. Welp, this time I just said screw it.
Look, I don’t know how often I’ll get out here and do one of these, I’m not committing to anything. I am not saying the show is back and off hiatus. But I know y’all are still out there, and I know it’s a lot of y’all.
It is crazy the sheer number of downloads this show still gets and there’s hasn’t been an episode released since the end of the 2021 season. And honestly, that’s about the only reason why I said screw it…is cause you guys keep coming back and checking it out. Alright - so here we go.
I got something to Say : The Bucs are looking pretty damn good y’all, but I’m not ready to crown them the NFC S Champs just yet.
I can hear y’all right now…man, this fool hasn’t been on here since we won the Super Bowl and the first thing he does is come out and crap on the team….
If that’s what you heard, then you heard me wrong. What I said is…The Bucs are looking pretty damn good…but I’m not ready to crown them the NFC S Champs …. YET.
I guess to dive into this, we gotta talk a bit about where this team has been…maybe all those things I wanted to say over the last year and change but didn’t.
Look, we all know Tom Brady, last year, was off. Sure, his numbers looked ok. And we could defend him still being as on point as ever. But we all know…it was just different. He wasn’t the same. And how could he be…dealing with what he was going through in his personal life. And the defense just didn’t hit the same way he had the few years prior under Todd Bowles. They were good to alright. Not great.
But what did we all know- this roster, the core of this roster, is still a very good roster… IF they could play up to snuff. Still mostly the Super Bowl winning team. But now, without a QB, and absolutely ZERO money to bring one in. When Jason Licht stood on that podium at the Combine (maybe the Senior Bowl), and said they were going to be looking for guys for value, I thought…oh LORD, they ain’t getting anybody. And we were right. They were lucky just to get Lavonte David and Jamel Dean back. Everyone else, they picked up were either our old bottom of the roster churners, guys up and down off the practice squad, backup guys, or street urchins. Or people that the league was about ready to retire.
One of those people being… Baker Mayfield. Who was brought in for what we were all told was a TRUE quarterback competition. And what a competition it was…back and forth, both Mayfield and Trask looked good. It was going to come down to the wire… or was it? I mean, we all kinda knew that it really was Baker’s job to lose, right? After all, with all things being equal, Baker had the experience edge, right?
And then there were all the other things… the salary cap and the intentionality of taking the big hit this year, Ryan Jensen, is he back or not? No Money. Mike Evans and his contract situation. Cause of No Money. The absolutely horrific events with Shaq Barrett over the summer, condolences to him and his family by the way. And no money. Lots of noise, lots of distraction.
But still, there was something else that Jason Licht said back in this press conference in February…along with Looking for guys for value…he was asked what he expected out of the team…his answer both impressed me, and sounded exactly like Jason Licht at the same time…he said, “We expect to be competitive.” He didn’t say go win the super bowl, he didn’t even say go win the division or make the playoffs. What he said was, “Yeah, we have no money this year. That’s on purpose, We’re gonna be scraping the bottom of the barrel for players this year. But despite that, we have a good roster, and we expect to be competitive.”
I’ll be honest, that stuck with me. As I watched the team through the preseason, did my own season predictions, looked at the schedule, and I thought to myself… this could either go really really good or really really bad. When I did my season record predictions, I had the Bucs ceiling at 12-5. There were 12 games where I could legitimately see the Bucs winning. But I also had the floor at 4-13. Cause those twelve games I could legitimately see the Bucs winning, 8 of them they could also legitimately lose. That’s a huge swing. And as 25+ year Bucs fan, neither would surprise me.
So I say all of that to say, I came into this season very in the middle. People would ask me how I thought the team was going to do this year and my answer was… Could go either way. Depends on QB play, depends on O-Line play, depends if the Defense can show up. If the new OC can get things moving. And I thought John Ledyard brought up a great point before the season I hadn’t really thought of and felt stupid for not….the team, while good on the starting roles…is very thin everywhere on depth. So once injuries start piling up, things could get ugly really quick… so add, “it depends on how healthy they can stay.”
However, neither the Saints, the Falcons, or the Panthers scare me this year either, so hell, the Bucs could actually win this division. I don’t think any NFC South team is going to sniff a wild card entry this year, so that division champ is the only ticket in.
