Doubling Win Total A “Major Step Up” In 2010
June 25th, 2010
It seems eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune thinks the Bucs will continue to struggle this season.
Just yesterday Joe wrote how he thought if Raheem the Dream could squeeze six wins out of the Bucs, thus doubling his win total from last year, he would almost assuredly be brought back for the next season, whether that is in 2011 or 2012.
But eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune appears to be a bit more cautious in his expectations for the Bucs this fall. Responding to a query in the TBO Bucs question-and-answer feature, Kaufman is of the belief six wins would be a significant feat.
Q: Will the Bucs win 6 games in 2010-2011?
RJ Kerker, Brandon
A: Six wins would be a major step up for the Bucs, setting the stage for a competitive team in 2011 (if there’s football). Five or six wins appears reasonable at this stage, assuming Donald Penn returns to play LT.
— eye-RAH! Kaufman
Notice how Kaufman is qualifying his answer with the Donald Penn issue? Seems as though Kaufman isn’t buying what the Bucs are selling on Demar Dotson, who likely will fill Penn’s void if he sits out any games.
June 25th, 2010 at 8:28 am
6 or 7 wins is possiable Freeman bottom line was better than stafford and stafford had a man beast in Calvin Johnson. But if we win 5 I could see that too. I loved the draft but still ? why we did not get a DE or a LT. Kyle Moore has shown me nothing but him chasing down plays and optimism from OTA’s. And I think Penn will show up but what if he does not regadless it is obvious that the BUCS dont want him long term.
June 25th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Lets not forget the rate of injury for a player that sits out training camp. If Penn is not in playing shape on opening day, then tears a muscle first game, it will be over for the bucs.
June 25th, 2010 at 9:11 am
Demar Dotson just said last week that he was not ready to be a starting LT. Why would anyone buy the idea he is currently a suitable replacement?
Six wins is the minimum amount of wins acceptable imo. Nine wins would be a very good season for us, 6 would be disappointing but acceptable as progress. Anything less than six wins and Raheem is done.
June 25th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Listen, I think Raheem is the best coach since Vince Lombardi, And I think Demar Dotson is the second coming of Anthony Munoz, he’s a sure fire hall of famer! The Bucs should At LEAST make it to the NFC championship game this year! And a record of less than 13-3 is going to be a major disappointment.
Ana
June 25th, 2010 at 9:20 am
Nah, not really. I’m just bored, looking for a good arguement! ( probably got JimBuc excited though!!).
We might win 6 or 7, if nobody gets injured( lol). Where’s lighningbuc when I need him?
June 25th, 2010 at 9:53 am
“Six wins would be a major step up for the Bucs…”
WOW, how far the Bucs have fallen! Only 2 years ago was 9 wins not good enough. Now, only takes 6 wins is a “major step” and most expect less wins than that. Since when is a losing season acceptable???!!!
I know this is going to piss off all the apologists, but the last two Bucs coaches (Dungy & Gruden) NEVER had consecutive losing seasons.
June 25th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Ok, Louie, I pick you
True, but did you see the roster this coach inherited? No Qb, no WRs, no DT , no depth anywhere. Jeez, it’s like being an expansion team! You can’t draft that horribly for 6 years, and not have a rebuilding phase. Plus,the few young players we did draft, didn’t get proper coaching or playing time, so they weren’t ready to to play. If you watch the long term , successful teams, their roster is constantly supplanting anging vets with young players.the Eagles are a good example. Every year they replace popular players with young guys, that way the team STAYS competitive.we didn’t do that, so now, we gotta pay the price. We may have some young talent starting to emerge, but our depth is so bad,a few injuries will kill us. Sucks, but that’s where we are.
June 25th, 2010 at 10:50 am
@Louie
We’ll get 6 wins only if 7 teams miss their plane coming down here. As far as your question “when is a losing season acceptable?”, the answer would be “now that we have the 2nd coming of the great God “Rah” anything is acceptable”. Just ask Dominik or JimBuc!
Dungy & Gruden never having consecutive losing seasons pale in comparison to the Great God “Rah”, and cannot even be compared to Rah’s vast knowledge of the Head Coaching Position. After all, what other coach in history ever made the bold statement; “we are going to be a Violent team” right before the slaughter of his lambs?
June 25th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Why doesn’t Fulton’s name come up as a replacement for Penn? Could it be that the ’09 draft class wasn’t all that great?
June 25th, 2010 at 11:33 am
Here is one of the biggest reasons that Dungy and later Gruden did not have back to back losing seasons. Check out that talent that was on the roster for Dungy’s last year and then Gruden’s first year.
Donnie Abraham, Ronde Barber, John Lynch, Brian Kelly, Dexter Jackson, Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, Shelton Quarles, Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn, Keyshawn Johnson, Karl (the truth) Williams, Randell McDanial, Jeff Christy, Cosey Coleman, Frank Middleton, Mark Royals etc..etc…
There have to be at least 10 Pro Bowlers on this list and I’m not sure I’ve got everyone from that time frame. These players were the backbone of the entire organization for years. A few actually played their entire careers here in Tampa. My whole arguement is the fact that the Bucs have had to start from scratch. Whoever or whatever the reason for all this is a combination of things. The simple fact is we need the horses to get back in the race.
