Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Lovie Smith admits: 'We are not there yet'

Published Dec. 21, 2015 12:27 a.m. ET

foxsports

While the Week 15 loss to the St. Louis Rams was a disappointing one for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for obvious reasons, it doesn't mean the future isn't incredibly bright. Led by potential Rookie of the Year Jameis Winston, the Buccaneers have a strong group of young playmakers, and a team who showed a ton of improvement this season.

For head coach Lovie Smith though, he's not going to overlook the fact that his team just isn't quite there yet.

Via Dave Luecking of ESPN:

"The long-term message [to the team] is that we have come up short, but we are headed in the right direction," coach Lovie Smith said Thursday night after Tampa Bay lost 31-23 to the St. Louis Rams. "We are not there yet; that is the message.

"On the road to becoming a championship team, you have to keep building and again, we are not there yet. We will get there eventually."

As Smith said, the team will get there eventually, and it's safe to say that confidence is very high when looking towards the 2016 season and beyond. There's still plenty of room for improvement, but the steps forward this year have been great to see.