Last August the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the trendy pick to make the playoffs and improve from their 9-7 finish in 2016, arrived in Jacksonville for joint practices with the Jaguars, who were seemingly mired in a perpetual state of rebuilding.

The perhaps over-confident Bucs arrived with the HBO’s Hard Knocks cameras in tow, and most would agree looked the part, capped off by a solid Thursday night preseason victory on ESPN. Bucs fans were pleased and the team was poised to make a playoff run.

Or so we thought.

Instead it was the Jags, coming off a 3-13 season that was the surprise team in the NFL, and ended up just another Tom Brady late fourth quarter rally from playing on Sunday in the Super Bowl.

Former Florida State linebacker and Jaguars Pro Bowler Telvin Smith said the transformation was a process, but his teammates and organization were committed.

Photo by: Mark Cook/PR

“I am telling you, it is easy when it is happening in the moment,” Smith said. “It makes it even easier when you want it. A lot of guys were hungry. And we had a lot of guys who love ball and wanted to prove themselves. That, combined with a lot of talent and a lot of confidence and a lot of money, will get you to where you want to get to.”

Smith remembers the hype surrounding the Buccaneers when they showed up in Jacksonville last August.

“I am telling you that is how you know this game is crazy,” Smith said. “Everybody saying when they (the Bucs) came in (to Jacksonville) ‘That is a playoff team, they added a couple pieces.’ But it is hard to say. You just have to get the right pieces, and each season is its own. You don’t go into next season saying, ‘Yeah that is the same team.’ Every year it is a different team, a different attitude. You will never have the same guys. But sometimes one guy can make all the difference.”

In fact, it was several newcomers who impacted the Jaguars in 2017, from rookie running back Leonard Fournette, the team’s first-round draft pick who had 1,040 yards and nine touchdowns on 268 carries (3.9 avg.), to free agent defensive end Calais Campbell, who had a career high 14.5 sacks and three forced fumbles, to free agent cornerback A.J. Bouye, who had six interceptions, to new head coach Doug Marrone, who put the Jaguars through a grueling training camp to bring the team closer and increase personal accountability. Smith said things came together slowly at first for the Jaguars, but the commitment from the front office and new executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin, also made the difference.

“It most definitely does,” Smith said. “But I’ll tell you something – it starts in the front office, believing and showing the team and organization they can and will put the effort and money into the right guys. And then it goes into coaching, you have to have the coaches that know what they are doing. And then you have to have the good players. You put that together, and hopefully that team comes together, long enough and fast enough to win a championship.”

Do the Buccaneers have those right pieces in place? They certainly didn’t in 2017 given the Bucs’ 5-11 record, but like Smith said, every year it’s a different team. Tampa Bay is certainly hoping for a different outcome in 2018 so it can join Jacksonville in the ranks of being one of the NFL’s surprise teams with a quick turnaround and a long-awaited playoff berth.