Through two preseason games, the Bucs have been outscored 53-17. On Saturday night, Tampa Bay failed to cross the Titans 30-yard line and scored zero touchdowns in a 34-3 beat down. It was an abysmal offensive performance filled with every kind of mistake you can imagine, against a Tennessee offense without many NFL-caliber players.

But I’m not worried.

Why? Because the Bucs who actually matter, the ones who will be a tangible part of this roster in 2021, weren’t responsible. In fact, those Bucs have been pretty impressive this preseason.

Bucs WR Tyler Johnson – Photo by: USA Today

Offensively, Tampa Bay hasn’t had many bright spots. But the reserves you want to see play well – LT Josh Wells, OG Aaron Stinnie, RB Giovani Bernard and WR Tyler Johnson have been great. Wells and Stinnie have looked like players fully capable of being spot starters, and Bernard is everything the Bucs hoped he would be as a third-down back. Johnson has looked like Tampa Bay’s fourth-best receiver over the past week. That’s exactly what you would have hoped for at the beginning of the offseason.

Backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert is responsible for the team’s lone touchdown drive of the preseason. He was a little wild against the Bengals, but impressed against Tennessee. His receivers dropped three of his six passes on Saturday night, but Gabbert was accurate and decisive all night. If Tom Brady goes down, the Bucs are obviously screwed. But Gabbert is a more capable backup than several other teams in the NFL have.

I’m not going to get stressed out because Kyle Trask and Ryan Griffin are both unwatchable right now. If the Bucs are playing either of them in 2021, the season is already lost. You can argue that Trask should look better than this as a second-round pick. I don’t disagree, but I’m also not ready to make a proclamation on his future. That is, outside of my pre-draft grade that Trask is a career backup quarterback. He needs time to develop and far more reps in practice before we decide who he is as an NFL quarterback.

That’s not going to happen in 2021, because Trask doesn’t matter in 2021. Most of these preseason offensive players don’t matter. It’s not a big deal if Nick Leverett’s snaps at center make every offensive rep a second slow to develop. It’s not a big deal if  Cyril Grayson or Codey McElroy or Ke’Shawn Vaughn drop passes. If a mashup of second- and third-string offensive linemen blow a couple protection schemes against a blitz or twist, that’s not necessarily a translatable concern to the regular season.

Bucs TE O.J. Howard – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Yes, O.J. Howard’s pitiful performance against the Titans isn’t great. But he’s shaking off significant rust and he’s like the seventh option in the passing game. If he’s not a world-beater this year, that’s way worse news for his stock as a player than it is for the Bucs stock as a team.

I like Howard and hope he excels. But he’s ancillary to Tampa Bay’s success this season. So is fourth-round pick Jaelon Darden, who has flashed good and bad in the preseason.

On defense, the important players have been even better. Outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka doesn’t just look good, he looks special. His ability to explode and bend is rare. As his hands develop and his inside counters become quicker, Tryon-Shoyinka will be even more of a force. Right now, he looks like the steal of the first round.

With an aging interior defensive line, it’s crucial that the Bucs see something from younger players like Pat O’Connor and Khalil Davis. The duo were two of the best players in the game on Saturday night, combining for three tackles-for-loss and a sack. That doesn’t even count the sack Davis set up for Grant Stuard, or the two additional tackles-for-loss O’Connor missed that were cleaned up by others.

On the second level, third linebacker Kevin Minter has had his best offseason. He was everywhere on Saturday night in the first half. So was free agent pickup Antonio Hamilton, who has posted two strong preseason performances. Safety Ross Cockrell hasn’t been targeted much in preseason, but has been lights out in training camp. Even Anthony Nelson has had two solid preseason games.

The defensive disappointments of the Bucs 2021 preseason don’t matter for this team right now. And they probably never will matter for Tampa Bay. K.J. Britt and Joe Jones are special teamers at best in the NFL. Chris Wilcox was a few picks away from being Mr. Irrelevant for a reason. Everywhere else, the Bucs have been fine in the preseason. When it comes to their most important defensive pieces, they’ve been more than fine.

Bucs ILB Joe Jones – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

In reality, we’ve seen six plays from the starting offense and six plays from the starting defense. As starved as we are for real football analysis, there just aren’t that many conclusions to draw from preseason action, especially for the most important Bucs in 2021. Here’s more facts: key Tampa Bay reserves have looked great in preseason action. Most of the disappointment has stemmed from the performance of players who won’t be Buccaneers in 2021 or won’t matter in 2021.

This does not mean the Bucs are guaranteed success when Week 1 rolls around. If Tampa Bay’s starters don’t dominate in the first half on Saturday against a hapless Texans team, I’ll be the first to call them out on the post-game Pewter Report Podcast. Then it’s time to perhaps sound some alarm bells.

The Texans are one of the worst organizations in pro sports, and they’ve acquired a host of C-minus talent in an attempt to garner a high draft pick next year. The Bucs need to dominate the first half, eliminated the sloppy plays they’ve started the past two games with and blow Houston away. If they don’t, we’ll be having a different conversation next Monday.

But for now, everyone needs to calm down. The scoreboard hasn’t looked good for the Bucs in two preseason games, but the individuals who need to play well have impressed. When the final 53-man roster takes shape, I’m guessing the results of each game will begin to look a lot more favorable for Tampa Bay, too.