Is this finaly Tampa Bay's Year???????

[LouieD23]

John Gruden will make this team shine...

He is one of the greatest offiensive master minds in todays game. Just what Tampa Bay needed. You match that up with an average quarterback, 2 great recievers, and a running back that ready to make sure that after this season everybody will know his name. What do you have???? An above average offense. That's all the Bucs needed the last 6 years, an above average offense. McCardell I feel was by far the best signing the Bucs maybe ever had. Who has a #2 reciever like McCardell, maybe 1 or 2 teams.

They kept their defenseive coaching and players intact. After 2 down years Sapp is ready to explode. If their offense gets the 14-17 points a game they will go 12-4.

The Bucs got the best deal out of realignment. They leave behing the Vikes, Bears, and Packers. And pick up the Falcons, Panthers, and Saints. Who wouldent make that deal. Nice easy division games.

What was a big reason the Bucs lost in the playoffs the last 2 years.
THE COLD. Not getting a home playoff game kill the bucs, you and I both know they can't win in the cold.

With a schedule like they have and and Team like they have. Home field advantage through the playoffs looks like a pretty good chance this year. And that is what I feel will make the Bucs the NFC rep this year at the super bowl....

LouieD23

[griffstone]

Easier with reallignment??????? Hmmmmm who won the superbowl last year???? The biggest problem i see with your prediction is you are forgetting that the Saints are no push over and in the past 2 years have been building an offense around Brooks. Dont be surprised to see Deuce McCallister put up better numbers than Ricky ever did. Not to mention Horn,Pathon,Reed ,and new deep threat stallworth will have Tampa or any teams defense pulling their hair out considering most defenses are good to average with maybe three outstanding players. This leaves them 2 greatplayers short of stopping what may establish itself as one of the better offenses this year. After they do stop these players lets not forget Mr. Brooks , You know him think hard ,the if i cant get any where throwing i can run for 50 -70 yards myself. Then you are forgetting Atlanta. Sure they havent been great in the last few years considering no rb. But they now have 2 and you might as well say 3 with Vick if he feels there is an opening.Their defense has yet to prove itself but if the offense steps up the defense will play better. If i were you i'd remeber that in age of free agency to say any one division is better than another and that a team that has been left wanting as many times as tampa ,who has had great defenses before, will roll through it is not only asnign but definitely not researched for potential threats.

[DraftDodger]

This wouldn't be Tampa's year if they changed their team name to the Tampa Trojans and had naked cheerleaders "pole"dancing with a Trojan mascot.

There's nothing wrong with believing in Gruden, but give the poor guy time to do his job. Most teams struggle the first year with a new offense or new offensive mindset. Add in that the Bucs have are just barely above the bottom of the barrel regarding the offensive line, and they're not superbowl bound.

It is VERY difficult to rise above being "pretty good". The better they play, the worse draft picks they get, the tougher schedule they will face, etc. Just ask the Vikings. Year after year they kept saying we're just one WR or RB or DE or whatever the heck away from the superbowl. And every time they added that one player, they still fell one player short the next year.

With free agency the way it is now, it's even more difficult to hold an excellent team together. Gruden, IMHO, requires 3 years to get these guys to the Superbowl. Some of the stars won't be willing to wait that long to shine. Sorry, but I believe that for the Bucs, Tomorrow is 3 years away, 2 at the outside.

[perplehayz]

I agree that the Bucs are in an easier division this year. It may not be smart to forget the Saints.They had some Very bad injury problems last year. But they have lost some studs on the d-line which was one of their strongpoints(saints). The Bucs should not need too much from their offense to win games. I like the point about homefield (warm)advantage being a big plus for them. One thing that puzzles me is thier history of streaks of games every year where they can't seem to do anything right then they come on at the end to make a run which comes up a bit short. That is Grudens big problem to overcome yearlong consistency is the way to success.