The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, despite overwhelming evidence, continue to be doubted. And even after winning the NFC South for four years in a row, there are still pundits who aren't in on Tampa Bay heading into 2025.
One of those pundits is Colin Cowherd, who has long been a doubter of Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield — and although recent evidence has swayed him on that particular point, it seems like he's still going against the Bucs as a whole despite their playoff success. Cowherd when through his NFC predictions for each division, and he picked the Falcons to win the NFC South, citing his support of quarterback Michael Penix Jr.
"The Bucs are getting old. They're bringing back the entire offense — sometimes that's good, sometimes that's not. I'm a big fan of the trajectory of Atlanta and I'm a big Michael Penix fan."
There are two things to address here. Firstly, Cowherd is simply incorrect about the age of Tampa Bay's roster. Last year, the Bucs were the fourth-youngest playoff team in the NFL with an average age of around 26 — Sure, Mike Evans and Lavonte David are north of 30 and Chris Godwin is approaching it, but the rest of the roster is very young and rookies will drive it down even further. If there's any reason to doubt the Bucs, it certainly isn't this.
Second, Cowherd mentions that bringing back an entire roster is sometimes a bad thing. While offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard remains an unknown, Tampa Bay's offense was a top-five unit last year, so bringing back the whole roster doesn't seem like that bad of an idea on the surface.
Time will tell if Cowherd is right, of course, and other teams can (and likely will) make a run at the Bucs in the South. But if you're gonna doubt the Bucs, at least use facts when you do.
