2023 season
Benchmarks:
Roster Rating – 1 (last)
Cohesion – 52-56-57-52 (last in all)
My predictions:
Gilbert Wilkerson makes first team LB with 130 tackles
Chester Caruso posts roughly 20 TD and 20 Int
Converted QB Jackie Hoffman posts almost 1,000 total yards
We finish 2-14 and secure a very tidy draft slot for next season
Season narrative:
I don’t expect much at all, needless to say – so I’m blown away when we hang up 37 points in our opener to get a win. Turns out it was aided by a defensive TD and a few fluky plays, but we did mange 386 yards of offense – so maybe we aren’t a 2-win team after all.
We get to 3-1 in the early season, and I am totally alarmed. This was supposed to be a long-term build. We can’t already be there! Here is the summary at the halfway point… I don’t know what to say…
Code:
Front Office Football 2007
2023 Summary for Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Year 2023
Record 5-3
Winning Pct. .625
All-Time 117-163
Winning Pct. .417
Playoffs 0-2
Playoff Visits 2
Bowl Wins 0
Head Coach Matt Curtis
Record 5-3
Winning Pct. .625
Off. Coord. C. Spencer
Def. Coord. Z. Huntley
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Team Rank
Rushes per Game 29.9 12
Rushing Yards 126.5 8
Yards Per Carry 4.23 12
Pass Attempts 28.5 28
Completions 16.6 29
Completion Pct. 58.3 21
Passing Yards 210.0 22
Yards Per Attempt 7.37 7
Yards Per Catch 12.63 6
Total Yardage Gained 325.4 15
3rd Down Conversions 40.0 12 (T)
Points Per Game 23.5 9
Pass Rush Pct. 21.3 7
Pass Defense Pct. 52.9 18
Turnovers 11 10 (T)
Turnover Margin +7 5 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes per Game 30.6 26
Rushing Yards 124.9 25
Yards Per Carry 4.08 16
Pass Attempts 31.6 11
Completions 19.3 11
Completion Pct. 60.9 17
Passing Yards 230.4 22
Yards Per Attempt 7.28 27
Yards Per Catch 11.97 28
Total Yardage Gained 342.5 23
3rd Down Conversions 38.6 13
Points Per Game 22.3 24
Pass Rush Pct. 21.7 24
Pass Defense Pct. 67.4 26
Turnovers 18 3 (T)
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 37 CAR 25
2 25 JAX 21
3 17 SEA 27
4 31 at ATL 17
5 21 at MIN 32
6 23 NOS 21
7 17 at DET 25
9 17 GBY 10
10 CHI
11 at CAR
12 at LRK
13 at WAS
14 IND
15 at NOS
16 at TEN
17 ATL
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int Rate
14 C. Caruso QB 228 133 1680 7.37 14 10 83.6
**Team --- 228 133 1680 7.37 14 10 83.6
$$Opp --- 253 154 1843 7.28 9 10 78.5
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD Fum
5 J. Hoffman RB 121 456 3.77 1 1
47 T. Duncan RB 86 421 4.90 5 1
14 C. Caruso QB 27 124 4.59 0 5
**Team --- 239 1012 4.23 6 9
$$Opp --- 245 999 4.08 10 12
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop TD
81 M. Hevey WR 64 37 547 14.78 8.55 1 5
88 J. Stuart WR 60 36 496 13.78 8.27 2 2
18 W. Dickens WR 38 20 302 15.10 7.95 0 4
86 R. Richmond WR 24 12 133 11.08 5.54 2 0
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn PDPct
93 G. Wilkerson ILB 50 17 0.0 1 3 3 80.7
25 P. Woods CB 38 17 0.0 0 3 1 72.3
36 T. Kaplan S 37 13 1.0 1 0 6 84.7
91 M. Busby DT 34 10 3.0 9 0 0 81.3
56 W. Simmons OLB 32 8 1.0 0 0 1 68.2
99 B. Bolsins DE 26 13 4.0 6 0 0 81.4
33 C. Kemnitzer CB 18 3 0.0 0 1 3 77.6
98 A. Ingram DE 17 6 2.5 10 0 0 82.0
35 R. Shapiro CB 16 2 0.0 0 1 1 80.5
74 B. Connell DT 14 4 2.0 1 0 0 79.5
45 G. Sanderson S 14 4 0.0 0 1 5 88.2
96 D. Kerry DT 13 5 0.5 2 0 0 82.5
55 V. Hubbard OLB 13 5 0.0 1 0 1 72.9
95 A. Herndon OLB 13 5 1.0 0 0 0 77.2
53 J. Marcheck ILB 12 3 0.0 0 0 1 70.0
26 V. Martin S 10 5 0.0 0 1 1 82.2
39 T. Hopkins CB 8 2 0.0 0 0 0 72.4
Just to be clear about the nature of this team, let me betray my previous intentions, and post what my scout thinks of this team:
Code:
Front Office Football 2007
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Roster, Scout Overview
Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
Caruso, Chester 14 QB QB 7 47 50 3 yrs
Jacobs, Glenn 9 QB 1 12 32 1 yr.
