Monday, 4 a.m.
They are pretty good. They are not great.
Darn them.
They are better than most. And they leave you lacking.
Curse the fates.
They aren’t one of the dregs of the league. Nor are they a top-tier team.
Which sort of describes where the Tampa Bay Bucs live.
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Perhaps you thought about this over the weekend, while other teams were playing. The Bucs aren’t Kansas City, and they aren’t Buffalo. For crying out loud, they aren’t even Washington.
At the moment, it isn’t much consolation that they aren’t Tennessee, or Jacksonville, or Cleveland.
But here’s the question. Given the rules of the NFL, are the terrible teams closer to the top than the pretty good teams?
In pro sports, there is something to the notion of being stuck in the middle. The Bucs keep limping into the playoffs, but only a true believer thinks they’re among the top teams in the league. That means the awful teams of the league — the Giants and Titans and Jags — are always going to pick near the top of the NFL draft. The Bucs are going to be somewhere near the lower third.
That means that a truly special player — Jaden Daniels or C.J. Stroud — is there for the taking. It puts pressure on teams like the Bucs to be smarter, to draft better.
Oh, the Bucs can luck into a Bucky Irving from time to time. But the teams at the top of the draft had better odds of finding an impact player. That counts double for a defensive player. The Bucs have struggled lately with their defensive draft picks — Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Logan Hall and Chris Braswell.
Oh, let's face it. Bucs' fans overrate their roster. There is a faction of the populace that seems to believe Todd Bowles is standing in the way of every victory. But the trut, there aren't aren't a lot of pro bowlers here.
The off-seasons belong to Jason Licht, the general manager. He has to spend wisely and maybe add a solid player or two. He has to draft well again. He has to make sure this team makes a leap on defense to the degree they made one on offense this year.
Look, we live in a world of high expectations. No one is apologizing for that. So while fans can appreciate five straight playoffs, but people want more. They want a legitimate shot at the big trophy.
Anything else is not enough.
