Buccaneers fans, I cannot promise controversy, but I can try.
So the NFL honors happened recently, and there was unanimous consensus on every single pick, especially MVP. I figured why not then do this again like I did last year. Unlike last year, there was really no candidate that could win the actual award. Maybe you can squint really hard and say Baker Mayfield could be up for it (he does have more MVP votes than Russel Wilson). It did make this a little bit harder to determine for some of these, but I embrace the challenge.
Offensive Rookie of the year- (C) Graham Barton
I’m starting spicy with this one. I know what the obvious pick here is. The guy who received votes for the actual award, Bucky Irving. However, I will be giving flowers to the guy that may have allowed for some of his success. Bucky is obviously a skilled running back on his own. However, you cannot ignore the upgrade in the middle compared to 2023. Barton was not perfect in the least, especially with penalties down the stretch, but he only allowed one sack and 23 pressures in over a thousand snaps. For a rookie, he had an impressive season and should have a good foundation to build off.
Defensive Player of the Year- (DT) Vita Vea
There were a lot of options for this, and this is not a compliment really. If Zyon McCollum played well down the stretch, he probably would’ve gotten my vote here, but he kinda fell apart at the end. I also considered Lavonte, but there were too many games I remembered where he looked like he should’ve retired after, although he was still mostly solid. Therefore, Vita gets it for being solid most Sundays. He almost led the team in sacks, but another DT did that in Calijah Kancey (I love it when my edge rushers can’t beat out the fat guys in the middle who aren’t supposed to get sacks). As I prefaced this, he was almost always solid every single week, which cannot be said by most the guys. He was second in sacks and third in TFLs. This is kinda a vibes one, but I still think this is accurate.
Defensive Rookie of the Year- (S) Tykee Smith
This right now is the dawg award because Smith played like one. Like last year’s offensive rookie, there was not a lot of competition here. But unlike last year, this doesn’t feel like me settling. Smith was pretty damn good for most the year. He had a few stinker games, but he played with a lot of toughness. I thought in particular he did a good job when facing off against Brock Bowers, arguably the best rookie TE ever. While he didn’t have a ton of picks (oh wait no one did), he did have 3 forced fumbles (most for DBs). I’m excited to see what he does next year with a hopefully better all around secondary behind him.
Offensive Player of the Year- (RB) Bucky Irving
He had to win something. There really was no one else this award could go to. Except maybe Baker Mayfield, but that wasn’t happening. Bucky as a rookie only had over 1500 scrimmage yards, 8 rushing tds, took a team that had the worst run game to a top five unit, and looked untacklable. What more can be said, he was just fantastic.
MVP: Baker Mayfield
So I decided this year to skip comeback player because no one really fit that criterion like Shaq did last year. If Chris Godwin comes back, he most likely would win that, but so many players got injured this year that there will be a lot of competition. So let’s move to MVP, which is once again Baker. I really did consider Bucky Irving. But when a guy has 41 passing TDs, you can’t really ignore that. He did have a lot of picks at 16, but he was so good and executed the offense so well he usually made up for the mistakes. Once again, he has to have a new OC, but I believe he can be MVP once again. Of the Buccaneers.
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