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 Upon review, Bucs not afraid to think repeatBy Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com SAN DIEGO -- Their first Vince Lombardi Trophy in hand, and led by the youngest head coach to ever claim a Super Bowl championship, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers departed here Monday morning excited by the prospects of successfully defending the title in 2003. And no one could blame them.
Certainly the Bucs have the talent and, obviously, the tutelage to become the first back-to-back Super Bowl champion since the Denver Broncos in 1997-98. But as for successful encores, history has not been particularly kind to first-time Super Bowl champ lately. The Broncos were the last franchise to win a first title and immediately defend it since Pittsburgh in 1974-75. It is clearly more difficult now -- with free agency, salary cap limitations, the natural instinct of players to seek raises after a championship performance, a difficulty in maintaining a chemical status quo in general -- than it was two or three decades ago to repeat. Through the first 10 years of the Super Bowl, there were three first-time winners who also won the following season in their second title berth. But times change and, as Dwight Smith and the rest of the Bucs will soon find out, so do teams and dynamics. There is little doubt that, with a strong front office led by general manager Rich McKay and the motivational and strategic brilliance of head coach Jon Gruden, the Buccaneers are well situated for a return engagement at a Super Bowl podium. It would not be an upset, surely, to have commissioner Paul Tagliabue again handing the league's most coveted piece of hardware to Bucs' owner Malcolm Glazer. A lot can happen, though, in a year. And so, while Smith's words ring true, there are never any guarantees in the NFL. None of the last three Super Bowl champions got back to the title game the following season. An even harsher dose of reality: None of those three teams advanced beyond the division round of the playoffs the season after their Super Bowl victory. None, in fact, even so much as won their division title. That's where it all begins for the Bucs in 2003. "You take it one step at a time," said strong safety John Lynch, asked about the '03 season on Sunday night. "Your goal is always to win the Super Bowl and that doesn't change. But you start off with (winning) the division, and we know ours is only going to get more competitive." Indeed, the improvement of Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick, humbled in his two appearances against the Bucs in 2002, will make the Falcons a more formidable division foe. And Vick has proclaimed a new rivalry with Tampa Bay. A New Orleans team that defeated the Bucs twice in the 2002 regular season should be a postseason contender in '03. And the Carolina Panthers, while still a year or two away from completing their rebuilding project, have enough good players on defense to keep things interesting.
According to NFL Players Association data for '03 obtained by ESPN.com, the Bucs have $76.696 million in salary cap room already committed next season. That figure could be a bit higher, because of bonuses earned in '02 that will count against next year's cap, and some so-called "escalators" that might be in contracts. It is believed, for instance, quarterback Brad Johnson earned a $1 million escalator for reaching certain playing time benchmarks. The projected cap limit for 2003 is about $75 million, so the Bucs already are a shade above it, but not critically so. The vanquished Oakland Raiders, by comparison, are about $46 million over the 2003 cap. Tampa Bay only $4.97 million in "dead money," salary cap space accounted for by players no longer with the team. That figure could grow if Tampa Bay releases players currently under contract during the offseason. Even if they don't, the Bucs probably will be forced to restructure a few of their bigger contracts to free up some cap room. McKay acknowledged last week that, because of a lack of draft choices (thanks to the deal with Oakland to get Gruden), the Bucs might have to be bigger players in free agency this spring. One plus, relatively speaking, is that Tampa Bay won't have to invest cap room in a first-round draft choice, since the Gruden acquisition leaves them without a top pick for a second straight year. What the team certainly must invest in, though, is keeping some key free agents off the market. Right now, the Bucs have 10 pending unrestricted free agents, and the list includes five players (counting punter Tom Tupa) who started on Sunday evening. Three of those starters are on the Bucs top-rated defense: middle linebacker Shelton Quarles, strong linebacker Alshermond Singleton and free safety Dexter Jackson, the most valuable player of the Super Bowl. The lone unrestricted free agent among the offensive starters is left tackle Roman Oben, arguably the most improved player on a blocking unit that ranked among the league's poorest in the early portion of the year. Tight end Rickey Dudley, one key offensive backup who logged considerable playing time, can be an unrestricted free agent. Notable is that the Bucs have only one quarterback, starter Brad Johnson, under contract for next year, with both Rob Johnson and Shaun King only about four weeks removed from free agency. There are five players eligible for restricted free agency but none would be considered vital to the club. One decision that could be looming for Tampa Bay is the long-term future of defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who will turn 31 late next season, and who enters 2003 in the final year of his current contract. Sapp has a salary cap value of $6.6 million for '03 and probably will seek an extension, one with that figure as a starting point. "We feel there's still a window (of opportunity) for this team beyond just this year," McKay said early last week and that should be the case. "But we've been around long enough to know you're not promised tomorrow." That said, there should be at least one more good tomorrow for the Bucs if they continue to manage things as wisely as they have in the recent seasons. But this is a team, as currently configured, that probably doesn't have much more than one more season together. And it is a team that might not be able to make, for cap reasons, the extensive offensive line alterations that some of the coaches deem paramount. The average age of the 22 offensive and defensive starters in the Super Bowl on Sunday is 28.7 years and the average NFL tenure is 6.5 seasons. Nine of the starters are 30 or older and four have played 10 seasons or more. Because of the trade for Gruden, which the franchise would do again in a minute after the results of Super Bowl XXXVII, it is difficult for the Bucs to replenish the roster with younger players. So while Smith is correct in assessing Tampa Bay might be able to defend its crown in 2003, no one should look much beyond that for now. Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. |
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