“His Name Is Greg Schiano”
May 22nd, 2015
Too intense?
Sometimes, Joe wonders what football people are watching or thinking when they make dumb decisions, because even a guy walking around with a white cane can see they are bad moves.
Take last year, Joe may have been the only guy locally who wrote very early and often that the offensive line of the Bucs had major question marks.
Joe caught all sorts of hell for that from many quarters. Guess what? The line was worse than Joe anticipated.
When the Bucs signed journeyman Josh McCown as the savior quarterback, Joe scratched his head (and many other parts of his body) trying to add up the logic. Joe shrugged his shoulders thinking, “Hey, Lovie Smith got a team to the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman. Perhaps he sees something in him?”
McCown, as we all learned, turned out to be turnover-prone and nose-dived the Bucs right into the Gulf, winning the Chase for Jameis.
After last season and the questions Joe had that turned out to be glaring, Joe reverted to a simple philosophy learned way back in journalism school: Trust your eyes.
A move that happened before the current Bucs regime came to town is something that gnaws at Joe to this day. It was letting defensive end Michael Bennett walk away for no good reason. No, Bennett is not Reggie White. But he was good. And for a team that was crying for pressure from the edge, it absolutely made zero sense to let go of a decent edge rusher who could also play the run.
Bennett, much like Darrelle Revis a season later, left the Bucs and won a Super Bowl right away with his new team, Seattle.
Letting Bennett escape made no sense then, made no sense when he won a Super Bowl, made no sense when he was riding a cop’s bike in glee winning his second NFC championship, and it makes absolutely no sense now as summer is about to begin.
Bennett, who still follows the Bucs closely and is tight with Bucs stud Gerald McCoy, opened up about Tampa Bay in a recent radio interview with KXTG-FM 102.9 in Portland. In particular, he talked about playing for former Bucs commander Greg Schiano.
Bennett lauded Schiano’s football acumen but thought the way he drove players fried the team mentally, which was Schiano’s downfall.
Bennett discussed playing under different coaching styles — he called Seattle coach Pete Carroll “Willie Wonka” — then fielded a question about playing for “a stiff.” Bennett opened up about his former head coach.
“I have done it before,” Bennett said. “It’s not fun. His name is Greg Schiano. The man is crazy.
“He is a great coach but he was just hard on everybody. Comes from a different background, like a military style-like background. Like the 1996 Bill Belichick. He is really tough. Overall, I think his football knowledge is pretty good.
“I think he loses guys who are like ‘Oh, man.’ Football is his whole life. A player’s life isn’t all about football. When football is a coach’s whole life, he wants to make life all about football. A player’s life is to do things outside of football. You want to step away and re-tune. Try to get back to the way you were and enjoy your family. Football is so dangerous, I think fans [don’t recognize] that. They see the score but they don’t see the injuries and the pain the players go through, trying to get up [in the morning]. Half the stuff people play with the NFL, others would be out of work for seven months.”
That’s not all Bennett had to say. He talked about Bucs fans and also why he thinks the Bucs have had but one winning season since the team jettisoned Chucky.
Joe will share more of Bennett’s interview later in this holiday weekend.
Interesting point about Schiano that Bennett made. In the rare times Schiano has granted interviews since he left the Bucs, he has all but admitted he may have been too over-the-top.
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:51 pm
I don’t really understand how the offensive line rant leads into Michael Bennett quotes. I guess last seasons OL woes must be inserted into every article on this website?
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:53 pm
no surprise about greg schiano. the surprise was not even talking to the guy and trying to see what kind of contract he was looking for. Dominick let this guy walked then he went and won a superbowl playing for peanuts…..yep great they found lavonte david but you already had a inside outside pass rusher and you let him walk for bowers and daniel te’o nesheim and that’s the way they chose to go out
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:56 pm
smh
It underscores that even a common fan can sometimes see a glaring mistake made by an NFL professional. Letting Bennett walk was a mistake, just like Joe’s first impressions of the offensive line, despite what Joe was told otherwise. Thought Joe made that clear? 🙁
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:56 pm
Very interesting and valid points. Especially the part about injuries suffered by the players.
I think Bennett really irked Buc coaches when he questioned the defense called against Washington in RG III’s rookie season. Buc coaches kept calling for him to take inside rush pattern and RG would just roll around the pressure for big gains.
He was right of course. Since then. most lines want the ends collapsed the end position from the outside and not to rush past where the QB’s launching point is.
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:59 pm
Damn, tough crowd. People (wrongly) b!tch about too much Jameis. Now people b!tch about Joe is pointing out the offensive line stinks.
Let Joe guess, he’s not “positive” enough? For a friggin’ 2-14 team???
You know, if you don’t like the subject of a story, no one is putting a gun to your head to read it. smh
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:00 pm
Joe seems to forget the offensive line the year before was a joke. Way to many QB sacks and sporadic ground attack.
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Yet three of the guys on that same godawful line the Bucs ran off had better years with new teams, two of them starting for playoff teams, which tells Joe all they needed was to be coached up.
