Bucs general manager Jason Licht is worried that his team will once again be disrespected heading into 2024, even after a 2023 season in which Tampa Bay was dedicated to proving its doubters terribly wrong. I am aware of this.
This season was the one in which the Bucs overcame the loss of Tom Brady and ended up starting 4-7, winning the NFC South 9-8 and winning their third straight division title. From there, they defeated the defending NFC champion Eagles and advanced to the NFC Divisional Round, falling just a quarter short of the NFC Championship Game.
Conventional wisdom would say it would be difficult for a three-time division champion to maintain the same underdog mentality year after year. But the Bucks don’t seem to have too much of an issue with that. Because that mentality is continually fueled by the people who construct the narrative each NFL offseason.
Bucks General Manager Jason Licht – Photo by Cliff Welch/PR
The Falcons have been the talk of the NFC South this spring. They moved on from failed 2022 third-round pick Desmond Ridder and signed four-time Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract. Cousins, who turned 36 in August and is coming back from a torn Achilles tendon that ended the 2023 season, is seen as Atlanta’s missing piece.
Led by new head coach (and former Bucs head coach) Raheem Morris, Cousins and the Falcons are currently favorites to win the NFC South, which Tampa Bay has won three straight.
Again, Jason Licht is aware of these stories and he and his team are comfortable with them at this point.in Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show Thursday afternoon, Richt said as much before explaining his passion for keeping receipts from people who doubted the Bucs.
“We’re used to it. Here in Tampa, sometimes it feels like we’re in witness protection,” Licht said. “I don’t want to say we’re doing badly, but there’s a certain lack of respect. Like Labonte, you can go on and on. I think David is a Hall of Fame kind of player. He doesn’t get as much recognition as he should. Mike Evans just recently started being talked about as a future Hall of Famer. I mean, we’re used to it, but you give it ammunition. It’s like using it as .
“It’s in the DNA of this team. We have a quarterback with a big chip on his shoulder right now, and we always will. And [he] He incorporates that into his style of play and the whole team follows suit. I’m very excited. I love to keep the receipts when I see someone disrespect us and say we can’t win. I hate to admit it, but I think so. I’ll be honest. I love it. Now it’s my passion and my family’s pastime. They send me texts that say, “This person said this, this person said this.” You know, it’s all fun, but that’s what drives us. ”
Jason Licht’s Bucks are no strangers to being underdogs.
Bucs GM Jason Richt and QB Tom Brady – Photo courtesy of USA Today
Throughout their history, the Bucks were rarely seen as favorites, top dogs, or anything else they called them. That changed a bit during the Tom Brady era, albeit briefly.
It didn’t necessarily start when Brady arrived in 2020, as the team went just 7-5 in the second half of the season before it really started to ramp up heading into the playoffs. And Brady and the Bucs were hardly the favorites during that period, as they went on the road in each of the first three rounds of the playoffs before facing Patrick Mahomes and the defending champion Chiefs in the Super Bowl. .
Tampa Bay was actually only viewed in that light during the 2021 season after the team won Super Bowl LV. The 2021 season saw a franchise-high 13 wins, but ended in a crushing loss in the NFC divisional playoffs. From there, it became clear early in the 2022 season that the Bucs weren’t necessarily the same top team in the league, after which Brady retired.
The general feeling was that the team would return to last-place denizens, but that’s where the team’s current underdog vibe really kicked in.
When Brady retired in February 2023, Jason Richt, head coach Todd Bowles and everyone within the Tampa Bay organization made it clear that a rebuild was not in the team’s plans.
Nationwide, no one listened.
As far as oddsmakers and analysts were concerned, the general consensus was, “No Brady, no playoffs.” The Bucks’ win total was set at 6.5, and at one point they had the lowest odds of winning the NFC South.
As a result, the story of the Bucks’ 2023 season revolved around proving the doubters wrong. The saving grace was that the team was led by a quarterback named Baker Mayfield. Even without the fact that Mayfield was released by the league after going from the Browns to the Panthers to the Rams, he’s already playing with a permanent injury to his shoulder. 2022.
Bucks GM Jason Licht and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by Cliff Welch/PR
“I don’t think many quarterbacks would be willing to go into a situation where the greatest player of all time, Tom Brady, is leaving, and there’s no question he was the greatest of all time,” Richt said Thursday. . “but [for] I want the quarterback to come in and have confidence in himself and confidence that he can lead this team to victory…
“and [Mayfield] surrounded us. I was like, “I’m going there because I love that team. This is where I can revive my career.” And that’s exactly what he did. Very early on, he had some pretty good competition there in training camp with Kyle Trask, and then at the end he pulled himself together there and led his team to a win. ”
Mayfield led his team to victory, but there is no doubt that his mentality influenced the rest of the players in the locker room. But there’s also the argument that the Bucks’ overall mindset of perennial underdogs is trickling down from the top.
Jason Licht wasn’t shy about his views on the direction the team was headed last season, even if those views didn’t line up with the rest of the football world. Richt kept some receipts from last offseason, which he now admits he loves. then he withdrew his hand At the time, Tampa Bay exceeded its expected win total and extended its NFC-best streak of consecutive postseason appearances to four.
And he’s already created a “Receipts for 2024” folder, which he’ll no doubt want to refer to next February.
Watch all episodes of The Pat McAfee Show and the full interview with Licht.
