2024 Free Agency Preview: Biggest Positional Needs For The Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa Bay was one of the bigger surprises of the 2023 NFL season. While most fans knew the NFC South would be up for grabs, few expected the Buccaneers to be the clear-cut best team, but that's what ended up happening. Baker Mayfield had the best season of his career and was a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. In my opinion, he should've won the award. If you weren't going to give the award to Damar Hamlin, I have no idea how Joe Flacco won the award over Mayfield. Mayfield played the full season, led Tampa to one playoff win, and was statistically far better than Flacco. Tampa Bay's offense does have a lot of work to do. Mayfield and Mike Evans are both free agents and their offensive coordinator, Dave Canales, agreed to become the Panthers head coach.

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The defense is also poised to go through a big transition. Linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White are both free agents. These two have been the heart and soul of their defense for the past several years. They've also provided veteran leadership and they've handled the defensive communication. Tampa Bay has some of the most big-name free agents this offseason and how they choose to handle these players will be very interesting. If you want to take advantage of all of our great premium tools, please use promo code "BOOM" to receive a 10% discount. 

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Season Review and Offseason Assets

The Buccaneers surprised a lot of people this past season. With the loss of Tom Brady, most expected them to take a step back or two. There wasn’t much confidence in Baker Mayfield, but he and this team proved a lot of the doubters wrong. They finished with a 9-8 record and made the playoffs. They knocked the reigning NFC champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, out of the playoffs. Mayfield set career-highs in completion percentage, passing yards, and passing touchdowns.

The offense finished 20th in points scored and 23rd in yards gained. They suffered a big loss, however, when their offensive coordinator Dave Canales took the head-coaching job in Carolina. They have since hired Liam Coen to be OC. He was the offensive coordinator for the Kentucky Wildcats last year. In 2022, however, he was the offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams during Mayfield’s brief stint there.

The defense finished seventh in points allowed and 23rd in yards given up. While they had one of the best run-stopping defenses in the league, their pass defense was one of the worst. They gave up the fourth-most passing yards and allowed the 11th-best quarterback rating.

Tampa Bay has just $45.5 million in cap space available this offseason. However, Antoine Winfield Jr., Lavonte David, Devin White, Baker Mayfield, and Mike Evans are all free agents. They can cut Russell Gage with a post-June 1 designation, which would increase their available cap space to almost $56 million.

Chris Godwin has a $27.5 million cap hit and Vita Vea has a $20.9 million cap hit. Both players are candidates for contract restructures to clear more space. The team will certainly want to bring Mayfield and Evans back, but White could be allowed to reach free agency after a down 2023 season. He could very well have played his last snap in Tampa.

Tampa owns the No. 26 (first-rounder), No. 57 (second-rounder), No. 89 (third-rounder), No. 125 (fourth-rounder), No. 202 (sixth-rounder), No. 243 (seventh-rounder), and No. 254 (seventh-rounder) overall picks in this year’s NFL Draft.

Biggest Needs

1. Wide Receiver

Of the team’s free agents, it always seemed as though Mayfield and Evans would be back. However, reports have indicated Evans and Tampa are far apart in contract negotiations. Reports have also indicated the Bucs plan to franchise Winfield. We’re going to assume Mayfield is certainly back. As far as Evans and Winfield, who knows? If Winfield gets franchised and Evans walks, which seems like the most likely scenario at this time, their No. 1 need becomes wide receiver. Based on these new reports, we’ll be working under the assumption Winfield is back in Tampa under the franchise tag and Evans becomes a free agent. Even with Winfield back, however, their secondary needs a lot of work.

Evans was Mayfield’s clear No. 1 receiver, finishing the season with 127 targets, 76 receptions, 1,233 yards, and 13 touchdowns. It was his best season since 2018 and he earned a Pro Bowl nomination for it. Tampa is really lacking at receiver behind Evans. Chris Godwin is still there, but Russell Gage is a likely cap casualty, which leaves just 2023 sixth-round pick, Trey Palmer. If Evans signs elsewhere and Gage is cut, receiver is a massive need for Tampa Bay. It would leave them with only Godwin as a dependable pass-catcher. Godwin is a very good receiver, but without a downfield threat, their offense wouldn’t have the means to threaten the defense downfield. That could make life very difficult for Mayfield and the running game.

Re-signing Evans is crucial. This seemed like a foregone conclusion after the 2023 season, but it doesn’t anymore. If Evans walks, Tampa needs to find another legitimate receiver to take his place. Mayfield is a quarterback you can win with, but not because of. That means, he needs plenty of weapons and help from his team for things to work. Without Evans or if he isn’t suitable replaced, he won’t have that.

2. Linebacker

David and White are both free agents. These two rangy middle linebackers have been the face of their defense for the past few seasons. In their prime, these two players were two of the best in the NFL and were a driving force in Tampa’s Super Bowl victory.

David is now 34 years old and White is coming off his worst season since entering the NFL. Last season, they combined to play 1,851 snaps. The two of them collectively had two interceptions, 11 pass deflections, seven sacks, 217 tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, and 14 quarterback hits. That is a ton of production and snaps this defense could be losing.

We haven’t even touched on the fact that David was the veteran leader for the defense and between the two of them, they wore the defensive headset. There is a lot of leadership also at risk of being lost if White and David are not re-signed. Tampa had one of the best run defenses in the league and these two linebackers were a big part of that. If both of them sign elsewhere in free agency, they have a glaring hole in the middle of their defense.

3. Interior Offensive Line

Ryan Jensen announced his retirement in early February. Matt Feiler, Robert Hainsey, and Aaron Stinnie played 2,205 snaps at center and left guard. Feiler received a 54.7 PFF grade. Hainsey was at 52.8 and Stinnie was at 56.6. Together, this trio gave up six sacks, 56 hurries, and 68 pressures. They also committed 11 penalties.

That’s not very good, but it’s not as bad as 2023 second-round pick, Cody Mauch. He received a 44.7 PFF grade. He alone gave up seven sacks, 35 hurries, and 48 pressures. Mauch will get another chance given that he was just a rookie last season, but it was a very, very rough rookie season. Stinnie and Feiler are also free agents.

Stinnie, Hainsey, and Mauch all played 700 or more snaps. Out of 83 guards/centers with 700 snaps, they finished 64th (Stinnie), 73rd (Hainsey), and 79th (Mauch) in PFF’s grade.

Mauch gave up the fourth-most sacks and Hainsey gave up the 21st most. Mauch gave up the most hurries while Stinnie was 14th and Hainsey was 31st. Mauch gave up the second-most pressures. Stinnie was 31st and Hainsey was 40th. Hainsey committed the fourth-most penalties and Mauch was 34th.

4. Other Positions of Need: Pass-Rusher, Defensive Back

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