What are the Buccaneers actually good at?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bad this year. And there’s nothing they’re actually good at. Really: name something. Name something where you can go “wow, the Bucs can really blow people out of the water in this aspect of the game.”

Usually, there’s a bright spot somewhere. The Bucs might be really good at running the ball, as they were last year, or at stopping the run, as they were every season from 2012 through 2015. Sometimes they’re even good at pass defense, as in 2013.

But this year, there’s nothing. They’re mediocre at everything. The offense ranks 19th in Football Outsiders’ rankings, 15th passing, 27th running the ball. Similarly, they rank the defense 20th overall, 20th against the pass, 15th against the run.

Going over this roster, there’s one bright spot so far, and that’s Mike Evans. With 55 catches for 745 yards and eight touchdowns, he’s having a very good season. There’s also right guard Ali Marpet, who’s having a sneakily good second season in the NFL, and left guard Kevin Pamphile has been solid in his first season as a starter.

Jameis Winston hasn’t been bad, but he hasn’t really taken the step forward the Bucs expected out of him. And he certainly hasn’t been able to dominate.

And all of that is disappointing, because what do you build on? There’s Winston and Evans going forward, at least, if only because they have to build on these players. But where do you hang your hat, now? What do you look at and say “yes, this is the future of this team now”?

The Bucs want to win. They want to win now, but that’s not happening. So the next step is winning in 2017 — but for that to happen they need to get good at something. At anything. And it’s hard to see what that’s going to be.