The Bucs are five games into their 2024 season and sit at 3-2. After a late-game collapse in Atlanta cost them a chance to get to 4-1 and create some early separation in the NFC South race, they’re currently licking their wounds and enjoying the 10-day break between that loss and their chance at redemption, which comes next Sunday against the Saints in New Orleans.

So, with the rest of the league playing out Week 5 throughout Sunday and into Monday night, how about some reflection on those first five weeks of Tampa Bay’s season? More specifically, what has been the biggest surprise for the Bucs through five games?

Bucs Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

How well the team has coped with key injuries is perhaps one of the more overarching surprises thus far.

The bad feelings coming out of Thursday night may cloud some judgement a bit, but there’s no denying that being 3-2 (and being a late-game collapse away from 4-1) is somewhat of a pleasant surprise given the fact that Calijah Kancey has yet to play this season and both Luke Goedeke and Antoine Winfield Jr. have been sidelined since Week 1. Vita Vea also missed a game and a half with his own injury.

Getting Kancey, Goedeke and Winfield back in the near future will be a massive boost for Tampa Bay, but the team has fared relatively well without them.

If we’re allowed to play fast and loose with the word “surprise,” Chris Godwin returning to form and being the Bucs’ leading receiver with 32 catches for 386 yards (12.1 avg.) and three touchdowns through five games is another one on the list. Godwin’s contract year is off to a phenomenal start, as he’s showing that he can still be an elite chain-mover out of the slot. Of his 32 catches, 25 have gone for first downs.

Bucs CB Zyon McCollum – Photo by: USA Today

Another surprise that maybe isn’t a major surprise? Zyon McCollum has rounded into form as the Bucs’ best cornerback through five games.

There were signs a breakout could be coming, as Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo outlined this summer, but the fact that he’s Tampa Bay’s highest-graded defender so far is extremely encouraging. By PFF’s grading system, it’s not even close. McCollum has an 89.7 overall grade (with an 89.3 coverage grade), while Jamel Dean is a distant second at 73.1.

Tampa Bay managing to exact some revenge against the Lions in Detroit back in Week 2 was another welcome surprise. The Bucs were already dealing with the injury bug through just one week and had to return to the setting where their 2023 season ended to face a very good Lions team, yet they emerged with a gutsy win over Dan Campbell’s squad to get to 2-0 on the young season.

As for negative surprises? That effort against the previously winless Broncos at Raymond James Stadium in Week 3 qualifies. Now, it’s worth mentioning that the Denver defense has proven to be one of the league’s best and led the team to another win in Week 4. But the Bucs offense looking listless and not being able to muster up more than seven points was a surprise, as was the fact that Todd Bowles’ defense couldn’t handle a struggling rookie quarterback in Bo Nix.

But Really, What’s Been The Bucs’ Biggest Surprise Through 5 Games?

Bucs DT Logan Hall – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

With allll of that said, what’s probably been the biggest surprise to this point of the Bucs’ 2024 campaign has been the recent emergence of third-year defensive lineman Logan Hall.

After the No. 33 overall pick in the 2022 Draft showed some flashes of pass-rushing potential as a rookie, he wasn’t a factor in 2023. And coming into 2024, there wasn’t much reason to believe he’d suddenly become the player the Bucs drafted him to be two years ago. But after big games against the Eagles and Falcons, Hall is Tampa Bay’s leading sacker through five games with three.

Those three sacks in five games are already a career high for Hall, and while that’s an encouraging sign itself, it’s also about the level of play the former Houston Cougar is putting out there. After picking up his first sack of the year against Philadelphia in Week 4, he put together the best game of his career on Thursday night in Atlanta. He posted seven total pressures, with two sacks, three quarterback hits and two hurries.

Make that 2️⃣ for @loganhall_ 💪

📺: #TBvsATL on @PrimeVideo pic.twitter.com/mrPoDcqxP4

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 4, 2024

Is this just a hot streak for Hall, or is it sustainable? Head coach Todd Bowles believes it’s the latter.

“Yeah, it is sustainable,” Bowles said Friday morning. “He’s coming on. We always knew he was a good athlete, but it took time to get his pass rush things down. He does a lot of talking to Vita [Vea], he did a lot of talking to [Calijah] Kancey on the sideline, of how to try to attack these guys and what he wants to do with them – less swim technique and more hands to power and then he’s using his moves at the end and his athleticism.

“I think it’s sustainable. I think he’s coming on every week, and he sees it now, so that’s giving him more confidence and we just look forward to him getting better.”

Is Hall going to finish the 2024 season as the Bucs’ leading sacker? That’s unlikely. But given the expectations and the way he’d been effectively written off coming into his third season as a pro, the start he’s off to is a surprise and an encouraging development.

Tampa Bay will certainly hope his pass rushing ability continues to shine week in and week out because if it does, it’ll cease to be a surprise at all. At that point, Logan Hall would simply be the guy the team hoped he would be all along.