FAB 3. PLENTY TO BE THANKFUL FOR IN TAMPA
Thanksgiving dinner was more enjoyable for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their fans this year. The turkey probably tasted a bit better, the pumpkin pie was likely a bit sweeter and the smiles were almost assuredly a bit wider after two straight wins against Chicago and Kansas City. Two great wins.

The first was a blowout win – at home of all places – against the Chicago Bears. The second was a huge, upset victory on the road in Kansas City in one of the toughest venues to play in at Arrowhead Stadium. Those wins have he Bucs at 5-5 and able to achieve a rare late-season winning record if Tampa Bay can achieve another upset, this time at home against Seattle on Sunday.

Aside from that fact, here are some things Bucs fans have to be thankful for this year:

The Glazers and head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Glazers, The Tampa-Based Owners
Any Thanksgiving list should begin with the Glazers – for keeping the Bucs in Tampa Bay and making a strong commitment to this community. The Glazers aren’t exactly beloved by Bucs fans (yet) for raising ticket prices and for the frustration that comes with a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2007 and hasn’t registered a postseason victory since Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002.

Yet in an age when the Rams bolted from St. Louis to Los Angeles and the Chargers might follow suit and leave San Diego, and the possibility looms that the Raiders will leave Oakland for Las Vegas, the Glazers have made sure the Bucs remain in Tampa Bay. What’s worse than a bad football team? No football team at all.

As much as you have hated wasting thousands of dollars on season tickets and rarely seeing a home win, the Glazers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the years trying to get a winner in Tampa Bay and are more frustrated than you are that it hasn’t happened yet. The Glazers have also boldly fired two head coaches (Greg Schiano and Lovie Smith) after just two years and paid them millions not to coach in Tampa Bay when it was clear it wasn’t working out.

They have been accountable for their past mistakes and seem to have finally hit on a head coach in Dirk Koetter.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Dirk Koetter, The Ballsy Head Coach
Koetter is the right coach at the right time for this Buccaneers team and fans should be thankful that Mike Smith was fired in Atlanta after the 2014 season. That allowed Koetter to be hired as the Bucs offensive coordinator and general manager Jason Licht wisely hired him to replace Lovie Smith after he produced the first 6,000-yard season in Tampa Bay history.

Koetter, who has a great rapport with quarterback Jameis Winston, has every Buccaneer on board with his vision, and that wasn’t the case with Schiano or Smith. The players love his risk-taking and his “go for the throat” mentality, too.

Koetter’s hiring of Mike Smith as defensive coordinator looked a little shaky a few weeks ago, but Tampa Bay’s defense has come up with six takeaways, a touchdown, a safety over the last two weeks, and has held the last opponents the Bucs have played to 10 and 17 points. Koetter’s hiring of Smith now looks like the wise move many assumed it was back in the offseason.

On the offensive side of the ball, which is Koetter’s specialty, the Bucs have gone over 350 total yards six times, including three games with over 440 yards, most recently in a win at Kansas City. The Bucs have the league’s 11th-ranked offense, averaging 366 yards per game. That’s down slightly from last year, when Tampa Bay’s fifth-ranked unit averaged 376 yards per game – despite a rash of injuries the team didn’t have to deal with in 2015. More importantly, the Bucs rank 16th in scoring, averaging 23.5 points per game. That’s up from 21.4 points last year, which ranked 20th in the league.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Jameis Winston, The Franchise QB
Over their first 40 years of existence the Bucs have spent six first-round picks on quarterbacks, including Doug Williams (1977), Vinny Testaverde (1987), Trent Dilfer (1994), Josh Freeman (2009) and Winston (2015). It took Tampa Bay four decades to find a franchise quarterback, but they finally found one in Winston, who became the youngest quarterback to throw 40 touchdowns in his career a few years ago.

Last year, Winston became just the third rookie in NFL history to pass for 4,000 yards and made the Pro Bowl in his first year in the league. His 22 touchdown passes were a Bucs rookie record, as were his 28 total touchdowns (six rushing). Winston already has 22 touchdown passes with six games remaining.
Of the eight quarterbacks that have thrown for 6,000 yards in Tampa Bay, Winston has the highest career QB rating (86), which is greater than that of Brad Johnson (83.2) and Josh Freeman (78.8).

