After the worst season in the NFL last year and winning the first pick in the draft because of it, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have plenty of questions surrounding the team and the impact of their offseason changes, including adding their franchise quarterback.  To narrow it down a bit, let’s get down to the five most important questions facing the Bucs.

Is Lovie Smith’s Tampa 2 defense, so dominant in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s obsolete or outdated?    Many a pundit have said this, but the fact is the Tampa 2 is the single best defense to use as a base defense.  The basic “Cover 2” defense makes the outside receivers adjust most of their routes and does not allow a free release like Cover 3.  Most teams aren’t talented enough across the board to run “man-to-man” regularly, because a single mistake can mean a TD for the other team.  The Tampa 2 also gives the CB’s more freedom of movement to help the safeties on the deep sideline routes.

Will new middle linebacker Bruce Carter (formerly Dallas Cowboys) be a better fit than Mason Foster in the Tampa 2?

This will be a wait and see situation, but the Bucs need more mobility in the middle to help protect the middle of the field when the safeties are pulled outside.   If Lovie Smith and GM Jason Licht did not find the right type of player to maximize a key player in this defense, shame on them.

Did they find enough help on the defensive front for superstar DT Gerald McCoy to make people forget Tony Dungy’s version of this defense and the ghosts of Warren Sapp?

They horribly missed in the 2014 free agency market and were a patchwork defensive line most of the year.  Every defense thrives on QB pressure, but when the front four can’t get hits on the quarterback and need to bring linebackers and more to get it, then they will struggle again.

Can Jameis Winston take over from day one and lead this team back to respectability?

On draft night I said, “Don’t be surprised if Mike Glennon is actually pretty good and even better than Winston for a while.”  There is a group of slobbering fans and various media of Winston in the Tampa market, but don’t forget that even Troy Aikman and Peyton Manning struggled in their rookie years and they played through their senior seasons.  Winston would be a redshirt junior at Florida State this year and even if he is one of the most prepared QB’s in some time, there is an adjustment period for everybody.

Will new offensive coordinator Kirk Koetter actually bring something exciting to bring the fans back to Raymond James Stadium?

Big and solid receivers include Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans on the outside, and second-year tight end Austin Seferian- Jenkins inside.  Koetter will have to figure out his backfield and how best to use the menagerie of Doug Martin, Bobby Rainey, Mike James and Charles Sims.  I’m not all that confident it will look much different (although it was so vanilla and generally awful play-calling last season under QB Coach turned OC Marcus Arroyo—due to the health issues of Jeff Tedford—that almost anything will be an improvement) simply because Koetter’s Atlanta Falcons did not light up the world even with Julio Jones, Matt Ryan and Steven Jackson.

The Buccaneers mismanaged a couple of games from the sideline last year and hopefully they won’t be in similar situations again, but better game management from Lovie Smith will be needed to lift these young Bucs up from the cellar of the entire league.  Luckily, the NFC South was a wreck last year and it should remain one of the easier divisions to win.  The September 13^th opener will certainly be must-see-TV as the top two picks of the draft will square off against each other in Tampa, as the Tennessee Titans will also be debuting their franchise QB Marcus Mariota.  If the Bucs win the opener, it can close the conversation if the Tampa made the right decision, or open a can of worms if Mariota is sharp and Winston struggles.  Either way it will be great to be in the stadium that day!