The 2021 Tampa Bay Buccaneers famously returned all 22 of its starters, plus virtually every regular reserve, from the roster that won Super Bowl LV at the end of the previous season. That was something the league hadn’t seen since the 1970s, well before the arrival of free agency. Those 2021 Buccaneers did have some free agency issues to confront, but General Manager Jason Licht and company pulled out all the stops to “keep the band together.”
That 2021 team set a franchise regular-season record with 13 wins, won the NFC South for the first time in 13 years and made it to the Divisional Round of the playoffs before being narrowly bounced by its eventual successor as Super Bowl champs, the Rams. Clearly, that was a very talented roster that, once again, the Buccaneers were hoping to keep as intact as possible. And they did a good job in that regard! Most of the core remains of a team that is expected to be a prime title contender again, mostly thanks to Tom Brady’s decision not to retire. Still, this time there were the inevitable losses here and there on the depth chart.
Perhaps most notably, the Buccaneers will head into the 2022 with a new pair of starting offensive guards. Considering that three-fifths of the team’s offensive line went to the Pro Bowl last year, that’s a unit the Buccaneers very much would have liked to keep intact. But one of those Pro Bowlers, left guard Ali Marpet, chose to retire and right guard Alex Cappa got a well-deserved big deal in free agency from the Bengals. The Buccaneers already have quite a bit of dollars and cap space invested in their offensive line, so it was not particularly surprising that they weren’t able to retain Cappa’s services.
Fortunately, the Buccaneers have clear plans in place to fill those spots and maintain one of the most effective offensive fronts in the NFL. And those plans are going to be a major part of the discussion today as we look at the nine players on Tampa Bay’s 90-man training camp roster who wear…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at News…