Who Is the Face of the Franchise for the Bucs?

Who Is the Face of the Franchise for Every NFL Team? By Sean Tomlinson , NFL Analyst May 28, 2015 Kathy Willens/Associated Press Every NFL team has 53 faces on the regular-season roster. Then a handful of other faces on the sideline are often red, possibly with adult language flowing from their mouths (pictured!). And high above in suites on game day there are important faces. The kind of esteemed faces with personal eyeglass cleaners.Some teams even have a menacing face as their logo, though the British-gentleman versions are a wee bit less frightening.Among all those faces, there is one that represents each franchise. Usually it’s the most talented player, but not always. Often it’s the most productive player, but not always.Assigning a franchise face can be arbitrary and open to different definitions. For me, identifying 32 of them throughout the league means answering a simple question: Which face comes to mind immediately when you hear or read a team’s name?There can be many answers to the NFL Rorschach test I’ll attempt for each team. Often it will be easy, and just as often anchoring a franchise to one face will mean eliminating other equally important ones. You’ll surely approve of each pick, and if you don’t the “honorable mentions” will allow for convenient disagreement.Alright, then—let’s start slapping faces with franchise tags.NFC SouthAtlanta Falcons: WR Julio Jones Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports When Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones is in one workable piece, he’s usually running far, and fast.Consider his past two seasons. Since 2013, he has the third-most receiving yards per game (88.4) while recording 10 games with 100-plus yards during that time. Now if he could just break a little less, we’d see his franchise face more.Jones has appeared in all 16 games only once over his four-year career. His 104 receptions and 1,593 yards in 2014 (both single-season team records) is production made even more remarkable by a hip injury he struggled through late in the season.He’s young at the age of 26 and has plenty of prime years left to work with his also-youthful quarterback, Matt Ryan. It seems only luck is between Jones and league dominance.Honorable mentions: Roddy White, Matt RyanCarolina Panthers: MLB Luke KuechlyChris Keane/Associated Press This was tight, and I almost favored Cam Newton. Despite recently flirting with regression, he's still the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback savior after the franchise endured the likes of Matt Moore and Jimmy Clausen. He was also a pretty chill Auburn student who brought donuts to class.But no, the Panthers’ crown belongs to linebacker Luke Kuechly, who’s already logged a Defensive Rookie of the Year award and two Pro Bowl appearances over three seasons.In each of those years he’s finished with 150-plus tackles for a career total of 473. He’s a dynamic linebacker and fully at ease while defending both the run and pass. The latter skill was highlighted in 2014 with Kuechly’s single-season-high 12 passes defensed.He forms half of arguably(?) the league’s premier linebacker tandem alongside Thomas Davis and is very much cut from the modern middle linebacker mold. His lateral quickness eliminates running lanes (Kuechly ran the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds), and he can almost function as another safety in coverage while matching up with tight ends.Honorable mentions: Cam Newton, Thomas DavisNew Orleans Saints: QB Drew BreesWesley Hitt/Getty Images New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees may be inching toward the start of his slow, inevitable decline. Time is still an undefeated enemy of every legend, and Brees is certainly allowed to feel its wrath entering his age-36 season. In 2014 his passing yards per game fell from 322.6 the previous season to 309.5, and Brees’ 17 interceptions finished only one behind the league leaders. But the mountain he has to descend from is far steeper than most, if that roll down the age hill is indeed beginning.Brees signed with the Saints in 2006, and since then no other regular starting quarterback has a higher completion percentage than his 67.5, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.Let his completion percentage over the past nine seasons soak in just a little more, and then note that over the same time period Brees also led the league in pass attempts. It’s not close either, with Brees’ 5,649 attempts far ahead of the Giants’ Eli Manning and his 4,855.Wait, there’s more: Since arriving in New Orleans, Brees also leads the league in touchdown passes (316) and passing yards (43,685). A slightly aged Drew Brees is still better than almost every quarterback who isn’t Drew Brees.Honorable mentions: Cameron Jordan, Marques ColstonTampa Bay Buccaneers: WR Mike EvansKim Klement-USA TODAY Sports Soon this slot will belong to rookie Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback and first overall pick Jameis Winston, assuming he avoids a complete first-year face-plant.But for now, the large man tasked with making Winston look good gets the nod: wide receiver Mike Evans.Before you recall Evans' rookie brilliance, please first remember who he was receiving passes from. His quarterbacks were the feared combination of Josh McCown and Mike Glennon.Yet he still finished tied for fourth among all wide receivers in touchdowns with 12, doing that while catching 48.6 percent of his 20-plus-yard targets, according to PFF. Evans also went through a blistering three-game stretch between Weeks 9 and 11, when he totaled 458 yards on 21 catches, setting a new franchise record.Imagine what he'll do with quarterback play that even begins to approach the league average.Honorable mentions: Jameis Winston, Vincent Jackson, Gerald McCoylink