“Lovie Smith Doesn’t Know Anything About Him”
May 21st, 2015
Bucs rookie left tackle Donovan Smith
What is going on at One Buc Palace?
Is it possible that Bucs overlord of football operations Lovie Smith has handed off all things offensive line to general manager Jason Licht and O-line coach George Warhop?
Longtime Buccaneers beat writer Rick Stroud seems to imply that is the case. Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 this week (audio below), Stroud says the Tampa Bay head coach is in the dark on the No. 34 overall pick in the draft, the guy pegged to start at left tackle.
“I don’t know anything about Donovan Smith. You know what? Lovie Smith doesn’t know anything about him, either, for that matter,” Stroud said.
Thoughts of the Buccaneers offensive line are scaring people. Joe gets that. Nobody knows what to expect from the unit charged with blocking for America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston. The O-line was bad last year, and this year’s improvements are (drumroll) a couple of second-round picks, one from mighty Division III Hobart.
Joe doesn’t know what Stroud was talking about. Regardless, this kind of talk is sure to turn more hair gray across Tampa Bay. But the notion that Lovie is removed from all things offensive line could be considered a good thing, given his track record.
May 21st, 2015 at 10:02 am
Warhop is terrible, and I don’t expect any improvement until we get a better coach. Quality soldiers can still be ineffective if the general doesn’t know what he’s doing…
May 21st, 2015 at 10:06 am
If true, this is very positive. That means the Glazers clipped his wings and are now letting Licht do his job. Like Joe mentioned, given Lovie’s horrendous personnel track record and mediocre coaching record he needs to focus on one job not two. Let the GM do his thing and Lovie coach Defense and spew stupid crap to the media weekly. That’s a good role for Mr. Smith
“We did not want to score points”
May 21st, 2015 at 10:24 am
Warhop seems very bright in some interviews I’ve seen. But he is mainly responsible for bringing Cousins here. So I wonder about his ability to assess talent. A big worry for sure.
May 21st, 2015 at 10:30 am
Lovie should defer to Licht and Koetter for all offense related decisions.
May 21st, 2015 at 10:36 am
Licht is drafting and signing free agents based on what he perceives as potential. This is a very slippery slope and bites you in the ass if the coaches dont perform and get it put of these guys.
May 21st, 2015 at 10:36 am
If there isn’t anymore context I take that comment to mean he’s unproven and nobody has seen him play. Nothing more, nothing less. If you want to read into it more, it’s possible that’s what he meant, but not how I would read it
May 21st, 2015 at 10:46 am
This notion that Lovie makes the personnel decisions is fallacy. Lovie may have the final say on the 53, but Licht and his scouts are assembling the 90 Lovie will get to choose from.
May 21st, 2015 at 11:06 am
If he plays anything close to Roman Oben it would be good. Not saying Roman was the $hit but he was serviceable.
May 21st, 2015 at 11:19 am
who removes themselves from one position of the draft that sounds stupid. does anyone really think lovie has anything to do with how bad the offense is outside of calls he makes on game day or anything to do with drafting of offense players I mean seriously get real. if he’d let marcus arroyo stink up the field with his play calling I seriously don’t think he bothers. I think lovie’s lone picks were Charles sims and kwon alexander…licht and his scouts are running this and lovie doesn’t have time to concern himself with scouting or free agents then again if football doesn’t start until November maybe he does have time…final say on 53 man roster he doesn’t bring them in
May 21st, 2015 at 11:29 am
Given Lovie’s history with failure at o-line can we all agree that him not knowing anything about one of them is probably for the best?
Let the GM and to a lesser extent the so-far inept O-line coach be the point men on getting the right lineman. Lovie has his strengths but identifying talent on the offensive line has never been mentioned as one of them.
May 21st, 2015 at 11:29 am
I agree with Tmax and view this positively. Either the Glazers made the move or Lovie realizes his weaknesses and turned to Licht.
As far as Warhop…yes he did a horrid job last year…but he may be another piece of our puzzle that benefits greatly from our new OC and new QB coach.
May 21st, 2015 at 11:34 am
“If there isn’t anymore context I take that comment to mean he’s unproven and nobody has seen him play.”
In football context, then that is not good.
May 21st, 2015 at 11:42 am
“…for America’s Quarterback, Tom Brady.”
fixed it for you. 🙂
May 21st, 2015 at 11:42 am
lol this is nothing like when greg schiano hired ron cooper the lsu defensive backs coach and the pass defense became the worst in nfl history. Warhop is an ok coach but cant say he did a horrible job if big name free agents Collins and cousins got fired after one season, no one on the line played good and im pretty sure it had more to do with talent than coaching….add in a clueless quarterbacks coach running the offense and you get the disaster we saw. now I can give lovie most of the blame for the free agent signings last year
May 21st, 2015 at 11:44 am
“does anyone really think lovie has anything to do with how bad the offense is outside of calls he makes on game day or anything to do with drafting of offense players I mean seriously get real. if he’d let marcus arroyo stink up the field with his play calling I seriously don’t think he bothers. I think lovie’s lone picks were Charles sims and kwon alexander…licht and his scouts are running this and lovie doesn’t have time to concern himself with scouting or free agent”
@ buc4lyfe
you high man? saying he doesn’t have time for looking at players? he’s not responsible for how bad the offense was?
what next? he only has time to cash his check, stop off at the grocery store on the way home and hope we succeed all while saying he’s not responsible for failure, but success is all his doing?
