The Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished last year at 10-6 and have a serious gripe about not making the playoffs considering they finished 3 wins better than Seattle Seahawks, who made the playoffs. In addition to that, they crushed the Seahawks 38-15 week 16. Also, they were a win against Detroit (an overtime loss week 15) from being 11-5 and in the playoffs for sure, so they’re close.

But, their fans shouldn’t complain. This team was clearly a year ahead of schedule. This youth movement and rebuilding project was supposed to be a 3 year project, but Josh Freeman, LeGarrette Blount, and Mike Williams had something to say about that. Josh Freeman got better as the season went on and the addition of LeGarrette Blount at running back gave this offense two dimensions.

Josh Freeman completed 61% of his passes for 7.3 YPA and 25 touchdowns against 9 picks. LeGarrette Blount rushed for 1007 yards and 6 touchdowns despite not receiving double digit carries until week 6. Mike Williams caught 65 passes for 964 yards and 11 touchdowns. Oh, and all 3 of them will be 24 or younger when the 2011 season starts.

The team as a whole got better as the season went on. They went from a team that just beat up on bad teams and couldn’t hang with good teams (25 point loss to Pittsburgh week 3, 25 point loss to New Orleans week 6) to a team that hung within 6 of Atlanta (in Atlanta) week 9, within 7 of Baltimore (in Baltimore) week 12, within 4 of Atlanta week 13 and then beat New Orleans week 17. Josh Freeman legitimately outplayed Drew Bress in that game and just the week before went 21 for 26 for 237 yards and 5 scores. I know they were playing Seattle, but that’s an impressive performance against anyone. Blount also rushed for 164 yards on 18 carries in that game.

Even more impressive is that down the stretch they were playing with an injured defense. In addition to missing Tanard Jackson, who got suspended for the year after week 2, they were missing Aqib Talib since week 13, Gerald McCoy since week 14, Brian Price since week 6, and Cody Grimm (Jackson’s replacement) since week 12.

If they can add two legitimate pass rushers in the first two rounds, and McCoy and Price stay healthy, and Grimm stays healthy and Talib stays healthy, that’s a pretty talented defense, especially in the trenches. Also remember that all of those players will be 25 or younger when the 2011 season starts.

Their schedule next season will be a bit harder than it was this year (10 games against sub .500 teams and a 9-1 record in those games), but they’ll also be better as they’ll be healthier, more experienced, and carrying the momentum of a strong finish. I wouldn’t be surprised if this team won a couple playoff games next year and if they keep it up, they could be a Super Bowl team in the near future. Raheem Morris has done a great job of transforming this from a 9-7 wasteland of 30 somethings with nowhere to go but down in 2008 under Jon Gruden to a 10-6 team of young promising kids with nowhere to go but up. And remember he did all this in just 2 short years.