Day 7 · 11-5 · Won Super Bowl LV, beat Chiefs 31-9
Five starters took the field for this offense: quarterback, running back, two receivers, and a tight end. How many can you name before the hints kick in?
You remember when Tom Brady came to Tampa and everything changed. The Buccaneers hadn’t reached the playoffs since 2007. Then Brady left New England after 20 seasons and chose a franchise that had spent most of the previous decade losing. Rob Gronkowski came out of retirement to join him. Leonard Fournette and Antonio Brown eventually followed. Tampa Bay already had talent. Now it had the quarterback who made anything short of a championship feel like failure.
Everything started with Tom Brady. Brady brought an expectation Tampa Bay hadn’t carried in years. Mike Evans gave him the big outside target, Chris Godwin worked everywhere underneath, and Gronk slowly became the same trusted partner he had been in New England. Ronald Jones carried the running game before Fournette became “Playoff Lenny,” while rookie Tristan Wirfs immediately looked like a cornerstone up front. And while Brady drew the attention, Lavonte David, Devin White, Shaq Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, and a young secondary gave Todd Bowles a defense fast enough to take over games when January arrived.
Tampa Bay finished 11-5, with Brady throwing 40 touchdowns in his first season outside New England. But for most of the year, the pieces never fit quite as cleanly as everyone expected. The Saints swept them and embarrassed Tampa Bay 38-3 on Sunday Night Football. Kansas City came into Raymond James Stadium and beat them too. The Buccaneers reached their bye at 7-5 looking less like a superteam than a collection of famous names still figuring each other out. Then they never lost again.
The playoffs became the moment everything finally clicked. Washington pushed them before Tampa Bay escaped 31-23. Then came New Orleans, where Drew Brees and the Saints had already beaten Brady twice. The Buccaneers forced four turnovers and ended Brees’ career in the Superdome. One week later at Lambeau, Brady hit Scotty Miller for a touchdown just before halftime, the defense kept reaching Aaron Rodgers, and Tampa Bay survived 31-26. Three road playoff wins. After 13 years without postseason football, the Buccaneers were going to the Super Bowl. At home.
Kansas City had beaten Tampa Bay in that same stadium ten weeks earlier, with Tyreek Hill running through the secondary for 269 yards and three touchdowns. This time, the Buccaneers never let Patrick Mahomes breathe. Barrett and Pierre-Paul kept coming off the edges, the secondary erased the deep ball, and Mahomes spent the night running backward before throwing desperate passes from impossible angles. Brady found Gronk twice. Fournette broke loose for another touchdown. Antoine Winfield Jr. gave Hill his own peace sign back. Thirty-one to nine.
That's how people remember the 2020 Buccaneers. They remember Brady wearing pewter, Gronk coming out of retirement, “Playoff Lenny,” and a defense becoming terrifying at exactly the right time. They remember getting embarrassed by New Orleans, reaching the bye at 7-5, and then never losing again. They remember three road playoff wins and Mahomes running for his life in Tampa. Most of all, they remember Tom Brady walking into a franchise that hadn't made the playoffs in 13 years—and leaving his first season there with another Lombardi Trophy.
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