As Raheem Morris famously said, “I will tolerate you until I can replace you.” Seems the Bucs haven’t yet replaced the guys on that line they ran off.
Perfectly fine to run off guys who didn’t perform. One would hope in doing so, the team would seek an upgrade, not a downgrade.
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:03 pm
Dominik was the GM that let Bennett go. Why does the local media continually give this guy a pass for his blunders? He must’ve been a really good source for the media to continually give him a pass
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:13 pm
There more to it as to why Bennet walked. But the Joe’s and the fold at Pewter Report won’t say. They don’t want to get blacked balled by the Org. Just like they wont report the true story behind the Freeman saga. Or else no players will talk to them any more. They only report a small sample of the info they actually know.
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:18 pm
On Freeman: Trust Joe, if he “knew” the truth, Joe would write about it. Like you, Joe has heard the unsubstantiated, undocumented rumors. Joe has spoken with many top-level officials and no one has concrete evidence or is sharing concrete evidence as to what happened. Lots of smoke; no fire. The most plausible thing Joe heard — again, from a suit — is that a Bucs player (no longer on the team) got Freeman hooked on painkillers. Again, that is just a rumor. Joe cannot prove that, but it does add up given that Freeman had alarm clock issues and once made a radio appearance where he sounded as if he just woke up.
The closest Joe has gotten to solving the riddle was a Bucs coach on Schiano’s staff told Joe about Freeman, “He needs help and I hope he gets it.” Said coach did not elaborate.
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:26 pm
Sometimes, I feel like Joe is a prophet. I swear he is thee only guy who continually foresees the bucs glaring holes and needs. Its amazing. I vote Joe for next Bucs GM!
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:28 pm
I hope one day we find out what really went down with freeman but I don’t think we ever will.
I don’t know what else you guys want joe to write about. I’m sick of all the Jameis articles too, but it’s the offseason. What is there to write about? Our new shiny qb, and how much everything from last year sucked.
Can’t wait for real football season to start. Go Bucs!
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Eventually we will. Might be a while. Here is what Joe can say from talking with several people: There are all sorts of rumors of Freeman doing drugs, specifically in public. Yet, with every person under the age of 60 having a camera phone of some sort, if Freeman was truly that into narcotics, wouldn’t a photo or video surface somewhere in the last three or four years? Not one?
Think about it: Jameis goes to a Lightning game and Joe’s Twitter timeline is flooded with Jameis photos at the game. Yet Freeman (if you believe the rumors) had to be carried out of bars, and there is no photo or video and anyone who had one could sell it to TMZ and make thousands of dollars.
That tells Joe all you need to know about that rumor.
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:55 pm
hello morons.
bennett had a bad wing. so the odds were against him.
who could blame the bucs for not ponying up the dough for a guy with a bum wing. ig they signed him and he ended up hurt everyone would still be blaming schiano or dominic
so much hate. schiano was just trying to teach men. not his fault todays youth all want to be coddled. they got it. lovie let’s em wear the floppy hats and flip flops.
result 2-14 simple as that.
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:59 pm
hey joe. the white lady is VERY, VERY easy to hide. turn your head, take a bump and back to the bar. rarely would one need to be carried away when that stuff keeps you going for as long as you want or as much as you can drink. hell, you can be pool side @ a crowded pool taking bumps and no one would be the wiser.
May 22nd, 2015 at 2:12 pm
Captain Doom! nailed it. thank you
May 22nd, 2015 at 2:18 pm
Bennett’s asking price with the Bucs was rather moderate. He wasn’t trying to break the bank or hold up Team Glazer. That is a fair point.
May 22nd, 2015 at 2:38 pm
Michael Bennett……America’s Best DE Before, During and After the Bucs”
Greg Schiano…….Italy’s Head Coach or Germany’s Head Coach”…..(for all the Schiano is a Nazi haters)
May 22nd, 2015 at 3:26 pm
Yes, in hindsight I may have been too hard on these Sally’s…but at least I never took a 4-12 team and transformed it into a 2-14 one. Look for me to resurface in the NFL after I’m done cashing Glazer checks (hey you wanna can me after a QB in was handcuffed with melts down like an ice cream cone in Florida I’m gonna take your money!).
May 22nd, 2015 at 3:31 pm
Lets get off of the subject of Josh Freeman’s downfalls; all he did was give us our last winning season and break every franchise passing record in a season.
Yes Freeman sh!t the bed in a contract year but thank god we’re not locked into another five years of his debauchery.
The real problem is Dominik and Schiano. After Dominik signed Kellen Winslow fresh off of two knee surgeries to the highest contract for a tight end EVER; and then started his draft regime with high picks Josh Freeman, Adrian Clayborn, DaQuan Bowers, Arrelious Benn, and Brian Price it is no wonder poor Raheem started making comments to the press about wanting Caddy and Bennett back.
