Top Playcaller
September 15th, 2016
Growing reputation.
Pat Kirwan has been around the NFL a long time. He studies the game as if he were still a linebackers coach.
Kirwan, a former Bucs scout who logged time as Jets linebackers coach and pro personnel director, currently makes his living working research for CBS Sports, and hosting on SiriusXM NFL Radio and manning his fantastic website, Real Football Network.
There Kirwan fielded questions — video style — on a variety of topics and one asked who is the best playcaller in the NFL.
Kirwan rattled off four names: Norv Turner, Mike McCarthy, Darrell Bevell and, believe it or not, Dirk Koetter.
“Dirk Koetter has gotten a reputation around the league as being a very good playcaller,” Kirwan said. “Playcalling has a lot to do with the players on the field. You have to have good guys out there.”
That’s a helluva point. Without the players, it doesn’t mean a damn thing what kind of play a coordinator or head coach calls. They will all get blown up and the coaches will look like fools.
September 15th, 2016 at 5:24 am
Koetter did not have great players at every position on his offense last year. He did not have great depth. He had a great scheme and he has a knack for getting the most out of the players he has. His offense set franchise records in his first year with the team. IMO, he will prove to be the best HC/OC the Bucs have ever had.
September 15th, 2016 at 5:40 am
1sparkybuc you’re right on. What impresses me so much about Coach Koetter isn’t just that he’s got a very creative mind, but more-so that he knows his players’ strengths (and their weaknesses) so well that he can get the most out of each player. I think that he’s the perfect coach for Jameis … two ‘football junkies’ feeding off each other. This ride’s only just begun.
September 15th, 2016 at 6:27 am
Works both ways. You can have the best players out there on the filed, but if an offemse is so vanilla and predicatable, the defense is going to have a field day
September 15th, 2016 at 6:43 am
It is nice to get excited again when you see the Bucs offense take the field. I haven’t felt this way since the Gruden era. Never could understand Lovie’s philosophy of not scoring to often??
The NFL is in the entertainment industry last time I checked?
September 15th, 2016 at 6:48 am
Koetter is also a finisher. I love this kind of coaching more than playing it safe kind of game we seen in the past. But I also understand how important is to give your defense a rest with a good running game to end the game.
Killer instinct plus a good game manager will bring us a nice finishing touch…..more wins Baby!
September 15th, 2016 at 6:49 am
Good players is good to have. Dangerous players that can do damage on any play is great. The BUCS have that at all levels. It’s such a relief to see them get ahead and stay ahead. There’s something happening in Tampa, and I love it.
September 15th, 2016 at 7:31 am
I think Koetter and Jameis are a perfect match.Koetter comes up with plays to make more players involved in the offense.have been pleasantly surprised by new wrinkles in Humphries game.an end around for Shephard last week are just a few examples.Jameis loves to get hard working players chances to score also.
September 15th, 2016 at 7:43 am
“Welome back” Koetter by far is the best signal caller we’ve ever had and yes will be the best head coach too. Not only does he coach to Pl ayers strengths but around their weaknesses.
Koetter still has to prove he’s a finisher by going all out til the finish. Going up 31-13 then having the game on the line at 31-24 is not finishing. The Bucs scored no points in the 4th because he turtled up. You’d almost think another head coach was calling the shots in the 4th. Maybe he simply had a flashback to last year. Had Fameis hit those 2 tds to Hump and Evans then it would be more understandable. We now have an offense that can allow the defense to pin it’s ears back and go get some so no reason to get conservative in any part of the game.
September 15th, 2016 at 7:48 am
Only chinc in his armor so far is that he took his foot off the gas for the whole 4th quarter on Sunday. In the NFL, if you take your foot off the gas and try to play clock management, you will win a few but your also going to have some heartbreaking losses (Redskins!). Doug Martin’s ypc in the preseason was not good, and it was not good on Sunday. Why try to play clock management when the running game has not been effective for 3 quarters? Hopefully it just looked like that and Koetter had to be conservative based on crowd noise and field position. Had we scored one more time before quiting on offense, there would not have been any crowd noise.
September 15th, 2016 at 7:51 am
BigHog, I see that Kirwan half agrees with you. You gotta have good players.
September 15th, 2016 at 7:54 am
Man just think how close Fameis came to setting a new Bucs td pass record in the 1st game of the season! He shoulda woulda coulda had 6 tds! So close but so far away! Game could have been a blow out
September 15th, 2016 at 7:56 am
Lovie drove me crazy, but he did leave one big positive: he brought in DK and Famous. Last year’s offense proved (to this long-time fan) that Tampa Bay will FINALLY get the 32K offense to match the great defenses that we’ve had. That’s a YUUUUGGGGGEEE positive in my book! 🙂 Go MIGHTY BUCS Sunday!!!
P.S.: Don’t forget the countdown clock, Joe. It might be our lucky charm out west.
September 15th, 2016 at 8:17 am
Agree with Dreambig…..Sunday Koetter had 3 three and outs in a row because he let up…..I think he learned his lesson.
He is a very good playcaller and has many many weapons…
And for those who say we didn’t we didn’t have great players on offense last year…..It’s the same offense this year…..now our players have no doubt improved because of a year’s experience.
September 15th, 2016 at 8:18 am
Koetter is absolutely a top 5 NFL play caller.
The claims that Dirk “turtled up” and/or “took his foot off the gas” in the 4th quarter vs the Falcons are based on what?? The fact that we didn’t score again once an 18 point lead was achieved?
