Raheem Morris’ Rapid Fall From Grace
December 12th, 2011
A lot can change in just a few months in the NFL and embattled Bucs coach Raheem Morris is Exhibit-A.
Just a few months ago he was the darling of the NFL, a rising star. Affable, easy-going, likable and quotable, everyone seemed to like Raheem (except the sect of Bucs fans that wanted him gone the instant he was anointed as Bucs coach).
Well, now, Morris’ job hangs in the balance as the team is in an outright free-fall, and it’s not just the losing that is revolting Bucs fans, but how they are losing: penalties, turnovers, and a rush defense that can’t stop a cool breeze. It doesn’t help that the last-place Bucs have been steamrolled by lesser opponents both at home and to teams that are working on short weeks.
The numbers opponents are putting up are gaudy.
It is these factors that have pushed Morris to the brink of losing his job, so writes Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com.
Morris watch: More than ever, coach Raheem Morris is on the hot seat. It’s kind of amazing how quickly his stock has fallen and how badly this season has spun out of control. At the end of last season, when the Bucs finished 10-6, Morris was considered one of the league’s rising stars. Now, his future with the Bucs appears to be very much in doubt. The team is losing and not selling tickets. Morris is in a unique situation. The Bucs picked up options on his contract for this season and 2012. I seriously doubt the fan base would be very excited if Morris gets a contract extension. Another option would be to let him go into next season as a lame duck and that never works. Just ask the Panthers how things went when John Fox was a lame duck in 2010. The other option, perhaps the most likely now, is pulling the play on Morris.
It would be one thing if the Bucs were losing several games in a row in close games where the team has played well, not getting seal-clubbed by garbage teams.
It is that result, more than anything, that may have Morris updating his resume.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:07 am
“Familiarity breeds contempt”
buddy buddy with players don’t work.sooner or later they stop listening.the players had no dicsipline and now they have stop listening…Time for Raheem to go .
December 12th, 2011 at 9:13 am
He has loss his team . How do you allow tenard Jackson who got suspended when the bucs were 2-0. Come back and have his spot and just ignore his selfish act . You give him a contract extension. This shows no responsiblity from the gm and head coach . And they wonder why the team has no discpline
December 12th, 2011 at 9:15 am
He hasn’t been fired yet? They’ve had 14 hours, you ‘d think they would have done it by now. They are losing their fan base by the second and yet they do nothing. Are the Glazers trying to move from Tampa, is that the plan, to fail so miserably that your fan base disappears completely so they can move the team to LA and no one in Tampa will complain.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:20 am
Like you say, the losing is bad enough. But how we’re losing is embarrassing. We’re getting destroyed by garbage teams now.
41 points? To the Jags? Forty freaking one points? TO THE JAGS?!?!
December 12th, 2011 at 9:26 am
As a person, I like Raheem. How can you not like the Man ?
But that was the lowly Jaguars, coming off a loss in a short week, that put up 40 some points unanswered on us.
One wonders why he don’t just resign, tell his story, and maybe save his career in the NFL ? Remember, Raheem only coached what Mark Dominick gave him to coach.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:27 am
Must not have simplified things enough.
Perhaps Rah can start with the alphabet, then maybe a vowel and finish off with a consonant.
Then a few phrases:
Fumbling is bad
Penalties are bad
Scoring is gooooooood
Scoring more points than other team – Gold Star!
December 12th, 2011 at 9:32 am
Gruden and Dungy were fired for less, a lot less. How the bar has lowered. This is sad, really sad.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:35 am
I know one thing the Glazers need to respond and tell the fans where they stand and what their going to do. The way were losing is more embarrassing than the Colts, a team that hasn’t won a game. How in the hell did we get this bad this fast? I guess someone with experience (something this team doesn’t have from the GM to the players) could have seen this coming. The defenders of the plan of building through the draft (Only!!), look like a bunch of idiots. I also want to hear from Dominic. He’s as much responsible and needs to be accountable. This thing can’t go another week without a response. If that happens the Buc fans need to just stay at their tailgate party’s this week and not go into the stadium. Let the Dallas fans have it maybe then we would get a response and some action.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Face it, the Bucs promoted Morris to the highest level of his incompetence, he is lost, he has no clue which way to turn or what to do to stop the hemorrhaging. This has turned into a whirlpool of sh–, with no end in sight. Have you ever watched a feeding frenzy, where the attacking animals just can’t stop the bloodbath, well, we are in a losing frenzy where Morris just can’t stop the losing. It’s pretty obvious to any outsider that this team stopped listening weeks ago. Free fall is putting it nicely, this is an epic collapse, worse even than the Great Collapse of ’08. This is looking more and more like a 10 game losing streak to end the season, as they don’t have a pray of winning again if they continue to play they way they are playing. If it worked they would look like geniuses, well it didn’t and now it’s time to call a spade a spade and admit to the world that it was a bad hire and move on, first with an interim, and I don’t care who they pick, let Olson do it, it’s only 3 games and we’re going to lose them anyway and Olson will be gone come Jan 1 as well. But they have to do something and quickly or they wil be looking at an empty stadium for long time to come.
