2021 Team Preview: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Thanks for checking out our latest article in our 2021 Team Preview series. We will be breaking down the outlook for teams in 2021, key acquisitions during the off-season and through the 2021 NFL Draft, key losses, and looking at each team from a dynasty perspective. We’ll give you some players to consider buying, selling, stashing, and potential sleeper candidates. Stay tuned for more team breakdowns as we approach the 2021 NFL season. Here is our 2021 Team Preview: Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

2021 Outlook

It’s hard to find a team with more pressure on them than the defending Super Bowl Champions. Heading into 2021 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be looking to defend their title and Tom Brady will be looking for yet another Super Bowl ring. The Buccaneers haven’t sniffed the playoffs in over a decade with their last game being in 2007 where they lost a Wild Card game to the New York Giants. Before that, they lost a Wild Card game to the Washington Redskins in 2005. Basically, the Buccaneers have been next to irrelevant since 2002 where they won their first Super Bowl and one of the worst teams in the NFL. Not only did they win their second Super Bowl ever, but they were the first team to not just play in, but win a title in their own stadium.

As a lifelong Buccaneers fan, this season was truly unbelievable and it still is amazing to see what one player can do to completely change the culture and mindset of an organization. After so many years of disappointment and embarrassment, the Buccaneers looked complete from the top to bottom of their roster. Brady and his now seven Super Bowl rings make anyone from veterans to the retired Rob Gronkowski out of retirement in hopes of winning another one. Brady is going to have a ton of pressure on him this year and the Buccaneers will be “Super Bowl or bust” as long as he is playing football for Tampa Bay. Which is looking like will be the case until he retires.

Key Acquisitions/Losses

When looking at key acquisitions and losses, the first thing to note is that Tampa Bay just did something that has never been done before. They brought back all 22 starters on offense and defense that played in the Super Bowl. That makes the acquisitions and losses for this team pretty straightforward, but there were a few notable signings and players added in the NFL Draft.

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For the offense, the Buccaneers re-signed Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski, and Leonard Fournette. They’ll also have OJ Howard back from his Achilles injury. He looked great to start the season off, totaling 146 yards and two touchdowns in the first four games. This injury is obviously a very tough one to come back from, but with Gronkowski and Cameron Brate, the offense will not be lacking at the tight end position by any means. Left tackle Donovan Smith stepped up and earned himself a two-year extension, meaning the whole offensive line is back, and did very well finishing as PFF’s fifth-ranked offensive line on the season.

On the defensive side, the Buccaneers did add some depth on the defensive line which has already been arguably the best in the NFL for the past two seasons. They went ahead and drafted Joe Tryon out of Washington who can play outside linebacker or defensive end. We’ve seen Todd Bowles typically run a 3-4, but they’ve switched it up as we even saw Ndamukong Suh lining up as an inside linebacker against the Packers.

Regardless, Tryon is versatile enough and has some excellent veterans to learn from. Tryon will likely be taking Anthony Nelson’s spot as the third pass-rusher behind Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett. Nelson played in 322 snaps last year, meaning we could see a lot of Tryon this year despite being behind arguably the best front seven in the NFL. Even if he doesn’t start, just being able to keep Pierre-Paul and Barrett fresh is going to be a huge help. To top this defensive line off, they’ll have a healthy Vita Vea heading into the 2021 season as well. Vea is an absolute beast of a man who gets double-teamed often, and still wins his matchups. It may not be a stretch at all to say that this pass rush and defense overall will be even better this year.

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Dynasty Quick Hits

Buy Low: Antonio Brown

Antonio Brown slowly came on for the Buccaneers after his first appearance in Week 9 and showed us that he’s still very capable of playing football at a high level. He averaged 14.6 points per game in PPR scoring with just three starts in eight games, followed by a postseason with 81 yards and two touchdowns. He also had a 20.1% Hog Rate, which was tied with Davante Adams for second in the NFL for all wide receivers. These advanced efficiency metrics can be tough to really apply to fantasy football, but essentially this 20.1% Hog Rate shows us that when he was active and on the field, he was getting the ball. Brady still trusts Brown a lot and he may end up being a nice value, whether you can really trust him week in and week out or not. His ADP is well over 100 in redraft leagues while Evans and Godwin will cost you a third or fourth-round pick.

Sell High: Mike Evans

It’s tough to pick a sell-high candidate for this offense, but if anyone is getting to that point it might be Mike Evans. He’ll turn 28 at the end of August and is heading into his eighth season in the NFL. With Godwin showing a ton of promise and Brown now more familiar with this offense, not to mention three tight ends that all see the field, there are just so many mouths to feed. Evans has become fairly touchdown-dependent and while I do think he’ll easily be a WR2 this year, you might consider selling high if you can.
For what it’s worth, I’m only selling high if someone is willing to pay an absolute premium for him. Evans has restructured his deal with the Buccaneers multiple times to make room for other players and I honestly wouldn’t be shocked at all if he ended up eventually retiring a Buccaneer. Sell high if you can get borderline WR1 type of return, otherwise, he’s a strong hold for me.

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Sleeper: Giovani Bernard

The Buccaneers backfield was annoying enough for fantasy football in 2020, and this year it’s only getting worse. Neither Leonard Fournette nor Ronald Jones is great in the passing game and regardless of how you feel about those two, the simple fact is that neither one will be great for fantasy purposes while the other is on the roster. They both will eat into each other’s upside and Bruce Arians isn’t afraid to bench someone at any given moment. That’s a fantasy football nightmare.
Giovani Bernard signing with the Buccaneers was a very nice addition as a veteran back who will likely be able to get on the field thanks to his pass protection and pass-catching upside. I wouldn’t expect consistent weekly fantasy production necessarily, but there is a scenario where Bernard could have a decent floor. This could make him a Flex option in deeper leagues with obvious upside were something to happen to either Fournette or Jones.

Stash: Jaelon Darden/Tyler Johnson

The former North Texas wide receiver Jaelon Darden was drafted in the fourth round in the 2021 NFL Draft with the 129th overall pick. Darden is one of the quickest wide receivers in this class and used his speed to get open. He’s a big play waiting to happen and is just a super athletic wide receiver. He set records for the school’s all-time leader in receiving yards (2,782), receptions (230), and receiving touchdowns (38). It’s also worth noting that the Buccaneers traded up to move up eight spots and grab Darden. Don’t expect much of anything this year, but he’s a nice player and is definitely worth stashing.

Tyler Johnson is someone worth stashing as well and is even cheaper than Darden is at this point. He is a solid prospect who similar to Darden, is simply buried behind a loaded group of wide receivers. Johnson has good hands and isn’t afraid to take on contact. He totaled 1,000+ yards in each of his final two seasons at Minnesota. He immediately dropped in rankings after landing in Tampa Bay and is a super cheap piece of this offense worth stashing.