Having followed this football team since my dad and I sat down in front of the television on a Sunday afternoon in 1977 to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers get their first win in franchise history with a 33-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints, I’m not sure I have seen a fan base so negative and slightly apathetic after a 2019 season that showed a lot of promise with new head coach Bruce Arians.

But believe it or not, the Bucs’ glass is half full.

I get it though. Bucs fans have been let down over and over since the last time they saw a playoff game all the way back in 2007 – or a postseason win, which was Super Bowl XXXVII during the 2002 season.

There’s an old country saying I heard often growing up in Pinecrest, Fla.

“If you kick the dog every time you come home from work, he will eventually stop coming out from underneath the front porch to greet you.”

Tampa Bay fans have been that dog more often not over the course of the history of the franchise.

Year after year coming out from under the porch wagging their tail, hoping for a pat on the head, a Milk Bone or even just a pleasant greeting. Instead the Bucs organization kicks them in the rear year after year with poor coaching hires, some bad draft picks, ticket price increases and just generally poor football play on the field.

The fans have been conditioned to lose. The players have been conditioned to lose. But I believe things are beginning to change after just one year under Arians, which ended with a 7-9 record.

Yes, things were far from perfect in 2019. Too many turnovers. Too many penalties. Too many times the Bucs beat the Bucs.

First, let’s make one thing clear.

Tampa Bay isn’t making to the playoffs with a quarterback that throws 30 interceptions. The Bucs aren’t sniffing the postseason with a defense that started the season off worse than the previous Mike Smith-led units. And the Bucs will be hard pressed to win enough games to challenge for the NFC South title with a kicker that missed two 34-yard field goals (against the New York Giants and Atlanta) that would have given the Bucs a 9-7 record instead of the seven wins they ended up with.

Plain and simple, the turnovers from quarterback Jameis Winston (39 in total) have to be cut in half if he returns under center in 2020. As mentioned, the Buccaneers won’t get to where they want to be with a quarterback who gives the ball away at nearly an average of two times per game. No team can win a Super Bowl throwing seven touchdown passes – to the other team.

But 5,109 passing yards didn’t happen by accident. And 33 touchdown passes – to his own team – also wasn’t by accident.

Neither was an NFL record-setting, two-game stretch with Winston throwing for over 450 yards against Indianapolis and Detroit. And both games were victories by the way.

For some reason the narrative after the season has changed into a perception that Winston has thrown 30 interceptions every year he’s been in the NFL. Prior to this season the most picks he’s thrown was 18 in 2016 – still too many – but nearly half less than this season. In the other seasons it was 15, 11 and 14 interceptions.

Think about it – the Bucs won seven games with a quarterback who threw 30 interceptions playing with a broken thumb the last month of the season, a kicker that cost the team at least two games with bad misses, and a historically bad defense in the first half of the season that was the culprit in a 2-6 start. Not to mention finishing the 2019 season with receivers on the field that even savant Bucs beat writer Greg Auman of The Athletic couldn’t have picked out of a police lineup due to Tampa Bay’s two Pro Bowl receivers missing significant time down the stretch, along with a brutal schedule that featured seven weeks away from Raymond James Stadium.

The schedule was so bad that even the NFL had to apologize for it once it came out. And don’t even get me started with the NFL officials that likely cost this team another win at Tennessee in October, and had some horrifically bad calls and bad no-calls in both losses against New Orleans, in addition to the loss against Houston.

Seven wins with all that?

The Bucs’ glass is half full.

There is plenty of uncertainty this offseason with the quarterback situation and the number of free agents on the defensive side of the ball. And this football team has areas to improve in like the running game, pass protection and run blocking. And we have to find out if this secondary is for real or a flash in the pan?

There is plenty of hope for 2020. This coaching staff appears to be the real deal, and did anyone in the NFL do a more masterful job than defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and his staff did in the second half of the season? Don’t look now, but this was a Top 10 defense over the last six games. Read that again – a Top 10 defense in the NFL.

This team also reminds of another Bucs team, one that started to turn things around after a long playoff drought.

I am not saying the 2019 Bucs are a carbon copy of Tony Dungy’s 1996 Bucs, but you can see some similarities, especially due to the fact that both of those Tampa Bay teams finished strong down the stretch with 5-3 records after 2-6 starts.

The similarities don’t end there. These Bucs’ like Dungy’s team in ’96 featured a new coach with a totally new scheme, the changing of the mindset and the culture in the locker room and preaching patience. These Bucs have a young, talented defensive tackle in Vita Vea, a young, fast athletic linebacker in Devin White, a veteran linebacker in Lavonte David and an elite pass rusher in Shaq Barrett.

Are they Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Hardy Nickerson and Simeon Rice, who joined the Bucs a few years later? Probably not, but you can’t say they don’t have similar qualities.

There is a blueprint for Bucs’ success tucked in the vault of One Buc Place. And general manger Jason Licht must have found it.

Bucs Hall of Fame DT Warren Sapp – Photo by: Getty Images

The difference between the 1996 Bucs and this current group is the ’96 squad was somewhat offensively challenged. The 2019 team had no issues moving the football. Tampa Bay ranked first in passing (302.8 yards per game) third in total yards (397.9 yards per game),  third in scoring (28.6) this year. The 1996 team could only dream about having weapons and the firepower this current Bucs roster has.

I know it has been tough, Bucs fans. I know you have been kicked like the old country dog for years. But trust me. I can see your owner driving up the driveway coming home in 2020 and there won’t be any kicks. Instead there will be some snacks, head rubs and better times ahead.

And go get that glass ready, Bucs fans, it’s half full right now. And with another good offseason that glass might be running over come September.