December 12th, 2011 at 9:56 am
The fans can make a statement by not going to the game on Saturday. The few Bucs fans that do go can wear paper bags on our heads. That would look real good on national TV. I have been brain storming signs that I can bring to the game.
1. Glazer’s hold Buc fans hostage
2. All I want for Christmas is new ownership, coach, players with heart…..
3. Buc n A we suck again!
4. It is 1987 all over again, Why ask why, just drink! (my favorite)
December 12th, 2011 at 10:06 am
This Bucs team lead by “Rah” is one of the worst teams in franchise history. This is a fact that can not be denied. If he is not fired there will be absolutely nobody, including season ticket holders at Bucs games next year. This guy and the staff he has assembled is a joke. A bad joke. If the Glazers give a damn about us, the fans they will open their wallets and hire a proven professional head coach and staff. But I’m not holding my breath. And if Dominic has the okay from the Glazers to spend money but chooses not to. He needs to go as well. Chances are if the Bucs do get a proven HC. He will want a new GM. The Glazers fired Rich McKay,Dungy,Gruden who were all proven winners for far less than this regime.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:18 am
@ NashVegas
Make a statement? The statement will already be clear with the overwhelming sea of blue & white jerseys in RJS.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:28 am
This game sealed Raheems fate. 4-12 is what we are going to finish!!! Last year was a fluke!!! Throw that season out and Raheem wins 7 games in two years.
PATHETIC!!!
If the Glazers retain Raheem, I will NOT renew my season tickets!!!
December 12th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Joe, Did you see my last post? If you did, can you if time permits send me an email and suggest how I could edit it. It is genuinely what I believe!
December 12th, 2011 at 10:44 am
@Sooner in Tampa.
I already made that decision. Six year season ticket holder, and I will not renew if this leadership is still around. I know for a fact the Glazers have sent their goons to people who didnt renew last year threatening lawsuits, bad credit scores, etc. But the contract I signed in 2005 was a two way street. I bought tickets to see the Buccaneers, those arent the Buccaneers. Its slop. They are imposters. Tampa Bay cannot be forced to put up with this. I am not a fair weather fan, but I absolutely refuse to go to another game until coaches (Morris, Yarbey) are held accountable and replaced with professionals who know NFL level football.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:44 am
The Glazers will love a stadium filled up with a sea of blue and white. That just means more money, more money, more money! The statement will be, they got paid. Since there are Cowboy fans everywhere, this game is their cash cow.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:52 am
It’s 9:50 on Monday Ed and Brian and Joel. What are you waiting for??
Trash. Disgusting.
Just for shiggles: how quickly will the new food vendor at RJS run out of food this week?
Guys and Girls – THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT US! NOT ONE BIT. NOT ON ANY LEVEL.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:52 am
I watched the Atlanta game and their rookie wideout Jones saved their season with a couple of spectacular plays.
Smith took over a 1-15 team in shambles, and with smart drafting and key FA signees they are in playoffs every year. No five year rebuilding plan.
They outdraft the bucs with fewer and lower picks.
So do the Saints. Both those org have excellent head coaches. And owners not afraid to spend a little money.
And, the Panthers have passed us.
Dom’s “plan” has failed. As a matter of fact it is a disaster.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:54 am
macabee:
Just post a comment you want and I will delete the previous comment.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:55 am
It’s not the losing that bothers me, it’s how we are losing. In the NFL, if you aren’t getting better…..then you are getting worse. Harbaugh in San Fran is the steel spike in Raheem’s chainmail of excuses. A bad team with no direction last year and with Alex Smith at the helm is renewed and charging into the playoffs. Yet in 3 years, same coach, same QB, same screwed up off season, same draft and free agency period, we have taken our place as the leagues punching bag .
HC Fisher/ DC Del Rio / OC Chip Kelly…..yeah then I’ll renew my tickets.
December 12th, 2011 at 10:59 am
Maybe Captain Stagger should be the GM!
December 12th, 2011 at 10:59 am
Damn good line up Mr. Stagger.
How about adding a good GM and clean house of the Dom’s Hickman’s and all the rest of the dead wood losers over at One Buc Place.
December 12th, 2011 at 11:04 am
Hickey, not Hickman………
December 12th, 2011 at 11:11 am
I would like to blame the drafting, but I cannot. Price will be a big time player over the years as well as McCoy. This years top 3 will be looked on as great over time. As a 4th rd pick, williams was great. I think Stocker will be OK and Grimm was a very good late round pick. Benn and Lewis will need to do a lot more before they could not be considered a flop. So all n’ all I give them a solid B for the 2 drafts.
The Issue is the coaching and the development of the players and I give them a D minus. The entire coaching staff needs to go and if it becomes necessary to accommodate a top line coach with upper level administration of their choosing, so be it.
December 12th, 2011 at 11:17 am
passthebuc:
Don’t bank on Grimm making the team next year.
