Hawk’s 2014 NFL Preview: NFC South Edition

 

New Head coach Lovie Smith, formally head coach of the Chicago Bears takes over a Buccaneer team that was the worst offense in the NFL last year in yards gained. The Buc’s organization responded to that by drafting offensive players with all 6 picks in the draft.

Lovie has a lot of work to do. His first priority has to be figuring out who he wants his starting QB to be. Mike Glennon played okay as a rookie, throwing for 2,608 yards, 19 TD’s and 9 Int’s. But it appears as if Lovie is gonna go with newly signed Josh McCown, who started a few games last year for the Bears when Cutler went down. As stated in my Bears preview McCown played well during that time throwing 13 TD’s to only 1 INT.

Whomever starts at QB has a lot more depth at receiver this year and hopefully will not have to depend so heavily on Vincent Jackson. Tampa Bay drafted Mike Evans from Texas A&M with their first pick. This draft was considered one of the best receiver classes in years and Evans was widely considered the best receiver in the class. With their 2nd round pick the Buc’s selected 6’5 260 pound behemoth tight end Austin Seferan-Jenkins from the University of Washington.

Running back Doug Martin, who ran for over 1400 yards with 11 TD’s as a rookie, missed 10 games in his second year do to injury. He is healthy right now, and should massively improve the Bucs awful offense.

Defensively the Buccaneers, who were just average in 2013, lost superstar cornerback Darrelle Revis to the Patriots. They have a couple of young pieces in place. Linebacker Lavonte David who led the team in tackles with 145 (5th in the NFL) in his 3rd season. Linebacker Mason Foster (editors note: another Husky “WOOF!”)enters his 4th season and had 92 tackles, 2nd on the team.