The Bucs Own the NFC South, and They're Primed to Win it Again in 2025 originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Death, taxes, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the NFC South.
That's been the reality for the last four years, and the last time the Bucs didn't win the division, they won the Super Bowl as a wild-card team back in 2020.
Despite the retirement of Tom Brady and the ingestion of more than $80 million in dead cap space, the Bucs haven't missed a beat under general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles, hanging banner after banner on their way to becoming the only NFC team to make the playoffs in each of the past five seasons.
With the entire starting offense returning, and a rookie class heavy on defensive help, why shouldn't the Bucs be the easy favorites to win the NFC South for a fifth straight year in 2025?
On the latest episode of "Best Podcast Available," I sat down with Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman to talk about a Tampa Bay offseason that was heavy on offensive continuity and addressing defensive weaknesses.
"There aren't a lot of weak sports to point to," Auman said. "There are definitely some spots where they can't take an injury. If there's an injury at (inside) linebacker, it's still a vulnerability. If Antoine Winfield Jr. goes down, their safety depth isn't anything to get excited about. But absent that, everywhere else, they're in pretty good shape."
Tampa Bay's biggest change isn't big at all, having replaced offensive coordinator Liam Coen by promoting 34-year-old Josh Grizzard, who was an integral member of a staff that led the Bucs to top-five rankings in both rushing and passing last season. Most of Coen's staff was also retained under Grizzard, following the former's murky offseason departure to take the head coach job with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"They've been really fortunate to have two first-year offensive coordinators, first-time play-callers, essentially, click the way they have the last two years, with (Dave) Canales and Coen," Auman said. "So, they need that same kind of break (with Grizzard)."
Before leaving after one season of calling plays for the Bucs to be the head coach of the division-rival Carolina Panthers, Canales improved a Tampa Bay offense that struggled mightily in its final season under Byron Leftwich with Tom Brady under center. Coen took that to another level in his only season calling plays in Tampa, with the most stark improvement coming in the ground game.
Expectations will be different in Grizzard's first season, but he's got everything he needs to simply keep a good thing going after being heavily involved in last year's success, handling the Bucs' third-down packages and working closely with quarterback Baker Mayfield in preparations throughout the week.
"I think Grizzard is in a little bit of a different place, because he inherited a top-five offense," Auman said. "That's not what Canales had, and it's not even what Coen had. I think all Grizzard has to do is not take a big step back, and that's a really good first year as a coordinator."
Keeping the offensive staff fairly intact despite losing Coen should be a huge advantage for the Bucs, and though there are sure to be some minor changes with a new guy on the big headset, Grizzard's on-field product should look a lot like what Tampa Bay fans saw last season.
"I think they did move him into that place with continuity in mind, promoting from within, and wanting more of the same," Auman said. "Nothing but praise for him. He's only 34, but he's really sharp, has been with some really great offensive minds along the way. He's closer to having everything in place than either of the two guys before him, where everything was new with those two (Canales and Coen). This is a situation where you're coming in, and you don't have to binge anything. I'm sure they'll tweak things, and there will be novelties and nuances and quirks to (Grizzard's) offense, but the ground rules are the same. It's the same language, with just a little dialect change, maybe."
If things keep rolling smoothly on that side of the ball, it will still fall to Bowles and the defense to make marked improvements if the Bucs want to be more than just a chalk division champ again in 2025, and make a deeper postseason run this time around.
They've bolstered their depth along the defensive front and at cornerback, but staying healthy elsewhere will be key to being more consistent on that side of the ball this season.
"If you think about the defense last year, and just the amount of injuries they played through at linebacker, at corner, at safety throughout the year . . . if they just have a normal health year, not even a healthy year, but just not a snak-bitten year . . . I think they'll be better as a result of that," Auman said.
The schedule presents some challenging stretches, as the Bucs open up with back-to-back road games and once again face a first-place slate throughout the league. But with an ideal midseason bye week and four of their last six games at home, they should be primed for another strong finish after turning 4-7 and 4-6 starts over the past two seasons into two more NFC South titles.
"The schedule is a nasty schedule, don't get me wrong, but I think they have everything," Auman said. "If they're healthy, if things click the way they should, this should be an 11-win team."
Will that be enough to win the division for a fifth year in a row? Will the Atlanta Falcons or another surprise challenger emerge from the rest of the pack?
To see the entire conversation, including deep dives on every team in the division, watch the full episode of BPA:
