Koetter Came Hester Approved?
January 9th, 2015
Iconic, electric Falcons return man Devin Hester and Lovie Smith might have the closest relationship around, when it comes to a coach and a former player.
It’s still mind-boggling to Joe how Hester landed in Atlanta last season — while the Bucs struggled all year to find a returner and tapped their shaky receiver depth.
But money talked, and the Bucs weren’t willing, it seemed, to match Hester’s price — $3 million per season. At least that was the vibe Hester sent at his news conference following the Bucs-Falcons game in September. Joe, with his own eyeballs, watched Hester talk about Lovie and how the opportunity to join him in Tampa was in the business cards.
Hester had a strong season in Atlanta. New Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter even figured out what Lovie’s former Chicago offensive coordinators couldn’t; Koetter found a true complementary role for Hester as a wide receiver. He finished with 38 catches for 504 yards and two touchdowns as a No. 4 receiver.
Bears fans will tell you Lovie tried to force Hester into a No. 1 and No. 2 receiver role that he wasn’t equipped to handle.
The point here is Joe is certain Lovie would reached out to Hester for a reference in the hiring process of Koetter. And it obviously came up roses, with Koetter getting hired yesterday.
Joe wonders whether the Falcons regime will still want Hester, and whether that could lead him back to Lovie.
January 9th, 2015 at 9:44 am
Great remember when rodgers said hire Tedford and sign smith
January 9th, 2015 at 9:50 am
Cowboys have a returner that is a free agent as well.
January 9th, 2015 at 9:56 am
Joe sculler also worked with him. So did Mike Shula.
January 9th, 2015 at 9:57 am
Maybe he can get more than 6 catches and 58 yards out of Robert Herron….
January 9th, 2015 at 9:57 am
Should have been Joe Cullen above
January 9th, 2015 at 10:00 am
More than anything, the Hester reminder shows the poor judgement of Lovie and the front office….overpay bums, but don’t fork out any cash to a guy who can ACTUALLY PERFORM on the field…
Shame on these DREADFUL player evaluations…!!
January 9th, 2015 at 10:05 am
Hester we need you bro.
January 9th, 2015 at 10:09 am
Koetter found a true complementary role for Hester as a wide receiver.
I koetter can do the same for mike glennon. that is unless they trade him (which would be pretty stupid) for a latter round draft pick.
I would rather they dump josh mccown or trade him.
January 9th, 2015 at 10:30 am
What do you mean trade Mike Glennon. Lovie and Team Glazer will simply give him away like they did Michael Bennett, Aquib Talib, etc etc. The failure of the GM and Lovie to evaluate talent correctly means that even if they do pick the Rapist Winston or Marcus as QB1, they will not ever figure out how to surround them with talent to make the team successful.
The only way the Buc’s can have a winning future is the fire the entire Lovie Smith debacle and move on with a real coach! Send Lovie to Friday Night Tykes…..when he learns how to evaluate and recruit players….maybe he can get another shot in Chicago.
As for Koetter….he did such an outstanding job that his HC is now unemployed. He had a franchise QB in Matty Ice and talent around them, yet they won what….2 or 3 more games than the Buc’s?
Why not some new fire eater who is not coming off being fired for underperforming like the current HC (Lovie) and Koetter??
If Team Glazer is simply going to keep Lovie the Loser and go with an OC who just got his former HC fired, bring back Radio Raheem Morris and save a couple of million for a real HC! The outcome will be the same!
Greg Schiano
January 9th, 2015 at 10:44 am
We will see on draft day and when the free agents are signed who is in charge of the offense, if it is Koetter, we will be dangerous for once on offense, if not we will drop to 1-15.
January 9th, 2015 at 10:56 am
Greg Schiano or Shat-on-yo,
Koetter didn’t get Atlanta’s HC Smith fired. The DC did by not having any type defense to stop anyone. They (Atlanta) scored plenty and ranked no worse than 10th in every category for offense (mostly 2nd and 3rd). Atlanta fired Smith because he couldn’t put together a D and was wasting the talent on O. That’s why Koetter wasn’t fired along with the HC.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:20 am
Now that we got a decent OC lets get a new HC so the talents of the OC aren’t wasted. Koetter also get yourself a good OL coach. You the man.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:25 am
@Fuzzy
Bingo Brother. And not only did Koetter achieve those stats you posted, he did it behind an offensive line judged worse than ours by the stat geeks.
Whether they’re worse or not there’s not doubt the Falcons OL sucked big time.
The fact that Koetter succeeded in that environment, with an immobile QB (can you say MG8) and his star receiver banged up most of the year is actually pretty amazing!
January 9th, 2015 at 11:42 am
Hey, Greg Scihiano, you along with i80 to 90 percent of the fans and 99 percent of the media covering the Bucs wanted Talib cut because of his off the field antics.
I love you clowns with short term memory problems.
If a player gets in some trouble or is injured a tad to much your first knee jerk reaction is to cut him.
Then, when he goes and performs well somewhere else, the first thing you do is a Pontious Pilate and start whining, complaining, crying and hollering about how stupid the Bucs front office and coaches are.
Hey, Greg, go f&$k yourself you two faced loser troll.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:45 am
Revival is coming to the land!
Love the hire!!
January 9th, 2015 at 11:47 am
@ddneast
Many problem players don’t do well until they switch teams. A change of scenery. There is no guarantee that Talib would have done just as well in Tampa, had he stayed.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:49 am
Tomcin Says
“Now that we got a decent OC lets get a new HC…”
That’s a waste of 12 words. Like that could happen now? lol
January 9th, 2015 at 11:51 am
One more thing Sciano, your reference to Winston as a rapist is slanderous and libelous as well.
