Power Likely A Motivator For Lovie
January 2nd, 2014
Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly signed NFL head coaching contracts out of the college ranks for about $7 million per season.
Jeff Fisher also signed for $7 million a year back in 2010.
So why are reports claiming Lovie Smith is finalizing a head-coaching deal worth about $5 million per season with the Buccaneers?
That level of pay is somewhat surprising given all the reports that the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins wanted to interview Smith, especially Smith has a relationship with Lions general manager Martin Mayhew and Danny Snyder throws around wads of cash in D.C.
Sure, Smith might love Tampa (he was Tony Dungy’s linebackers coach here for five seasons), the beach and red uniforms, but Joe thinks it’s more likely Smith rushed to make a deal with Team Glazer because of the power he’ll be afforded to build his team his way.
Joe already hears fans chattering about how the Bucs won’t do this or do that with Darrelle Revis, or won’t do this or do that on offense, etc. Make no mistake. Smith will get everything he wants this offseason. The man is in charge.
Speaking this morning on WDAE-AM 620, Tony Dungy, Smith’s good friend, talked about how he’s heard Team Glazer is still seeking a general manager and implied it will be a guy tailored to work with Smith. That’s a great indicator how much power Smith will carry.
The Bucs situation seems like a dream for Smith. He’s top dog with big-time defensive pieces in place, massive salary cap room and a blessing to build it his way. As Dungy said as well, the defense, regardless of the coordinator, will be Smith’s and the Bucs will be a defensive team.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:23 am
It is a dream job for coach smith, surprised the owners have up over 5mil a year. He would have come for four to tampa, but it isn’t my money.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:27 am
So does this not mean the GM candidates will be a bit more reluctant to come here?? Does this also mean we could have a Lovie and Jay Cutler reunion?
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:28 am
“So does this not mean the GM candidates will be a bit more reluctant to come here?? ”
Not at all. Competent GMs love having a staff hired ahead of them.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:30 am
why cant you use the back button to go back
You can.–Joe
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:30 am
Lovie probably thinks he can win with this team and a couple of new pieces.
Don’t forget the absense of a state sales tax…
I believe that this team is together and the bad apples have been purged…
He definately will have the power….but I like the word autonomy better.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:31 am
In the GM buzz does the name Butch Davis get whispered anywhere? Let’s hope only in the Greyhound bus terminal restrooms.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:32 am
1st you get the money,
Then you get the power,
Then you get the women!
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:36 am
Exactly Joe which is why I don’t think the DC matters as much as people think because essentially it’s Lovie.
Marinelli will be awesome for the D Lines sake but the defense will be what it’s going to be regardless.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:37 am
Joes nailed it when they speculated that The Glazers would go with a trusted, perhaps familiar source. I’m somewhat excited @ this hire…with a small part of me wondering if a completely fresh answer with an offensive tilt would have been better.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:42 am
@Joe
Has never happen before. But the site keeps freezing on me today. I’ve cleaned the cache. Maybe I’ll try a different browser.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:44 am
“with a small part of me wondering if a completely fresh answer with an offensive tilt would have been better.”
That’s it.
If they hire Tedford, that will be the absolute worst.
Tedfords QBs:
Dilfer
David Carr
Akili Smith
Joey Harrington
Kyle Boller
Aaron Rodgers
I guarantee everyone will talk about Rodgers and ignore the rest. And, remember Rodgers had several years to sit and learn under a real system.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:45 am
Or perhaps Lovie owns a calculator and determined that 5 million in FL will go about as far as 6 or 7 million in states that tax your income.
You might want to research that. Nowhere close to what you’re referencing. –Joe
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:47 am
I dunno, Oil … I’m not a big college FB follower, but That’s 6 QBs that have been starters in the NFL … How does that compare to other individual coaches in college?
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:54 am
I can’t wait to see how this team turns out after all of the off season moves that are coming.
Free agency: Will they make a play for the top DE free agent? How about bringing in the best available veteran QB? Will they allow Revis to go and spend that money on depth? Is there a trade partner that wants Revis bad enough to give us some draft picks in return?
Draft: Do they stay at #7 and pick best available player? What if somehow Johnny Manziel is still there?
This is all very intriguing stuff!
Go Bucs!!!
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:57 am
@mord
Did you seem them actually play well in the NFL, or simply play?
That in essence is the problem with this entire thing. People are ready to accept mediocrity. Lovie took a team to the playoffs 3 times in 9 years. And, remember, the Vikings and Lions weren’t very good during that stretch.
