The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their fourth consecutive NFC South title on Sunday with their comeback 27-19 win over the New Orleans Saints. That means they will play on farther into January, and maybe even February.
The 2024 regular season is in the books, however, and with it the statistics produced by this year's squad have been fully finalized. There were some rather notable achievements, such as Mike Evans' 11th straight 1,000-yard receiving season and Baker Mayfield joining the 4,500-40 Club. Bucky Irving had the second-best season by a rookie running back in franchise history and Vita Vea set his career high with 7.0 sacks on the way to his second Pro Bowl.
As a team, the Buccaneers took a run at their own record books on the offensive side of the ball. In the end, that offense had set a handful of new single-season franchise records in the passing, rushing and third down categories. Here's a look at some of those offensive achievements and the previous records they broke.
Completion Percentage
Old Record: 67.3% in 2021 (492-731)
New Record: 71.5% (408-571)
That was a Tom Brady-led offense in 2021, of course, and Brady impressively completed more than two-thirds of his passes even while nearly breaking the NFL record for pass attempts. At the time, that was held by Matthew Stafford at 727 and Brady got to 719. As it turned out, Brady would then break the record a year later with 733. In 2021, Blaine Gabbert also completed seven of 11 passes while running back Leonard Fournette threw one incompletion.
Mayfield and Kyle Trask, who completed his only pass of the season, combined for 160 fewer pass attempts than the 2021 team, largely because this year's ground game was significantly more effective and ran the ball nearly 100 times more. That said, Mayfield's average of 7.9 yards per attempt was notably better than the 7.4-yard average that Brady finished with in 2021. Both offenses were very good overall. The 2021 team finished second in total yards, first in passing yards and second in points scored. The 2024 team ranked third in yards, fourth in rushing yards, third in passing yards and fourth in points.
Mayfield finished third in the NFL in completion percentage and set his own career high in that category. He had six different games in which he completed 75% of his passes or better.
Passer Rating
Old Record: 102.8 in 2020
New Record: 106.8
Again, Mayfield's group broke a record set by a Tom Brady offense, this time in Brady's first year at the Bucs' helm. Prior to that season, Tampa Bay had never finished a season with a passer rating of 100 or better; the 2021 team also surpassed that mark, finishing at 101.6.
Again, Trask threw just one pass this season so Mayfield's personal passer rating is the same as the team's as a whole. There wasn't quite as much of a gap between Brady and Mayfield's number of passes in this comparison, with the former throwing just 40 more times in 2020 than the latter did in 2024.
Passer rating is determined by a complicated formula that takes into account for separate statistics: completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdowns per attempt and interceptions per attempt. The maximum possible score is 158.3, which Mayfield famously hit last year against Green Bay, becoming the first visiting quarterback ever to do so at Lambeau Field.
Mayfield's big edges in the formula came in the first two categories. He completed 71.4% of his passes, compared to 65.5% for 2020 Brady. He also threw for 7.89 yards per attempt, a bit better than Brady's 7.60. In addition, while they had nearly identical touchdown pass totals, Mayfield's 41 in 570 attempts (7.2%) topped Brady's 40 in 610 (6.6%). Brady did have the superior interception percentage, at 2.0% to Mayfield's 2.8%.
Mayfield finished fourth in the NFL in passer rating in 2024. He topped 100 in eight of his 17 starts and finished higher than 125 in four games, topping out at 153.0 in a Week 17 win over Carolina.
Yards Per Rush
Old Record: 4.75 in 2015 (455 for 2162)
New Record: 5.25 (483 for 2,536)
Bucky Irving and company blew this one out of the water. That difference of a half-yard per carry is nearly the same as the difference between the second-best and sixth-best seasons on this list. Moreover, it was a huge improvement from the season before, when the Buccaneers finished dead last in the NFL with an average of 3.44 yards per carry. The Bucs improved 29 spots in those rankings in 2024, finishing third behind Baltimore (5.76) and Arizona (5.29).
Irving led the way, of course, setting a new individual Buccaneers record (minimum 200 carries) with an average of 5.4 yards per tote, but Rachaad White and Sean Tucker contributed, as well. White recorded a career-best 4.3 yards per carry and Tucker, while getting just 50 handoffs, averaged 6.2. It didn't hurt that the quarterback pitched in, as Mayfield averaged 6.3 yards on his 60 scrambles.
The 2015 squad was led by Doug Martin, who had a resurgent season after two injury-marred campaign and averaged 4.9 yards on the way to a 1,400-yard season. Charles Sims also averaged 4.9 on his 107 carries.
This year's Bucs really turned it up in the ground game after their Week 11 bye. In the final seven games of the season, Tampa Bay averaged 183.3 rushing yards per game and 5.58 yards per carry.
Rushing First Downs
Old Record: 114 in 1984
New Record: 137
And…
Rushing Yards
Old Record: 2,437 in 1979
New Record: 2,536
Yes, the 17th game makes a difference here, but not a huge one. In fact, the Bucs averaged more rushing first downs per game this year (8.06) than they did in 1984 (7.13). This year's team did not break the franchise record for rushing yards per game but it came very close. The Ricky Bell-led squad in 1979 averaged 152.3 rushing yards per game, slightly better than this year's average of 149.2.
The 1984 ground game wasn't just led by James Wilder, it was pretty much just James Wilder. He carried the ball 407 times, which was a single-season NFL record at the time; the rest of the team only had 76 carries, and 33 of those were by quarterbacks Steve DeBerg and Jack Thompson.
Bell, the first-overall pick in the 1977 draft, gave the Tampa Bay franchise its first 1,000-yard back in '79, rushing 283 times for 1,263 yards. Jerry Eckwood gave him a big supporting hand with 194 carries for 690 yards. This year's team got 1,122 yards from Irving, 613 from White, 378 from Mayfield and 308 from Tucker. That marked the first time in franchise history that four different players had topped 300 rushing yards in the same season.
Third-Down Conversion Rate
Old Record: 47.1% in 2021 (105 of 223)
New Record: 50.9% (110 of 216)
The Buccaneers led the NFL in this category in 2024 and produced the 14th-best third-down rate in NFL history, the highest since Kansas City hit 52.2% in 2021.
Even though the 2024 team had the superior ground game overall, Brady's 2021 squad was actually better at converting third downs on the ground, with a 71.4% success rate compared to 65.5% this season. But the 2024 team covnerted 45.6% of its third downs passing, better than the 41.4% managed by the 2021 crew.
This year's offense was also significantly better at converting medium and long third down tries than the team was in 2021. While that team from three years ago was extremely good when needing 1-3 yards (75.7% to 67.7% this year), the 2024 team had wide edges from 4-6 yards (63.2%) and 7-10 yards (37.0% to 30.2%). This year's team also impressively converted 31 of its tries between 11 and 20 yards.
The Buccaneers were the best team in the NFL in the intermediate range on third downs this season. While Tampa Bay and Buffalo tied for the top spot with conversion rates of 63.2%, the Buccaneers did it on 19 more attempts.