GTFO
May 21st, 2015 at 12:02 pm
@robert 9
you sound stupid man and until I see lovie calling offensive plays on sundays im gonna lean towards the side of common sense. the coach takes responsibility for the team as a whole duh damn why do you need a GM and a scouting department Rober 9 says lovie smith is scouring the waiver wire during the season, he’s the one who found Jacquies smith i guess lol shut up man please how can any head coach run a draft? when the season is over you start watching tape of the guys your scouting team and gm think fit best in your scheme….we arent even drafting defensive players…dude please dont post to me your annoying me with your stupidity…you took my post and exaggerated everything maybe you should jump off the skyway like I predicted you would
May 21st, 2015 at 12:02 pm
“Licht is drafting and signing free agents based on what he perceives as potential. This is a very slippery slope and bites you in the ass if the coaches dont perform and get it put of these guys.”
lol that’s literally what every GM does. Every draft pick is drafted based upon their potential. Every FA is signed based upon their potential fit within a new organization. There is no guarenteed thing really unless the GM is signing Peyton Manning or something
May 21st, 2015 at 12:16 pm
Perhaps he spent too much time checking out Winston and did not allow additional time to research other players
May 21st, 2015 at 12:36 pm
“you took my post and exaggerated everything”
@ buc4lyfe
I just copied and pasted. perhaps when you actually read what you typed reality hit and you realized just how ignorant it actually sounds.
so, lovie is not responsible for the draft, for free agents, the offense etc. according to you. please tell me what he IS responsible for. making coffee?
May 21st, 2015 at 12:42 pm
@robert 9
you are really slowl he has someone to make coffee, he’s only responsible for cream and sugar lol
May 21st, 2015 at 12:59 pm
These two clowns just seem to be blabbering to fill up dead air. Listened to the recording and I have no idea what he was referring to in regards to this story and I doubt if he was asked, if we would have either.
This is why I subscribe to NFL Sirrus now.
May 21st, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Buc53 Says
“Warhop is terrible, and I don’t expect any improvement until we get a better coach.”
I don’t feel that’s really fair.
Consider everything that went wrong last year. Tedford’s offense, then NOT Tedford’s offense, then no offense. Injuries out the nose. Horrible offensive line players. Bad play calling. A failure fill in OC.
If we’re honest, Warhop may have just been given a very bad situation that was impossible to work with. Things have changed now, so maybe he will turn out to be good.
I know this…he’s here for this year at least. You can either hope he sucks and you’re right…or you can hope he does great and you are wrong.
Which would you prefer?
May 21st, 2015 at 2:20 pm
gotbbucs Says
“Licht is drafting and signing free agents based on what he perceives as potential. This is a very slippery slope and bites you in the ass if the coaches don’t perform and get it put of these guys.”
I agree completely. This is especially true when ALL of the signed players have injury issues.
Here’s hoping they find some surprises among the rookies.
May 21st, 2015 at 2:30 pm
Warhop is TERRIBLE someone showed a list of the putrid job he has done and the offenses he has been aprt of in the NFL and then those teams getting better once he has left. Both he and Licht have a losing track record with personnel decisions and if Lovoe doesnt know anything about our new OL then it might mean there is a rift between lovie and licht….it is lovies team he has to be able to tell licht this is what my OC needs this is what my DC needs, these are our need areas…..2-14 and looking worse….. davin joseph, donald penn, and zuttah were already in teh building…add demar dotson and dietrich smith that is a decent line
May 21st, 2015 at 3:14 pm
Great point about the benefit of Lovie not being involved.
May 21st, 2015 at 6:08 pm
We finally get a great QB and Joes gonna call him “america’s QB” F’N BS Joe!
May 21st, 2015 at 7:00 pm
The o line will be okay. Nothing more, nothing less. I expect Jameis and his receiving duo will actually make the line look a little better than they are.
Wasnt Cann on the board when we picked Marpet? We really missed out on a potential road grader. I hope Marpet plays the way Licht expects. Otherwise we could be talking about the guy who reached for division three bust Marpet with AJ Cann sitting right there. I hope this works.
May 21st, 2015 at 9:43 pm
Well Lovie being in the dark on offense is not really a bad thing as he hopefully will just let Koetter handle that side of the ball. Warhop worries me though, hopefully if he is given some talented guys to work with then we will see better results this season as opposed to last year’s train wreck….
May 21st, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Warhop is a flop. How do you leave a DGAF turnstile like Collins out there in a lost season when you have young talent like Pamphile that would benefit from some game action? Warhop realizes his mistakes a year too late.
May 21st, 2015 at 10:08 pm
Marpet will be a beast
Smith…. No idea
May 21st, 2015 at 11:03 pm
John Gruden ran the offense, and Monte Kiffin ran the Defense
That being said, Stoud needs to lay off the banned substances- if he thinks Lovie doesn’t know Donavan Smith.
Donavan stated he met 4 times with the Bucs hierarchy prior to being drafted. Lovie was there 3 times.
Disgusting.our local reporters just throw out anything- hoping something floats.
Pathetic. Don’t do any research or “reporting”. Just make things up randomly
May 22nd, 2015 at 1:20 am
How about you do your job…..I’ll do my job….everyone does their job….and we will get it done. If Warhop doesn’t do his job this year…overboard.