The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons today to move to 6-7 on the year and take control of the top spot in the NFC South after also defeating the Carolina Panthers last weekend.

With a string of winnable games coming up, the Bucs have a chance to sneak into the playoffs as the four seed in the NFC, but is this as good for the franchise as it seems on paper?

To a franchise that has struggled historically at winning its division and finding postseason success, one has to think that any showings in the big dance are a good thing. However, the best thing for this Bucs team may actually run counter to conventional logic on the subject.

From a player standpoint, every win is a good thing and something that should be chased. 

There are a ton of guys on this team that play for pride. Mike Evans, Baker Mayfield, Rachaad White, the offensive line, Antoine Winfield, etc make it extremely easy to be a fan of this team.

These guys and most of the other contributors go out each week and give it their all, and that has been enough against the bad teams to overcome some massive franchise deficiencies that are actually worsened by winning in the short term.

Todd Bowles is a massive problem. Dave Canales is becoming an issue. Value of top picks in two of the last three years has been shaky. If the Bucs keep winning, the franchise could get stuck with another year of Bowles, Canales, and a pick that is less of a sure thing due to coming off the board later in the early rounds.

No one is saying the Bucs need to tank, that would never happen. Still, it is silly to act like there are no negative ramifications to winning when this team so obviously needs a shakeup to keep the mediocrity at bay.

If the Bucs never went all-in for three years with Tom Brady and an offensive-oriented head coach, this wouldn't even be a conversation right now. Fans would just be happy to win the division no matter how bad the NFC South is.

Unfortunately for the front office, now that the fanbase has tasted winning, mediocrity and cowardice from the coaching staff won't be tolerated. 

Todd Bowles puts an obvious cap on the potential for this roster, and every win that he scratches out against the worst division in football only puts the Bucs that much further away from making the easiest division in the sport to fire the HC and start from scratch.

Based on everything we have seen, the Bucs appear to be on pace to make the playoffs, lose in the first round to a Dallas or Philly, and then start right back at square one next year without a draft-defining rooking to help interject some new life into this roster (namely at quarterback, even if Mayfield has done well this year).

A winning streak and a trip to the playoffs are great, but trying to say that this is the path to competing for a Super Bowl again in the fastest manner possible is silly.

Buccaneers alive in playoff race after Week 13 win

Still rolling ahead, somehow.