In a new summer series, I’ll take a look at some Bucs topics for the upcoming season – and explore them with a twist.

Our next topic is – what if the Bucs win the Super Bowl in 2024?

Inspired by Marvel’s “What If…?” comic books and the Marvel animated series, let’s take a look at some potentially different outcomes to some of the more intriguing storylines in Tampa Bay that nobody sees coming. To be clear, this is not a series of topics that Pewter Report believes will happen or necessarily hopes will happen. Just use your imagination and get ready for some surprises, Tampa Bay fans.

The Background

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

When Tom Brady retired from the NFL after the Bucs finished the 2022 season with an 8-9 record and a humbling 31-14 playoff loss at home to the Cowboys, there were plenty of national media pundits that believed – or even suggested – that general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles hit the rebuild switch and blow the team up. Tampa Bay had a great three-year run with Brady that included a Super Bowl championship in 2020 and a pair of division championships the next two seasons.

But with Brady gone and former second-round pick Kyle Trask not ready to assume the starting quarterback duties, there were calls for the Bucs roster to be blown up and for Licht to start trading away the best players to stockpile draft picks and enter rebuild mode. Instead, Licht and Bowles opted to reload rather than rebuild.

Still having plenty of Pro Bowl talent on the roster, the Bucs signed quarterback Baker Mayfield to a cheap, one-year, prove-it contract with the hopes that they were getting the talent that was the former first overall pick in 2018 – not the journeyman quarterback he had become in the 2022 season when he was traded to Carolina and then waived and picked up by the L.A. Rams.

Mayfield proved to be the catalyst needed on offense and had a career year with 4,044 yards and 28 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions. It was the bounce-back year he needed to resuscitate his career and his performance helped Tampa Bay improve to 9-8, capture another NFC South title, trounce the Eagles at home in the playoffs, 32-9, and advance to the NFC Divisional Round.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and K Chase McLaughlin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

After a disappointing slide in which the Bucs lost six of seven games following a 3-1 start, the team got its act together and won five of the last six games of the season thanks to Bowles’ steady belief in his players. With Tampa Bay winning six of its last eight games, including the postseason, Licht and Bowles seized on the late-season momentum and re-signed all of the team’s top free agents, including Mayfield, Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans, All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., legendary linebacker Lavonte David and ace kicker Chase McLaughlin.

Licht and the team’s personnel department have now had three great drafts and stockpiled the roster with cheap, young, starting-caliber talent to help the Bucs salary cap recover from the last Super Bowl run. That emerging talent helped fuel the late-season run last year and is expected to help Tampa Bay improve and reach double-digit wins and win a fourth-straight NFC South championship.

In 2023, Tampa Bay was two wins away reaching the Super Bowl, losing at Detroit, 31-23. This season, it’s not unthinkable that an improved Bucs team could topple the Lions and even the 49ers and reach the Super Bowl.

And if Tampa Bay were to play a powerhouse team like Kansas City? Well, we know Bowles and his defense have shut down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense in a Super Bowl before. And every time the Bucs have won a Super Bowl, it’s been with a veteran free agent quarterback like Brad Johnson in 2002 or Brady in 2020. Perhaps Mayfield becomes the third such quarterback in Tampa Bay lore.

What If The Bucs Win The Super Bowl In 2024?

Bucs co-chair Darcie Glazer Kassewitz, assistant GM Mike Greenberg and GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Tampa Bay is a dark horse contender for the Super Bowl this year. Most national media pundits are picking Atlanta to win the division thanks to the arrival of veteran Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Yet the last time the Bucs won the Super Bowl, they didn’t even win the division and had to win three straight playoff games on the road as a Wild Card team in 2020. So whether it happens as a division champion or a Wild Card team, what if the Bucs surprised the NFL and won the Super Bowl this year?

What could – or would – happen next for this franchise?

A Super Bowl championship could send shockwaves throughout the organization on many levels. Starting at the top, general manager Jason Licht could become team president after his 11th season with the organization and after winning two Super Bowl rings.

Sensing that NFL teams will want some of what the Bucs have, Licht knows that his front office will finally be raided in the 2025 offseason. For some reason, other teams haven’t come calling for some of his top personnel executives, and that has led to the Tampa Bay scouting department staying intact and producing three mega draft classes.

Licht’s elevation to team president allows him to promote team strategist and capologist Mike Greenberg from assistant general manager to G.M. Licht will still be involved in personnel, as that is his specialty, but Greenberg gets the new title and a promotion.

Bucs directors of player personnel Rob McCartney and Mike Biehl – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

John Spytek, the team’s other assistant G.M. gets hired away to become a general manager elsewhere and run another team. This move is long overdue, as Spytek is one of the NFL’s best talent evaluators and personnel men.

Licht and Greenberg promote director of player personnel Rob McCartney and vice president of football research Jackie Davidson to the roles of assistant general managers. McCartney takes over for Spytek as the top personnel man in the organization next to Licht, and Davidson continues to work with and advise Greenberg and Licht with the salary cap and team strategy.

Director of player personnel Mike Biehl, who oversees the Bucs college scouting department, also gets hired away to become a general manager in the 2025 offseason. Longtime Buccaneer Byron Kiefer, the team’s senior personnel director, gets promoted to director of college scouting and heads up college scouting due to his background in that area and his history as a college scout.

In a shocking move, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles goes out on top and retires at the age of 61. He finishes his four-year head coaching stint in Tampa Bay with a winning record and as the only head coach in franchise history to have made the playoffs each year at the helm of the organization.

Licht and Greenberg promote offensive coordinator Liam Coen to head coach to continue to work with Baker Mayfield, while co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Larry Foote takes over for Bowles as the play-caller on defense. Defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers remains as a co-defensive coordinator.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles & Co-DC Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There are a couple of notable roster moves that also occur following the Bucs’ third Super Bowl championship. Linebacker and team captain Lavonte David retires at age 35 with his Hall of Fame candidacy boosted by two Super Bowl titles, which gives him an edge over the likes of Bobby Wagner and Luke Kuechly. David and long-time defensive tackle Will Gholston ride off in the sunset part of a small, elite group that captured two Super Bowl titles in Tampa Bay.

The Bucs reward wide receiver Chris Godwin with a new two-year contract that closely resembles the one dished out to Mike Evans in the 2024 offseason. As anticipated, Godwin shined as a slot receiver in Coen’s offense, and both he and Evans topped 1,000 yards each again for the fourth straight season as a duo.

Godwin’s re-signing gives Mayfield his two top targets in the passing game as the Bucs look to defend their Super Bowl title in the 2025 season. How’s that for a happy ending in 2024?

Other articles in Scott Reynolds’ What If? summer series:

What If Joe Tryon-Shoyinka Led The Bucs In Sacks?

What If The Bucs Wore Orange Pants For The Creamsicle Game?

What If Mike Evans Didn’t Get 1,000 Yards This Season?

What If Bucky Irving Is Better Than Rachaad White?