“I Need To Do A Better Job This Year”
January 8th, 2015
Was Clinton McDonald the lone shining light of the March free agency haul?
Nothing but total accountability flowed from Bucs general manager Jason Licht’s mouth when he talked about his performance on the free agent market last season.
Of course, overlord of football operations Lovie Smith is a key cog, but Licht put it all on himself.
“We had some hits; we had some misses. I need to do a better job this year. I always want to learn from my mistakes. We did this together as a staff, but I’m the one held accountable and I am the general manager. So, I need to do a better job,” Licht said of the Buccaneers Radio Network. “We are going to be more wise in our decisions, and we’re going to make sure we’re spending our money wisely, too.
“We’re going to find more Clinton McDonalds. And we’re happy with a lot of these guys, but Clinton McDonald kind of stands out to me right now as a guy that is very passionate, wants to play football, wants to help the team win, comes from a winning environment, and, you know, he’s the type of guy that we want to be a Buc. So those are the kind of guys that we want to look for moving forward.”
Yes, the Bucs’ March free agency haul wasn’t all bad. Brandon Myers already had his contracted restructured for next year. Alterraun Verner played below expectations but was ok.
Joe could live without the rest of them, though. Josh McCown, Anthony Collins, Michael Johnson and Oneil Cousins were pure nightmares. Man, the Bucs could have kept Darelle Revis and Jeremy Zuttah for the same price as those stiffs.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:06 am
I’m encouraged by the play of Lansanah & McDougald also….
At least Licht is accepting some responsibility…..Deservedly, Lovie is taking most of the heat…but Licht bears some too….
January 8th, 2015 at 11:07 am
I have NO problem with his play !
January 8th, 2015 at 11:08 am
OMG! Accountability! I LOVE it. Alas I fear Licht is simply being the good soldier and taking the fall for Lovie. Perhaps it was truly a team effort between L&L and they deserve equal blame. We’ll never really find out.
Whatever…I hate the current setup and if I was an owner I wouldn’t allow this kind of setup even if Vince Lombardi came back from the grave and offered to be our HC/GM.
The Glazers should quietly, respectfully, tell Lovie he is NOT the GM. They should do this with Licht in the room and say Licht is now the GM and will have all the final say on player decisions.
The buck has to stop somewhere and I admire Licht for trying to say it stops with him but we all know many of those mistakes have Lovie’s fingerprints all over them.
I want Licht in charge and Lovie to coach. While Lovie does have some cred as a coach with an SB appearance and strong defensive credentials, he also has a weak record as a talent evaluator. We need a professonal making our personnel moves.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:08 am
I watched Zuttah get blown up all game last week ( first time I watch the Ravens) if Zuttah did not have guard help on the play he was on skates. I do not think he would have been any better than EDS for the bucs o-line
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; The Realist adjusts the sails.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:08 am
Fix the pass rush now!
Leonard Williams!
January 8th, 2015 at 11:10 am
Joe, you left out my favorite, the walking penalty Gilkey from your list of FA’s!
It will always be hit and miss with FA’s. I just hope Lovie goes on vacation and let’s Licht make the FA personnel moves. We already know Lovie can’t evaluate talent. Let’s see what Licht can do without handcuffs from the stubborn one.
I like the Center from KC Rodney Hudson. Upgrade over EDS.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:14 am
Lmfao he made sure to say “we did this together as a staff, but I’m accountable.” That right away tells me that he’s blaming everyone else too but ultimately it falls on the GM. Regardless, I’m sure he learned from his mistakes (listening to Lovie) and am positive he sure as hell won’t do it again. At least not on a large scale like last season.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:20 am
Ray,
I wish I had your confidence. What makes you believe that the Glazers didn’t promise Lovie total control over personnel decisions in order to get him here?
The impression I get is that this is Lovie’s team with input from Licht but I seriously doubt Licht had any veto power and I feel pretty certain he knows his job security depends on keeping Lovie happy.
The Glazers could change all that and I hope they do!
January 8th, 2015 at 11:23 am
Bucs need to do like the Falcons are doing and reorganize responsibility in the front office based off learning from the past. Lovie says “we’re close”, I think we were closer before he got here with the former roster
January 8th, 2015 at 11:26 am
To the contrary of the majority on JBF I like Licht. I think he’s fine.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:43 am
BucsQcCity Says:
To the contrary of the majority on JBF I like Licht. I think he’s fine.
____________________________________________________
Me too. I think Lovie is throttling him.
January 8th, 2015 at 11:47 am
I think what he’s saying is , Lovie picked the FA’s and that Sh__ ‘s not going to happen again, that he’s going to have a say because his a__ is on the line next year. Smart move!
