Now It’s Up To Raheem The Dream
May 1st, 2010
"Hey you, yeah, I'm talking to YOU Wash! If you dont coach up GMC and Price right, I know some guys back in Jersey. You get my drift, right?"
Though thoughtful football fans won’t know for sure for about four years if Mark Dominik hit the motherload in last week’s draft, by all accounts Dominik and his staff did a nice job of giving Raheem the Dream and his staff some cool toys to play with.
The job is now Raheem the Dream’s to make sure those toys are assembled properly. Blogging earlier in the week, Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune, noted that Raheem the Dream’s job is clearly on the line if the newly drafted players do not develop.
Sure, we will not know how good these players are for two or three years, but nobody can say Dominik and Hickey did not make every effort to improve their team through this year’s draft. Their job is to identify talent and bring in players who can make the Bucs better, which they did.
Coaching staffs are paid to utilize those player’s talents, put them in positions to succeed, and teach them how to excel on the football field.
This weekend is when Raheem the Dream begins to assemble those toys. If, by the end of the 2011 season (provided there is a 2011 season), the Bucs are still mired in another losing season, and the studs drafted last week haven’t shown much improvement, it’s difficult for Joe to believe that Dominik or Team Glazer won’t make wholesale changes to the coaching staff.
May 1st, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Joe, what is your take on whether there will be a 2011 season. From the outside it seems to me that a stoppage is unlikely because the players have very little leverage?
May 1st, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Agree with this 100 % time to see if Morris learned on the Job last year. I think he did but a favorable scheulde at best we should win 7 games maybe more if this draft class is a good as we hope
May 1st, 2010 at 7:38 pm
JimBuc:
Joe is pretty convinced there will be a work stoppage of some sort. It pains Joe to write that and he hopes he is terribly wrong.
May 1st, 2010 at 7:50 pm
JOE,
Can you read my post under “Raheem the Dream talks about Leadership?” It’s a long one about Earnest Graham explaining how we should use him more.
Please comment on everything I said in the post. I would appreciate it.
May 1st, 2010 at 8:21 pm
This could be the last season of the NFL as we know it…..not to be over dramatic about it, but there is little doubt in my mind that the next CBA will include an 18 game schedule….other changes on the horizon could include no more salary cap ever, no more revenue sharing (which would pretty much destroy the league IMO), rookie wage scale (and possibly no more draft with the college rookies treated like UFA’s)………..
I can’t really say whether or not I believe there will be a work stoppage….on the one hand both sides seem pretty far apart, and other than an 11th hour speech by Tagliabue last time around where he convinced the owners to take a pretty bad deal from a business standpoint, we would have seen a lockout several years ago….
On the other hand, in this economy can either side afford to go without a season? Sure, the big time players with the multi million dollar contracts can slog on through, but more NFL’ers than you think are living pay check to pay check…..the average length of an NFL career is right around 3 years, and would you be willing to give up 1/3rd of your career in order to take a principled stand?
Same goes for the owners…..now, rumor has it these guys have been building their warchests for some time now and I’ve made the assertion on this site several times that in my opinion the Glazers plan has been to limp through these final two seasons (’09 & 10) until the CBA gets negotiated. From a bidness standpoint it makes sense….why make a serious investment when you don’t know what the ground rules are going to be moving forward? From a fans standpoint it blows……
Either way, this CBA issue isn’t going away anytime soon…….most fans have their heads in the sand, but make no mistake the 2011 season is very much in jeopardy
May 1st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
How come you want to give the Dummynick four years in which to judge his success in the draft, but you are always hounding Sabby about being a “goat” after three years. Perhaps you would like to explain yourself, Joe.
May 1st, 2010 at 10:06 pm
As for Raheem the Dream. Good luck with that this year! I still ask the age old question, how do you get better at something you never knew how to do to begin with? As for Sabby the Goat, how many years did it take Lynch to be the all pro player he became? 2-3? I can remember when he wasn’t very good either, Joe. Same for Rhonde Barber. His 1st couple of years were a nightmare. Raheem was an amatuer, is an amatuer, and will be an amatuer again next year, because he was never tutored or taught the basics of being a head coach. Just because the 3 scrooge Glazers named him head coach doesn’t make him one. If you call a cat a dog, does that make the cat a dog? Nope! Same with Raheem!
May 1st, 2010 at 10:26 pm
Joe here,
tampa2 – Lynch was a Pro Bowler in his fifth season at 26 years old. Sabby The Goat turns 27 in August and he can’t tackle.
May 1st, 2010 at 11:25 pm
drdneast:
If you want to make the case that Sabby the Goat is a productive NFL player, be Joe’s guest.
To judge whether a draft is good/bad, four years is ample time.
May 2nd, 2010 at 12:19 am
I can’t comprehend Raheem staying on if they fail to win more than 6 games.
After all, these fired Wyche after 7-9, and Dungy after a playoff year, and Gruden after 9-7.
I know we are in rebuilding mode, but the schedule is very favorable and the expectations about the immediate impact of the rookies has already been laid.
May 2nd, 2010 at 2:52 am
You guys are driving me nutz!
1. Rookies rarely start in the NFL
2. Rookies that do start in the NFL seldom have an immediate impact their rookie season
3. Rookies that DO have an immediate impact often have a second year, sophomore slump. (this is due to tape)
May 2nd, 2010 at 7:22 am
“Now it’s up to Raheem the Dream”. Good luck with that!
May 2nd, 2010 at 10:24 am
@Mr. Lucky
Correct on all points.
However, these truths(except number 3) will also be the excuses utilized to argue “more time is needed” after the upcoming disastrous season.
Dom has already played the “we knew we would struggle” card last year, and it will be at the ready after this season also.
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:23 am
@Eric
Have you noticed, when it comes to Morris, that it was Glazers Fault, (Which I do agree somewhat), it was Bates fault, Jagz fault, the players fault, and the fans fault. But none of the bad last year was Raheems fault. And he was supposedly the head coach! The man in charge! The supreme decision maker! The defensive genius! The ultimate coach! The players love him! I guess so. Talib has never been repremanded. And, just today, the only player Raheem mentions to be brought back for a second look is Parker, who FSU threw off the team after his 3rd arrest. I wonder what lord Dungy will say to Raheem about that one. lol