Harvill, Nick 15 QB 1 11 35 1 yr.
Duncan, Trevor 47 RB 1 13 17 1 yr.
Hoffman, Jackie 5 RB RB 1 11 22 1 yr.
Dole, Emmanuel 42 FB FB 1 14 24 1 yr.
Horowitz, Jimmie 28 FB 1 9 16 1 yr.
Horibe, Korey 82 TE TE 1 10 17 1 yr.
Jamieson, Tommy 87 TE 1 9 17 1 yr.
Hevey, Melvin 81 FL FL 5 54 54 5 yrs
Dickens, Warren 18 FL 1 32 46 4 yrs
Stuart, Jake 88 SE SE 13 45 45 6 yrs
Richmond, Rich 86 SE 1 19 35 3 yrs
Brennan, Phil 54 C C 1 29 54 4 yrs
Grant, Tyrell 61 LG RG 1 12 26 1 yr.
Money, Steven 75 LG LG 1 12 29 1 yr.
Thierry, Jack 60 LG 1 10 22 1 yr.
Pruett, Junior 64 LT LT 1 37 59 4 yrs
O'Neill, Pat 73 RT RT 5 52 52 4 yrs
Clevenger, Britt 77 RT 1 12 25 1 yr.
Collier, Colin 16 P 1 26 43 1 yr.
Cooper, Carlton 17 K 1 28 35 1 yr.
Ingram, Arnold 98 LDE LDE 1 60 66 4 yrs
Henson, Nolan 79 LDE 1 9 18 1 yr.
Bolsins, Bo 99 RDE RDE 1 30 52 4 yrs
Tovar, Frank 70 RDE 1 10 18 1 yr.
**Kerry, Daniel 96 RDT RDT 1 11 16 1 yr.
Busby, Mitch 91 NT LDT 5 45 45 1 yr.
Connell, Billy Joe 74 NT 1 10 34 1 yr.
Wilkerson, Gilbert 93 SILB MLB 7 56 56 7 yrs
Marcheck, Jesse 53 WILB 1 9 24 1 yr.
Strickland, Gabe 52 WILB 1 6 18 1 yr.
Weintraub, Daryl 50 MLB 1 8 30 1 yr.
Simmons, William 56 SLB SLB 1 8 17 1 yr.
Hubbard, Van 55 SLB 1 7 16 1 yr.
Herndon, Aaron 95 WLB WLB 1 9 17 1 yr.
Kemnitzer, Chuck 33 LCB LCB 1 51 58 3 yrs
**Shapiro, Russell 35 LCB 1 15 34 1 yr.
Hopkins, Trent 39 LCB 1 12 27 1 yr.
Woods, Paul 25 RCB RCB 6 51 51 2 yrs
Blythe, Jessie 46 RCB 1 24 50 3 yrs
Dodge, Paul 43 RCB 1 11 23 1 yr.
Kaplan, Terrance 36 SS SS 1 12 18 1 yr.
Biru, Ronnie 23 SS 1 11 23 1 yr.
Martin, Van 26 FS FS 1 13 35 1 yr.
Sanderson, Greg 45 FS 1 12 30 1 yr.
Just so you’re seeing what I’m seeing – that’s an awful lot of guys with current ratings of 10 or so… and many of them are starters. S Terrance Kaplan is rated 12/18 by my scout, and he’s posting a PD% of 84.7 (without even being puffed up by interceptions) – I can’t even get that out of my 75/75 top draft pick in most leagues! Hell, my $9 million cornerback Woods across the field from this guy has three picks and he’s sitting on a PD% of 72/3 – and this is a pretty solid 51/51 veteran. What gives?
I assume this is substantially sample size at work – but I have had tons of empty cupboard teams start out barely able to remain competitive. I guess the handful of free agents here are really making a huge difference, after all.
Okay… things come back to earth in the second half, as we really get swallowed up by the league. We finish at 6-10 for the year, which is much more like what I had been expecting. Not that I’m happy to lose games – I just wasn’t sure what the hell was going on in the early going there. I’m writing it off as an encouraging, but nonetheless fluky, run of good luck.
