| Was Bucs' season a success? Depends on whom you ask. |
| The moment the beer and bravado was emptied at last February's celebratory boat parade, the Bucs embarked on their clear, uncompromising objective for 2021. Keep the nucleus intact and go for two. Attempt to become the first NFL team in 17 years to win back-to-back Super Bowl titles. Keep "Champa Bay" trending. Obviously, that goal vanished in one compelling, chaotic, calamitous evening at Raymond James Stadium. Despite recording a franchise-record 13 regular-season victories, winning their first division title in 14 years and boasting the possible NFL Most Valuable Player, the Bucs fell three wins shy of the only aspiration that matters in this unforgiving league. So how will they reflect on 2021? A success? Disappointment? Somewhere in between? We asked a few of them Monday, 16 or so hours after the 30-27 loss to the Rams. Here's what they said: Coach Bruce Arians
"It's never a success unless you're putting rings on your finger and confetti's coming on your head, but that only happens for one team. But I'm very, very proud of this team. We did not reach our goal, but I like the way we fought to get there." Center Ryan Jensen
"I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned. We had a great year. There's a couple of games obviously that didn't go our way. ... But again, those are things you can learn from as a team, as a veteran player, as a young player. There's so many tidbits out of this year that guys are going to be able to look at and learn from and become better football players." Tight end Rob Gronkowski
"It's unfortunate how everything went (Sunday), but it's still a very successful season, no doubt about that. To win the Super Bowl last year, get back to the playoffs this year, it's hard. This is the game of football, you know, it's hard to win. It's hard to even win one Super Bowl, it's hard to even go to the playoffs. So just to be part of this team, I'm just proud of all my teammates, proud of my coaches, and just proud to be part of it the last two years." Inside linebacker Devin White
"I definitely consider it very disappointing because, I mean, it was a lot of ups and downs over this season and we overcame a lot. Injuries, a lot of key pieces not being able to be full-strength all year, we did a great job overcoming that. ... But at the end of the day, we definitely came short. When you've got a team of this magnitude with the type of leaders that we have, it's Super Bowl or nothing." One more thing: Now that the Bucs' season is over, you won't be seeing this newsletter in your inbox as much. But we'll return periodically with updates on Tom Brady's future with the team and more. |
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