Not saying he won’t, but Grimm suffered season-ending injuries in his first two years to each leg. He wasn’t that fast to begin with and those injuries take their toll. People rag on GMC and Myron Lewis for not being able to stay on the field so to be fair you’d have to include Grimm in that group.
The future is not promising for Grimm. If he returns, he won’t be starting.
December 12th, 2011 at 11:20 am
OK, I agree, Morris will be fired and all will be right again in Buccaneer kingdom. Wrong! For those of us who think that just getting a new HC and or new supporting cast is going to finally change our fortunes are being played like a finely tuned Stradivarius.
You think Morris is a mistake? Morris is the Plan! The Glazers are billionaires and plan to stay that way! They didn’t wake up one morning and on an impulse put this “rolling ball of butcher knives “ into effect. This was a well thought out plan and Mark Dominik is Keeper of the Flame.
Morris is going to be fired because he has served his purpose. Failure was never the issue – it was assumed. And no, we are not going to get a Cowher or a Fisher, we’re going to get another Morris clone that will make us feel better about losing all over again because that’s the Plan. Gruden wasn’t fired because he was incompetent. He was as accomplished as Cowher, more accomplished than Fisher and smarter than both. He was fired because he was expensive and had expensive tastes for FAs and had too much control over the football operations budget thru his front man, Bruce Allen.
This had to change and change it did when Morris came along at the exorbitant rate of 900K. The other NFL owners who spend to win were aware of owners who used their teams as cash cows and used the 2013 CBA rule for minimum floor limits to curb that behavior and ensure a half-way decent product made it to the field.
Some of us will feel that firing Morris is a premature event, while others of us will dance in the street and hold hands with Thomas 2.2 as they skip down to the nearest ticket window and souvenier shop with wallets open to support the Plan all over again. One day we will wake up and look back and realize that Morris was just one part of the Plan, we’re the other part!
December 12th, 2011 at 11:37 am
Exactly why they need to drain the swamp Macabee.
Look at the front office, anybody involved in player personnel – GONE.
Coaching staff, including the guy with the new defensive line stance – GONE.
Neidemeyer – GONE
Dean Wormer – DEAD
What the hell happened to the Tampa Bay Bucs fans I used to know………….what are we scared? Just what in the hell do we have to lose?
December 12th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
@eric: The other teams in the NFC Sourth have definitely been out-coaching us.
But don’t say that we haven’t added enough talent in the last three years. This is NOT Dom’s fault. I’d guess 90% of the teams in this league would take our draft haul from the past three years.
December 12th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
We have not added enough talent in the last three years.
All teams engage in the NFL draft. They all think they have some good young players. Talent abounds in the NFL – the best of the best.
The true measure of a GM is the performance of those players and the team.
Merely having a bunch of young draftees means squat.
I cant believe folks are gonna continue to swallow the “plan” when it has so miserably failed. And Dom is the head planmaster.
Needs to go.
December 12th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
A lot of you don’t realize that Dominick is just as responsible for this season as Raheem is. He’s the one that provided us with the crappy roster we have now.
Let’s take a look at his drafts:
McCoy and Price: haven’t done crap for us except get injured all the time. Our rush defense is still at the bottom of the league. Yeah we’ve seen flashes of talent from them, but really…….where are we right now? How can we be confident in them going into next year.
Our coaching staff hardly even uses Benn. Even when they do, he’s still not much of a factor.
Mike Williams: best pick from him so far.
Miller: bust. Moore: sackless bust. Lewis:bust
Freeman: looks horrible now
Grimm: good. that is…for a 7th rounder
His first 2 drafts so far have sucked. Clayborn has looked great and Foster and Bowers have given me some hope.
But overall, I think his drafting is grossly overrated. Not that great.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
@ Patrick:
Throw in Dom’s best FA signing is our punter! But the man can find starters for the bucs off other practice squads! I also agree about Freeman, he’s being given too much credit, this guy doesn’t look anywhere near a franchise QB, so how many more seasons do we have to go through before the bucs admit Freeman is as big a bust as hiring Rah? Rah said they are tied at the hip, and I’d say they are both performing pretty sh$%^y right now.
December 12th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
Oh, and Connor Barth, but that was after the failure of paying Mike Nugent a million or so!
December 12th, 2011 at 1:17 pm
It’s like a bad dream….. no like ground hog day lol!!!! RA-Heem and Dom not the answer for sure and I’m afraid that with Malcom G in his condition the boys are running wild with power and have absolutely NO CLUE as to what their doing. The apple usually falls far from the tree with a silver spoon stuck in it…. You would figure at least one of them got their daddy’s smarts hmmm maybe not. I said it from day one when RA-Heem was announced HC we’re in “BIG TROUBLE AGAIN” sigh sigh sigh sigh….
December 12th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
These team has become shameful. I love my Bucs and if they had had a different ring leader this season, I have little doubt they would be doing much better. Raheem is at fault for letting this team stay immature and making mistakes. Get rid of him and bring in a real coach, please.