Here’s the year end summary printout:
Code:
Front Office Football 2007
2023 Summary for Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Year 2023
Record 6-10
Winning Pct. .375
All-Time 118-170
Winning Pct. .409
Playoffs 0-2
Playoff Visits 2
Bowl Wins 0
Head Coach Matt Curtis
Record 6-10
Winning Pct. .375
Off. Coord. C. Spencer
Def. Coord. Z. Huntley
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Team Rank
Rushes per Game 27.5 18
Rushing Yards 113.9 17
Yards Per Carry 4.14 11
Pass Attempts 31.4 21
Completions 17.6 26 (T)
Completion Pct. 55.9 26
Passing Yards 229.7 13
Yards Per Attempt 7.31 9
Yards Per Catch 13.08 2
Total Yardage Gained 329.1 11
3rd Down Conversions 42.2 7 (T)
Points Per Game 19.1 20
Pass Rush Pct. 18.8 20 (T)
Pass Defense Pct. 49.5 23
Turnovers 27 16 (T)
Turnover Margin +1 11 (T)
Opponents Team Rank
Rushes per Game 31.7 29
Rushing Yards 128.6 27
Yards Per Carry 4.06 21
Pass Attempts 30.0 3
Completions 19.2 10 (T)
Completion Pct. 64.0 30
Passing Yards 239.5 25
Yards Per Attempt 7.98 31
Yards Per Catch 12.48 30
Total Yardage Gained 357.4 30
3rd Down Conversions 42.2 29
Points Per Game 24.4 28
Pass Rush Pct. 21.6 26
Pass Defense Pct. 63.5 24
Turnovers 28 16 (T)
Week Team Versus Oppnt
1 37 CAR 25
2 25 JAX 21
3 17 SEA 27
4 31 at ATL 17
5 21 at MIN 32
6 23 NOS 21
7 17 at DET 25
9 17 GBY 10
10 14 CHI 24
11 14 at CAR 45
12 29 at LRK 35
13 30 at WAS 24
14 7 IND 13
15 0 at NOS 20
16 3 at TEN 28
17 21 ATL 24
Passing Pos Att Comp Yards Y/Att TD Int Rate
14 C. Caruso QB 500 280 3664 7.33 24 16 81.9
**Team --- 503 281 3675 7.31 24 17 80.9
$$Opp --- 480 307 3832 7.98 27 16 93.5
Rushing Pos Att Yards Y/Att TD Fum
47 T. Duncan RB 180 750 4.17 6 3
5 J. Hoffman RB 176 728 4.14 4 4
14 C. Caruso QB 45 213 4.73 0 10
**Team --- 440 1822 4.14 10 27
$$Opp --- 507 2058 4.06 19 23
Receiving Pos Targ Catch Yards Y/Ctc Y/Tar Drop TD
81 M. Hevey WR 157 90 1383 15.37 8.81 11 8
88 J. Stuart WR 114 60 959 15.98 8.41 10 6
18 W. Dickens WR 78 38 457 12.03 5.86 2 5
86 R. Richmond WR 55 27 336 12.44 6.11 6 1
82 K. Horibe TE 21 16 150 9.38 7.14 2 2
Defense Pos Tack Asst Sack Hurr Ints Defn PDPct
93 G. Wilkerson ILB 114 39 1.0 1 4 5 78.1
25 P. Woods CB 65 28 0.0 1 3 7 75.0
36 T. Kaplan S 61 27 1.0 2 0 8 82.4
56 W. Simmons OLB 59 15 2.0 0 0 4 68.3
91 M. Busby DT 55 18 5.0 12 0 0 81.8
99 B. Bolsins DE 49 28 6.0 16 0 0 81.3
98 A. Ingram DE 40 19 7.0 15 0 0 82.0
33 C. Kemnitzer CB 39 7 0.0 0 2 10 79.1
74 B. Connell DT 38 12 2.0 2 0 0 79.6
55 V. Hubbard OLB 30 14 0.0 1 0 2 72.7
96 D. Kerry DT 27 11 1.0 2 0 0 81.6
39 T. Hopkins CB 26 4 0.0 0 3 0 78.9
26 V. Martin S 26 12 0.0 0 1 2 79.5
53 J. Marcheck ILB 24 6 0.0 0 1 2 73.9
95 A. Herndon OLB 24 8 1.0 0 0 2 78.9
45 G. Sanderson S 24 6 0.0 0 1 6 81.8
50 D. Weintraub ILB 18 4 0.0 0 0 0 66.6
35 R. Shapiro CB 16 2 0.0 0 1 1 80.5