The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a mostly good season last year despite the disappointing end to the season. But there is always room for improvement, and I want to highlight that. Some guys didn’t play up to potential, or others I have faith that they have a bright future.
If you had told me at the start of the season I would have faith in Jalen McMillan’s future, I would’ve asked if you were watching old Washington tape. Jalen McMillan was just terrible at the start of the year. Dropping everything and running terrible routes. But then Godwin got injured and he decided to level up. Look at his stats in the first few weeks of the season.
Not terrible, but also not third round pick worthy. But look how he ended it.
Instead of one TD in eight games, it was 7 in 6 games, an insane clip. You can’t use the bad team defense either. the Chargers defense was one of the best in the league and he still got 75 yards and a TD. And you can see based on the targets and receptions Baker Mayfield really grew to trust him. Now, despite the 8 TDs, the yards still weren’t really there. He didn’t even have over 500 yards even with Godwin out and never cracked 100 in a game. That’s the part I really want to see get better and I think based on that end of year stretch, he can be that guy.
If you look at his play on the field, Antoine Winfield Jr falls into this. Now, let’s clear some things up. Winfield was clearly hurt through the year and was playing through it as most players will do if they can. And also the secondary was so unbelievably bad that I think it made him look worse in general. So the bounce back will be fully dependent on if he is healthy to start the year. People look back at his deal with hindsight and think they never should’ve paid him at all (although I do respect those that have always just thought safeties should be paid as much as fast food workers), but they act as if he’s only had one good season.
Yeah that ain’t flying here. 2023 was his best season, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do anything the other seasons. I guess you could say that he had missed four games in back to back seasons and has more seasons where he missed over three games than playing every game. But unlike Jamel Dean, most years his big plays make up for it. If he gets some help and not snakebitten by injury, I think we will see the guy who became the highest paid safety.
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