I picture Dominik and Schiano on the tip of the Titanic screaming I’m the King of the World, (while bidding against themselves) to trade for Revis which lasted all of one year. Meanwhile the Jets drafted DROY with our pick. It’s been a hard decade of being a Bucs fan, lets just hope that under Jameis if we’re gonna do it; we’re gonna do it real big!
May 22nd, 2015 at 3:41 pm
“You know, if you don’t like the subject of a story, no one is putting a gun to your head to read it. smh”
If you don’t like my comment, you don’t have to read that. Article title: “His Name Is Greg Schiano”. Why would I think there is a reference to the bad O-line of 2014 by that Article title? But its your website and you can insert negative into every article you write so later you can say ‘I told you so’ if things go bad.
May 22nd, 2015 at 5:54 pm
@Joe
Seeing that the rumor mentioned a player Jettisoned from the squad that might have gotten Freeman hooked, Could this said player be the “Toe’s on the Line” commenter? Sure would like a cryptic response since you can neither confirm or deny for legal reasons.
May 22nd, 2015 at 7:08 pm
@Joe
Let Joe guess, he’s not “positive” enough? For a friggin’ 2-14 team???
LOL. Don’t worry. I’m over the top positive and so we need you to balance me. 🙂
As for your Freeman posts…excellent points…especially about the cell phone video and the TMZ appetite.
Pain killers do make the most sense. If true that’s just sad. JFro should have simply come clean as Favre did when he battled his addiction. Fans and even non fans are sympathetic to NFL players getting addicted to pain killers because of what Bennett pointed out in his interview. They go to work with injuries that would sideline most of us for six months from our jobs.
If JFro had a problem with pain killers he could have been right up front and the team and fans would have supported him. It’s the “fun” drugs…the white lady…weed…alcohol that people get so righteous about.
May 22nd, 2015 at 7:16 pm
Thanks joe. I’ve heard similar rumors re: Freeman, but also wondered how there was never a single photo leaked or something of that nature, if he was indeed partying that hard.
@winstonbomb3, I think you’re a bit confused on those things. Bennett was here after Raheem… the schiano regime is the one who got rid of him. Conversely, schiano was not even here yet when freeman, clayborn, bowers, or benn were drafted. #history
May 22nd, 2015 at 10:01 pm
Everyone could see the bucs intentionally didn’t bring in online last year so joes claim is as silly as his attitude about Tebow. And the idea Schiavo had no people skills was well established in the Josh Freeman debacle. It’s better to print g nothing than it is to embarrass yourself imo.
May 22nd, 2015 at 11:51 pm
Can’t say Maha. But, buy Joe a beer and you would be shocked what you may hear (ahem).
May 22nd, 2015 at 11:56 pm
StPeteBucsFan:
Good points.
May 23rd, 2015 at 3:14 am
Joe Says:
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:56 pm
I don’t really understand how the offensive line rant leads into Michael Bennett quotes. I guess last seasons OL woes must be inserted into every article on this website?
smh
It underscores that even a common fan can sometimes see a glaring mistake made by an NFL professional. Letting Bennett walk was a mistake, just like Joe’s first impressions of the offensive line, despite what Joe was told otherwise. Thought Joe made that clear? 🙁
Joe, please do not apologize for some’s reading comprehension.
May 23rd, 2015 at 8:53 am
@joe great point about Freeman. I have read all about the Freeman rumors and him partying it up in S Tampa but not one photo has ever. Popped up in the internet.
In one of your responses you mentioned that you were ok with them getting rid of under performing players, but not downgrading. Doesn’t it appear that they have repeated the mistakes again his off season. They let two defensive ends and two safeties go without having quality replacements for them. They didn’t address it at all in the draft and they picked up back up/practice squad players to fill the voids.
May 23rd, 2015 at 8:54 am
Every time Bennett’s name is mentioned, you keep going back to the Dominick regime letting him go for nothing… so Joe, what was Bennett’s asking price? Hindsight, whatever it was, was worth it, agreed… but we can guarantee at the time he wanted more money than what Seattle offered him, and more years.
Look, Bennett looked amazing pressuring Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, but to this day, the guy still hasn’t had a double-sack year, and apparently there’s been more than one report out of Seattle claiming he wants a new contract…they just gave him one! He’s making $8M a year!
Does anybody believe whatever the Bucs would have signed him for, he would have been content with?
May 24th, 2015 at 2:13 pm
loggedontosay Says:
May 23rd, 2015 at 3:14 am
Joe Says:
May 22nd, 2015 at 12:56 pm
I don’t really understand how the offensive line rant leads into Michael Bennett quotes. I guess last seasons OL woes must be inserted into every article on this website?
smh
It underscores that even a common fan can sometimes see a glaring mistake made by an NFL professional. Letting Bennett walk was a mistake, just like Joe’s first impressions of the offensive line, despite what Joe was told otherwise. Thought Joe made that clear? 🙁
“Joe, please do not apologize for some’s reading comprehension.”
Good job with the copy and paste, and you wrote a whole line.
May 25th, 2015 at 12:03 am
Schiano was a childish idiot.. Dom was worst ever as GM
No wonder this team sucked so bad when Lovie got here