Pewter Report’s PR Roundtablepresented by PrizePicks
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A brand new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts each Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Every week, the Pewter Reporters sort out one other powerful Bucs query. Who Is The Most Underrated Bucs Participant?
Scott Reynolds: Ben Bredeson Is Underappreciated By Tampa Bay Followers
Are you aware which Buccaneer really had the very best report final yr? Left guard Ben friggin’ Bredeson.
That’s proper. The least proficient and fewer heralded Tampa Bay offensive lineman began 11 video games final yr whereas lacking six video games as a consequence of harm. He was concerned in seven of the crew’s eight wins and was solely on the sector for 4 of the crew’s 9 losses. Defensive sort out Calijah Kancey was really 3-0 in video games performed final yr, however Bredeson contributed to successful greater than double that quantity of video games earlier than he succumbed to hamstring and knee accidents, and the Bucs went 7-4 report in video games that he performed in.
Bredeson performed in each recreation through the crew’s sizzling 6-2 begin earlier than the bye week after which received damage after the opening drive towards New England in Week 10 popping out of the bye. Bredeson missed the subsequent two video games – highway losses at Buffalo and at Los Angeles – earlier than returning to motion versus Arizona, which Tampa Bay received. Then the seventh-year veteran received damage within the residence loss to New Orleans in Week 14 and was finished for the yr.
Bucs LG Ben Bredeson and LT Tristan Wirfs – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
So Bredeson missed the losses at Carolina and Miami in addition to the house win versus the Panthers. So in video games he missed, the Bucs went 1-5. Whereas everybody was freaking out concerning the crew lacking Kancey, proper guard Cody Mauch, working again Bucky Irving and vast receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr., possibly Bredeson was missed greater than we predict.
Bredeson signed an affordable three-year, $22 million deal earlier than the beginning of the 2025 marketing campaign after a extremely good season on a one-year, prove-it deal the yr earlier than in Tampa Bay. He proved worthy of his contract extension instantly by beginning the primary three video games at heart for Graham Barton, who kicked out to left sort out to exchange the injured Tristan Wirfs, and enjoying very nicely. Bredeson’s versatility alongside the inside is an enormous plus for the Buccaneers.
Bredeson didn’t have notably nice grades per Professional Soccer Focus, incomes a 53.4 total grade, a 76 cross safety grade and a 44.1 run blocking grade for the 2025 season. However the Bucs worth him far more than PFF does. And Bredeson nonetheless has the possibility to enhance and get higher. He will not be an elite athlete, however his 6-foot-5, 315-pound body finds a strategy to get the job finished. And take a look at this image of Bredeson – his thighs are as huge as Wirfs’!
Matt Matera: Jalen McMillan Can Unleash This Bucs Offense
He could not have been capable of present a lot of it final season as a consequence of a horrifying neck harm that stored him out till December of final season, however when Jalen McMillan is on, he brings one other dimension to the Bucs’ offense. McMillan proved with a 100-yard recreation final yr that he’s primed to be even larger and higher for the 2026 season.
Bucs WR Jalen McMillan – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
With a lot of the eye going to Chris Godwin Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, McMillan will get very favorable matchups. He’s additionally a viable choice to go deep and make huge performs if the Bucs wish to strike quick. Keep in mind the participant that had seven touchdowns within the last 5 video games of the season when he was a rookie? That participant nonetheless exists, and that’s who the Bucs are going to get in 2026.
Someone on Tampa Bay’s offense goes to have to choose up the slack when scoring touchdowns this season. Let McMillan be that man. The most effective continues to be but to come back for him, and given Godwin’s time within the league, McMillan is the eventual No. 2 on this crew behind Egbuka. That’s not a nasty spot to be because it’ll nonetheless include tons of manufacturing.
Adam Slivon: Luke Goedeke Deserves Extra Credit score For Lifting Bucs’ O-Line
One of the invaluable positions in soccer is left sort out. With high quality blindside safety at a premium, the Bucs are lucky to have All-Professional Tristan Wirfs to lean on there. What flies underneath the radar is the person who took over at proper sort out to provide the offensive line two high quality tackles – Luke Goedeke. Getting into 2026, Goedeke is way faraway from being the participant he was as a rookie in 2022. After struggling at left guard, Tampa Bay made the smart selection to maneuver him again to the fitting aspect and it has paid dividends for the crew – and himself.
Bucs RT Luke Goedeke – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
The offensive line is taken into account to be a energy of the crew now, nevertheless it was removed from seen that manner when the crew started developing a brand new model of it in 2023. Shifting Goedeke was simply half certainly one of an overhaul that additionally consisted of drafting Cody Mauch to pair subsequent him and later signing Ben Bredeson. Within the three seasons since he switched spots, “Luke The Lifter” has fortified the opposite aspect of the trenches. Professional Soccer Focus has graded him between being the 25-Thirtieth greatest offensive sort out at both spot within the league, along with his total grade growing annually.
Whereas not an elite participant, he’s firmly an above-average proper sort out who has an opportunity to earn a Professional Bowl nod or two throughout his profession. Whereas many Bucs followers absolutely admire Goedeke’s improvement, his enhancements are usually not talked about practically sufficient. They’re what earned him a four-year, $90 million contract extension to maintain him round in Tampa Bay for the lengthy haul.