But what makes Winston special isn’t his passing as much as it is his leadership and his never-say-die attitude. Winston is the alpha male in Tampa Bay and the unquestioned leader in the locker room. The Florida State product elevates the level of play of those around him, which is a rare quality and makes him one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL in just his second year.

Over the last six games, Winston has completed at least 60 percent of his passes in the last five times, and has 12 touchdown passes and just two interceptions in the Bucs’ last six contests. Tampa Bay is 4-2 in that span, 5-5 on the year and is poised to make a playoff run. Teams like the Browns, the Jets, the Bears, the Rams and the 49ers wish they had a quarterback that was even half the player that Winston is.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Mike Evans, The Special Receiver
The Bucs have had some real quality wide receivers in their history from Mark Carrier to Kevin House to Joey Galloway to Keenan McCardell to Keyshawn Johnson, but Evans is on pace to quickly become the best receiver in Tampa Bay history – thanks to a special season. Evans frustrated the Bucs and their fans last year when his touchdown production dropped from 12 during his rookie season to just three scores, while leading the league in dropped passes. He played like a hot-headed receiver, getting distracted by offensive penalties and no-calls from officials, and that affected his production.

This year is a different story and the third-year receiver is living up to his billing as the seventh overall selection in the 2014 NFL Draft. Evans has 916 receiving yards, which ranks third among all NFL receivers this year. He’s 84 yards away from his third straight 1,000-yard season, which would tie Galloway’s Tampa Bay record (2005-07).

With 65 receptions, Evans needs 10 more receptions to eclipse his career-high of 74 that he had last year. Five more touchdowns and Evans will set a new Bucs record for TD receptions in a single season. Evans has been a rock steady receiver for Winston this year. Evans has three 100-yard games this year and has averaged 91.6 yards per game this season.

Evans seems destined to make the first of many Pro Bowls this season. Great quarterbacks oftentimes have a great receiver to work with and Evans has certainly proved to be that this season. The best part is that Evans is only 23 years old and has only played organized football for six years – three years in the NFL, two years at Texas A&M and one year in high school. This superstar receiver is just scratching the surface.

Bucs co-chair Bryan Glazer & GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Jason Licht, The Man With The Plan
The biggest reason for Tampa Bay’s lack of wins over the last decade is a lack of talent – mostly due to poor drafting. Licht, who was named the general manager in 2014 has had his swings and misses in free agency, but has put together some really good draft classes. That’s where playoff teams are built. Hitting on first-rounders like Winston and Evans helped the Bucs compete in an NFC South division that has prolific offenses in Atlanta, Carolina and New Orleans.

Where Licht doesn’t get enough credit is building a solid offensive line to protect Winston. Licht drafted left tackle Donovan Smith and right guard Ali Marpet in the second round in 2015, and found left guard Kevin Pamphile in the 2014 draft. While J.R. Sweezy’s back injury prevented the free agent import from contributing this year, Licht has wisely kept building the O-line around his franchise quarterback. Joe Hawley and Evan Smith have been good centers, and undrafted free agent center Ben Gottschalk has also been a real find. Right tackle Demar Dotson was signed to a contract extension this offseason and Licht drafted Caleb Benenoch to potentially replace Dotson at right tackle in the future.

The Bucs’ underrated offensive line is not only blocking for Winston. It’s blocking for Pro Bowl running back Doug Martin, who was re-signed this offseason. When Martin went down with a hamstring earlier this year, Licht found a gem in Jacquizz Rodgers, who had back-to-back 100-yard games in wins over Carolina and San Francisco.

Licht has spent the last year overhauling the defense and upgrading the talent with free agents like defensive end Robert Ayers and cornerback Brent Grimes, and draft picks like cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III, the Bucs’ 2016 first-rounder, and defensive end Noah Spence, this year’s second-rounder, to play alongside middle linebacker Kwon Alexander, a fourth-round find in 2015. Licht has also re-signed Pro Bowl defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and linebacker Lavonte David, keeping the Bucs’ most talented players in Tampa Bay.

For the first time in recent memory the Buccaneers’ organization has risk-takers and like-minded individuals with ownership, the general manager, the head coach and the quarterback all in lockstep. And the quarterback has a stud to throw to and a well-built offensive line to protect him. That’s the recipe for success for any team in the modern day NFL.

It’s only a matter of time before the winning returns and the glory days are back in Tampa Bay. For the 5-5 Bucs, who are hosting a Super Bowl-caliber team in Seattle on Sunday, that could even be this year – and that’s something to be thankful for.