PFF’s Trevor Sikkema Shares His Outlook On 2024 Bucs

If you are a Bucs fan or an NFL fan in general, you would do yourself a favor by checking out Marcus Whitman’s Deep Dive YouTube series going into the 2024 NFL season. His most recent breakdown goes over Tampa Bay, where Whitman ranked the team 23rd in his overall rankings.

In explaining this and extensively breaking down the Bucs’ outlook for over two and a half hours, he was joined by Pro Football Focus’ lead NFL Draft analyst and Pewter Report alum Trevor Sikkema, who offered some detailed thoughts about how he would rank the team and some issues that prevent them from being higher.

How Would PFF’s Trevor Sikkema Rank The 2024 Bucs?

At the beginning of Trevor Sikkema’s interview with Marcus Whitman, he began by sharing his thoughts on the Bucs being ranked 23rd and why they are a team that’s harder to place a finger on than others for multiple factors.

“I think that’s a little low, I think they certainly could be a little bit higher,” Sikkema said. “Now, the big issue with the Bucs is sort of the inconsistency, right? I don’t think Tampa is going to go into a lot of games this year if any at all, where you go, ‘Yeah, they have no shot.’ They are a team with a decently high ceiling if everything’s working out, but then also, it’s sort of the changes.

“The new offensive coordinator change again. Is Todd Bowles going to continue to evolve as a head coach? Sometimes it feels like he hasn’t. What version of Baker Mayfield are they going to get? The aging top-tier players that they have, are they going to be able to continue to carry this team? Lavonte David, Mike Evans, those guys.”

After playing above expectations last season, it is clear the team has a high ceiling when everything clicking. But as Sikkema alluded to, there are inconsistencies. Losing six out of seven games midseason. Games where the offense cannot move the ball downfield. The defense not creating enough takeaways or making big plays outside of Antoine Winfield Jr.

With these issues being at the forefront, among the other variables listed, it factors into Tampa Bay having a lower floor than one would expect out of a playoff team.

“The Bucs are sort of tough to figure out,” Sikkema added. “I don’t totally hate you having them in the early 20s, I’d probably argue for them to be a little bit higher just off the top of my head, without seeing the list. It’s definitely a team that the ceiling is decently high, it’s a team that obviously made a pretty good playoff run last year. The floor is also lower than you would feel comfortable with probably putting a team in the top 20, so that’s sort of my overall outlook.”

Why Have The Bucs Struggled To Establish A Successful Run Game?

A big issue for the Bucs’ offense for years has been a run game that is in dire need of establishing itself. After having a dead-last rushing offense for two years in a row, a big point of emphasis for new offensive coordinator Liam Coen and the rest of the coaching staff is again to form a balanced attack led by Rachaad White.

White has a new co-star in the backfield with fourth-round pick Bucky Irving, and with some new rookie and veteran additions along the offensive line, things look as promising as ever for the team to be able to have a more consistent ground attack.

When asked why the Bucs have struggled to run the football, Trevor Sikkema sees it as being an issue with deep roots that stem from the interior offensive line needing to be completely overhauled on the fly and the tough circumstances White and the other running backs have had to work with.

“I think if you want to go back to some of the roots, Ali Marpet [retired] when he did,” Sikkema said. “I still believe that Marpet going, ‘Yeah, I’m done’ with plenty left in the tank to be a damn good football player, that really hurt them because when you combine that with losing Alex Cappa.

“I think that they were like, ‘Okay, this is fine, we can make up for it, we got a good rest of the interior offensive line.’ All of a sudden within the span of a year, losing Ali Marpet and Alex Cappa to free agency because it probably wasn’t in their plans when that happened, and then Ryan Jensen got hurt. Now you go, ‘Oh okay, we have zero interior offensive linemen, zero.’”

With those three quickly leaving the picture, the team tried to fit a square peg in a round hole by playing Luke Goedeke at left guard, having Robert Hainsey jump into a starting role, and trading for Shaq Mason as a band-aid at right guard. Then last year, trying to fill the left guard spot with two below-average players in Matt Feiler and Aaron Stinnie, sticking with Hainsey, and drafting and moving Cody Mauch from being a left tackle at North Dakota State to an undersized NFL right guard.

It’s been a long, arduous process to rebuild what quickly was torn apart.

“They had to get bodies on the interior offensive line,” Sikkema added. “I think the timeline was so accelerated for when they had to replace those really good interior offensive linemen that they have just been trying to play catch up. I think it’s going to be better this year, I love the Graham Barton pick. I think you’re expecting Cody Mauch to be a little bit better this year.

“With them having an upgrade at center I think with Barton, even with him as a rookie, another year with Mauch, you’ve got your two solidified offensive tackles. Ben Bredeson probably picking up that left guard spot, he’s got some experience there at the very least.”

Overall, the outlook for the offensive line looks more promising, and that should give Rachaad White more of an opportunity to build off last season and become more of a dynamic threat in the backfield.

There’s A Big Question Mark In The Bucs’ Secondary

Moving over to the Bucs’ defense, and specifically the secondary, there is one player mentioned who needs to play better and make big plays in 2024 – Zyon McCollum.

McCollum was on the Pewter Report Podcast earlier this offseason and mentioned that he is ready to be a playmaker, but he will need to put it all together this season after being trusted with a starting role.

“[Zyon] McCollum is somebody they love the size and the speed,” Sikkema said. “6-foot-2, a little over 200 pounds, he’s got a crazy mock draftable chart with how athletic this guy is. When I look at McCollum though, I think the biggest area that he still has to improve – for corners he’s still on a relatively expected path because it’s really hard to play corner in the NFL – he’s still learning the anticipation parts of things.

“The zero interceptions in each of the last two years… even though I hate pointing to interceptions as a necessary key stat for corners, it is for McCollum because his biggest issue right now is he needs to anticipate better. I guarantee you, because of his length and because of his size and speed combination, if he anticipates better, you start getting turnovers.

McCollum made big strides last season, playing as a defacto third starting cornerback with both Jamel Dean and Carlton Davis III being injured at times. Sikkema pointed to one stat that showed the improvements that he made, but also that there is more room for the third-year player to grow and take the next step.

“He had ten forced incompletions last year compared to one the previous season, and I think that was at least a hint at a step in the right direction. He is picking it up a little bit more, but I was watching a little bit of his film just to kind of get myself refreshed before this podcast, and there are a lot of moments where he’s just a tick late.

“He’s seeing it and then reacting, and when you play corner in the NFL, you got to see it before it happens. They very clearly have a lot of faith in who he is and what he can be as an outside corner, there’s reason to believe it, but certainly, another step that he’s got to take.”

Watch Marcus Whitman And Trevor Sikkema’s Deep Dive Into The 2024 Bucs

To hear everything Trevor Sikkema had to say as well as Marcus Whitman’s breakdown of the 2024 Bucs, be sure to check it out here on the That Franchise Guy YouTube channel, where each team will be ranked and previewed.

 

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