“I Think You Have To Follow The Same Approach”
February 19th, 2015
Lovie Smith stands firm
Tampa Bay was a free-wheeling, big player in free agency last year. They even made several trades, which is uncommon in the NFL.
So what’s going to happen when the free agency dinner bell rings in 19 short days?
Lovie Smith talked candidly about that on SiriusXM NFL Radio yesterday with hosts Bob Papa and former Bucs defensive tackle Booger McFarland. Lovie isn’t planning on taking a new route to success.
“Sometimes things don’t work out,” Lovie said. “I was asked a question, ‘Are we going to be as involved in free agency as we were last year?’ I think you have to follow the same approach overall. And that’s whenever you get a chance to improve your team, you have to look at the options out there.
“So we still will, you know, be involved in free agency. And hopefully we’ll make some better decision if we decide to go that direction.”
Better decisions would be a good thing. Joe will have more on that later, courtesy of general manager Jason Licht.
Joe sure hopes Lovie’s quarterback evaluation approach is not the same. Last year, that yielded a 35-year-old journeyman with a losing record.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:03 pm
he is acting like a rookie coach. This guy is buffoon like
February 19th, 2015 at 1:03 pm
I still say that Lovie did not watch football in his “basement” He watched reruns of Family Guy and the Cleveland show the whole time!!!
February 19th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
We don’t need expensive spectacular players in FA….just good ones….better than the players they are replacing…..
Need P, KR/PR, Oline, DE, MLB, CB…..perhaps S depending on Goldson….
February 19th, 2015 at 1:04 pm
I think its pretty clear by now that the Bucs will be using the first overall pick on a quarterback. There is no hiding it.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:13 pm
Like it or not, we aren’t going to turn this thing around quickly without having some success in free agency (and of course getting a real QB). We have too many holes that can’t all be addressed in the draft. That’s the result of over 10 years of terrible drafting. I think our biggest problems last year was taking a chance on guys that hadn’t had sustained success in the NFL. Guys like Michael Johnson and Anthony Collins were not proven studs, and they ended up being a complete waste.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:15 pm
I think this quote from Lovie when talking about the draft pretty much sums up that they are drafting Winston or MM…
“I think, in the end, it will be a clear decision on who we should take,” Smith said. “It will be obvious to see who the best player is to lead our franchise, to lead our team next year and get out of that cellar.”
You don’t mention leading your franchise with a DE or OL.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:21 pm
Agree with Hawaiin buc somewhat. The biggest blunder of last year was letting zutah go. Collins did have great performance in limited play with the Bengals. He was just a projection that didn’t pan out. We waited too long to address the guard positions in general which were a weakness. I liked the Verner signing and McDonald. Johnson was a big dissapointment but everyone had him grades as a top DE.
All the commenters acting like Lovie / Light are idiots with no talent evaluation may as well call the rest of all the NFL evaluators idiots too. All the players we got were highly rated on FA boards and given good grades for the contracts. Hell even McCown had great numbers in his starts; but I was probably the most skeptical of him as anything.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:22 pm
Hawaiian- I agree with all of that. You left out McCown in your examples of players acquired without sustained success in the NFL. He played a couple good games in relief of Cutler and that made him a starter. Shameful
February 19th, 2015 at 1:28 pm
Lovie is not exactly known for being a progressive thinker so anyone expecting him say anything else but “stay the course” is deeply misguided.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:32 pm
bucsjunkie Says:
“I think, in the end, it will be a clear decision on who we should take,” Smith said. “It will be obvious to see who the best player is to lead our franchise, to lead our team next year and get out of that cellar.”
You don’t mention leading your franchise with a DE or OL
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It’s the Glazer’s who will insist on a rookie QB, not Lovie. McCown is your shining example because Glennon never even got a shot in camp.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:38 pm
^^^no one got a shot in camp. For every FA they brought in all veteran competition was removed. They lied out loud about competition because players were either cut, traded or forced to change position specifically to prevent any competition for the new players. I complained bitterly about this all last offseason and now it has finally become obvious to everyone. Maybe this year our media and fans can see things for what they are this year and hold these guys accountable.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:52 pm
I agree with Biff Barker……Lovie had his shot at QB and it failed…..he will not be ordered to draft a QB this year.