June 25th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Could it be that they found a “gem” in Dotson and he’s overshadowing Fulton? Doesn’t mean Fulton isn’t doing well, just means Dotson is showing more promise at this point.
As for the references to Dungy and Gruden in comparison with Morris… I think many have forgotten the debacle in the Dungy era of hiring (and eventually firing) of Mike Shula as O-Coordinator (he should have been fired before the first regular season game of his first season with the team, he was THAT bad). And Gruden didn’t have to fire coordinators as he had Kiffen from the Dungy era and himself as offensive guru, and yet he still had two of his seven seasons that were disastrous (especially for having the supposed best offensive and defensive minds in football on the same team) in 04 (5-11) and in 06 (4-12). I understand 3-13 sucks with a rookie coach and major coaching changes during the season, but to have an established staff and go 5-11 in your 3rd season and 4-12 in your 5th season is horrible.
June 25th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Hard to re-build through the draft, when you didn’t have 2 first round and 2 second round draft picks. That’s four high pick draft players never seen in Buc’s uniforms. As for the rest of the picks, I have said and will say again, our college scouting has essentially been the same for 14 years, since Dungy came. Hope last years and this years picks turn out to be better than in the past, but I’m not going to Vegas anytime soon.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
The kool-aid is flowing today! Man, you guys are going to have to take number to jump off the Skyway when it all falls apart this season.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Wow, some serious hating going on today. It ain’t that bad, really. Sheez.
The Bucs coaches obviously see something in Dotson, but more likely they are again talking Dotson up to get in Penn’s head that they can live without him. Dotson played pretty well when he was in last year. I would prefer to see Dotson as a TE, but they obviously see some good work from him on the line. Penn, when he took over for Pettigout, was much the same as Dotson is now, a little more experienced maybe, but sometimes experience brings bad habits and a greenhorn may tend to learn faster because he isn’t carrying around previous teachings or habits that may be counter productive. Dotson may surprise us and be better than Penn. If that happens, what then? Will the Haters still hate? If they win 10 games, will the haters still hate? Playoffs? Of course they will still hate because the problem lies in their own insecurity and really has nothing to do with the team or who their coach is.
Raheem has grown a lot since he took over. I think you’ll see a new more hardened, battle tested coach, that will think more before he acts, and a defense that plays at 200 mph in his image and likeness. I look for many teams to underestimate the Bucs, and may teams to get busted in the mouth.
Many men sought them, many men tried, many men found them, and many men died.
Bring it On MF’rs!!! Go Bucs!!!
OAR is totally right about the draft and picks given up for Gruden. Gru/Allen did make some good picks too. I’d say they were on par with most teams in the league as far as good vs bad.
June 25th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
The slaughter of his lambs, lmfao.
I knew I’d read something funny here today, if I kept checking!
June 25th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
“…Five or six wins appears reasonable at this stage”
I like how Ira gave himself an extra loss by revising it to 5 or 6 and not just 6.
He should be like me and just accpect the fact that there are zero expectations for this team.
Raheem Morris should be around another 5 seasons regardless of what happens. It appears Ira will make sure of that with his pre-meditated excuses. 😉
June 25th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
BamBam said: “…And Gruden didn’t have to fire coordinators as he had Kiffen from the Dungy era and himself as offensive guru, and yet he still had two of his seven seasons that were disastrous…”
1) Gruden didn’t have to fire coordinators (Sounds like a positive thing to me)
2) you say he had 2 of 7 bad seasons… doesn’t that equate to 5 of 7 good seasons, a Super Bowl Win, an NFC Championship win, 3 division titles and several play off appearances? While also having more wins than any other coach in Tampa’s history?
I’ll take 5 of 7 good seasons, a Super Bowl Win, an NFC Championship win, 3 division titles and several play off appearances…. EVERY TIME!
June 25th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
@RahDom
You think going 4-12 or 5-11 with some of the best coaches in the league is a good thing? Sounds to me like they’re either overrated or they failed miserably.
As for 2 of 7 bad seasons and 5 good ones. I don’t think the 7-9 year after the Super Bowl was exactly good. I don’t think the 9-7 Division title says much more than the whole NFC South SUCKED that year and the Bucs would have been lucky to eek out the #6 seed wild card spot if any other South team were worth anything that year. 9-7 division titles don’t impress, as evidenced by the same record the next year resulting in not making the playoffs at all.
Great, 3 mediocre years (7-9, 9-7, 9-7) one of which led to a division title by default. 2 horrible years with a great staff? And 2 good years (Super Bowl and 11-5 with first round playoff loss). Isn’t mediocrity wonderful? You never get a top draft prospect, and you rarely make it past the first round of the playoffs. I’d be more excited by a perennial powerhouse team or a team that gets torn down and rebuilt. I’m excited to see this team rebuild. They needed it. Now we have something to look forward to, and watching them grow in to a good team will be fun to watch.
June 25th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
What a shock, another local media hack beats the drums for the Glazers.
June 26th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Capt. Tim — enough with the man crush. Kinda freakin me out.
Kidding aside, not sure how you can, on the one hand, criticize me for responding posts, while on the other hand, keep calling out my name? Strange.