I’m no big fan of Winston’s, but he has never been charged, let alone convicted of rape.
In fact, he has been exonerated twice. Now the alleged victim is going after Florida State for a bag of money. What does that tell you.
Still, to hide behind an anonymous name and call someone a rapist shows what a characterless gutless coward you really are.
Joe, I would suggest you look at Sciano’s remarks in the future before you allow them to be posted before he drags you down into a legal rabbit hole.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:51 am
Honestly, I was hoping that Lovie and Co. was waiting until after the playoffs to interview some of those guys. Oh well, let’s see what happens.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:54 am
Agreed, Bonzai. But Talib was playing well when he was here but as I said, close to 90 percent of the fans and 99 percent of the media wanted him cut because of his behavior.
My problem is with the morons like Schiano who want to have it both ways.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:54 am
btw, Derick Brooks said today on wdae about Winston “Can I say he is ready? No, he’s not.”
Play that on your fiddle, Winston Chain Gang.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:56 am
If I’m either one of the two top QBs, I’m hoping Tampa drafts me now.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:59 am
“Joe wonders whether the Falcons regime will still want Hester, and whether that could lead him back to Lovie.”
That would be cool..
January 9th, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Schiano
I agree with you. Truth is if ATL beats Carolina and wins the division and go to the playoffs mike smith keeps his job. Instead his offense managed to score 3 points. So yes I’d say he had a lot to do with the decision to change regimes.
January 9th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
“Still, to hide behind an anonymous name”…..to funny “ddneast”!
January 9th, 2015 at 12:29 pm
So, Koetter was the reason Mike Smith got fired? Really? How about Mike Smith got himself fired? Atlanta’s offense was ranked 12 in pts an 8th in yards….last I checked that is a way better than 29th and 30th!!!
January 9th, 2015 at 12:44 pm
he had the chance to sign hester but he didn’t and it came back to bite him in the arse so he cant go back and try to sign him now, he did us so bad last year I don’t want him to sign with us…..just move on and either develop a guy or draft a slot receiver or a corner. if you can put a running back in there at kick returner surely you can find someone in the draft that can do more than return kicks
January 9th, 2015 at 12:46 pm
There are enough teams that need QBs. Trade Glennon for a late second, or two third rounders and grab some O-liners. I think he will do well somewhere else.
Poor kid deserves a shot to be somehwere where the carousel of coaches doesn’t ruin his career.
January 9th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
OAR
So you think mike smith would get fired if he made the playoffs?
January 9th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
“I’m very excited to welcome Dirk to our staff,” Bucs coach Lovie Smith said in a statement. “With over three decades of experience at both the college and the NFL level, Dirk has a proven track record as a top offensive coordinator. During his time in Atlanta, he led one of the most productive offenses in the league and I believe he will enjoy similar success here with the exciting young players we have on offense. It became very apparent early in our conversations that we share some of the same philosophies regarding the offensive side of the ball and I look forward to working with Dirk as we begin preparing for the 2015 season.”
Does that bother anyone else? Thinks like Lovie on the offensive side of the ball? We all know what Lovie ball is and it isn’t uptempo.
January 9th, 2015 at 1:36 pm
Just remember how Glennon has been compared to Matt Ryan and lovie could be thinking same OC could help Glennon. HATE THAT THAT THOUGHT!!
Get us a QB!!!!
January 9th, 2015 at 1:44 pm
DB55
He would have been fired if he made the playoffs and didn’t make the Super Bowl. Mike Smith has had his chances at it…..ie: see Tony Dungy. I just don’t think it was their offense that got him fired, it was their defense, something that is Mr. Smith’s forte.
January 9th, 2015 at 1:51 pm
Fair enough, I disagree but don’t really matter. I just wish we’d found someone who won more than 10 games in the last two years. But hey we only won 6 so it is an improvement. #fml
January 9th, 2015 at 4:00 pm
today’s a slow day at work, so i think i’ll tackle the trolls today:
Please enlighten me. What did Lovie and Team Glazer have to do with the jettisoning of Talib, Bennett, Blount? I sure enough thought that was Schiano/Dominick (although i’m leaning more towards Schiano, considering i don’t see how the GM would be on board with not resigning the guy that he plucked off waivers)
Probably the most useless post on this site today.
And if none of those guys were hired and all the other “name” OCs had been taken already, you would’ve been on here complaining about how Lovie took too long to hire someone and he should’ve done it since October.
[one of the few non-trolls on here]
BB, in the truest form of the word, neither one of the college QBs are technically ready. But to say he is not more pro-ready than Mariotta is ignorance.
Also, do you ever really know if someone is ready until they put on the pads and helmet?
You can’t say that for fact. Who’s to say that Blank wouldn’t have fired Smith after a playoff loss? As a matter of fact, I’ve heard a few times here in the Atlanta area that Smith knew it would be his last game BEFORE the game.
The only thing we do know for a fact is that the defense held the team back all year (actually, almost every year since the Julio trade) and if i remember correctly, that was Mike Smith’s upbringing.
I’m so happy you have no dealing with the operations of the team.
So you’re saying that because he played so well against us, he doesn’t deserve to be on the team if the opportunity presents itself? smh.
As opposed to Freeman who had plenty of stability while he was here but was still expected to perform at the highest level with less talent?
January 9th, 2015 at 4:29 pm
The irony is palpable !
January 9th, 2015 at 6:16 pm
Soooo, did Hester suggest Koetter or not?