Besides Rodgers, every single one of them underachieved. And please don’t try to sell me on Dilfer’s ring. I saw his play. Carr was a number one overall pick. He is a career backup. The rest aren’t even backup worthy.
January 2nd, 2014 at 10:58 am
I am curious if they keep Mason Foster or go get a traditional tampa 2.3( or whatever version we are up to) linebacker.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:02 am
“You might want to research that. Nowhere close to what you’re referencing. –Joe”
I live in the DC area and have done a number of comparisons between what it costs here to live and how much it would be if I could move back to the Tampa area. If he were to look in to the Redskins opening then the inclusion of state tax and the outrageous cost of living here would negate quite a bit of that difference.
I can’t speak to the Detroit job that he may have been in the running for and how much it costs to live around there but I feel like he may have given the Bucs a bit of a discount for an opportunity to be back in the Tampa area
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:03 am
@Oil, can you at least let this all pan out before declaring that the sky is falling? Some of you will never be happy.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:04 am
Oil — the absence of the word “well” was indeed intentional.
Again, are there any other coaches to do as much?
There’s no accounting for how said players were used or coached once they had the chance to start … Most were less than great, while some clearly flamed-out, but … it still seems moderately impressive.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:09 am
“He would have come for four to tampa”
Would be interested to know if you have an actual source, or if it’s just speculative B.S. you pulled out of a very dark place. I realize we all have different goals, but there are limits to everything, including how much money a person is willing to give up, even for increased power.
As far as using the ‘back’ arrow, I too have problems when browsing at work, in my case its cause I’m on antiquated PCs (over 10 year old), with and antiquated system ( Windows XP). not sure if that helps any….
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:11 am
Here is what a Cal fan posted about Tedford & Glennon:
“Big body, big arm, pass first, supposedly quite FB smart. There was some buzz about him pre-draft being pretty talented, and he put up decent numbers (just under 60 percent completions, 19TD to 9 INT, 80+ QB rating – that’s very acceptable for a rookie, especially one who wasn’t drafted to start right away. No idea if he’ll advance or regress, and their line play and receivers aren’t great as units, but I can see where Tedford would like the idea.”
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:12 am
For those criticizing the list of QBs that Tedford has coached in the past, while they may not have turned out to be much in the NFL, that means Tedford coached them up in College enough that teams felt using a 1st round pick on them.
What this tells me, is that Tedford is used to working with different types of QBs (that list is fairly diverse as far as skill set of the individuals), and getting production out of them.
This doesn’t mean Tedford’s ability will translate to the NFL, but that list of QBs and their NFL succes (or lack there of) should not be considered a knock on him, and given how highly thought of they were, should reflect well (not great) on him.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:12 am
@mord
Or simply products of college system.
When you look at where they were drafted, they were massive busts. It’s not Glennon in the third round. These are first round QBs. And mostly near the top.
And, what about playcalling? College level playcalling where his teams underachieved? Did he improve Cal? Sure, but, it was very akin to what Schiano did at Rutgers. When you are that bad, you can only go up. And even Cal fired him.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:13 am
I don’t know much about Tedford, but Cal is not exactly a football powerhouse, or Fresno State, and to have six QBs drafted in the first round is truly amazing.
I cant think of anyone else that has done that. Not Saban, or offensive Guru Spurrior, Bobby Bowden, whoever. And they all had a lot more recruiting power than Cal and Fresno State.
That impresses the hell out of me, even if they all didn’t make it in the pros. That means he got a lot of production out of those guys for that many NFL personnel people to cough up their first round picks. Plus the man didn’t coach any of those players in the pros.
Rodgers is a dang Hall of Famer, and wasn’t even heavily recruited.
Lets not bury the dude before he even hits town.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:15 am
@ oil derrick I think you proved by your lost how good he is, he made all of those guys 1st rndrs they proved to be system guys not stud qbs so went wouldn’t we want that system?
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:16 am
@fritz50 – Let’s not act as though these guys aren’t financially set for the rest of their lives and their kids’ lives. If someone has made it through the coaching ranks to become a head coach then they’ve lived pretty well thus far and chances are they’ve got a pretty good retirement account set up. If they gave Lovie $50 a year to coach here he wouldn’t be hurting for money so there’s no reason why he would bypass a job he would like to have because he needs a king’s ransom to do it. Especially since he’s unemployed now and has nothing coming in.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:18 am
So this Tedford fella takes all these crappy quarterbacks, and makes them look so good, NFL teams are tricked enough to draft them in the first round, but flamed out. And you find this to be a bad thing? Not to me. To me it shows he makes bad quarterbacks look like world beaters.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:21 am
Guys, I’m glad you are excited. Moreover, I’m sure the Glazers are happy that you are excited. As they rely on the public to purchase tickets and support their product.
