Tampa Bay’s 2025 offseason is here a little early thanks to a 23-20 loss at the hands of Washington in the Wild Card playoffs. But before we dive headfirst into free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft let’s take a look at the team’s Most Improved and Most Disappointing Bucs from the 2024 season.

On Saturday, the Pewter Report staff voted on the Bucs’ 2024 MVPs, Best Assistant Coach and Rookie of the Year. Now let’s dish out four more awards to Todd Bowles’ troops – two on each side of the ball. Pewter Report will finish its awards series on Sunday with the 2024 Bucs Season Awards, handing out seven more awards plus an early 2025 record prediction.

Most Improved Bucs Offensive Player: RG Cody Mauch

The good news for Tampa Bay is that several offensive players showed marked improvement in 2024, but right guard Cody Mauch was at the top of the list. There aren’t many metrics to analyze and grade offensive line play, but Pro Football Focus gives it the best shot it can with its grading. PFF isn’t perfect, but it feels like the improvement that Mauch made from a very inconsistent rookie season to a superb second year was on the mark.

Bucs RG Cody Mauch – Photo by: USA Today

As a rookie, Mauch had a 43.9 overall PFF grade with a run blocking grade of 37.6 and a pass blocking grade of 52.1. He was credited with 57 pressures allowed, including eight sacks, and he had five penalties. In 2024 Mauch finished with an overall 74.6 PFF grade and a 68.4 run blocking grade this season. Mauch’s pass protection went to an entirely new level with a 77.2 PFF grade last year. PFF had Mauch with just 19 pressures and only two during the 2024 campaign. He also ranked #1 in the NFC and #4 overall among guards with at least 350 pass block snaps in PFF’s pass block efficiency metric at 98.5. He held those same two ranks in pressure rate allowed at 2.63%.

The other plus about Mauch’s game is his durability. After playing all 1,236 snaps at right guard as a rookie, Mauch played all 1,178 snaps on offense in his second season in Tampa Bay. The North Dakota State prospect is the Bucs’ iron man upfront and either doesn’t get injured or has successfully played through minor injuries.

The other Bucs players on offense who were in the running for this award were tight end Cade Otton, quarterback Baker Mayfield, right tackle Luke Goedeke, left tackle Tristan Wirfs. Otton developed into a much better blocker in 2024 under the tutelage of new tight ends coach Justin Peelle and showed he could be a featured receiver with a career-high 59 catches for 600 yards and four touchdowns. Mayfield, who was Pewter Report’s Bucs MVP on offense, improved from a 64% completion percentage to a 71% completion percentage and saw his passing touchdown numbers climb from 28 to 41 while his passing yardage increased by 446 yards.

Wirfs was a Pro Bowl alternate in his first season at left tackle in 2023 but was voted into the Pro Bowl in 2024 and became a first-team All-Pro at left tackle in 2024. The four-time Pro Bowler also became the first NFL player to be an All-Pro at two positions – left and right tackle. Goedeke also showed massive improvement in his second full season at right tackle, reducing the number of penalties he had and sacks he allowed.

Most Improved Bucs Defensive Player: DT Logan Hall

Through the first two years in Tampa Bay, it seemed like defensive tackle Logan Hall, the team’s top pick and the 33rd overall selection in 2022, was on his way to an underwhelming career. Hall seemed like he was going to follow the path of outside linebacker and first-round pick Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, who was not going to live up to expectations as the 32nd overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. After recording 2.5 sacks as a rookie reserve, Hall didn’t record a single sack in 2023 despite being one of the more athletic defensive linemen on the team.

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

Hall arrived in Tampa Bay undersized at 6-foot-6, 283 pounds and needed to add nearly 20 pounds of mass and muscle to better hold up against the run in the NFL. He relied too much on a swim move that worked at Houston but wouldn’t work against savvy NFL offensive linemen. After two rough seasons as a reserve and an occasional fill-in starter, it all came together for Hall in 2024.

Hall had 28 tackles and 5.5 sacks last season – both are career highs. He showed impressive and improved pass rush moves, notching two sacks in a 36-30 loss at Atlanta, and added another 1.5 sacks at Los Angeles in a 40-17 win. Hall is entering a contract year in 2025 and has proven that he deserves plenty of snaps at defensive tackle rotating with Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea. He saved his best game for last with a career-high seven tackles against Washington in the playoff loss, including five solo stops.

