It was the worst-kept secret in the NFL that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were eventually going to have to pay the piper.  The Bucs kicked the can down the road with deferred money and short-term cap space increases while fortifying three runs at a Super Bowl championship with Tom Brady at the helm.

And boy, was it obviously worth it, with the franchise raising its second Lombardi trophy while winning two division titles and five playoff games in a three-year span.  That's success that many teams would only dream of, and especially those that sit beside the Bucs in the all-time franchise winning percentage category.  

And that giant bill came due this spring for the Bucs, who were an astounding approximately $55 million over the cap following the retirement of Tom Brady and resulting $35 million 2023 dead money hit.  To his credit, Jason Licht managed to navigate the cap by releasing tackle Donovan Smith and reworking the contracts of veterans Ryan Jensen, Vita Vea, Chris Godwin, Russell Gage, and Carlton Davis, while also creating some space to work with in free agency with the release of Leonard Fournette and Cameron Brate.  

And what did the Bucs manage to do in free agency given their hamstrung circumstances?  Well, a lot, actually.  Licht surprisingly managed to re-sign Jamel Dean, one of the top defensive backs on the market, to a long-term deal.  Lavonte David is back on a one-year deal.  Safety Ryan Neal, who received an 85.6 grade from Pro Football Focus in 2022, signed with the Bucs on a very team-friendly deal of 1 year, $1.232 million.  Experienced and versatile G Matt Feiler was signed on a prove it deal and should become entrenched at the left guard spot.  They also fortified depth in the front seven with the re-signing of OLB Anthony Nelson and addition of DT Greg Gaines, and draft selections of DL Calijah Kancey and OL Cody Mauch. 

But there was one particular move that drew the scorn of ESPN's Bill Barnwell, who listed the Bucs 27th of 32 teams in ranking their offseason to date.  The Bucs signed Baker Mayfield to a 1-year, $4 million contract.  Mayfield was one of the few realistic free agent quarterback options the Bucs had this offseason, and it was done on a very affordable deal.  The Bucs are hoping Mayfield can imitate the success that Geno Smith had in Seattle in 2022 under the tutelage of Dave Canales, the Bucs' new offensive coordinator.  

However, Barnwell apparently sees that as a far-fetched possibility:

"The Bucs understandably brought in competition for Trask, but their choice was to import Baker Mayfield, the NFL's worst passer in 2022.  While Mayfield's nationally-televised win over the Raiders just days after joining the Rams was one of the most entertaining upsets of the season, he was dreadful across his two teams.  His league-worst QBR came in at 24.6.  If we expand the measure to include backups, Mayfield trailed Joe Flacco, Sam Ehlinger and Skylar Thompson.  He wasn't much better while battling a shoulder injury in 2021.  

Mayfield needs just about everything around him to be right to succeed. Receivers aside, this isn't that sort of team on offense. The line is rebuilding, and after the Bucs fired Byron Leftwich, they replaced their offensive coordinator with Dave Canales, who will be calling plays for the first time after spending over a decade in Seattle. It's tough to imagine Tampa Bay wouldn't have been better off with Jacoby Brissett or Teddy Bridgewater, the latter of whom remains unsigned." – Bill Barnwell, ESPN.com

Barnwell, to his credit, did note the moves the Bucs made regarding Dean, David, and keeping the defense largely intact despite being in a terrible cap situation.  However, it's the QB situation that sticks in his craw. 

The question is: what were they supposed to do this offseason?  That's what this article seemingly is about; what the teams actually did in the situations they could reasonably take on.  Barnwell specifically notes at the start of his article: 

Over the next week, I'm going to deliver my NFL offseason rankings here at ESPN+.  These are designed to consider what a team did during the offseason to increase its chances of winning a Super Bowl, in the short and long term, given the roster and resources it had to work with at the end of the 2022 season. – Bill Barnwell, ESPN.com

So, it doesn't say it's based on what the teams did in 2020, 2021, or 2022 offseasons.  It says it's based on what the team has done in its particular circumstances following the conclusion of the 2022 season.  I point this out because Barnwell bashes the Bucs' Kyle Trask in the "what went wrong" section of his article, but he does so as a setup to the Mayfield analysis. 

If the Bucs were docked to 27th place on his list because they signed one journeyman quarterback instead of a different one on basically the same level, then that's absolutely short-sighted and ludicrous.  And, given that's what he harps on in his "what went wrong" section (after Trask), it appears to be.  It disregards the good things that Licht did this offseason – some of which were, quite frankly, miraculous – by not signing the one guy that Barnwell would have preferred.  If Brissett had been the choice, would that have made that much of a difference?  Should it have?  The answer is a resounding no.  

And how does he know what "that sort of team on offense is", given Canales' offense hasn't even been revealed yet?  What has been hinted at is motion on offense, running the ball, and more play action passing.  All of those things can greatly help to take the pressure off a quarterback.

People will always look to find something to latch onto that supports their belief, and Barnwell did it here by pointing to one thing while effectively disregarding a slew of positive moves.  Unless Brissett turns out to be a solid player in Washington and poor play from Mayfield causes the Bucs to miss the playoffs, then Barnwell's entire basis for this ranking will have been bogus.