The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a Good Team. Don’t just ask me, ask national NFL commentators. Almost universally, they’re now ranking the Bucs as a playoff team — which, well, makes sense given that they’re currently in position to actually make the playoffs after winning four straight games.
Sometimes, that just means an easy schedule and some lucky breaks. This time, it seems the Bucs have now convinced national sports commentators they’re for real.
Adam Stites of SB Nation ranks them 13th in his latest power rankings, and the Washington Post even ranks them eighth (up from thirteenth). Most other outlets aren’t as optimistic, with Yahoo! Sports ranking them 13th, Niners Nation 12th and the New York Daily News 10th.
Overall, though, people are starting to believe in the Bucs, for the first time since probably the final month of the 2010 season. And rightly so: Tampa Bay isn’t just a winning team, it’s a winning team that has won four straight including two against likely playoff teams. They don’t have a winning record by virtue of their schedule, but in spite of it.
In other words: the Bucs may simply be turning into a good team. Granted, top 13 isn’t quite the same as very good and they’re still seen as just a borderline playoff team, but that’s a whole lot better than anything they’ve put out there in recent years.