TAMPA, Fla. -- They were once considered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Achilles heel and biggest obstacle to Tom Brady winning a seventh Super Bowl title.
The league’s youngest secondary surrendered a 69% completion percentage during the 2020 regular season -- fourth most in the league. But when the stakes were raised in the postseason, those defensive backs tightened up, giving up a 59.7% completion percentage in the playoffs.
“I don’t know what happened -- it just happened,” cornerback Jamel Dean said of the transformation. “I was just thinking to myself, ‘Maybe we just finally grew up.