I’m just not. I would love to be wrong.
I guess at least I have a college team to be excited about. Some people don’t even have that.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:21 am
Did someone just write about how cost of living would be so much higher for Lovie in DC. LOL
So he pays an extra $10,000 a month to rent a gorgeous house up there. Big freakin’ deal. These guys basically live at the facility and have all kinds of perks.
Let’s not pretend $7 million in DC is $5 million in Tampa. … There’s no way state tax is more than 10 percent. And everything is way less in Michigan.
You people crack me up. I’m surprised Joe lets you comment.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:22 am
Oil Derrick Brooks,
Each of those QB’s had excellent college careers and played in the NFL.
Tedford can’t control what they do once they get to the NFL but it seems he was able to get the most out of them while they were with him.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:27 am
I’m glad lovie isn’t a control freak. Even with given him this kind of “power” he’s a humble guy and will do what’s best for this team. He’s not gonna run off talent just cause they aren’t “working out”. Lovie already has a good solid team all around he just needs to step in and actually coach these guys. I already see the leaders on this team, G Mac, penn, goldson, David, Jackson, to all step up and help steer this ship. Like Gruden once said, we have a heck of a gameplay so let’s execute and let’s get the hell outta here.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:31 am
And quit using tedfords past players determine how this guy coaches. I mean we have no clue what he’s gonna do here but can we all agree the offense isn’t gonna look like a high school football coach is drawing up plays. He’s actually gonna USE the talent we have not waste it.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:38 am
Does anyone know for sure who the OC is going to be or could he surprise us with say the coach we had for, I believe it was receivers, who is now a HC in the college ranks, I am not saying it is him just someone like him.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:38 am
Oh one more thing stop withe cutler stuff he’s not coming to tampa.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:40 am
i am personally sick and tired of all this bs would it have be too difficult for the owners to hire an offense minded coach, been a fan since they got fe franchise in tampa back in the culverhouse days and liked and respected tony dungy but he just couldn’t get the job done even with his bad ass defense, oh well good luck lovie hope you hire a damn good oc and let him do his job. the bucs have been lackluster stale and quite frankly boring, please find us an offensive identity with an exciting dynamic playmaker at qb and start scoring some freaking points
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:48 am
@kennedy
The US Government gives you location pay based on the local you live and work in for GS workers, the two largest percentages are for San Francisco and D.C. at just about 25%, that’s 25% more you get paid just for living in the DC area. Yeah, once you get into the multiple millions as income it doesn’t matter as much, but the taxes in Va. and DC are much higher than here in Fl., plus we have no state income tax, North Va, where these guys actually live, because no one would risk their lives living in DC, has one of the highest tax bases in the country. So, yeah, using the whole low tax no tax thing really works in the Bucs and any other Fl teams favors.
January 2nd, 2014 at 12:10 pm
If the Glazers gave David Moyes a 6 year contract, for approximately $50M, why would they give Lovie Smith 4 years, and approx $25M?
It is easier to build in the EPL, than the NFL simply due to the salary cap
restrictions in the NFL.
And, are the Glazers going to follow the example laid down by the Colts when they hired Dungy, by telling him who his offensive coordinator was going to be?
Any Bucs fans who believe the Glazers are 100% behind the Bucs, are simply fooling themselves.
Right now, their solitary focus is on United, and getting into a top 4 position,
which they are on the outside looking in.
January 2nd, 2014 at 12:29 pm
Oil Derrick Brooks Says:
f they hire Tedford, that will be the absolute worst.
Tedfords QBs:
Dilfer
David Carr
Akili Smith
Joey Harrington
Kyle Boller
Aaron Rodgers
I guarantee everyone will talk about Rodgers and ignore the rest. And, remember Rodgers had several years to sit and learn under a real system.
Most of those QB’s were highly sought after when they entered the draft and had a lot of potential. Therefore they sound like they were playing well under Tedford and just couldn’t adjust to a new system but if they were playing well under him that’s all that matters
January 2nd, 2014 at 1:17 pm
Is it written in stone that Tedford is coming? How about Norv Turner?
January 2nd, 2014 at 1:28 pm
@ODB-
Tedford’s job was to coach them at the college level. Those QBs succeeded at the college level. What they did after that is not on Tedford. Actually, the fact that he got such high performance out of guys who eventually didn’t make it in the NFL may speak more in favor of Tedford than the opposite, as you seem to think. He coached these guys well enough to be first-round picks. How is that not a positive?
