Glazer’s “Dark Path” Comes Home To Roost
December 5th, 2014
There was a time when Joe confused Joel Glazer with John Lee Hooker. Back in 2009, Glazer sang the free agency blues so darn well at the spring NFL owners meetings.
Here was one of his prized lyrics, delivered after the Bucs did a whole lotta nothin’ when the free agency dinner bell rang that year:
“Winning in March in free agency, very rarely do you see those teams in the headlines in January. You have to be disciplined to resist what can lead you down a dark path,” Glazer said.
Many accused Glazer, in those no-salary-floor days, of just not wanting to spend money. But current data makes Glazer seem like a wise old sage.
Consider this bomb from ESPN.com. It was buried behind a paywall in a piece on free agents by Mike Sando this week.
The NFL teams with the most games started by 2014 unrestricted free agents are as follows:
Tampa Bay (78 starts)
Giants (61)
Oakland (56)
Chicago (49)
Atlanta (40)
Washington (40)
Hmm, what’s the common denominator there? Those are all losing teams.
Wondering about the Packers and Seahawks? Not one 2014 unrestricted free agent has started a game for them.
Now Joe’s not all down on free agency. Teams just can’t swing and miss repeatedly. And the Bucs flat out whiffed on Josh McCown, Anthony Collins and Michael Johnson. Frankly, if just one of them was having a great year, then the Bucs would be tied for the NFC South lead right now.
December 5th, 2014 at 8:29 am
The problem was Dom’s bad drafting. I’ll never understand how he stuck around when Morris was fired.
December 5th, 2014 at 8:37 am
No the problem is whoever is scouting these clowns.
December 5th, 2014 at 8:49 am
One issue that I have a problem with is build through the draft is great and all, but one thing doesn’t make any sense. How do you do that if you never draft an offensive lineman? Dom even bragged how he never drafted them. We need some talent, first/second round talent on the offensive line. And I’m in agreement with the commenter’s above, I’ve been hoping for years that we would have cleaned house with our crappy scouts.
December 5th, 2014 at 8:53 am
There was one major letdown that affected the Bucs very significantly this year. The front office and coaching staff, as well as loyal followers of this team, expected high-priced, older veteran lineman to be cut in preseason. This opens up the chance to bring in older vets that still have a year or two left, at a bargain basement price.
This year that NEVER happened. The Bucs were among many teams that found themselves scrambling for linemen that just were not there. Perhaps there will be that normal action of cut the higher priced vets, this coming year.
If the talent isn’t there, you end up with the crap we call the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Offensive Line.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:00 am
@Joseph Mamma,
You are totally right! Just look at the Cowboys and how great football they re playing this year. They are loaded with great talent up front. Their OL gives Romo all time in the world to find his open receivers and Demarco Murray can even choose what hole to hit because his line DOMINATES. They invested heavily on the OLD during the past 3 drafts and look at the record and the easy that offense looks to be playing.
That is why DOM will never be a GM again.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:08 am
Dom once said, “we’re going big back hunting”.
Dude should’ve drafted OLine.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:11 am
I think most NFL insiders will tell you that teams that have to dive heavily into free agency do so because of failed draft picks……
That’s a familiar tune here in Tampa…..I think even Dominik said that if they were wrong on Josh Freeman, it would set the franchise back 10 years….so when you look at the year that drafted “sleepy, leaky Josh Freeman” well, yes, Dominik was spot on….
December 5th, 2014 at 9:24 am
The reason why we had to go to free agency is the terrible drafts from the last 5 to 6 years…..we have very few winners.
Now, that being said, the free agents we selected are not performing.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:24 am
Poorly ran team for the last 8 yrs= what you see today.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:25 am
The problem isn’t the free agency, it is who in the free agency. Most of ours had not been great players, they just thought they could be. Payton Manning was a free agent when he went to Denver, Bennett to the Seahawks, need I go on?
December 5th, 2014 at 9:32 am
Found this. THE DRAFT!!! …effective November 16, 2014. On the chart below you will see teams listed, with their current records, the total number of players native to that team.
