Celebrating Sanity
March 11th, 2015
Joe officially and happily can confirm the sanity of the Buccaneers front office, because it would have been downright insane to keep ghostly and ghastly defensive end Michael Johnson on the roster.
Joe was flabbergasted that some fans thought a low-effort guy like Johnson would be somehow wise to retain.
Thankfully, the Bucs saw reality.
The spreadsheet and numbers crowd was moaning about salary caps and dead money and bonuses, and all kinds of accounting crap that had nothing to do with football.
Joe just wanted to shake those people and scream, “What’s hard the cost of keeping a guy like Johnson who is dragging down an entire defense? A guy sucking hope from a fan base?”
And as Joe wrote and talked about many times on the radio, what the hell would have been the sales pitch to Team Glazer as to why they should have forked over another $7 million — real cash — to keep Johnson around? That’s what the Bucs would have owed Johnson tomorrow.
Good teams don’t do such things.
Joe’s glad Jason Licht and Lovie Smith looked in the mirror and saw reality when it came to Johnson, as well as Anthony Collins.
Licht and Lovie’s responses to their failures are invigorating. You win some and lose some. Just don’t keep the losers around.
In life, when the garbage stinks, you seal the bag and put it on the side of the road.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:17 pm
I just hope they got a plan for the now
March 11th, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Ok that mistake is fixed. When are the glazers going to own up to the bigger mistake in hiring clueless Lovie.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Licht and Lovie:
“You win one or two but lose a bunch….”
That would be more accurate….
March 11th, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Wow! Glad we moved on from these guys, but not a good look for Lict.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Was that picture taken when the signed Johnson or let him go?
March 11th, 2015 at 4:23 pm
I just want to know what’s the plan now we made 2 more wholes in a roster full of wholes now who will play the right end and left end good we cut our losses but do we have a back up plan not like last year with our offensive line
March 11th, 2015 at 4:24 pm
Don’t blame Licht he is just following orders from the fool.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:24 pm
So when do the release Goldson. Are they waiting to sign another safety first? Could they actually be entertaining paying him another 8 million this year?
March 11th, 2015 at 4:24 pm
Oh well at least Verner / McDonald worked out. So basically batted .500; which is consistent with most teams records in FA and the draft.
I don’t understand how fans expect every signing and every pick to be impactful and instantly solve all the teams problems. That isn’t the case for a single franchise. We just have to hope to hit on more still.
It’s a great sign that the regime isn’t too prideful to admit their mistakes and move on.
The contracts for these guys was too much; but taking a shot on them wasn’t that bad an idea. Johnson was #1 rated available DE. Collins was very solid when he did play in Cincy.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:25 pm
No regrets..It sounds as if we have a couple of different options on the DL in FA. Hope so because it looks as if we will have to spend a majority of the draft on OL (unless WIZ shows up) and a Mike. I till feel that our biggest “FA” acquisition was Dirk Koetter.
I wonder what our season would have been like if we had him last year. Almost glad we didn’t because it will net us our franchise QB.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:26 pm
Getting rid of McCown, Collins and Johnson was the right move. But before we go and celebrate the Bucs brain trust for doing the right thing, let’s remember that it was Lovie and Licht who brought them to Tampa to begin with! We lost nearly $20 million on these 3 starters and got a total of 2 wins from them! That’s a horrific record and cannot be allowed to be repeated. No wonder the Bucs have been so quiet so far in free agency!
March 11th, 2015 at 4:30 pm
As Belicheck says: Cut your losses and never look back. I am concerned how all the best OLmen and edge rushers are being swallowed up in front of us
March 11th, 2015 at 4:31 pm
Major rookie mistakes by licht. We should look back at last year and see which FA Defensive Ends, who were undoubtebly paid less, outplayed the ghost. anyone rememeber who we couldve had. ?
March 11th, 2015 at 4:36 pm
Incompetent Lovie Smith should resign in shame and give the Glazers their money back. How many times is Lovie going to remind us that we are 2-14 football team? Will the media remind him if he conveniently forgets?
March 11th, 2015 at 4:41 pm
Here ya go Buddah
Jared Allen, Minnesota Vikings
Robert Ayers, Denver Broncos
Jason Babin, Jacksonville Jaguars
Marcus Benard, Arizona Cardinals
Andre Carter, New England Patriots
Adam Carriker, Washington Redskins
Kenyon Coleman, New Orleans Saints
Keyunta Dawson, New Orleans Saints
Lamarr Houston, Oakland Raiders
Jason Hunter, Oakland Raiders
Israel Idonije, Detroit Lions
Tyson Jackson, Kansas City Chiefs
Johnny Jolly, Green Bay Packers
Arthur Jones, Baltimore Ravens
Michael Johnson, Cincinnati Bengals
Brett Keisel, Pittsburgh Steelers
Ricardo Mathews, Indianapolis Colts
Jeremy Mincey, Denver Broncos
Mike Neal, Green Bay Packers
Frostee Rucker, Arizona Cardinals
Matt Shaughnessy, Arizona Cardinals
Lawrence Sidbury, Indianapolis Colts
Antonio Smith, Houston Texans
Anthony Spencer, Dallas Cowboys
Daniel Te’o-Nesheim, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Justin Tuck, New York Giants
March 11th, 2015 at 4:45 pm
Could this be a potential to draft a dlineman with the first pick ???
