Big Scouting Sunday For Tampa Bay
January 22nd, 2016
(Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com)
How bout that Bucs schedule next year!
Tampa Bay will play four games against teams in Sunday’s conference championship games.
Joe would expect Dirk Koetter and Mike Smith to be huddled up with nachos, notebooks, prayer beads and plates of nachos.
Obviously, the Bucs play Carolina twice in 2016, but they’ll also host Denver and travel to Arizona.
This past season, the Bucs had just one game against a conference finalist: at the Colts (minus Andrew Luck) — and they lost.
Joe realizes this opens a sore subject for Lovie Smith fans: The Bucs were 6-10 against a pretty miserable schedule this season. It’s unlikely they’ll get that kind of break in the fall.
Koetter has massive pressure on his shoulders. He’s got a franchise quarterback, a returning strong offense, a general manager talking playoffs, an ownership group that’s proven intolerant of losing, and a defensive coordinator that was pursuing a head coaching job.
Joe fears for Koetter if he can’t find a way to win improve the team.
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:16 pm
I understand that everyone is expecting a ton from Keotter his first year but our schedule is brutal, I guess I just wanna see improvement on the defense more than anything. The wins will come, we might have to be patient.
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:16 pm
Scout until your tongue falls out Koetter and company. But if you are gonna win in this NFl..you’d better draft and FA Defensively very good this off season. Find us a Defensive End and some secondary help. Ohhh..and pray Mankins returns for one more season. Turn this sorry A.. Defense around!
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:23 pm
No excuses SuperSam. The schedule is just..another plausible pretext to hide Koetters regime behind! Other NFL teams will have tough schedules also. All of the games are tough. Its hard to win in the NFL. Koetter and Smith are gonna have to..work their magic to get my support. And I’m..anxiously waiting. The clock is ticking. No excuses. As a Bucs fan for 40 plus yrs, I’ve heard every Spin and excuse in the book. Just WIN..by any means necessary. The honeymoon for the new coaches is almost over. Time to work and perform.
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:29 pm
teams change so much from year to year now…could turn out to be easy sked…lots of western trips is tough…don’t really care, LOVIE IS GONE…most importantly..
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:50 pm
Can’t wait for the excuses next season lol
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:53 pm
So, Joe, are you suggesting that he might be one and done? Or are you more concerned for Koetter’s personal sanity? Regardless, I hope he can thrive under pressure and lead us to bigger and better things. Won’t be easy, but a solid plan and a bit of luck, we can go places.
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:54 pm
Lovie’s team had a soft schedule and they still sucked, yet that didn’t stop Lovie’s Lovers from making excuses for him every week.
Look there’s already a few of them in this thread. They forget about all the excuses they dished out upon us when Lovie was the coach.
How come you guys forgot about all the excuses you dished out for Lovie?
January 22nd, 2016 at 12:57 pm
Crickets….
Ignorance is what it is. Straight up PURE ignorance.
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:02 pm
I want to see improvement on defense and consistency on offense. Also not get blown out in games.
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:03 pm
@MikeJohnson
All of the games are tough. Its hard to win in the NFL.
While I accept your basic premise..hell Philly beat NE this year after getting clobbered by the Bucs and Lions….it’s not really that simple.
There are WINNABLE games on every teams schedule..and some games that will be very competitive and some games we’re simply outmatched and have to bring our A+ game.
But that just shows how horribly the Bucs were coached this year. You’ve read the anti-Lovie crowd who frequently point out that Lovies record against winning teams is just abysmal. I used to defend your guy Lovie by pointing out that’s what you’re supposed to do..feast on the poor teams…win the games you SHOULD win..plus I wanted to see that stat from some other coaches. I’d like to know the winning % of Carroll and Belicheat against winning teams versus losing teams. Somehow I suspect it would be far better than Lovie’s.
That first game against the Titans was just EMBARRASING. Lovie should have just quit after that. Lose to a team at home with a rookie QB and a coach and team so unsettled that the HC ends up getting fired just a few weeks later.
That was TOTAL humiliation and I’ve never seen a team so poorly prepared!!!
Lovie simply needed to win ONE of the final four. He had two games at home against LOSING teams…he had momentum…and he and his team weren’t even competitive…again they were just embarrassing.
It’s not just the horrid record…it’s the lack of an even competitive team that got Lovie run.
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:03 pm
Sure….no such thing as moral victories….but it still matters how we play.
Here is what I will be looking for.
