Mexico City /
Survive 17 weeks of regular season (which will now be 18), play them all Playoffs as visitors and be the first team to lift the Super Bowl to their stadium. All this had to be done by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to be NFL champions last February. With the new season on the doorstep, the challenge is to repeat the Vince Lombardi trophy; of course, before the start of the new year they have already achieved what no other champion in history.
The era of the wage cap
the NFL is distinguished by looking for the parity of its 32 franchises every year, so the Draft favors the worst team of the previous season with the first global selection and the salary cap was also implemented. Since 1994, each team has the same amount of money to spend on salaries, Without exception or the possibility of paying a “luxury tax” as in Major Leagues.
With the salary cap, no team since 1994 had been able to retain all the incumbents who won the super Bowl months before, until the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of 2021 they taught how to play “economic chess” to keep the 22 players -offensive and defensive- although several ended contract.
Gronkowski, AB and Tom Brady’s ‘gang’
After that in February they won the second super Bowl of their history, the Buccaneers entered the period of free agency with the challenge of preserving most of their key pieces. punctually five incumbents whose contract expiredor, starting with Rob Gronkowski.
The great accomplice of Tom Brady in the Patriots and that he came out of retirement to meet with the quarterback in Tampa agreed to a new contract because “once you play with Tom there is nothing bigger to aspire to“, He declared Gronk after its signing in the middle of the year.
The closed wing was followed by the talented but very problematic receiver, Antonio Brown, As well as the corridor Leonard Fournette. with this the offensive was like a deck of the Super Bowl LV and the defensive did the same with the permanence of the tackle Ndamukong Suh and the linebacker Shaquil Barrett.
In such a way that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers they will begin the defense of their title in the NFL in front of the Dallas Cowboys with the same 22 Super Bowl players in which they crushed Kansas, Something that no franchise had achieved in the era of the salary cap and with the goal set to be two-time champions, A feat that was last seen with the Patriots… Precisely from Tom Brady.