Do the Buccaneers Have a Realistic Chance of Winning the Super Bowl?

Every season, every NFL team prepares as if they're about to set forth on a successful season capped off with a victory in the Super Bowl. Hope abounds during the offseason and preseason, as fans grow with optimism that despite past failures, this will be the year for their team to succeed.

But for some teams, the chance of winning a Super Bowl is incredibly slim, or doesn't exist at all. Last season, no one would have expected the Oakland Raiders or Jacksonville Jaguars to win the Super Bowl, and neither team showed any signs of being strong contenders over the course of the season.

So which teams should already start planning for the 2015 NFL Draft based on their poor odds of winning it all in 2014? The NFL.com Around the League crew discussed this very topic on a recent podcast, and you might be interested to know where the Bucs landed on their list.

According to the ATL crew, the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders and Minnesota Vikings all have no chance of winning the Super Bowl during the 2014-2015 NFL season. This list notably does not contain the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

That's because, according to NFL.com's reporters and analysts, the Bucs "have a quarterback, so they have a shot." This specific quote comes fro Chris Wesseling, who is very high on Josh McCown. "If Brad Johnson can take the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl, so can McCown," said another of the ATL crew (I don't know their voices well enough to tell who it was, but according to Wesseling on Twitter, it was Marc Sessler).

The guys also praised the Tampa Bay defense, saying that they'll be good on that side of the ball, and that they have a good coach to lead the defense.

Of course, having a chance to win the Super Bowl and being a realistic contender are two different things, and I wouldn't expect any of the ATL crew (or anyone outside of Herm Edwards) to pick the Buccaneers to make a run all the way to the final game of the season in 2014 as an official prediction. Having a 1% chance isn't the same as being a favorite, and no one is going to favor the Bucs to win this year.

But the Buccaneers have enough talent on their roster, and enough upside due to the uncertainty of the offense and the potential of the defense, to be considered a team with a chance of winning it all. If everything clicks and comes together for the Bucs, it's within the realm of reason to predict that they could hoist the Lombardi Trophy a few months from now.

So what do you think? Do the Buccaneers have what it takes to be in the fringe of the contender discussion ahead of the 2014 season? Or is there a 0% chance that Tampa Bay will earn their second NFL title this year?