The PewterReport.com Roundtable features the opinions of the PR staff as it tackles a topic each week that involves the Bucs.

This week’s topic: What Will The Bucs’ Record Be In 2020?

Scott Reynolds: Bucs To Finish 10-6 In 2020

If you read my SR’s Fab 5 column on Friday I listed my game-by-game predictions for the Buccaneers’ 2020 season and I came up with a 10-6 record for Tom Brady and Tampa Bay this year. I also predicted a second-place finish for the Bucs behind the two-time NFC South champion New Orleans Saints, but Tampa Bay’s record is good enough to earn a wild card playoff spot.

Bucs TE Rob Gronkowski – Photo by: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs start off the 2020 campaign with a 3-1 record before hitting some speed bumps, but Tampa Bay rallies for three straight wins to end the season with some momentum heading into the playoffs. I won’t rehash that entire section of my SR’s Fab 5 column in this week’s PR Roundtable. Instead, I’ll let the other Pewter Reporters give their detailed Bucs’ predictions for the 2020 season.

Do The Bucs Make The Playoffs? Yes, as a wild card

Does Tampa Bay Win The NFC South? No, the Bucs will finish second

Mark Cook: Why Not Now? Why Not These Bucs? They’ll Go 12-4

I get it. I have seen the disappointment dating back to this team starting 0-26 in 1976-77. I know why some Bucs fans are skeptical, and they have every right to be. It has been a long time since Tampa Bay has been to the playoffs and even longer since it was a Super Bowl contender. But this is the year the Bucs live up to their hype.

Former Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Getty Images

This was a 7-9 football team last year with a quarterback who threw 30 interceptions. This was a 7-9 football team that never established any semblance of a running game. This was a 7-9 football team with one of the worst pass defenses in the history of the league through the first half of 2019. This was a 7-9 football team that lost two 1,000-yard, Pro Bowl receivers late in the year and had to roll out Spencer Schnell and Ishmael Hyman at wide receiver.

This is as complete of a football team as the Buccaneers have ever fielded – led by Tom Brady at quarterback. Will it be easy to dethrone the Saints? Of course not, but if the Bucs can stay healthy for the most part, and the defense continues to grow, Tampa Bay is at least five wins better than what we saw in 2019. And maybe even more than five wins better.

Do The Bucs Make The Playoffs? Yes, as a wild card

Does Tampa Bay Win The NFC South? No, but very close

Jon Ledyard: Screw The Past, The Haters And The Doubters – Tampa Bay Will Finish 11-5

I haven’t grown up in Tampa Bay or felt the sting of having the lowest all-time win percentage in the NFL. Still, I know that Bucs fans have been hurt too many times to feel again – or so you think. A jilted lover whose heart may not fully be healed enough to understand that you are about to be loved back, for the first time in some of your miserable fandoms as Bucs faithful. Because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to be one of the best teams in the NFL in 2020.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Boasting one of the premier lineups in the entire league, Tampa Bay is led by a winner at head coach in Bruce Arians and a winner at quarterback in Tom Brady, a combination of which the franchise has never possessed. Not like this. The decline of Brady? Exaggerated. The end of Rob Gronkowski? Think again. The concern over the Bucs’ ability to run the ball? Check the weaponry in the aerial attack. Who cares?

Yes, the young secondary will face its demons at times, and rookie right tackle Tristan Wirfs will have his bumps in the road during his acclimation to the NFL. But the Bucs are battle-tested at key spots on their roster, and had already assembled a group of some of the league’s top players even before a memorable offseason of talented additions. The schedule is very doable – the NFC South isn’t that tough, and the AFC West and NFC North aren’t the worst draws either. This isn’t a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that you or anyone else has ever seen before, so time to shake off the past and get back in the saddle, because the 2020 season is going to be a wild ride.