The Glazers may let him choose…..as long as it’s the one they want!!!
February 19th, 2015 at 1:53 pm
Joe and other speak as if the McCown signing was ludicrous. In free agency last year, he was regarded as the best QB available. There were other teams that wanted to sign him too. The loss of Tedford early on made the entire offense into a turd, and everyone suffered. You can certainly argue that they should have drafted a QB last year, but does anyone think that would’ve gone well without an OC? I think the time for harping on Lovie’s decision to go with McCown is long past over.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:53 pm
You have to follow the same approach. Just be better at it.
When you have 9 spots to fill, the draft will only fill 3 of them. The rest comes from free agency, unsigned draft agents and trades. Otherwise, it will take 3 years to draft replacements for all 9 positions, and we all know that their will be additional needs that pop up.
So go get ’em Jason. Just make BETTER decisions this time around.
February 19th, 2015 at 1:54 pm
there not their
February 19th, 2015 at 2:01 pm
@salish – Please stop being reasonable. It doesn’t quite fit with the majority of the comments here.
February 19th, 2015 at 3:03 pm
one nice rule of thumb would be to just stop assuming you’re smarter than the rest of the league. i feel like with Micheal Johnson, Anthony Collins, and Josh McCown we were mainly competing against ourselves to sign them. i can’t imagine many others thinking they were worth anything close to what we paid them….certainly not their former employers in any of those cases. maybe you have a strong hunch a guy is going to break out, but don’t pay him like he already has. pay him like clinton mcdonald.
February 19th, 2015 at 3:04 pm
Nice to see some reasonable people here.
McCown was only signed for like $5 million which is incredibly cheap for a starting QB. His stretch of play in 2013 WAS better than any stretch of games Glennon ever had. Not sure Glennon even had 1 game as good as any of McCowns in that stretch.
Sure it was a risk. Everything is. But it wasn’t some psychotic franchise gambling move. None of the FA moves were. MOST were logical in my opinion; outside of ignoring Guards too long / letting Zuttah walk. It’s hard to bat 100% in FA or the draft.
I rest my optimism for next year in 3 things:
1.) If we take Winston I’m confident he will be the best QB we’ve ever had by far which is the best thing that can happen to an NFL team. If we take Mariota I’ll have a lot more hope for a franchise QB than I do with Glennon. So either way yay to a degree.
2.) The defense did improve substantially over the year. After our bye week; our defense held opposing teams to these point totals:
19, 22, 27, 27, 21, 14, 34, 19, 20 ,23 (average of 22.6). That average is in line with the Broncos / Rams / Cowboys / Steelers last year. (lol @ the Rams defense lovers from past joe posts). Not amazing; would put the Bucs about 16th or so in the league but much better than almost last which is what their numbers on the year would look like. However, we were horrific on offense. Worst in the league basically. With longer drives and a bit more points I’d expect more defensive improvement. Lovie’s system also seems to take time to get used to and get the right personnel for. I think with just a couple small upgrades combined with another year of experience this could easily be a top 10 unit in the league.
3.) The offensive line just has to get better. I’m not sure it was worse in 2014 than 2013 because both years were so bad; but we know that it will be an area that will be addressed again. Can’t go anywhere but up. We have 3 decent starters with experience; a couple project guys from the draft last year; so with just a couple solid starters (i.e. guard and LT) we should be fine.
Hey it’s the offseason. Time to get my hopes up right lol
February 19th, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Nice job lord cornelius!!!
February 19th, 2015 at 7:03 pm
McCown was rated as the top FA QB last year and oddly enough, despite his play in 2014, he is rated the top FA QB this year as well.
Every FA we signed last year were given high marks by everyone in the business. Everyone.
Three of the six we signed didn’t pan out. That is actually a better Batting average than the previous regime who only singed one FA, VJax, who amounted to anything.
McCown would have no doubt fared better as well as the entire offense if they had had a real NFC offensive coordinator to guide them.