Well, it looks like the narrative has already died that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to be one of the worst teams in the NFL in 2023.

Tanking to earn a top pick in the draft did always seem like an impossible prospect for a team with so much talent, but the Bucs will still need to prove exactly who they are in a Week 2 matchup against the Bears.

The good news for Tampa is that they look like the clear favorites for that game, sitting in a nice position to start the year 2-0. Doubters be damned. 

The Buccaneers looked good in Week 1. The same can not be said about the Bears.

While Tampa's defense was able to play well from the start and set the offense up for a much better second half, Chicago didn't look good on either side of the ball.

Between points that were surrendered at will to a worse defense than Tampa's in Green Bay and plenty of silly turnovers on offense, the Bears have a lot to fix before they can actually hang with what the Bucs put on the field in their win.

Again, it all comes back to those preseason expectations. Would anyone have believed a month ago that Tampa would be favored to win in Week 2 to go 2-0? Some believed this team would be more competitive than expected, but this is different altogether. 

In fact, this Bucs team could prove itself good enough in Week 2 to win the NFC South. Whether or not that happens in the end is one thing, but beating decent Vikings team and dominating a bad Bears team to start the year would at least show that the potential is there for a surprising season, and that by itself is a lot to like.

Takeaways from Buccaneers’ Week 1 win over Vikings

Here are the biggest takeaways.