January 2nd, 2014 at 1:46 pm
3 ways picking the coach first won’t hurt the GM search:
-our next GM is an in-house candidate who has already weighed in on the process
-if the incoming GM has a history with smith – for instance, hired him previously as Jerry Angelo (i think) did, they would probably be ok with coming into a job where he is the man. angelo & smith would still be together in chicago if it were up to them.
-it will be a guy like dominik and raheem, who is being given his first shot at the bigtime and will take whatever conditions are put forward.
January 2nd, 2014 at 1:50 pm
Tedford made all these qb’s look better than they were. Hello…? That’s a good thing.
10% of $5 million is $500k! Everybody cares about that! It’s a fact that Florida is cheaper tax wise and living costs, arguing that means you don’t leave here, or never had $$$, or failed math in H.S.
Now why assume anyone else was going to offer more anyway? He wanted to come here, period. His agent asked for $7, glazer said how about $5? Agent says $6 please? Glazer says $5 again. Lovie said oh well, we tried, take it!! He was my first choice, but he’s not in the same level as the other $7m coaches, and no one else was guaranteed to offer him the job OR $7m let alone $5m so he took it. Smart!
January 2nd, 2014 at 1:51 pm
bucsandunited, to say they don’t care about the bucs is a bit absurd and not supported by the evidence. they are paying schiano $9m to get out of town and stop damaging the product, excluding the cost of his staff. they have been one of the most active writers of contracts over the last 2 years. they have gone out of pocket to put the games on TV. and now they have gone out into the marketplace without the assistance of a GM to be the first team to assemble a new coaching staff. they may be sweating Man United a little more this year, but up until Ferguson retired that was basically an organization that was on autopilot from an on-the-field product standpoint. their efforts with united have been around global sponsorship and branding, which is not as expensive a task as building a team back into contention.
January 2nd, 2014 at 1:58 pm
regarding tedford, i have my reservations too, but if you look at the organizations that his QBs went to besiders rodgers, they were basically the dregs of the NFL at the time. late 90s bengals, expansion texans, millen’s lions, and the losingest franchise in american pro sports at the time, our beloved bucs. those QBs were set up to fail with expectations of carrying a franchise with no talent around them, often incompetent coaches & mgmt, and usually multiple systems to learn in their early career. only exceptions were boller (failed in an organization where QBs aren’t asked to carry the team’s success) and rodgers (if he’d been taken by the browns or someone similar he might be on the scrap heap with the rest)
January 2nd, 2014 at 2:01 pm
Manchester United talk is back! I thought that conspiracy theory died a few years ago? Go investigate the moon landing. One has nothing to do with the other. ManU underachieving right now, what will glazers do? Go strap on some cleats to score goals? Watch every game from box, move to Manchester and ignore the Bucs? Hilarious!
January 2nd, 2014 at 2:40 pm
@Patrick, you’ve got a point about living in DC vs. Tampa. As for Detroit, I wouldn’t want to be a successful person with a stake in that city and state in the coming years. The unions and crooks who crashed the place are going to have their hands in everyone’s pockets who makes six figures or above, you can guarantee. Stay away from that place.
January 2nd, 2014 at 3:33 pm
People worry about the offense and rightfully so. But all you gotta do is look at the panthers and see that you need a dynamic qb to make the offense compliment the naturally conservative decisions a defensive coach makes.
Johnny manziel is that dynamic player. Imo lovie smith and the bucs need to get a guy like johnny football to make the offense and this team enjoyable to watch. Not only enjoyable to watch but hes a leader on the field and a truly dynamic player.
We’ve spent first rounders on worse potential players than him. Cadillac williams, Gaines adams, adrian clayborn, mark barron,
January 2nd, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Opps hit post too soon. Lets not forget josh freeman.
January 2nd, 2014 at 8:44 pm
Teams drafted those guys based on their ability to get the most from their gifts. Six QBs in round 1, two of which won Super Bowls, three of which have, or will have played over 10 years in the pros. Even Miami in the 80’s can’t say thry did that with Kelly, Kosar, Testaverde, and Walsh…Torretta.
Worst case scenario, he makes bad QBs look good…good news for Glennon fans…not that I think he fits the Tedford mold.
January 2nd, 2014 at 11:32 pm
@trubucfan22
Yeah because we knew Cadillac would tear two knees. Before that he was arguably one of the best young half backs in the league and had worlds of potential and then even came back to play a role and did a pretty damn good job considering