Bucs cornerback Zyon McCollum also showed improvement on defense but needs to be more consistent. Defensive tackles Vita Vea, who was Pewter Report’s Bucs MVP on defense, and Calijah Kancey also leveled up their games in 2025. But Hall made the biggest leap of all Tampa Bay defenders in 2024, and his arrow is pointing up heading into 2025.

Most Disappointing Bucs Offensive Player: WR Trey Palmer

With the exception of wide receiver Trey Palmer and running back Rachaad White, every single returning player on offense made statistical strides from the 2023 season to 2024. White simply lost his starting job to rookie sensation Bucky Irving but still managed to rush for 613 yards and three touchdowns and catch 51 passes for 393 yards and six more TDs. White even increased his yards-per-carry average from 3.7 in 2023 to 4.3 during the 2024 season.

Bucs WR Trey Palmer – Photo by: USA Today

But the 2023 contributor that took the biggest step back during the 2024 campaign was easily Palmer, who was the team’s No. 3 receiver during his rookie season. Tampa Bay spent a third-round pick on Jalen McMillan, who used a strong training camp and preseason to supplant Palmer as the team’s No. 3 receiver in 2024. Even when McMillan struggled early on and missed time due to a hamstring injury, Palmer failed to capitalize and earn more playing time.

Palmer had 39 catches for 385 yards and three touchdowns as a sixth-round pick in 2023. But he struggled with his route running, and as a vertical receiver, he didn’t seem like he was a good fit in Liam Coen’s scheme. Palmer finished the year with just 12 catches for 171 yards and one touchdown. Ryan Miller, who was a former practice squad receiver, finished the 2024 season with 12 catches for 128 yards and two touchdowns by comparison.

Palmer was just mediocre as the team’s punt returner with 17 returns for just 136 yards (8.0 avg.) with a long of 17 yards despite being one of the fastest players on Tampa Bay’s roster. With the Bucs expected to re-sign Chris Godwin and looking to draft another wide receiver in the middle rounds, Palmer is not a lock to make the 2025 roster.

Most Disappointing Bucs Defensive Player: ILB K.J. Britt

One of Tampa Bay’s biggest miscalculations of the 2024 season was that K.J. Britt could be a competent starter – and a replacement for Devin White – at inside linebacker. No one was suggesting that White should be re-signed, as his lack of toughness and effort was on full display for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, which led to his departure in free agency. But Britt’s athleticism was greatly overestimated by head coach Todd Bowles, who was one of Britt’s biggest fans due to his heady play.

Falcons WR Darnell Mooney and Bucs CB Tyrek Funderburk and ILB K.J. Britt – Photo by: USA Today

It turned out that Britt was horrible in pass coverage, and he was one of Pro Football Focus’ worst-graded linebackers in 2024. Britt ranked 81 out of 82 linebackers graded by PFF and had a 45.5 overall grade and a 40.9 pass coverage grade, which was the worst among all Bucs defenders in 2024. SirVocea Dennis, a second year inside linebacker, was platooning with Britt early in the season and was on his way to supplanting him as the starter before a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 4 derailed those plans.

So, Britt became a full-time starter for the first half of the season, and opposing teams took full advantage and picked on Britt in coverage, targeting the middle of Tampa Bay’s defense. No quarterback did that better than Kirk Cousins, who completed 72.4% of his passes for a Falcons-record 509 passing yards with four touchdowns and one interception in Atlanta’s 36-30 overtime win, and a 31-26 win at Tampa Bay where he completed 79.3% of his throws for 276 yards and four TDs. Bowles was slow to react and get Britt off the field on passing downs, but he was finally replaced as a starter by J.J. Russell by season’s end.

Britt will be a free agent in 2025 and does not deserve to be re-signed even though he’s a good special teams player and locker room guy. Tampa Bay needs faster, more athletic linebackers in 2025 and Britt fails to meet that criterion. The Bucs had other disappointing players on defense, including safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. and Jordan Whitehead, cornerback Jamel Dean and outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. But given the importance of the middle linebacker position, and how Britt failed spectacularly in his lone season as a starter, he was an easy choice for this distinction.