What?! Bucs Front Office Is Not In The NFL’s Top 5?

Former Philadelphia Eagles workforce president (1995-2012) Joe Banner listed his high 5 NFL entrance places of work in a latest column for The33rdTeam.com. Noticeably absent from the listing was the Bucs’ entrance workplace. Led by common supervisor Jason Licht, vice chairman of of participant personnel John Spytek and vice chairman of soccer administration Mike Greenberg, the Bucs have carried out a masterful job of constructing a Tremendous Bowl-winning roster and managing the wage cap.

In fact, Banner fired Licht in 2008 when he was the Eagles’ president and Licht was the VP of participant personnel, so there very properly may very well be some private bias affecting Banner’s dissing of the Bucs. Right here is Banner’s personal said standards for choosing his high NFL entrance places of work: sustained success, transactions (trades, free brokers, and many others.), drafting/scouting, team-building philosophy, hiring (coaches, entrance workplace).

And listed here are the entrance places of work that made Banner’s high 5 listing: Buffalo, Baltimore, Kansas Metropolis, the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco.

What Banner doesn’t reveal in his standards is the time span for which he’s evaluating the workforce’s entrance places of work. What I do know is that the NFL has – and all the time will likely be – a “what have you ever carried out for me these days?” league.

Beneath Licht, the Bucs gained the Tremendous Bowl in 2020. San Francisco misplaced the Tremendous Bowl in 2019. Baltimore hasn’t gained a Tremendous Bowl – and even been in a single – since 2012. Buffalo has by no means gained a Tremendous Bowl and the final time it was in a single was in 1993!

The Rams gained final yr’s Tremendous Bowl and misplaced one in 2018, and Kansas Metropolis gained one in 2019 and misplaced one in 2020. Each of these groups positively need to be included in Banner’s listing.

However deciding on the 49ers, Ravens and Payments over the Bucs simply screams that there’s some type of bias or misguided pondering on Banner’s half.

Bucs Entrance Workplace Has Been Extra Profitable Than 49ers, Payments Or Ravens

The 49ers’ report over the past 4 years is 33-32. After going 4-12 in 2018, San Francisco went 13-3 and made it to the Tremendous Bowl the following season. In 2020, the 49ers did not make the playoffs and went 6-10 earlier than rebounding to 10-7 in 2021. Is that sustained success? No.

Common supervisor John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan make a pleasant one-two punch. However higher than Licht and former Bucs head coach Bruce Arians? Nope.

The Bucs went 31-18 underneath Arians, and over the past 4 years, Tampa Bay’s report is 36-29. That report, plus a franchise-best 13-4 season in 2021 and a Tremendous Bowl title in 2020, makes the Bucs a simple winner over the 49ers.

Buffalo has gone from 6-10 to 10-6 to 13-3 to 11-6 over the past 4 seasons. That 40-25 report is barely higher than Tampa Bay’s report over the past 4 seasons. But, the Payments haven’t made a Tremendous Bowl for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties.

Whereas the Payments are the fashionable choose to win the AFC and probably win the Tremendous Bowl this yr, this is similar workforce that misplaced at Jacksonville, 9-6, and obtained hammered by Indianapolis, 41-19, final yr. And it’s a workforce that misplaced to the Bucs final yr, 33-27, in extra time.

The Ravens have gone 43-22 over the previous 4 years. That’s a good higher report than the Bucs. But, Baltimore hasn’t even reached the AFC Championship Sport regardless of having a league-best 14-2 report in 2019.

The truth is, the Ravens have regressed every year. In 2020, Baltimore completed 11-5, however didn’t win the AFC North. Final yr, the Ravens went 8-9 and didn’t even make the playoffs. Utilizing Banner’s personal standards, it’s a stretch to recommend Baltimore’s entrance workplace is best than Tampa Bay’s.

Licht Has Employed Effectively And Constructed A Professional Bowl-Laden Championship Roster

Championships are gained on the sphere by the gamers with assist from the coaches. However entrance places of work are the place these championship groups are assembled. Licht and his workers constructed a workforce that first attracted Arians in 2019, after which the best quarterback of all time in Tom Brady in 2020.

Arians completed because the Bucs’ all-time successful share chief (63.3%). That mark is best than each legendary coaches Jon Gruden and Tony Dungy.

Arians will even be inducted into the Bucs Ring of Honor this yr. Hiring a two-time NFL Coach of the Yr in Arians that wound up recruiting Brady and successful a Tremendous Bowl in his second season is about nearly as good as it may well get from a hiring standpoint.

That was one in all Banner’s standards. And now the workforce is turned over to defensive mastermind Todd Bowles, which is one other deft transfer by Licht.

The Bucs roster, which consists of 9 gamers that made the Professional Bowl final yr, speaks for itself. Licht and Spytek have carried out a masterful job of team-building.

Maybe it’s Banner’s historical past with Licht that prompted him to depart the Bucs off the listing. Or possibly it’s the truth that Banner by no means presided over a Tremendous Bowl-winning workforce in Philadelphia. In the meantime, Licht has in Tampa Bay. Or it may very well be the truth that the Bucs beat his Eagles workforce in 2002 to advance to – and win – Tremendous Bowl XXXVII that bristles Banner to at the present time.

However he made a mistake by together with the likes of the 49ers, Payments – and positively the Ravens – over the Bucs in naming the highest 5 NFL entrance places of work.