The Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the NFC South with a 9-8 record in 2023, but that wasn't enough to make them favorites to win a fourth straight division title in 2024. After adding veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins and bringing in a new coaching staff under Raheem Morris, the Atlanta Falcons were widely given the best odds to take the South crown this year.
Instead, the Buccaneers improved their record by one win to 10-7 and won the South by two games over the Falcons (despite losing twice to Atlanta). The Buccaneers' playoff run was brief, as they lost to the Washington Commanders in the Wild Card round on Sunday night, but this year's squad was statistically better than the 2023 team in a number of ways, most notably when running the football.
The Buccaneers were not particularly active in free agency this past offseason apart from re-signing such key players as Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, Antoine Winfield Jr., Lavonte David and Chase McLaughlin, and later inking All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs to a lucrative extension. While the 2024 draft class did make a big impact, the Buccaneers likely wouldn't have improved from 2023 to 2024 if it didn't have some of its young contributors take a significant leap forward. On Monday, the first day of the Bucs' 2025 offseason, Head Coach Todd Bowles pointed to two players in particular who made that jump.
"I really like where Luke Goedeke played – I like the way he came back this year and played," said Bowles. "Even after he got hurt with the concussion, he came back and he made a lot of strides this season, as well. I thought Christian Izien before he got hurt made great strides and did a lot of things well. There [are] a few guys that made strides like that, but those two stand out."
Goedeke was playing his third NFL season after being drafted in the second round in 2022, but just his second as the team's starting right tackle. The Buccaneers had initially drafted Goedeke with the notion of converting him from his college position of right tackle to left guard, but he suffered a good amount of growing pains in his rookie campaign. A late season cameo back at his familiar position went well enough for the Bucs to head into last year with Goedeke manning the right tackle spot, and he played well while starting all 17 games.
This year, he arguably was one of the better right tackles in the entire NFL. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Goedeke allowed a total of 38 quarterback pressures in 2024, which was the eighth fewest among all NFL offensive tackles. His pressure rate of 8.1% when blocking a defender one-on-one was the 11th best in the league. Goedeke also drew a run-blocking grade of 76.2 from Pro Football Focus, which ranked 15th among NFL tackles. Unfortunately, he missed four games early in the season after suffering a concussion in the season opener, but his return helped the Buccaneers develop one of the best rushing attacks in the NFL. Tampa Bay finished fourth in the league in that category, with 149.2 yards per game.
Izien, an undrafted free agent in 2023 who spent most of his rookie season manning the slot in Tampa Bay's nickel defense, also missed time in his second campaign, but at the end rather than the beginning after he suffered a pectoral injury that landed him on injured reserve. Before that, Izien had been the bandaid that held together a secondary that otherwise had a rotating cast all season due to injuries. Though he ceded the starting nickel job to rookie Tykee Smith, Izien ended up seeing his playing time rise in 2024, as he was on the field for 75% of the team's defensive snaps before his injury.
At various times during the season, Izien played slot corner, free safety, strong safety and even cornerback for half a game after both Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum got hurt. He finished fourth on the team with 75 tackles and added four tackles for loss, one interception, three passes defensed and one forced fumble.
As noted above, the Buccaneers wrung a lot of valuable playing time out of their 2024 draft class. First-rounder Graham Barton started at center, anchoring a very good offensive line, and second-rounder Chris Braswell remained a part of the edge rush rotation all season. Smith, a third-round pick, won the slot corner job and combined two interceptions with three fourth fumbles. Fellow third-rounder Jalen McMillan came on strong with seven touchdown catches over the last five games of the season, and fourth-rounder Bucky Irving led the team in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage.
The Buccaneers expect to be real contenders again in 2025, and will probably need some of those rookies to do even more in order to make that happen. Hopefully, some or all of them will make the same sort of leap that Goedeke and Izien did in 2024.
"It helps only if they help themselves get better," said Bowles of having young players contribute. "The concentration part – them working out in the offseason, coming back in shape and being prepared will help us a great deal next year."