And that’s how I came into this season. Very blaise about the team. Let’s face it, what we saw in preseason didn’t exactly light any fires…but it did make you go…ok, maybe it won’t be as bad as people keep saying.
So week 1 rolls in…and the Defense… and the Bucs traded punches with Minnesota, until the end and came out on top. Hoy cow, I thought the defense played lights out. For the first time since the Super Bowl they looked like they were just having fun. And Baker and the offense…they struggled that first half. People kept tweeting “Let Baker Bake.” and my response was “Yeah, but someone forgot preheat the oven.” But that second half…not just Baker, but everyone stepped up. O-Line did a decent job. Cade Otton flashed in there. Mike and Chris did their thing. Running game still left something be desired. And Baker looked like a man in control. Not scared to extend a play, or take off and make something happen. Very reminiscent of the good Jameis we watched for 5 years in Tampa. And we all thought- not bad…but also it’s the Vikings.
Then comes week 2, home opener, the Bears. Defense picked up right where it left off. Had themselves a day. Baker was sharp. knew what he was doing. Mike came out and made a statement. Might as well have had a PAY ME sticker on the back of his helmet. Even the run game looked better. Hell…even Coach Bowles looked a little more jacked than usual standing on the sidelines. The team is competing to see who can slide in the most Drake references in their interviews. And we, the fans, all looked at each other and went…it’s a Pirate’s life for me. This is the Bucs team I love to see.
They’re loose, they’re having fun. They’re being who we know they can be....and…what’s more….the national media is starting to sit up and go, hey, what’s going on over there?
And so now we sit. 2-0. Granted, it was the Vikings and the Bears. You might sit there and think, “Oh yeah, easy win, knew it all along.” But I guaren-damn-tee you one thing. There’s not a single Vikings or Bears player or fan who didn’t look at their schedule, and see the Bucs on it, and mark that week as a win. And guess what - the rest of the league, the rest of the league’s fans…even right now, they see the Bucs on their schedule, and they are marking it as an easy win. Although, maybe not as easy as they originally thought.
And now we are heading into week 3. To face our first true challenge of the year … National TV. Cause we all know how the Bucs play on National TV. No, I’m joking. It the Eagles, and the Eagles…they’re a legit team. According to Vegas, they’re the 4th most likely team to go to the Super Bowl this year, only behind the Chiefs, the 49-ers, and the Cowboys. And that’s as of Thursday the 21st. ‘
So how do we feel about this game coming up? I gotta be honest, while the fan in me ALWAYS picks the Bucs, the realist, the “analyst” so to speak, in NOT picking the Bucs. At the same time, I don’t think it’s as sure of a thing for the Eagles as it felt 2 weeks ago. The Bucs do have some momentum. The Bucs do have home field advantage. They don’t have the Uniform advantage, wearing the Red Tops and White Bottoms (shout out to Cory at The Play Reaction). They also have the Baker advantage. I’m very interested to see if the Bucs COMPETE in this game. Cause y’all, they might get it.
I think if the Bucs win this game, barring injury, this game is the one that will put the league on notice. They’re gonna have to come back and rethink what they said about the Bucs. Hell, even if they don’t all out win, but if they go toe-to-toe…they’re gonna turn some heads.
I’m still a little trepidatious about the team right now. I’m not a full on believer. I’ve covered this team for too long to know you can’t get too high or low, especially until about week 6 or so… and this is only week 3. But I’ll tell you, Baker is winning me over. This team, is winning me over. As I am right now, I still think the record will shake about 50/50 give or take a game or two. Which could be enough to win the division again. But I gotta tell you, After what I’ve seen these first two week, I’m leaning a lot more towards that 12/5 record than I am that 4/13 record.
It all depends on that one word…compete. Do they compete? And stand in there against the team that many feel will be representing the NFC in the super bowl this year.
Alright, that’s all I got to say. Oh, well, one more thing, and here, I’m speaking directly to the Bucs game day personnel, the folks that decide what to play on the video boards and what segments will be done between possessions. MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT RONDE BARBER. And the long time Bucs fans will understand why.
Alright, that’s going to do for me. As I said, this was just a special episode. I don’t know when or even if I’m going to do another one of these. But hey, stay subscribed. You never know when something fun might pop up.
And until next time…. GOOOOOO BUCS.
