TAMPA, Fla. — It’s the end of a season, but is it also the end of an era?

The Tampa Bay Bucs season ended abruptly with their Divisional Round loss to the Rams. No shot at defending their Super Bowl title. 

Game over.

“When you have a team of this magnitude with the leaders we have, it's Super Bowl or nothing,” Linebacker Devin White said.

It will be an offseason of what ifs, what could have beens, surgeries to repair the numerous injuries this team dealt with, roster changes and possibly coaching staff changes. 

“See how many that we can get back and then build a team from there,” Head Coach Bruce Arians said.

It’s hard to say goodbye to a season when it ends so abruptly and the team is so close. How special was this team?

“This locker room was special,” Center Ryan Jensen said. “Locker rooms like this don’t come around very often.”

“This is probably the tightest locker room I’ve seen,” added Arians.

But what will next season’s locker room look like? The Bucs returned all 22 starters from last year’s Super Bowl winning team, but that won’t be possible this time. 

There are 26 free agents, including Jensen, Chris Godwin and Ndamukong Suh. Some tough decisions will have to be made.

“Last year, to get everybody back was amazing,” Arians said. “I doubt we can do it all again this year, but we're sure going to give it our best.”

Of all the questions about next year’s team, the biggest one looms over the GOAT. All eyes are on Tom Brady and whether he will return for his third season with the Bucs.

Brady’s done more than help the Bucs win games. He changed an entire organization’s way of thinking. No longer mired in losing seasons and missed postseasons, the Bucs are winners.

“The culture change over the last two or three years has been an amazing thing to be a part of,” Jensen said.

The Tampa Bay Bucs are relevant once again in the NFL, but can they keep it that way?