January 8th, 2015 at 11:54 am
Yeah BucsQ I’m with BoJim and you. I like Licht and given the folks he’s worked with and his background I trust him FAR more than I do Lovie when it comes to evaluating talent.
I’m not a Lovie hater…he brings some assets to the program including his calm demeanor and his relationship with players. He just needs someone else in charge of building the team…let him coach it.
January 8th, 2015 at 12:26 pm
@St Pete Bucs
Coming from winning programs like the Patriots and Cardinals recently, I doubt he is going to put his career in the hands of a coach. I guess we will find out if they end up firing someone. If they fire Lovie first and keep Licht then that tells me they are giving Licht a chance to make HIS own team. If they fire Licht only then that tells me Lovie was not in charge before. Anyway, being the hardcore YUCS fan I am and wanting the taste of another SB as bad as anyone lets hope it doesn’t get that far.
January 8th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
@Buc O’s
Exactly my friend. I don’t see Licht letting that happen again knowing his asssss is on the line. That’s assuming he didn’t have a say last season.
January 8th, 2015 at 12:48 pm
Interesting to m, Licht said, “He WANTS to play football.” Is that a telling statement of a few other free agents this season that perhaps didn’t want to play football?
January 8th, 2015 at 1:06 pm
Realist
Zuttah was up against a 6’8″ 350lb DT. I’m sure you seen him own our DT when we played.
January 8th, 2015 at 1:08 pm
Translation
I picked McDonald and Mankins, Lovie picked the rest of these scrubs.
January 8th, 2015 at 1:12 pm
A lot can be gleened from that statement from Licht if you read the not so subtle between the lines part of it. “We did this as a staff…” Might be some FO shakeup AND Lovie contributed too but I’m the GM so I have to look bad… We need to be wise…read don’t expect me to break the bank for marginal stiffs this year. People who want to play football…read most of the stiffs we signed just wanted a big paycheck. And so on and so on…
January 8th, 2015 at 1:38 pm
I think they got overexcited with there shiny new stats-crunching analystic department. They need to recalibrate their model and give a greater weight to the consistency factor when picking FA instead of trying to find the player on the brink of breaking out.. If they valued more consistency, they wouldn’t have signed MJ and McCown or at least, not at their current price tag. Collins was always a bet, McDonald was probably the one that would have made the cut. As for Mankins, this had to be a direct order from Lovie once he realised the mess he was in without Tedford and with Warhop trying to damage control thing.
January 8th, 2015 at 2:16 pm
to bucs GM:
sign free agents to contracts with as little guaranteed $$$$$
AS POSSIBLE! less painful to cut ties with losers.
January 8th, 2015 at 2:17 pm
I think that Jason Licht will do much better this next season. Lovie will also do better. Yes they made some bad choices. But they also made some pretty good ones. I believe that this season will be better, the coach’s and players are getting to know each other better and that does help. Just by getting a O.C. with N.F.L. experience will make a giant difference. And having the number one pick in the up coming draft is a great thing to have. Hopefully they will be smart enough to pick a Q.B. ( Marcus Mariota ) of the future. Then can find some offensive line man with experience in F.A. and also in the latter rounds of the draft. With a good mix of veterans and rookies the BUCCANEERS won’t be a 2-14 team for very long. These things do take time and trail and error. So I believe are BUCCANEERS will be better off this new year…
January 8th, 2015 at 4:14 pm
Yeah. We could have kept Revis but there sure were plenty of bloggers who were glad to see him go. I know because I locked horns with a few of them.
January 8th, 2015 at 5:29 pm
Zuttah also may have played better because the Ravens use a zone blocking scheme whereas the Bucs don’t.
Zone blocking schemes are used primarily by teams to compensate for one or two below average players on the line. It also relies heavily on OL cut blocking their opponents which many defensive players despise.
January 9th, 2015 at 1:12 pm
The FA class of the past year was a bust. We got a couple decent adds but the group overall were uninspired and only went hard at the payroll window.
Josh McCown was terrible! That had to be a Lovie selection, he’s the only person in the league that thought he was worthy of a payday. The O-line simply blew chunks, the guard from the Seahawks talked a good game but played poorly, Logan Mankins did “OK” all things considered. Having no OC all year has got to be difficult at best.
Jason Licht needs to head up personnel decisions period and allow Lovie to provide input but the trigger needs to be pulled by one person. The coach should coach and the GM needs to run player personnel.
You don’t ask Gerald McCoy to play O-line because it’s not his job. The personel department needs to left to Light.
January 21st, 2015 at 11:02 am
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