A pre-draft, pre-schedule prediction on Bucs 2010 record.

On August 1st, it will be way too early to predict what the Bucs will do record-wise in 2010. So right now its LUDICROUS! But thats not going to stop us from thinking about it!! Now how can anyone take a shot at a record before they even know the scheduled dates of teams, or who the Bucs draft? Obviously those factors will weigh in more as time moves on, but I have a gut feeling my overall prediction will still come true because of two major reasons: 1)The Draft is the Draft- Were going to assume the Bucs first 3 draft picks will start in 2010, and that 2 of the next 5 picks also will start next year. Thats 5 new starters on the team, and 4 of them will be probably be colleges 50 best players. 2)Its doubtful anything dramatic will happen when the NFL schedules are announced later on. That was very rare what happened in 2009 where we had to play each team from the NFC East by the first 5 games! We don’t play a tough division this year, and even our own division teams are not that scary (We played well in every matchup except one, the New Orleans game in Tampa). We were in every division game last year, and we should expect to be so again. Besides, the teams you play early in the year, those are the ones you can sneak up on. Lets face it, no one is going to take Tampa Bay seriously in the first month. EARLY BURST OF ENTHUSIASM- I think the Bucs, with 4 or 5 new starters on the team, and coming off of some good feelings in the way they finished the season, will be a very fired up team coming out of camp. The level of competition should produce a winning record in preseason, probably 3-1. The confidence that will come out of this will likely result in the Bucs winning more games than they lose in the early part of 2010. I can see this team going 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 or 3-2, and have a lot of people talking about the Bucs. INEXPERIENCE, YOUTH LEAD TO LONG LOSING STREAK- On the heels of a nice start, the Bucs will lose a close game. It will probably be a game we think they should have won, and a game they KNOW they could have. Thats the kind of game the Bucs played often during their losing years in the 80s and 90s, on teams that actually were up and coming with talent. But a key loss like that really takes a lot out of young players. The Bucs will follow that loss with another, and then another. I can see the team losing 4, 5, maybe 6 games in a row like this. FINALLY, A TEAM STARTS TO GEL, COME TOGETHER, AND SHOW ITS POTENTIAL-The 2009 Bucs simply did not have the talent to compete against the NFL, but they never quit. Players on last years team like Quincy Black, Geno Hayes, Josh Freeman, Sammy Stroughter gained significant playing experience last year, and will be led by the Bucs young up and coming stars like Tanard Jackson, Aqib Talib, Davin Joeseph, Cadillac Williams and more. Coach Morris is the one to give credit to for keeping the Bucs on the positive side. While naysayers will criticize Morris, he was the one whom the players looked up to. Morris’ message of being a man, never quitting, working on fundamentals, are similar messages to that of Tony Dungy, and much like Dungy’s teams did, the Bucs will finish well down the stretch similar to last year. This is where we will see what kind of team we will have in 2011. Towards the end of the year, the Bucs will pull to within .500 and finish off the year on a high note, hopefully around 8-8. Of course this is all here-say. So many things can happen between now and January, and so many variables go into how teams play that no one can even within reason predict how they will do in a coming year. But its fun to think that somehow, next year we will get to see the birth of the next ten years of Bucs football, by watching a team come oh so close to reaching its potential that we expect of it. Note: Author reserves the right to revise this post as often as necessary until Jan 1st 2011!