Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson says one of his old teammates with the Rams would make a good choice for Bucs head coach

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company,America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Who would’ve thunk it better to be a Duck than a Buc? Chip Kelly did and now it is on to No. 2 in the search for Tampa Bay’s next head coach.

 Word out that former Packers Coach Mike Sherman was getting another look couldn’t be less inspiring. Brett Favre made those Packers interesting, not Sherman, and neither made them championship-caliber.

Where should the Bucs go for their next leader? Just because Raheem Morris’ loose management style didn’t pan out, doesn’t mean that the successor has to have previous NFL head coaching experience. At some point, every veteran head coach didn’t have any and with the current state of the Buccaneers franchise, it would be OK to grow with an experienced assistant coach that has shown the discipline to whip a group into shape and instill confidence like Jim Harbaugh did with the 49ers.

Those Niners, who easily could have been preparing for the Super Bowl right now, were not a significantly different roster than they were a year ago. They got discipline, executable plans and confidence.

Based on this model, the best guy to move this franchise forward is Jerry Gray.

Former players are not a guarantee of success or Mike Singletary would still be the coach in San Francisco. But I think Gray’s Pro Bowl experience, personality and mentality are a good mix for what this team needs. He doesn’t take himself too seriously, but does take his job responsibilities seriously.

I don’t know who he would bring in to run his offense and that is just as important as the head coach.

This town needs something exciting on the field to get excited, something to become the talk of this town once again. All of the names on the short or long list that have been bantered about don’t do anything for me and I doubt for anybody else.

Jerry Gray is far removed from his playing days, so he isn’t a big name anymore and won’t make people go crazy over his hiring, but he would be a good hire for just a time like this.