I'm betting on the Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl

After going 4 - 12 under the Greg Schiano's last year as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head coach, the addition of Lovie Smith gave fans some hope.

On February 22, 2014, I placed a bet at Ceasar's Palace to win the Super Bowl. The odds to win were 60 to 1. It was a fanciful thought. The Bucs did not get into the playoffs.  In fact, their production was worse in the final standings.  So terrible in the standings that the Bucs landed the first overall pick.

There were a plethora of reasons why the Bucs faltered. On offense, it all started at the head - it never had their OC, Jeff Tedord, for the regular season due to heart ailments that kept recurring. The offensive line was lackluster, the running game non-existent, the veteran QB did not help, but the Bucs were able to have two thousand yard receivers on its roster. On defense, it was deplorable in the first six games before the bye week. Yet it did improve after the bye week, but still struggled to close out games. Read the in depth analysis here: Defensive Year End Review. And special teams were not so special.

During the offseason, changes did come about. A new, potential franchise QB was drafted first overall along with two second round offensive linemen. The Bucs snatched away Atlanta's OC, Dirk Koetter, whose offense ranked 12^th overall in points per game average of 23.8 points. The Bucs' average last year was 17.3. For the last 10 games of the season, the Bucs opponents averaged 20.6 points per game. That means the Bucs have dramatically increased their chances to win more games, potentially, with an established and healthy OC.

Defensively, the pass rushing DE remains elusive to the Bucs, but they did add more fire to the interior of that line with DT Henry Melton. They improved pass coverage skill at MLB with Bruce Carter. But we do not know if that will prevent the defense from collapsing at the end of games.

Still, the division was terrible and we took Atlanta's OC. So one would believe the probability to win the Super Bowl should be similar to last season. Wrong. It got worse. We are 80 to 1 chances to win the Super Bowl. That is a pretty harsh realization of what Vegas thinks of our chances.  That is alright.  That just means I have the possibility of winning more money this season.