Was Koetter “turtling” in the 1st quarter when we only scored 3 points? No – the offense was unable to convert 3rd downs – just like in the 4th quarter. The running attack was committed to for the whole game even though save for a handful of runs – it was not all that effective. And it was exactly that commitment to run and continue running that opened up the pass plays (for scores) in the 2nd and 3rd quarter. The Falcons were stacking the box and daring Jameis Winston to beat them with his arm. Which he did.
So unless you can show me a 3rd and 9 obvious pass play where a run was called instead to try and eat up some more clock, then the claims of “turtling” with a lead in the 4th quarter are mis-informed. There was simply a lack of execution by the offense and /or some good plays by the Falcons D that led to the failed 4th quarter comeback attempt by Atlanta.
September 15th, 2016 at 8:22 am
What I noticed from game 1 is that when the Bucs get past midfield they start bombing it into the end zone. Basically, the “red zone” for us is in the 50 not the 20 yard line. This is what makes our offense really dangerous. ASJ, Evans and VJax allows for this type of offense.
September 15th, 2016 at 8:48 am
Pickgrin – In the 4th quarter Jamies Winston attempted 2 passes, completed 1 for 5 yards. Yet we went 3 and out multiple times. But hey, don’t let the actual stats get in the way of the mis-informed.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:10 am
Fantastic assessment Lev. And Vicente you’re right something is happening in Tampa. Began the minute the organization collectively decided to go wit 3.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:12 am
Here’s some more for you pickgrin:
QTR/PassAttmp/Run
1/7/5
2/17/4
3/6/8
4/2/11
In the 4th quarter the bucs passed 66% less then the 3rd qtr and 89% less than the second quarter. Mean while in the 4th qtr they ran 130% more than the 3rd qtr and 275% more than the 2nd qtr. Hey, I don’t know what all that means, but it sure looks like a change in play calling philosophy.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:15 am
I stated all week we were gonna blow atl out. Main reason,we’re a overall more talented team. Could we have yea. Maybe in the back of coah K’s mind was that ower was once my employer so why attempt to embarrass the man in his own building.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:18 am
How could Jameis hit both TD’S to Evan and Hump if they were on the same drive guys? Think about that one lol u couldn’t of had 6 TD’s, if he would of hit Hump there wouldn’t of been another miss to Evans.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:18 am
You guys do realize that if you keep throwing the ball late, and don’t complete the pass, the clock stops, which helps the team that is behind, right? Mostly running the ball in the 4th quarter was absolutely the correct thing to do.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:24 am
Koetter doesn’t necessarily have some complicated system with wacky formations and Gruden lingo… He has excellent timing for his play calls. The end arounds, the bootlegs and the screen passes. All things every team runs, Koetter just seems to catch defenses at the right time.
September 15th, 2016 at 9:33 am
I thought they were on subsequent drives at least that’s what I read. My bad. Good to point that out DemBoyz.
DreamBug what you said in response to pickgrin.
All I know we owed Atlanta the favor for that blowout in ’14 matter of fact we owe all the teams in the south
September 15th, 2016 at 9:45 am
Tdtb brought up Chucky…and as the coach who won our only SB he will be the benchmark until we get another one.
I’ve never been impressed by Chucky’s pound the rock offense. In fairness Chucky would say…in fact I’ve heard him say he never found his franchise QB.
Yeah he never had a dominant Q.B. out of the Luck, Manning, or Brady molds but it is disrespectful to Rich Gannon and more importantly for me Brad Johnson.
Brad Johnson was not flashy, he’s not #3, but Brad Johnson was a freaking great QB with a football mind that made up for his lack in flashy physical skills.
I’ll take Koetter’s play calling over pound the rock Chucky any day.
September 15th, 2016 at 11:00 am
Ben the Ga Buc Says:
September 15th, 2016 at 9:18 am
You guys do realize that if you keep throwing the ball late, and don’t complete the pass, the clock stops, which helps the team that is behind, right? Mostly running the ball in the 4th quarter was absolutely the correct thing to do.
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Of course we know incompletions stop the clock. We also know that if your running game is not working well and you run three times in a row and punt, sereral series in a row, you are providing momentum to the other team, putting your defense in a bind and hoping they can survive the onslot that you helped create. I know its a Lovie kind of conservative 4th qtr philosophy but it seems that philosophy leaves you frequently with a broken heart wondering what happened. At the end of the day, Koetter gets paid the big bucks is to figure out how the manage the game and this week the conservative approach worked.
September 15th, 2016 at 11:04 am
SPBF, i think Gruden’s comments were in regards to a QB that you work with and win with for long stretch of time. For a variety of reasons, Gruden’s QB marriages never lasted more than 3 years. if you look back at the coaches who are widely regarded as the greatest out there, almost every one of them built that reputation on the back of a long-term QB-coach relationship (or two). 2 or 3 seasons is a nice run, but it’s not brees\payton, favre\holmgren…..perhaps winston\koetter?
September 15th, 2016 at 11:10 am
Dreambig when the other team scores and you don’t that’s worse than any stoppage of the clock on an incompletion. No matter what if you play a good offense like Atlantas then you have to score every time they do to keep a 2 score minimum. Don’t pound the rock for the sake of running the ball. All game long Fameis was hitting on the underneath stuff. Koetter coulda thrown those in along with a receiver screen or 2. High probability of completion and more yards than in a stacked box and you kee the clock moving. Throw in a reverse here and there. You can play it safe without getting conservative
September 15th, 2016 at 11:22 am
DavidBigBuc – agree 100%. Also if Winston is hot, why take things out of his hands?