Playing competitively with good teams and beating bad teams
Vast improvement with pass defense
Jameis’ accuracy improvement
Development of 2014/15 picks
Play from our new rookies & FA acquisitions
Significantly fewer penalties
Overall aggressivenessn
and….most importantly…..no objects of the Realist’s wrath.
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:05 pm
BTW…The Panthers have already caught their first break for Sunday.
Horrible winter weather…hosting a team from warm weather Arizona..
If the Cards are to beat Carolina they need to let Palmer use his talented receivers against the Panthers safeties…go deep baby!! You are not going to run the ball against the Panthers front seven!
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:31 pm
The Bucs have it made..if Koetter doesn’t perform, all they need to do is satisfy the Rooney rule and hire Mike Smith as head coach.
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:38 pm
They really love nachos
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:44 pm
That is SAD that BUCS team with many good players had the 2nd easiest schedule in the NFL and there are still people who think Lovie deserved another year.
If the Bucs are competitive and play PRO football I will be happy.. That MIKEY MOUSE EXCUSE BALL is no more.
January 22nd, 2016 at 1:56 pm
The past is over, it might as well be ancient history. I welcome the tougher schedule and expect the Bucs and their brand new shiny coaching staff to contend right out the gate.
January 22nd, 2016 at 2:09 pm
Of course you Do Buccfan because you are a Lovie Train rider… If I cant have my couch coach then we better win the Super Bowl next year..
Do US BUCS FANS A FAVOR… GO be a fan of Lovie’s New team… There are soooo many teams looking for a coach IM SURE LOVIE WAS HIRED FOR HIS SUPREME COACHING ABLIITY…
Or you can just sit on his basement couch and talk about the good ole days.. Start with the game where MARIOTA DEMOLISHED HIS DEFENSE…hahahhhahahh
January 22nd, 2016 at 2:44 pm
I’m starting to feel even more upbeat about the Bucs chances this year … most of JBF commenters are finally starting to move on from 2015 and Lovie. As Chad & Jeremy sang many many years ago ‘But that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone’. Alleluia!
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:05 pm
We promoted Koetter to keep continuity on offense, sparing us from starting from scratch. That alone should keep us in most games. Especially considering four of our games, two each vs atl and no, are very winnable.
Its a good thing the offense will have a head start, cause who knows how the defense will look.
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:09 pm
“Can’t wait for the excuses next season lol”
Sounds like a pretty depressing life man
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Supersam Says
“I understand that everyone is expecting a ton from Keotter his first year but our schedule is brutal…”
That didn’t matter for most here…I wouldn’t expect patience to last more than 2 losses with Tampa fans.
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:19 pm
ATrain Says
“Of course you Do Buccfan because you are a Lovie Train rider… If I cant have my couch coach then we better win the Super Bowl next year..”
Speaking for myself, I was actually the first person here to suggest the hire of Koetter as OC, before Mike Smith was fired from the Falcons. So, even though I like Lovie, I do agree keeping him was more important than keeping Lovie…if they indeed had to choose. Personally, I believe the Glazers and Jason Licht jumped the gun. I don’t believe Koetter would have left Jameis…or be offered a HC job by someone else.
That said, I want Koetter to succeed, and as always, I’m more patient with our head coaches than most here.
Still…Tampa Fans held Lovie to a very high standard. Koetter, as stated, has a complete offense. At worse, he’s need a WR or two and will need to eventually replace our aging guard. If the Rams pulled off the greatest show on turf, then so can Koetter.
Fair is fair. Don’t complain if the current coach is held to a high standard if you held the last coach to one and called for his head.
I won’t personally be holding him to such a standard. Not at first. But I won’t stop anyone else from doing so.
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:22 pm
I’m taking a backseat for now to watch how things unfold this off season. I do expect a mostly defensive draft, and will be peeved if the first pick does not address our defensive line issues…but otherwise, I’m more curious than anything else at the moment.
I love the idea of trashing the Falcons every game with their former coaches though 😉
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:25 pm
9-7
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:34 pm
Sign Hardy, Mario, and Alshon Jeffrey…..move up to draft Ramsey, draft DE 2nd maybe Oakman, another O lineman…..we’ll be ready to hit that tough schedule head on!
January 22nd, 2016 at 3:48 pm
@MadMax
With you except for Hardy. We don’t need that kind of a dooooshbag on our team.
Seriously…he was given a second chance and how did he perform.
Did you guys not see the Bengals self destruct because they don’t mind having psychopaths on their team. Hardy is a bad seed. We do not need him.
I know that does not sit well with some here…but some here seem as if they would take the leader of ISIS if he could provide a good edge rush.
