Welcome to The Hook, my weekly column that hooks you into a different Tampa Bay Buccaneers topic each Thursday, as well as some of my thoughts on the Bucs and the NFL at the end in a section called Cannon Blast.

I invite you to offer me some feedback on The Hook below in the article comments section.

The year 2020 isn’t a rebuilding year in Tampa Bay.

The Bucs have been building for the last 12 years.

General manager Jason Licht has been building for the past six years.

It’s time for the Buccaneers to stop teasing us all and disappointing their fans and finally put it all together.

Win.

The talent is here. The coaching staff is here. The time is here.

The window of opportunity is now and the Bucs can’t blow it this offseason.

First of all, the division is vulnerable. Just looking around the NFC South you see the Panthers in transition with a new coaching staff and lots of departures. The Falcons are kind of rudderless with an aging team and a stale coaching staff up against the salary cap.

The division-champion Saints are still the Saints, and Tampa Bay would have loved to have seen Drew Brees ride off in the sunset this offseason. Still, New Orleans has some issues as well with a number of key free agents and not a lot of money to spend to improve their team. Plus Brees has to slow down at some point, right?

Saints QB Drew Brees – Photo by: Getty Images

The Bucs’ window of opportunity to dethrone the Saints is now.

And here is Tampa Bay. Not without some questions as well, but with the fourth-most salary cap space in the league, a budding defense on the rise, and an offense that was one of the best in the NFL despite having a quarterback that gave away the football like Oprah Winfrey used to give away prizes to her studio audience.

Here is a football for you! You get a football! Everyone gets a football!

But seriously, after Jameis Winston threw for 5,109 yards 33 touchdowns and being as tough of a son of a gun as you’ll find under center anywhere in the league – there are a lot of things to build on – even at the quarterback position. The Bucs can win with Winston in 2020 in my opinion, but if it isn’t Winston, it has to be the right guy.

Don’t hand the keys of a new Ferrari to a 55-year middle aged man who is trying to get through his entire life without a speeding ticket. Translation: A game manager would be a crime in this offense. The Bucs need a quarterback who can utilize all of their weapons and do so aggressively.

Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans is in his prime. Fellow Pro Bowler Chris Godwin is just entering his. Offensive linemen Donovan Smith, Ali Marpet and Ryan Jensen are in their prime as well. Alex Cappa proved to be serviceable and much improved in 2019.

Tight end O.J. Howard, a former first-round pick, is entering his fourth season. Cam Brate if he returns, isn’t getting any younger but stll has some gas left in the tank. Running back Ronald Jones III will enter his third season and finally showed in the season finale that he can be a 100-yard running back.

Tampa Bay’s window of opportunity is now.

Flip to the other side of the ball and outside linebacker Shaq Barrett, while he will be 28 in November, has limited wear on his tires. Jason Pierre-Paul, while maybe past his prime in football years still had 8.5 sacks in half of a season last year at age 30. Who is going to tell him he can’t still play at a high level? Not me.

Defensive tackle Vita Vea? He’s starting his third season and learning to dominate. Defensive tackle Will Gholston may have had his best NFL season last year and has two more years on his deal that is only for $4.75 million in 2020 and $5.5 in 2021.

Bucs OLB Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

At linebacker, Devin White should only get better in 2020, and he was pretty damn good as rookie. Then the most steady and dependable football player the organization has had since Derrick Brooks ruled the halls of One Buc Place – Lavonte David – has shown zero signs of slowing down. Even at age 30, no one will argue that David isn’t still in his prime and Todd Bowles’ defense may have even breathed some life into the former Cornhusker.

In the secondary, a unit that saw the biggest improvement from its early season disaster to one of the better groups by the end of 2020 should be better next season. Cornerback Carlton Davis will be in his third season. Jamel Dean and Sean Murphy-Bunting played well as rookies. The sky is the limit.

The Bucs’ window of opportunity is now.

And lastly, this coaching staff should give Bucs fans confidence.

No more fun-loving, inexperienced “youngry” Raheem Morris.

No wound-up-tighter-than-Dick’s-hatband Greg Schiano controlling the building’s thermostat and the number of pre-and post-practice calories of everyone from Josh Freeman to the building’s janitor.

No more “Aw, shucks, well you know we just weren’t Tennessee-ready,” Lovie Smith.

And no more personality of wet wallpaper glue, Dirk Koetter.

Bruce Arians is the real deal. You have to go back to the days of Tony Dungy to find a coach in Bucs history that was this legitimate as a no-nonsense, get-your-point-across coach. But one who is respected by not only every player in the locker room but the others inside the building.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

And it isn’t just Arians, it is really his entire staff. We spend 45 minutes three-days-a-week for 16 weeks in the locker room. We can only ask so many questions about an upcoming opponent or what happened the previous game. There is a lot of down time during the media availability during the season and we chat with players from everything from Fortnite, to the NBA to politics. And sometimes about the coaches.

