The 2023 Tampa Bay Buccaneers answered the most important question about that team: Were they still playoff contenders in the wake of Tom Brady's retirement? Most NFL analysts said no, forget about it, no way. Eventually, a great season by Baker Mayfield, a third straight NFC South title and advancement to the Divisional Round of the playoffs said yes.

But every season is different and there are new topics to debate in 2024, which is what Staff Writer/Reporter Brianna Dix and I are going to do between now and the start of the new league year in March. Some of the conversations will be about what we just witnessed during an exciting and encouraging 2023 season; some of them will look ahead to team needs in 2024.

Brianna and I have lined up seven topics we will be debating over the next month and a half, one on each Monday. Here's the whole schedule:

Monday, January 29: What was your most pleasant surprise regarding the Buccaneers' 2023 season?

Monday, February 5: Who was the Buccaneers' 2023 MVP?

Monday, February 12: Who was the Buccaneers' most improved player in 2023?

Monday, February 19: What were your two favorite plays of the 2023 season?

Monday, February 26: Which position should the Buccaneers address in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft?

Monday, March 4: What is the biggest need the Bucs need to address this offseason in order for the team to remain a contender in 2024?

Monday, March 11: If the Bucs are able to do any free agency shopping outside of their own roster, what position should they address?

So we kick off our weekly debates with one that should be fun: What were our most pleasant surprises from last season. Now, we must start with a little caveat: Brianna and I were a bit more optimistic about the Bucs' chances in 2023 than those power poll-makers linked above, so if we refer to the performance of a specific player or unit as a surprise, that just means they did even better than we realistically hoped he or they would. In other words, these are meant as compliments, and not back-handed ones.

We won't be duplicating answers, so the order that Brianna and I get to attack this question in matters. I flipped a coin and Brianna gets the pole position for our first debate and we'll alternate in that spot from week to week. Let's get this started, Brianna!

Brianna Dix: OLB Yaya Diaby's Breakout Rookie Campaign

The Bucs' selected Louisville's Yaya Diaby in the third round (82 overall) and he produced a sensational rookie campaign. He ranked first in tackles for loss among rookies with 12 and third in sacks among rookies with 7.5. Initially Diaby served in a rotational role in certain sub-packages for Tampa Bay but garnered significant playing time opposite Shaquil Barrett with his production as a pass rusher at the pro level, after serving primarily as a run defender in college. He accelerated off the ball well on passing downs and earned additional playing time with his splash plays.

Diaby is a power rusher and plays with short-area burst that made him a perfect fit for Todd Bowles' exotic pressure packages in blitzes and stunts. He possesses the lateral acceleration to chase down targets, evidenced by his impact against the run on the stat sheet. Diaby played with a consistent motor and high effort in 2023. Despite starting only seven games for the Buccaneers this past season, Diaby proved to be one of the most dominant young defenders in the NFL from the 2023 Draft class. He notched his first start in Week 12 against the Colts and racked up 38 tackles, one forced fumble and 7.5 sacks in 2023. His raw power and speed wreaked havoc at the line of scrimmage, and he is a player that offenses will have to account for in the future.

"It's just coming to work everyday with the mindset of I have to get better," said Diaby on his mentality in Year One. "That's how I operate. I always want to improve at something. I didn't have that many opportunities at Louisville to pass rush…so I try to get better at it every day and keep improving in the run, as well."

Calijah Kancey had a tremendous season as well for the Buccaneers, but he was expected to fill a prominent role on defense opposite Vita Vea given his first-round draft status. Diaby became a surprising X-factor for Todd Bowles along the line that helped set the tone in the trenches. He has a limitless ceiling and has only scratched the surface. Scott, who do you take?

Scott Smith: Chase McLaughlin's Near Perfect Season

That's a good pick Brianna, and I imagine many readers would expect one of us to choose Baker Mayfield, since he played well enough to become a Comeback Player of the Year candidate. But I think you and I were both fairly optimistic about how he would play in 2023. I admit it's probably a mild surprise to look up at the end and see 34 touchdown passes and 12 interceptions in 19 games, playoffs included, but there's another choice that I think fits this topic even better.

Let me put it this way: Of all the players who were added to the roster or elevated into more prominent roles in 2023, did any of them perform the duties assigned to them more unwaveringly well than kicker Chase McLaughlin. During the regular season, he was essentially perfect!

The Buccaneers signed McLaughlin last March, one week after they had released veteran Ryan Succop, their kicker for the past three seasons. At that point, McLaughlin had kicked in 64 NFL games and had a perfectly fine field goal success rate of 82.8%, but he had played on seven different teams and never stuck with one for more than one season at a time. It's fair to say that McLaughlin wasn't even a sure bet to be the Bucs' kicker in 2023, given that the team also brought in Rodrigo Blankenship for competition in June. McLaughlin did end up winning the job pretty easily, however, and then he went about making every kick in sight.

In all, McLaughlin was 29 of 31 on field goal attempts during the regular season, and his only two misses were actually blocked. He was also 33 of 33 on extra point attempts, which are the equivalent of 33-yard field goals. That means he blasted 64 kicks during the season and as long as the other team didn't get a hand on the ball it was going through the uprights every time. Like I said, near perfection.

And, best of all, he was the long-range weapon that his pre-2023 numbers suggested. McLaughlin went on to attempt eight field goals of 50 or more yards and make seven of them. He had a 50-yarder blocked in Week Seven but went on to hit two from 51, two from 55 and three from 57. No other kicker in franchise history has five successful field goals of 55 or more yards in their career, let alone in a single season.

After that block in Week Seven, McLaughlin would make 22 straight, including his first four in the playoffs before his last try of the season bounced off the left upright from 50 yards out in Detroit. McLaughlin's 93.5% success rate, a career high, is a new Buccaneer record, and given that he did that while also frequently being called on to make it from very deep, I think it's fair to call this the best season ever by a Tampa Bay kicker. That was certainly more than the Bucs could have hoped for when they signed him, making this a very pleasant surprise.