Do The Bucs Make The Playoffs? Yes, as the 5th seed

Does Tampa Bay Win The NFC South? No, but only because the best regular season team in the NFC is in the Bucs’ division

Matt Matera: Bucs Have A Solid Year, Finishing 10-6

The Bucs are going to have a very successful year. It will be their most successful season that they’ve had and since 2010 and their first playoff appearance in over a decade. The names that Tampa Bay brought in since the beginning of the year have given the team tons of hype. I just think we have to curb our enthusiasm just a little bit. The Bucs will be good, but they’re not perfect. People have made jokes already that the Bucs are a “Madden team” in that sense that all the superstar players they were able to add only happens in the video game. Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are household names to even non-football fans, while players like LeSean McCoy and the newly added Leonard Fournette have had very well highlighted careers. When you hear names like that all come to one team, the expectations almost get to a point where they are insurmountable. The 2020 Bucs are another version of a super team based on the names on paper.

Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Obviously, with Brady as quarterback the offense is upgraded, and we’ve seen his impact already with how he gets the ball out so quick. He’s also meshed quickly with likes of Mike Evans, Scotty Miller and O.J. Howard. Bruce Arians recently said that he doesn’t see why the Bucs can’t score 30 points a game, and I agree with that sentiment. I agree with it that they’ll get to that point, but in a pandemic season where there’s been a shortened training camp and no preseason games, I feel that it will take a couple of games for the offense to really get running the way it should. As good as the Bucs will be, there are some questions about the roster that could be the difference between a 10-win wild card team or a 12-13 win division leader. The offensive line was shaky in pass protection and in the run game, and is now trusting a rookie tackle to take on some of the best pass rushers in the league.

On the defensive side, the Bucs are banking highly on the fact that the young secondary will continue to improve on last season’s turnaround. But what if Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting hit a wall? What if they regress into what they were at the beginning of last season? There’s also depth concerns at corner and outside linebacker, which could hurt the Bucs if injuries occur to those positions during the season. Tampa Bay has some tough opponents this season against the Saints, Packers, Vikings and the marquee match-up against the Chiefs. None of these are easy games, plus I’m a believer in the “any given Sunday” mantra. The lack of an offseason prevents a really good Bucs team from being great. Overall, they have a very solid year, finishing 10-6 this season.

Do The Bucs Make The Playoffs? Yes, as a wild card

Does Tampa Bay Win The NFC South? No

Taylor Jenkins: With Maybe Their Best Team Ever, Bucs Go 11-5

When looking at the Bucs’ offense it’s hard to really find a weak spot, other than maybe a spot or two along the offensive line with right guard Alex Cappa looking to improve heading into his third year and question marks surrounding Tristan Wirfs as he steps in at right tackle with no preseason. Outside of that, Tom Brady is Tom Brady, and the Bucs are assuming that at age 43 he’ll still be able to step in and be a difference-maker at the quarterback position. Tampa Bay is also home to a wide receiver group and tight end group that could rival any other in the league. A versatile stable of running backs should surely provide the Bucs with a more serviceable run game then they’ve had the past few years.

Bucs CB Jamel Dean – Photo by: Getty Images

The biggest problem with Tampa Bay going from a good team to a great team sits on the defensive side of the ball. Lavonte David and Devin White make up one of the most fearsome inside linebacker units in the league and Tampa Bay was able to keep together all of the starters on their stout defensive line, but the Bucs’ defensive secondary is a question mark. I still don’t think the Bucs have the safety position finalized or completely figured out, so adjustments in those rotations will likely come within the first few weeks of the season and if the young cornerback trio of Jamel Dean, Carlton Davis and Sean Murphy-Bunting slides back from their stellar play over the second half of last season or sees an injury, it could prove to be a thorn in the side of a roster that has been built into Super Bowl hopefuls.

All-in-all, the Bucs have one of the most talented rosters in the league on paper and it will really come down to the Bucs not beating the Bucs for them to make the playoffs. But can they overcome the rival Saints, another supremely talented roster with a lot more familiarity across the board, to win the division? I’m not so sure. It’s a tough ask for this Bucs team to march into the Superdome in Week 1 and topple the Saints and I also think that the Bucs will stumble late in the season as they face a tough stretch of games where the Saints, Rams, Chiefs and Vikings are all set to travel to Tampa over a five-game span. Add in a bad bounce and an upset or two, things that are bound to happen in any football season, and the will Bucs fall just short of the divisional title but head to the playoffs with a strong 11-5 record.

Do The Bucs Make The Playoffs? Yes

Does Tampa Bay Win The NFC South? No