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Bucs common supervisor Jason Licht is aware of his staff is as soon as once more being disrespected heading into 2024, even after a 2023 season that was all about Tampa Bay proving its doubters woefully fallacious.
It was a season that noticed the Bucs overcome the lack of Tom Brady and ultimately a 4-7 begin to win the NFC South at 9-8, finishing a division title three-peat. From there, they trounced the defending NFC champion Eagles and superior to the NFC Divisional spherical earlier than falling only a quarter in need of the NFC Championship Sport.
Standard knowledge would say it may be arduous for a three-time defending division champion to maintain that very same underdog mentality 12 months after 12 months. Nevertheless, the Bucs don’t appear to have a lot hassle with it, as that mentality is constantly fueled by those that construct the narratives of every NFL offseason.
Bucs common supervisor Jason Licht – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
This spring, the Falcons have develop into the speak of the NFC South. They moved on from failed 2022 third-round decide Desmond Ridder and signed four-time Professional Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract. Cousins, who turns 36 in August and is coming off a torn Achilles that ended his 2023 season, is being checked out as Atlanta’s lacking piece.
Cousins and the Falcons, who’re set to be led by new head coach (and former Bucs head coach) Raheem Morris, are at the moment the favorites to win the NFC South, a division Tampa Bay has gained 3 times in a row.
Once more, Jason Licht is conscious of those narratives and at this level, he and his staff are used to it. In a Thursday afternoon appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Licht stated as a lot earlier than occurring to clarify his ardour for conserving receipts from those that doubt the Bucs.
“We’re type of used to it. I typically really feel like, down right here in Tampa, we’re in witness safety,” Licht stated. “I don’t need to say we get shit on, however there’s type of a scarcity of respect. You may go on, like Lavonte David, I believe, is a Corridor of Fame-type participant. He doesn’t get sufficient credit score as he ought to. Mike Evans only in the near past began getting talked about as a future Corridor of Famer. So, we’re used to it, however you type of use it as ammo.
“It’s embedded within the DNA of this staff. We’ve received a quarterback proper now that’s received an enormous chip on his shoulder and all the time will. And [he] makes use of that in his play fashion and the entire staff takes after it. So, I’m excited. After I see any individual dissing us and say that we’re not gonna win it, I really like conserving receipts. I hate to confess it, I do. I’m simply gonna be sincere. I adore it. It’s a ardour of mine now, it’s a pastime of my household. They shoot me texts, ‘This particular person stated this, this, this.’ You understand, it’s all in enjoyable, but it surely’s been driving us.”
Jason Licht’s Bucs Really Aren’t Strangers To Being Underdogs
Bucs GM Jason Licht and QB Tom Brady – Picture by: USA Right this moment
All through their historical past, the Bucs have very not often been seen as favorites, prime canine or no matter different moniker you favor to make use of. That briefly modified throughout the Tom Brady period, although just for a short while.
It didn’t even essentially begin when Brady arrived in 2020, because the staff was simply 7-5 earlier than its run actually kicked off late within the season and into the playoffs. After which, as a result of Brady and the Bucs went on the street in every of the primary three rounds of the playoffs earlier than taking part in Patrick Mahomes and the defending champion Chiefs within the Tremendous Bowl, they largely weren’t front-runners all through that run.
Tampa Bay was actually solely seen in that gentle throughout the 2021 season, after the staff gained Tremendous Bowl LV. The 2021 marketing campaign featured a franchise-best 13 wins, but it surely ended on a downer within the NFC Divisional Playoffs. From there, it was evident early within the 2022 season that the Bucs weren’t essentially the identical top-of-the-league staff and after that, Brady retired.
The final sentiment was that the staff would return to being bottom-dwellers, and that’s the place the underdog vibe of the present staff actually kicked into gear.
When Brady retired in February of 2023, Jason Licht, head coach Todd Bowles and everybody inside the Tampa Bay group made it clear {that a} rebuild wasn’t within the staff’s plans.
Nationally, nobody listened.
The final consensus was “No Brady, no playoffs” so far as oddsmakers and analysts had been involved. The Bucs’ win complete was set at 6.5 and at one time, that they had the worst odds to win the NFC South.
In consequence, the story of the Bucs’ 2023 season grew to become all about proving the doubters fallacious. It helped that they had been led by a quarterback in Baker Mayfield, who already performs with a everlasting chip on his shoulder even with out the truth that he had been written off by the league after bouncing from the Browns to the Panthers after which to the Rams in 2022.
Bucs GM Jason Licht and QB Baker Mayfield – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
“Not many quarterbacks can be keen to stroll into the scenario the place you may have the best of all time, Tom Brady, go away – and there’s little question about that, that he was the best of all time,” Licht stated Thursday. “However [for] a quarterback to come back in and be safe with himself and assured that he can lead this staff to wins…
“And [Mayfield] circled us. You understand, ‘I’m going there as a result of I like that staff and that is the place I’m gonna revive my profession.’ And that’s precisely what he did. Very early, he had a reasonably good competitors there in coaching camp with Kyle Trask, after which type of separated himself there on the finish and gained the staff over.”
Mayfield did win the staff over, and there’s little question that his mentality impacted the remainder of the gamers within the locker room. However there’s a case to be made that the general mindset of the perennial-underdog Bucs trickles down from the highest.
Jason Licht wasn’t shy about his view of the place the staff was heading into final season, even when that view didn’t align with these of the broader soccer world. As he now has admitted he likes to do, Licht saved some receipts from final offseason that he then pulled out when Tampa Bay surpassed its projected win complete and prolonged its NFC-best postseason look streak to 4.
And you may guess that he’s already created a “2024 receipts” folder that he’ll hope to refer again to subsequent February.
Take a look at the entire episode of the Pat McAfee Present and his complete interview with Licht:
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