January 22nd, 2016 at 4:16 pm
Well, Im not that extreme, but we do need a little bit of nasty. I dont think he was heavily penalized while playing for the cowgirls. Im ready for something meaner and different but not isis (daesh) LOL.
January 22nd, 2016 at 4:33 pm
Understand Mad Max LMAO
An interesting tidbit about Hardy…
His first two years in the league he wasn’t even mediocre..he was nowhere near Jack Smith good…he had 3 sacks his first year and 4 sacks his second.
Then he blew up with 11 sacks his third and then the great 4th season with 15 sacks.
Of course he only got one sack his 5th year because he was suspended and last year in Dallas he only produced 6 sacks in 12 games…basically the same pace as Gerald McCoy.
In all honesty…all off field crap aside..I’d rather have Mario Williams who has enjoyed 5 years of double digit sacks. When utilized properly he’s the real deal.
His first three years in Buffalo produced 10.5-13-14.5 sacks. They went to the 3-4 and that was it for Super Mario. I think Mike Smith could use him effectively and get double digits from him once again.
Imagine this…GMC gets 8.5 sacks a year like clockwork…a little boost and he gets to 10…Super Mario gets 10…LVD gets 8…and Kwon gets 7..I mean this team could actually produce a killer pass rush. We haven’t even talked about Jack Smith or Gholston.
January 22nd, 2016 at 6:40 pm
Bonzai how was Lovie held to a higher standard?
Chucky was fired after a 9-7 season and being a Super Bowl Coach.
Raheem fired after 2 seasons.
Schiano fired after 2 seasons ( with a PILLHEAD QB and MRSA drama).
Lovie 2 seasons with a franchise QB..#1 pick.
With less wins in Two seasons than the previous 3 coaches had in One year…
WHAT HIGHER STANDARD?
January 22nd, 2016 at 8:37 pm
Atrain- Raheem got 3 seasons
As long as the team doesn’t look unprepared or get out coached 16 games a year or expect to win by flukey lucky plays like turnovers Koetter will be ok
January 22nd, 2016 at 9:29 pm
Sorry missed that one…
I just want to see professionals play the game with heart.
January 22nd, 2016 at 10:08 pm
You have to play the best to be the best. Jason Licht also currently has 14 FA on this team and has to decide who he will re-sign and who will be released. Take a moment to think back to the one game against a conference finalist..the Colts. We were coming off of the best game of the against the Philadelphia Eagles in which we dominated 45-18. We were beating the Colts 12-9 in the 3rd quarter with 07:48 to go. The story of the game? Horribly timed penalties, a missed FG and a dropped TD pass. With 04:46 to go in the 3rd, Winston threw deep left to Mike Evans for the go ahead TD, Evans drops the pass. Next play Conner Barth misses the FG and Logan Mankins is penalized for Unsportsmanlike Conduct. Colts went on to kick a FG then scored on their next series. We could have won this game. Lessons learned? Catch the ball, discipline with penalties and we need a new FG kicker.
January 22nd, 2016 at 10:09 pm
“I just want to see professionals play the game with heart.”
Yup. We just came out so flat, so unprepared, so many games over the last 2 seasons.
And a huge part of the reason that Lovie was held to such a high standard, with high expectations from the beginning, was because he told us to! He harped on this being a “4-12 team”, and both he and Licht said they don’t expect the fans to be patient, they expect to win now. They put those expectations upon themselves.
It’s wasn’t just the record (8-24), it’ was the amount of beatdowns and completely pathetic performances during that record.
Regarding free agents.. Mario Williams is certainly intriguing and must be explored. Don’t care for Hardy. Don’t understand why everyone wants Alshon. He is great but we have similar type WRs already, we need more speed.
Depending on FA, we may not draft a DE in round 1 or 2. There just aren’t very many this year and all the good ones might be gone by time we choose.
January 23rd, 2016 at 12:00 am
Bonzai, Lovie wasnt held to a higher standard. But after 2-14, there was zero room for error coming into this year. Then the first thing Lovie does is get chain whipped at home by the worst team in the league with a rookie qb making his debut. Tennessee won five games the past two years, abd we were not only one of those five wins, but we got destroyed after all offseason to prepare. Then starting 1-3, 2-4 and then 6-6 to 6-10, Lovie made multiple errors when one us too many.
The players totaly let us down the last four years, but Lovie chose to roll with them this year, and Lovie obviously had alot of say in those players on our defense, thats why Lovie’s not here and Licht is.
Im sick of it. Its a damn privelage to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but you wouldn’t know that by watching this garbage the past eight seasons.