Questionable Buccaneers Shaq Mason trade furthers biggest issue
The Buccaneers can’t expect to make themselves better when they tie their own hands behind their back.
If you ask 100 Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans what the weakest part of their team was in 2022, at least 90 would answer with the offensive line.
This definitely comes as a surprise after the Bucs were able to put together a few different seasons in a row with a fringe top-five unit when protecting Tom Brady, but the wheels fell off this past year.
Injuries and free agent departures hurt, but one of the biggest saving graces for the Bucs in this regard was a very team-friendly trade for Shaq Mason this time last year.
Mason has been one of the top guards in the NFL for a while now and was actually a decent improvement over departing Alex Cappa, but even his addition wasn't enough to save this line.
New faces in at left guard, center, and a major regression from Donovan Smith made it so that this offense was always playing from behind when it mattered.
Everyone knew that the Bucs were going into this offseason with fixing the line and getting it back to its 2020 levels as one of its top priorities, yet here we sit with a very strange trade.
Rather than going out and finding proven names to pair with Tristan Wirfs, Mason, and the returning Ryan Jensen, the Bucs traded Mason for pennies on the dollar in the name of minimal cap savings.
Yes, the Buccaneers were able to save a few million dollars in a time where the team is very strapped for cash, but now the team has to go into the 2023 season with a new face at quarterback that will be protected by a new left tackle, right guard, and one of the worst left tackles in the league in 2022.
That doesn't exactly sound like a recipe for success.
While no one should have any lofty expectations about this upcoming season for the Buccaneers as they look to build an identity outside of Tom Brady, a move like this should only lower expectations even further.
A tough year just got all the more difficult for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