March 11th, 2015 at 4:45 pm
Which was the worse signing? Licht’s johnson or Dom’s eric wright? Im going with johnson.
Btw, are we even going to participate in FA? Theres not too many good players left…..better get moving Licht!
March 11th, 2015 at 4:45 pm
Greg hardy and tampa bay have mutual interest
March 11th, 2015 at 4:48 pm
To make bread from scratch, the first step is to separate the grain from the chaff. Johnson, McCown, Collins, you are not the grain!
March 11th, 2015 at 4:52 pm
Joe – Any light on why the Bucs waited until the last minutes to release Johnson and Collins?
March 11th, 2015 at 4:53 pm
“Why should I tolerate you…when I can replace you?”
– What Raheem should have said.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:54 pm
Cut your losses quickly Jason. One more season of this hell and Lovie is next on the chopping block.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:55 pm
Lord Cornelius Says
“Oh well at least Verner / McDonald worked out.”
More than that. We have our #3 WR in place as well. And Mankins is still there. Expect EDS to be cut soon though.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:58 pm
Guys just relax – additions will come but more carefully this time.
You don’t see many good teams splashing like crazy – it’s all calculated. We are clearly being more direct and seeking value versus big name/no production/all projection.
Seems smart to me.
March 11th, 2015 at 4:59 pm
Youre right Bonzai. All in all not as terrible as people make it out to be.
March 11th, 2015 at 5:04 pm
It is SO SAD that I see our teams name NOwhere in this.
http://www.nfl.com/freeagency#tab=top101
March 11th, 2015 at 5:06 pm
There’s going to be another round of cuts coming soon where we will get better deals. Would be nice to sign Wiz, Melton and Carter and save a good amt of available space for the next round of cuts.
Melton should be fully recovered and very explosive, I’m a bit excited about him.
As for the topic, MJ, this is a semi-shocker bc I thought he was injured most of last year and he would surely get another year bc the guaranteed money. I applaud the front office for cutting losses.
March 11th, 2015 at 5:10 pm
Jeagan
Getting rid of McCown, Collins and Johnson was the right move. But before we go and celebrate the Bucs brain trust for doing the right thing, let’s remember that it was Lovie and Licht who brought them to Tampa to begin with!
Fair point Jeagan but bad news for the Winstonites. They’ve been using two excuses to cover for their INT machine. Fameis has horrible receivers who ran bad routes…or look at how great Fameis was in all those second half comebacks necessitated of course because of his horrid decision making in the first half.
IMO opinion we are dancing in the gray areas. I give Fameis Jaboo credit for the combacks but I give Licht tons of credit for admitting and ending these mistakes. It was LIcht who claimed Belicheat taught him that as a core principle when you make a mistake you must admit it and move on. Licht clearly paid attention.
March 11th, 2015 at 5:13 pm
Goldson should be next to get cut or take a pay cut, Glazers need to know that these agents negotiating contracts see this as a place to come get rich and get that one big contact they’d never get again
March 11th, 2015 at 5:19 pm
Man I bet Andre Johnson is happy to finally have a real QB throwing to him.
March 11th, 2015 at 5:34 pm
I see the point you are trying to make, but besides the fact that some of those guys are 3-4 DEs, Michael Johnson was still the top rated FA DE on NFL.com last year.
Should the Bucs have picked up more than just him? Absolutely. But they weren’t the only ones that thought he was going to be good this year.
It may be sad for you, but i’m not sad at all.
Remember the last 2-3 years when our team was ALL OVER free agency on the first day? Where did that get us.
We clearly have a plan in place and are following that plan.
If we made a bunch of “splash” moves in FA this year and none of them turned out, would you be back next year saying, “that damn L&L wasting all that money”?
March 11th, 2015 at 5:39 pm
In life, when the garbage stinks, you seal the bag and put it on the side of the road.
—————————-
That’s littering, Joe 😉
March 11th, 2015 at 5:51 pm
They paid for a message. An important message. If you do not perform here, you will be released. I love it
March 11th, 2015 at 6:24 pm
Great point Gus. And like you I love it too. Money well spent to send a very important message.
March 11th, 2015 at 6:30 pm
The only thing would have been if he were really much more injured than we knew. The team would know but just not reveal, but cutting him indicates that he really was just lousy.
March 11th, 2015 at 6:46 pm
All that wasted money… We should have just kept Revis.
March 11th, 2015 at 8:39 pm
Good teams don’t throw good money at deadbeats in the first place