Super Bowl LV Bold Prediction: Capitalizing on injuries and depth

You’ve followed along all season. Now we’re bringing it to you individually. The Bucs Nation staff will be giving you a series of bold predictions for the game one by one, day by day as we head into Super Bowl LV between the Buccaneers and the Chiefs where we sum it all up for you and give you the chance to vote for your favorite bold prediction the morning of the big game.

From an injury perspective, the biggest question mark leading to Super Bowl LV has been with Jordan Whitehead. He incurred a couple of injuries prior to the NFC Championship game, which he ended up sitting out. Another player that missed that game was “business is a-boomin’” Antonio Brown. He injured his knee during the Divisional game against the New Orleans Saints.

While the team will not disclose the very nature of AB’s injury, some would say that it’s a reason for huge concern. However, I’m not one of those that is overly concerned. For one, I think Brown will play, albeit in limited capacity. He is still a major component to this new high-flying offense. He’s also one of the key pieces that Bruce Arians and Jason Licht brought to Tampa to help the Bucs win a championship.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

Even if Brown is limited, we already know Scotty Miller can jump into action on a moments notice and run the exact same go-routes designed for AB. Why do we know this? Because he’s done it already. As I stated before, Leftwich and Arians designed this offense to be an auto-fill to keep continuity and consistency at all levels.

What does this all have to do with my bold prediction? It’s actually not a prediction on anything Antonio Brown will do, although I do believe he’ll have a couple of big plays himself. Instead, I’m leaning my bold prediction in the direction of the Buccaneers backups on offense.

First, let’s take a look at who those “backups” are (according to the latest Bucs depth chart): Scotty Miller, the speedster; Tyler Johnson, the rock star rookie; Cameron Brate, basically a starter; and actually Ronald Jones II, since Fournette leapfrogged him for the starting job in the post-season.

My bold prediction for Super Bowl LV is that we will see huge impacts from the Bucs bench. We’ll see touchdowns, lots of receptions, big yardage, and huge game-changing plays. Arians and Leftwich will keep the Chiefs on their toes guessing the packages they send out by mixing up the personnel.

Expect to see all of those guys in the headlines at the end of the night. I’m obviously leaning more on Cameron Brate, Scotty Miller, and RoJo, but I think they will all have a big night.

Score Prediction: Buccaneers 41, Chiefs 38

Super Bowl LV Bold Predictions Series

Super Bowl LV Bold Prediction: Getting a handle on postseason opportunities
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