{"id":393755,"date":"2026-09-08T15:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393755\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T15:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:14:13","slug":"i-think-they-can-make-a-run-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393755\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I Think They Can Make A Run&#8221; &#8211; JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\u201cI Think They Can Make A Run\u201d<br \/>\nSeptember 8th, 2026 <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406093\" class=\"wp-image-406093 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TrotterBainScott.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"425\" height=\"317\"   \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-406093\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bucs\u2019 go-to rookies on defense.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">More than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joebucsfan.com\/2026\/09\/have-your-say-164\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">83 percent of Bucs fans<\/a> look at their 2026 team and see a winner. The most popular vote was 10 wins for Tampa Bay in Joe\u2019s poll yesterday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Expectations are sky high, as they should be.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The Bucs play in a trash division and every sportsbook known to Joe has Tampa Bay as its favorite to win the NFC South landfill.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The NFL game is still very much about winning in the trenches and having strong quarterback play. And unless Joe is missing something, the Bucs have the most NFC South talent in the trenches and at QB. That\u2019s why so many fans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joebucsfan.com\/2026\/09\/have-your-say-163\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">graded the Bucs\u2019 roster with a \u201cB\u201d or better<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But winning the division is nowhere near enough. Winning in the postseason is what matters to a fanbase that was riding a five-season streak of reaching the playoffs before last season\u2019s heinous collapse. The Bucs were a whopping 6-4 in those playoff games.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Just reaching the playoffs isn\u2019t good enough. That\u2019s not where the franchise is in its trajectory. The just-happy-to-be-there mentality was flushed down the toilet with major assists to Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield, and yes, to Bucco Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This isn\u2019t 2016.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Joe heard <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/green-light-with-chris-long\/id1485277290\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Green Light<\/a>\u00a0podcast host Chris Long, the two-time Super Bowl winner defensive end, detail why he picks the Bucs to win the NFC South and then jump back on the microphone to make sure his co-hosts know he thinks the Bucs are more than just the landfill leaders.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cAnd I actually think their ceiling is a little bit higher \u2026\u00a0 I think they can make a run in the NFC,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">That\u2019s what it\u2019s come to for Bucs optimists \u2014 clarifying that they believe Tampa Bay can do more than win a dreadful division. In most NFL years, it\u2019s just assumed that every division winner is capable of winning a playoff game.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Are the Bucs good enough to make a run? That\u2019s unclear. But Joe thinks it\u2019s reasonable to say the Bucs will be in need of new direction if this roster can\u2019t win a playoff game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI Think They Can Make A Run\u201d September 8th, 2026 The Bucs\u2019 go-to rookies on defense. More than&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10998,10997,135,2964,137,136],"class_list":["post-393755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-bucs-message-boards","tag-bucs-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}