Top 3 Things To Get Excited About Ahead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2024 Season

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren't perfect, but there's still plenty to praise when it comes to Todd Bowles and Jason Licht's squad.

The Bucs have won the NFC South the last three years, and while it hasn't been pretty for the last two, the team has playoff experience and plenty of veteran firepower to make another sustained run. It won't be as easy to win the division this time around, but Tampa Bay has done some good work to gear up for 2024.

Here are three things to get excited about when it comes to the Bucs in 2024:

An influx of young talent

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers not only have some second-year players to look forward to, but if the offseason so far has been any indication, they could have some productive rookies, too.

The defensive line will be bolstered by Yaya Diaby and Calijah Kancey in their second year of football, and both of them showed some prowess in their first year. The line will additionally be filled out with edge rusher Chris Braswell, who has looked smooth in minicamp thus far.

On the offensive side of things, Graham Barton looks to make an immediate impact at center as a first-round pick and Cody Mauch will get a chance to improve in his second year. Jalen McMillan has looked fantastic in camp at wide receiver and the Bucs could have another dimension of their offense opened up with running back Bucky Irving.

All in all, the Bucs have a lot of young talent to look forward to. But it isn't all about youth in Tampa Bay..

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A return of great talent

Of course, if the young talent is mentioned, you should get excited about the returning talent too.

The Buccaneers had a ridiculous amount of free agents to try and keep, and they landed all of them. QB Baker Mayfield, WR Mike Evans, S Antoine Winfield Jr. and LB Lavonte David all returned, and the team even sweetened the deal by bringing back safety Jordan Whitehead from the New York Jets.

Those players all were a big reason why the Bucs were able to turn it on at the end of the year last year, and now, they could be a big reason that success is sustained going into 2024.

A new offensive mind

Now, a lot of experts and pundits are considering this a bad thing, but I beg to differ.

New offensive coordinator Liam Coen has a lot to offer the Buccaneers, and it begins with a more modern offense. While former Bucs defensive coordinator Dave Canales did a good job for his first year as an OC, his shot-calling skills left a bit to be desired and he often committed to certain concepts when they weren't working. Coen offers an offense that works more along the lines of the West Coast style that Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan have been promoting, and there's a lot to like there.

From at-snap motion to his philosophy of "Players over plays", Coen could add a new dimension to the offense that allows players like Baker Mayfield to gain more control and get more varied with different looks. It's always a risk going from one OC to another, but Coen's hiring could pay off dividends for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.