2022 Team Previews: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Fantasy Preview 2022

All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.

** = target in drafts at this ADP

Top 120

Leonard Fournette, RB (ADP: 25): Fournette was a beast last season, and now, on a team full of beasts, Fournette has the highest ADP. While he doesn’t create the flashy huge plays that land most RBs of this esteem up here, Fournette thrives off volume in a high-octane offense. He piled up 1,266 yards from scrimmage last season, scored 10 total touchdowns and averaged a career-best 4.5 yards per carry. Tom Brady’s unretirement means this offense should him like it has for the last two seasons, and Fournette should see even more rushing volume with Ronald Jones gone to Kansas City. He could also see an uptick in red zone volume with TE Rob Gronkowski retired, and WR Chris Godwin likely to miss a chunk of the season. Fournette is currently the 11th RB off the board, and while that’s not necessarily a great value, there’s no reason to think he won’t justify this ADP.

**Mike Evans, WR (ADP: 26): Evans has a reputation for volatility because of his occasional disappearing act games, but in terms of season-long production very few receivers are as consistent. Evans has delivered 1,000+ yards in each of his eight NFL seasons, and scored 27 touchdowns since Tom Brady arrived in Tampa Bay. With Brady, Evans has put together two scarily similar seasons, and he should absorb even more targets in 2022 with Godwin likely to miss time and Gronk retired. Godwin led the team with 127 targets last season, and Gronk was third with 89. Godwin will eventually return, but should he begin the year on the PUP list, Evans is going to see an increase on 2021’s 7.1 targets per game. Evans had the sixth-best WR DVOA (23.9%) per Football Outsiders, and a contested catch rate better than 85%. He’s simply a stud, and even though he’s already the No. 9 WR off the board, he’s still a value at that ADP.

Chris Godwin, WR (ADP: 60): Godwin was even better than Evans in some ways last year, ad PFF ranked him 11th in the NFL while Evans checked in at 30th. He led Tampa Bay in targets, yards and receptions, and his touchdown rate should rise with Gronkowski out of the picture. The problem is Godwin’s December torn ACL, likely meaning he will begin the season on the PUP list. That would knock him out for a minimum of four weeks, and he’d likely be out longer than that, and even that assumes he hits the ground running as the Godwin of last season. I’d love to draft Godwin and patiently wait for him to return to form, but paying a Top 60 pick for the privilege is simply too high a price. This ADP forces you to pass on players with tremendous upside who are currently healthy and will give you four more games, at worst, than Godwin will. Unfortunately, I don’t see myself having any Godwin shares in 2022 as much as I love the player.

**Tom Brady, QB (ADP: 82): Brady is the ninth QB off the board, and that sounds blasphemous even though he’s 44 years old. Brady rattled off 5,316 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while ranking as PFF’s No. 2 QB and posting a 26.5% DVOA, behind only Aaron Rodgers. At this point, we can’t knock Brady for his age. It is what it is, he’s defeated time, and we need to just treat him as elite until he proves otherwise. And yeah, Brady won’t run at all, but when he’s consistently proving that he will have elite volume and efficiency that also is irrelevant. The loss of Bruce Arians as head coach is a tad more compelling, but Brady is running the offense on his own at this point anyway. He’s just a value, plain and simple. Comfortably draft Brady at this ADP.

Fantasy Relevant (121-200 ADP)

Russell Gage, WR (ADP: 111): Gage is an interesting player this year, because he figures to see some early opportunity until Godwin comes back. Gage has never put up a fantasy-relevant season; his career-highs are 72 receptions, 786 yards and four TD. He had an opportunity as a WR1 last year, however, and did pretty well with it from Week 10 on. Gage averaged 6.3 receptions and 76.4 yards in that span, scored three of his four touchdowns and topped 125 yards twice. PFF graded him as the 31st-best receiver in football, one measly spot behind Evans, who had much better stats. Gage’s strengths are route running and separation, excellent traits to mesh with Brady, so he could have some huge games as a third banana when Godwin is available again and he’s going one-on-one with a No. 2 or slot CB. At full strength, there’s too much talent in Tampa for Gage to really stand out, but he will provide major value on this ADP while Godwin recovers, and he might be strong trade bait in the early to mid-season.

Rachaad White, RB (ADP: 130): White is a third round pick, which is not insignificant draft capital. He was a two-way threat at Arizona State, piling up more than 1,000 rushing yards and also 43 passes for 456 yards. As a rookie, he figures to spell Fournette occasionally on passing downs, but I wouldn’t expect a big impact from him outside of an injury to the big dog. His all-around skill set makes him very appealing in dynasty formats, but this ADP is high for a player who is strictly a handcuff in 2022, and isn’t even guaranteed that.

Cameron Brate, TE (ADP: 179): With Gronkowski gone, some will wait until late and snap up Brate in the hopes they’ve found a cheap TE1. They haven’t. Brate will score his TDs – he scored six or more for three straight seasons from 2016-2018 – but he’s proven that he cannot draw the necessary targets to be trusted on a weekly basis. Brate is a quality streaming option in the right matchups, but beyond that he’s not an exciting player at all.

Sleeper Class (200 & later)

Julio Jones, WR (ADP: 226): Jones’ ADP figures to shoot up significantly, but as of this writing, here’s where it is. The knee-jerk reaction to this signing is likely to be excitement. Jones is one of the best receivers of all time, and he’s joining a high-scoring unit with Tom Brady at the helm, who' definitely still has it. It also feels a lot like the Bucs bringing in Antonio Brown, who wasn’t necessarily consistent with the Bucs, but played extremely well and certainly had blowup games. Unfortunately for Jones, he’s in a different place in his career than Brown was. Brown was available because of his mental state and behavioral issues, not a steep decline in play. Brown was still very effective on the field, earning an 87.4 grade from PFF that would’ve ranked him sixth in the NFL if he’d met the snap minimum. Jones actually ranked 27th per PFF, but we’ve seen injuries get the best of him the last two seasons. He’s played in just nine and 10 games, respectively, the past two years and scored only four touchdowns in that span. Rather than let him get healthy and try again, the Titans let him walk, even though their WR corps is pretty bare and thin at the moment. Brady might be able to reenergize him, and I wouldn’t doubt that Jones could have blowup games. But he won’t be predictable, and there’s a non-zero chance he isn’t on the roster when Week 1 rolls around. Once Godwin is back, Jones is a third banana at best, and possibly fourth is Gage is balling. I’ve loved this player for years, but in 2022 I’m letting go. I’ll be thrilled if he proves me wrong.