Loads of credit score rightfully goes to Tristan Wirfs, and even his flowers pale compared to these given to Baker Mayfield and his solid of offensive weapons. What units that in movement is the work of the offensive line, with Goedeke’s play and angle being a key purpose why.
Bailey Adams: In some way, I Suppose It’s Chase McLaughlin
In simply three quick years, Chase McLaughlin has cemented himself as the very best kicker in Bucs historical past. I don’t suppose it will get talked about sufficient by Tampa Bay followers, and maybe the reason being that everybody is secretly ready for the opposite shoe to drop. It’s that, or it’s akin to a bear strolling into your own home and never noticing you, which leaves you ready the place you don’t wish to draw any consideration to the bear out of worry that doing so will see every part go fallacious. Is that an ideal analogy? No. Is it an excellent one? I don’t suppose so. Is that even a state of affairs? Hardly. However you get the purpose.
McLaughlin was the definition of a journeyman earlier than he got here to Tampa Bay. He frolicked with the Chargers, 49ers and Colts through the 2019 season, then break up the 2020 season between the Jaguars and Jets. He was with the Browns in 2021 earlier than going again to the Colts in 2022. He wasn’t even that good at any of these stops, along with his greatest discipline purpose share of any stint being 87.5% over solely three video games and eight makes an attempt with the 49ers in 2019.
Bucs Ok Chase McLaughlin – Photograph by: USA Immediately
Then got here 2023, when the Bucs wanted a kicker to exchange Ryan Succop, who helped them break their longtime kicking curse and performed a key function of their Tremendous Bowl LV run. McLaughlin got here in and one way or the other grew to become an enormous improve over Succop, with all due respect to Succop. McLaughlin linked on 29 of his 31 discipline purpose makes an attempt (93.5%) and had a 7-of-8 mark from 50+ yards. And that was solely the start of “Money McLaughlin.”
In 2024, he was 30-of-32 (93.8%) total and 8-of-10 from 50+. Final yr was a down yr by the earlier requirements he had set in Tampa Bay, but he was 32-of-38 (84.2%) and made an unimaginable 11 discipline targets from 50+ yards with just one miss from distance. Over three years, McLaughlin has hit on 91 of his 101 discipline purpose makes an attempt (90.1%) and has change into the franchise chief in discipline targets of fifty+ yards, going an distinctive 26-of-30 to function a official weapon for the crew’s offense. Get inside 50-60 vary and also you’ve set your self up for at the least three factors.
Actually, although, McLaughlin being underrated is much less about how Buccaneer followers see him and extra concerning the lack of consideration he will get throughout the league. It’s Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker and Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey who get all the excitement. And it’s not that they don’t deserve it. It’s that McLaughlin has been proper up there with Dicker when it comes to accuracy and whereas he isn’t hitting from the identical distances that Aubrey is (he’s a machine with longs of 60, 65 and 64 over the past three seasons, respectively), his accuracy from deep is spectacular in its personal proper.
What McLaughlin has finished for the Bucs has sort of simply change into regular. But it surely shouldn’t be checked out like that, particularly given this franchise’s historical past within the kicking recreation. So, when it comes to being neglected by the broader NFL world and generally underdiscussed by followers in Tampa, Cash McLaughlin is my choose for many underrated Buccaneer.
Josh Queipo: Of Course, It’s Cade Otton
When the Pester Report crew initially landed on this subject for our PR Roundtable this week the phrasing was, “Which Bucs player is the most overlooked?” And I used to be going to do three paragraphs of quick jokes centered on Tez Johnson. However they adjusted the wording and now I digress. The lengthy and wanting it comes right down to a few high-profile drops/misgrabs have made Otton out to be Public Enemy Quantity One on this planet of Bucs followers.
Bucs TE Cade Otton – Photograph by: USA Immediately
Folks love a flashy tight finish who can put up gaudy counting numbers. And but numerous folks neglect that Otton did that for a time when he was requested to after Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr. went down with accidents in 2024. From Weeks 7-10 of that yr Otton was the most effective receiving tight ends in soccer:
Targets – 38 (2nd)Receptions – 30 (2nd)Yards – 293 (2nd)TD – 3 (2nd)Yards Per Route Run – 1.90 (tenth)
When the offense requested him to be the engine of the passing recreation he responded like a university child’s Honda, chugging alongside with out stopping. However that isn’t what makes him superior. It’s his amphibian-like skill to adapt to regardless of the offense wants him to be.
Juxtapose that four-game stretch with what the Bucs wanted him to be final yr because the offensive line labored by means of new lineup after new lineup and misplaced a complete of 11 video games from their beginning tight ends. Otton was requested to remain in and chip and block to provide Baker Mayfield valuable additional tenths of a second. Otton obliged at a excessive stage.
He is likely one of the higher beginning blocking tight ends within the recreation. Is he prime 5 at anybody talent? Most likely not. However there isn’t a single factor tight ends are answerable for that he’s under common at.
And in addition, when he’s within the recreation there may be zero tip-off to the protection at what the Bucs would possibly run. Deep cross, quick cross, hole run, zone run. Break up him out vast, run him in-line or put him within the slot. Otton can successfully execute any project from any alignment. That’s actual worth to an offensive coordinator.
