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As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-20, last Sunday afternoon, the football world has been hyping up the team regarding what they accomplish this season. With the Buccaneers led by the heroics of Emeka Egbuka, former player Chris Long would go as far as to say that the team should be in the conversation to win the Super Bowl.
Long spoke to Rich Eisen on his self-titled show, where he spoke about predicting Tampa Bay to contend for the Super Bowl before the regular season started. Despite them not being a big-market team, he would go into how injuries plagued them last season and how they “quietly go so much better.”
“I did put the Bucs in the Super Bowl this year before the season started, because I just think they quietly got so much better,” Long said. “They got a lot better on defense, I think, again, confirmation bias, we look at the Bucs last year, not a big market team, and we see them, you know, on red zone, or we catch little snippets of them. The Falcons score like 100 points in two games against them.”
“A lot of it’s because they had injuries,” Long continued. “And you think about the quarterback of your defense, Antoine Winfield, who’s fantastic, missing much of the year…SirVocea Dennis, they didn’t really have a pass rusher opposite Yaya Diaby. I think Kancey and Vea are fantastic inside. And they add Hasson Reddick.”
“I did put the [Tampa Bay Buccaneers] in the Super Bowl this year before the season started.”
Chris Long has the Buccaneers as one of the teams on his list to reach the Super Bowl this season
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When Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield connected with Egbuka on his first touchdown reception, it was just a taste of what’s to come for the team on the offensive side of the ball.
The rookie wide receiver would catch two touchdown passes in the contest, garnering the attention of Long, who spoke about how head coach Todd Bowles was “giddy” about the multiple moves made this offseason in the NFL Draft.
“I think that the key, though, is Todd Bowles was giddy this offseason,” Long said. “Talking about the two main corners that they were able to draft in Morrison and Parrish, and Parrish playing in the slot, and Parrish made a big play, knocking them out of field goal range. On Sunday, Morrison didn’t even play. So they have depth now. They also are like, yeah, we’ve got a bunch of great receivers, but we didn’t have all of them last year. Let’s go draft this Egbuka guy who scored two touchdowns for him on Sunday.”
Tampa Bay looks to be 2-0, as the team faces the Houston Texans next Sunday....