PACKERS (7-3) 61/49 80.3%
STEELERS (7-4) 56/40 71.4%
49’ERS (6-4) 69/48 69.6%
BENGALS (6-3-1) 61/42 68.8%
VIKINGS (4-6) 60/41 68.3%
JETS (2-8) 59/40 67.8%
FALCONS (4-6) 63/42 66.7%
RAVENS (6-5) 63/42 66.7%
TEXANS (5-5) 61/40 65.6%
RAMS (4-6) 61/40 65.6%
BRONCOS (7-3) 58/38 65.6%
SEAHAWKS (6-4) 69/45 65.2%
COWBOYS (7-3) 63/41 65.1%
DOLPHINS (6-4) 64/40 62.5%
SAINTS (4-6) 62/38 61.3%
PATRIOTS (8-2) 61/37 60.6%
CHARGERS (6-4) 63/37 58.7%
EAGLES (7-3) 58/33 56.9%
LIONS (7-3) 62/35 56.4%
JAGUARS (1-9) 65/36 55.4%
BILLS (5-5) 61/33 54.1%
CHIEFS (7-3) 63/34 54.0%
PANTHERS (3-7-1) 62/33 53.2%
WASHINGTON (3-7) 61/32 52.5%
RAIDERS (0-10) 63/32 51.6%
CARDS (9-1) 62/32 51.6%
TITANS (2-8) 61/31 50.8%
GIANTS (3-7) 69/34 49.3%
BROWNS (6-4) 61/29 47.5%
BEARS (4-6) 57/27 47.4%
COLTS (6-4) 65/28 43.1%
BUCS (2-8) 59/25 42.4%
December 5th, 2014 at 9:37 am
need to work a trade with our “top 3” draft pick….and go after OT Brandon Scherff, then QB Bryce Petty!
December 5th, 2014 at 9:40 am
Year after year of bad drafting. With the exception of a small handful of players, this team has nothing to show for 10+ years of drafts. No homegrown talent. It’s taken its toll.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:40 am
This is why the Bucs are oh so far away from contender status. 5 years, at a minimum.
Someone mentioned OLine, and yeah the Bucs have only taken 2 OL in the first round in the last 20 years. That is abysmal, far too few. You need to be drafting OL in the 1st round at least every 4 years. Trenchmob wants to fix this, no QB is ever gonna succeed behind our current, middle aged piece of crap line. Need to invest at least 3 premium picks (3rd round or earlier) on the OLine in the next 2 years.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:42 am
OB Says:
December 5th, 2014 at 9:25 am
The problem isn’t the free agency, it is who in the free agency. Most of ours had not been great players, they just thought they could be. Payton Manning was a free agent when he went to Denver, Bennett to the Seahawks, need I go on?
________________________________________________________________
Getting a few players in FA is one thing. Building your roster through FA like we’ve done the past little while is a disastrous approach.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:43 am
The NFL is fixed. Bucs won super bowl because they built a stadium, it was a gift from the owners. Until The Bucs get a player like Brady, Sapp or Payton or a coach like Gruden that can increase national viewership of their games they will continue to be a doormat. Glazers don’t spend money because they know this fact. If bucs get Winston and a decent defense, the calls will start going their way and the NFL/Broadcasters will make sure they win some games next year.
December 5th, 2014 at 9:54 am
Funny how no one puts any of the drafting ineptitude on Bruce Allen. That guy is a main reason why we hit the skids after Kiffin and Gruden were gone and Brooks was sacked. We were completely exposed. The cupboard at that moment in 2009 was indeed bare and not much anyone could have done about it immediately. It is remarkable that the next year they were able get 10 wins. When the overall drafted talent on your roster is garbage and the coaching is not superior then you find that most players you acquire are going to look terrible even if they would flourish on other teams with a higher overall level of talent and better coaching. Bottom line is Bruce Allen drafts are the root cause and Gruden should still be our coach.
December 5th, 2014 at 10:12 am
…might add…building through the draft would give a team more comradery than gathering a bunch of free agents from other teams…i would think..
December 5th, 2014 at 10:19 am
Chasing your tail in the draft also kills you. Consider the CB position. We drafted Talib with a 1st round pick to replace Brian Kelly who was a successful 9 year player and 2nd round pick. Then we cut Talib and traded a 1st round pick to get Revis, then drafted Banks with a second round pick.
