Buccaneers want to silence doubters after Tom Brady retirement

Members of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers continue to address the fact that many believe the team will finish this season near or at the very bottom of the overall league standings now that quarterback Tom Brady is staying retired. 

"Everybody outside of the building expects us to be one of the worst teams in the league," Tampa Bay wide receiver Chris Godwin recently told Tyler Dunne of Go Long. "But it doesn’t matter what anybody expects to happen. All that matters is what happens when we go out there on the field and start playing games. Tha t’s really our sole focus, to do our best to build a team. A team that’s together. A team that fights for each other." 

Well before head coach Todd Bowles named free-agency signing Baker Mayfield as Tampa Bay's starting quarterback over 2021 second-round draft pick Kyle Trask, Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David noted earlier this summer that the club's locker room had "a more togetherness, more of a continuity of the football team where everybody is just sticking together and depending on one another to take this thing to another level." 

Cornerback Carlton Davis somewhat defiantly told Dunne for a piece published in July that "anybody who feels we’ve lost Tom — and lost something — is going to be in for a rude awakening." 

For this week's article, safety Antoine Winfield Jr. told Dunne that Tampa Bay is "going to surprise a lot of people this year" and "prove everybody wrong" by January. 

"We’ve got talent everywhere," Winfield added. "We’ve been playing with each other for years now. So having that chemistry is what makes us pretty dangerous. I’m looking forward to the year. It’s going to be an exciting one." 

Sportsbooks don't share Winfield's enthusiasm. As of Tuesday afternoon, OddsChecker listed the Buccaneers as the biggest betting underdogs at +1000 odds to claim the NFC South title. Such perceived disrespect doesn't bother players such as running back Rachaad White. 

"People can say what they want to say," White explained. "We believe in what we’ve got and we’re going to come out swinging." 

The "us against the world" takes coming from the Buccaneers throughout the summer made for interesting headlines but will mean little once the games begin to matter. 

Tampa Bay will attempt to silence doubters when the defending division champions open the regular season at the Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 10.