I’m still waiting on one player to have anything negative to say about the staff. That doesn’t mean there aren’t differences of opinion from time to time but at the end of the day the players know that Arians is the boss, and he has always been upfront and honest – sometimes brutally honest – with them. But that is one of the reasons he and the staff are so well respected.

And don’t think for a moment players won’t off the record complain if they aren’t happy with their coaches. They do. Trust me. I’ve heard a lot over the last eight seasons.

Arians knows how to win football games. The two Super Bowl rings on his fingers and the two NFL Coach of the Year awards that sit on his mantel say that is the case.

But Arians won’t be here forever. Evans won’t be able to make defensive backs look silly at times forever. David will – believe it or not – not drink from the fountain of youth forever. JPP can’t superhero-it-style come back from a broken neck and dominate offensive lineman forever. Barrett can’t average 19 sacks a season forever. And Bowles could find himself tempted to put the head coaching headset back on and won’t be turning around defenses in Tampa Bay forever.

The Bucs’ divisional opponents won’t be in transition forever. Matt Rhule is a highly thought of, innovative, up-and-coming coach. Sean Payton is a mastermind. And Dan Quinn, well, I am not sure what to say. But you get my point. Now is the time for the Bucs to strike while the iron his hot – or at least warming up.

It has been a Bucs building project since 2007. It’s time to drop the curtain and unveil a winning team in Tampa Bay.

The time is now.

CANNON BLAST

Cook’s musings and ramblings about the Buccaneers and the NFL. Good stuff. Check it out.

• So apparently the Glazers read my last Throwback Thursday column that James Wilder is overdue for the Bucs Ring of Honor.

And laughed at me.

So it is former defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin who is going in the ring of honor this year – and he’s deserving of that honor. But why not Wilder, too? The Bucs have inducted two at a time in season’s past with Doug Williams and Mike Alstott.

And while it hasn’t been announced when the ceremony will take place, look for the game around November 1 if the schedule-makers give the Bucs a home game that week. Kiffin is on son Lane’s staff at Ole Miss and the Rebels have a bye week that weekend. That isn’t to say Kiffin couldn’t still be in the box in Oxford for a Saturday game and then fly to Tampa Bay the next morning. But at age 80, even Kiffin is starting to slow down. So until the schedule comes out in April the date won’t be known for sure.

• Did y’all know for Bucs home games, radio play-by-play legend Gene Deckerhoff gets up on Sunday morning and drives himself from his Tallahassee home to Raymond James Stadium when Tampa Bay is at home and FSU is also at home the day before?

No custom motor home or limo for the Hoff. It’s Geno in his 1976 burgundy Old Cutlass, a bag of beef jerky, two Tab colas, the Silver Fox, Charlie Rich, on eight-track and U.S. 19 South on Sunday mornings. I have no idea if the last sentence is remotely true. But it makes for a good story.

• Hey, here is some breaking news. The Bucs are getting new uniforms this season. Really!

Bet you didn’t know that, did you? Kidding.

It has been pretty humorous watching some in the Twitter world take credit for “breaking” the news. I mean the Bucs uniforms have been bad since 2014, the NFL makes you wait five seasons to unveil new ones, and the Glazers knew the feelings of the fans back then when the new uniforms made their debut. So it didn’t take a rocket scientist to know that at some point – and sooner rather than later – the Bucs would scrap the alarm clock font and give the fans what they have been clamoring for.

And for the record, if you want to start looking at who “broke” the news, I asked Bucs owner Joel Glazer about new uniforms last year at the NFL Owners Meeting in Arizona. He didn’t confirm but didn’t rule it out and hinted something would be coming soon.

So I guess you could say, technically, PewterReport.com broke the news a year ago. I’d pat myself on the back if I could reach it. I really need to start stretching more.

• Make sure to check out this week’s new Pewter Nation podcast. It was the podcast debut of our new Bucs beat writer Jon Ledyard. He did a pretty good for a young guy. He might even have a future in this business if he works hard and listens to Scott Reynolds.

And myself.

And Taylor Jenkins and Matt Matera.

Maybe. We will see.

Seriously, it is a great listen, so check it out. However, there was one bit of misinformation. I was not suspended from the podcast on Tuesday.

And I didn’t get arrested for fishing without a license. That was 1996 when I spent some time at Orient Road. But as of this minute, I have not been arrested again for fishing without a license.

That doesn’t mean I won’t be soon. This photo was earlier on Wednesday as the rain front was approaching and I took a few minutes at lunch time to cast a line. Zoom six-inch lizard Texas-rigged swimming over a hydrilla bed. Gee, I really, really hate that I wasn’t in Indy making snow angels with Scott, Jon and Taylor (insert sarcasm font).

The Last Laugh

This is so true. I also miss going to Blockbuster and renting the VHS copy of the NFL’s Greatest Hits.