The actual cost of going from Brian Kelly to Jonathon Banks was TWO first round picks and a SECOND round pick to solidify the position. That is WAY too high a price
December 5th, 2014 at 10:22 am
DallasBuc, drafts under allen were about as bad as bad could get, but we have gone through 5 or 6 drafts since his firing and that’s enough time to turn over an entire roster. sadly, while i think our stars now are well ahead of our “stars” then (brooks, dunn, galloway, garcia, and others at least 5 years past their peak), our all around talent level might be worse. our compete level certainly is
December 5th, 2014 at 10:34 am
Changes in coaching schemes, changes in head coaches, front office. Heck we could have kept Zuttah, Roy miller, barron, revis, Lorig, wright, Larsen,Bennett, penn and Joseph then all those UFA starts wouldn’t exist. We let them wak they all play in the league and hence people say we don’t draft well or retain our own. This year will go down as the worst of the worst. Missed basically 150 million on free agents and gots one pick right. Jury out for me on ASJ.
December 5th, 2014 at 10:54 am
Living in DC I’ve seen firsthand for nearly 20 years of what undisciplined spending on UFA can do to ruin a team. The Redskins are a disaster and they have Danny Snyder to thank for it.
December 5th, 2014 at 11:07 am
I noticed the Bengals signed OT Eric Winston. Why didn’t the Bucs go after him?
December 5th, 2014 at 11:18 am
I know this has been said many times but,
2004 Michael Clayton (Bust)
2005 Carnell Williams (Injury Prone)
2006 Davin Joseph (Good Pick)
2007 Gaines Adams (Bust RIP)
2008 Aqib Talib (Bust)
2009 Josh Freeman (Bust)
2010 Gerald McCoy (Injury prone start, can he stay healthy?)
2011 Adrian Clayborn (Bust)
2012 Mark Barron (Bust)
2012 Doug Martin (Not looking good)
2013 No pick
2014 Mike Evans (Too early to tell)
December 5th, 2014 at 11:26 am
Pick6- yes we have been through 5-6 drafts but we also have been through 3 HCs, 2 GMs, 4 OCs, 4 DCs and too many damn QBs. So as you can see, it was nearly impossible to win in the player acquisition race with leadership turnover and lack of quality. It all goes back to Allen. Look at how bad he has fouled up the Washington team.
December 5th, 2014 at 11:40 am
The Bucs pick free agents the old fashioned way. Put a bunch of available names in a hat and blindly pull out selections like lottery numbers.
December 5th, 2014 at 11:42 am
It all played a part in the failure including the unfortunate failures in FA –
FA:
Carl Nicks (injury)
Dashon Golson
Eric Wright
Anthony Collins
Mickey Mouse Johnson
EDS
Brandon Myers
Ward from Giants
Trading Zuttah
Draft:
90% of all of degrees since 2009 have not panned out!!!
December 5th, 2014 at 11:57 am
When the cap is rising, teams are going to sign the players they know are good. Anyone in free agency now is probably going to be a bust.
December 5th, 2014 at 12:01 pm
Interesting. Good point. At the very least, not worth their salary.
When the Bucs signed EDS, it violated on of Joe’s cardinal sins. Never sign a guy that Ted Thompson let walk away for peanuts.
December 5th, 2014 at 12:33 pm
No doubt poor drafting has played a huge part in the Bucs miserable recent history, but I think many of the pundits overlook an even bigger weakness: marginal player development of those they do draft. That falls more on the teaching skills of the assistant coaches in my opinion than it does on the head coach himself (although the buck always stops with the head coach).
Winning teams manage to ‘find’ lots of gold in the latter rounds of the draft and on the practice squads of other teams. But the larger reality I think is that they develop those players into valuable contributors once they get them.
Teams like the Bucs and Raiders? Not so much.
December 5th, 2014 at 1:43 pm
Great stats Bucco and Architek – you’ve made it very obvious that our drafts for the last 10 years have been nearly a total failure. It explains so much. Very depressing…
December 5th, 2014 at 1:47 pm
So we’re stuck with Lovie Smith and high draft picks for 2015, 2016, and 2017…..O line and QB…and some pass rushers. Perfect timing! Then Lovie will hopefully be gone and the new HC can have some talent to work with and actually WIN SOME DAMN GAMES!
December 5th, 2014 at 3:45 pm
joe you and all the posters got this one right. totally. I wont dwell on our disagreements!