of tampa bay buccaneers He is scheduled to play in the divisional round playoff game.
For some reason, some people find this strange. Obviously, the Bucks are not the team they have been in recent memory, including without Tom Brady at quarterback, but this is the third time in the past four seasons that they have made the playoffs this far.
Over the three seasons the GOAT was at the helm, the Bucks made the playoffs in all three years, but faltered early on.
- 2020 season….Buccaneers win Super Bowl
- 2021 season… Buccaneers are eliminated in the divisional round
- 2022 season….Buccaneers are eliminated in the wild card round
Interestingly, these two playoff runs were bookended by teams with records below .500. Tampa beat the Washington Football Team in the 2020 Wild Card round when WFT was below .500, but then lost to the Washington Football Team. dallas cowboys In the same round last year, they themselves had such a record.
Needless to say, the Buccaneers have been a unique team over the past few years.
Football is a team sport, but many seem to attribute much of what that run accomplished to Brady's play. That's why everyone ignored Baker Mayfield when he was named the starting quarterback before the season. But Baker bounced back and played well, leading to the team's first playoff win by a quarterback not named Tom Brady since Brad Johnson helped them win Super Bowl XXXVII.
Overall, the 2023 Bucks are a similar team to the one they had a season ago. Here are the DVOA ranks for each year, but clearly Tom Brady was significantly better than two years ago before he started to decline.
2022
- Total: 14
- Offense: 18
- Defense power: 11
- Special teams: 31
2023
- Total: 18
- Attack power: 20
- Defense power: 14
- Special teams: 18
Interestingly, the Bucs' defense is even worse in 2023, so the argument that the team is carrying Mayfield this year in a Brady-like fashion rings a little hollow. Obviously Baker Mayfield is not a Tom Brady-like quarterback, but he managed to oversee a group that performed better.
It wasn't just Tampa's first win of the season in the playoffs they lost last time.Baker actually helped the team win, as the Bucks finished a record full game in 2023 than they did in 2022. two He played in more games than Brady did last season with the team.
As expected, Baker.
