Koetter’s “Job 1”
July 21st, 2016
Tampa Bay’s only Hall of Fame voter weighs in
Tampa Bay’s only voter for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, eye-RAH! Kaufman, (Father Dungy should buy him a new Cadillac for his heroics), weighed in all things Bucs on national radio.
It was month’s ago, just before the draft, but Kaufman was quite entertaining and thought-provoking talking to Mike Florio, the guru of ProFootballTalk.com and host of PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio. Joe particularly like Kaufman referenced the Bucs’ secondary as “the Frozen Four.”
Surmising the future of Dirk Koetter, Kaufman said the head coach was right in staunchly defending the production of Mike Evans last season — K-Y hands and all. But Koetter must get more from his No. 1 combination.
“For those of us who watched [Evans] every game, it was a very funky season,” Kaufman said. “He had some big games, went over 1,000 yards, but Mike, he dropped a ton of passes. And that chemistry between him and Winston, which is going to be so important moving on, just wasn’t there. That might be Job 1 for Koetter on the offensive side of the ball.”
So is that Job 1 for Koetter on offense, getting Evans clicking with America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston?
Joe can’t go there, though the Jameis-Evans chemistry could be 1a. Joe believes Koetter’s top job is keeping Jameis from absorbing the most hits in the NFC, as he did last year. Koetter must find a way, and a big part of that is transitioning J.R. Sweezy into this offensive line and making the right call at right tackle and center, where Koetter said Evan Smith and Joe Hawley are competing from the opening bell of training camp.
July 21st, 2016 at 10:46 am
Completely agree. Protecting Jameis has to be job 1 on offense. 1a (Winston to Evans connection) can’t even happen if Jameis is getting pummeled constantly.
July 21st, 2016 at 10:48 am
I agree totally Joe, Priority 1 is the offensive line!!!! Even though they went off the charts of what we all thought they were going to be, They bearly faced any defenses worth mentioning!!! and the ones they did, is where JW3 was put under extreme pressure with hits and forcing the ball out of his hands!!! Now that there has been some changes in personal its is paramount for the O-line to have another good year!!!!
July 21st, 2016 at 10:55 am
Get the ball out quicker…putting 8 linemen wont make a difference and will only stop the run and clog the LOS
Get the defense from stacking the line by quick slants/ LOS screens
Go get Boldin NOW
*Brady/Belicheck has won 13 divsion titles with sh!t lineman by getting the ball out before they get to Brady and backing off the LOS
*Jameis had 2nd most hits last year..watching the Rams Donald slam Jameis all game long was painful
“I wanted to drafted by the tampa bay Bucs and play in front of poster Kobe Faker” Sterling Shepard
July 21st, 2016 at 11:21 am
Just a thought… Maybe teams went after Jameis last year to try to rattle the rookie? This year they may fall back into coverage more as the pressure really didn’t get to him. He did get hit a lot but the sacks were not there…
July 21st, 2016 at 11:22 am
Agree also… keep them freak maulers out of Winston’s area code. If he goes down and can’t get up here comes Glennon in. If you can’t keep Jameis up and structured, how are you going to keep MG upright and uncrumpled?
July 21st, 2016 at 11:47 am
#1 is DEE FENSE!!!!
A solid D means Winston won’t have to throw the ball so much. Is there a better sure-fire way to keep him upright?
July 21st, 2016 at 11:56 am
Disagree with Joe. The Bucs Defense is the teams no 1 concern. The offense will be OK. The line will play slightly above average. Even good at times. But you’d better be able to stop somebody in this league. What good is a defeat of 21-20? Its still a loss. And your defense failed to stop a wining TD or field goal. Our Defense played Outstanding in 5 games last yr. This lets me know they were very capable. Players were not consistent. We lost quite a few games by 3 or less. You guys had better be praying our Defense has greatly improved.
July 21st, 2016 at 11:59 am
@realist my idea of extreme pressure would be more like Newton
Brady faced against Denver.those were beat downs that we need to prevent this year.
July 21st, 2016 at 12:46 pm
Ok, keep Winston protected better and stronger with a better prepared and more aware defense, how in the farthest reaches of the imagination can the defense not be better, are the key to wins and Bucs fans happiness. It’s so close I can smell it, like a short timer ready to released from the Army.
July 21st, 2016 at 12:50 pm
* be released… the grammer police might object.
July 21st, 2016 at 1:03 pm
Folks keep blaming the OLine for all the hits on Jameis, but it went much deeper than that I think. Jameis was just a rookie last year and as a result he made a lot of rookie mistakes. Key among those was holding the ball too long on far too many plays. My suspicion is that he’ll be MUCH smarter along those lines this year (no one likes to get pummeled).
Our OLine is good at run-blocking, but only fair at pass-blocking. Last year I think that Coach kept the TEs in too much to help in the pass blocking. Sometimes it’s necessary (depending upon what the defense is doing?) but I think we over-did it, and as a consequence our TEs didn’t get nearly the number of touches that they should’ve. Gut feel is that this year will be different, and the TEs will be used more effectively.
July 21st, 2016 at 1:21 pm
You guys talking about DEFENSE need to read better. This post is about Koetters Job #1 on OFFENSE. Period. This particular entry has nothing to do with defense.
Now that’s been established – discuss accordingly.
July 21st, 2016 at 1:34 pm
and to go along with Defense Rules point.We often lose another skill player due to extra lineman sets in both passing and running plays.Koetters offense
relies on longer pass completions which would also result in holding the ball longer.But I like the the fact that the no. 1,and 2 WR average 16.3 yards per catch.That said the Denver pass rush may need a different game plan because Cam Newton got killed back there waiting for long developing plays to open up.
July 21st, 2016 at 2:21 pm
@Ben- One begets the other. If we’re ahead because the defense can actually stop people, there is no reason for Jameis to be dropping back 30-40 times. If we’re playing from behind like all of last year, defenses are going to tee off.
I get your point though. If we get good play from the o-line and continue to be balanced on offense, the other “issues” should take care of themselves.
July 21st, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Yeah I agree with Joe. I personally think me was uptight without his running mate Vjax. Not ready for spotlight thing. Guys a beast even with drops if take him. I think he’ll be better on drops with Vjax out there.
July 21st, 2016 at 3:42 pm
he dropped a ton of passes in one game…6 of his 11 drops I believe…and had one or two crucial drops which made it seem worse than it seems. All of a sudden he has a dropping issue? No….not if you look at the drops from his rookie season which was far fewer.
July 21st, 2016 at 4:25 pm
@feelthepewterpower … I agree with you about Mike Evans. His drops are being overblown by many. Compare his stats with VJax (who I think is awesome by the way) and folks might see Mike in a little different light.
Evans has 142 catches in 2 seasons (targeted 270 times). That’s a 52.6% reception rate. In those 2 yrs he’s averaged 1,128 yds receiving per season, 15.9 yds/reception and has only fumbled once.
VJax has 525 catches in 11 seasons (targeted 1,003 times). That’s 52.3% reception rate. In those 11 yrs he’s averaged 810 yds receiving per season, 17.0 yds/reception and has only fumbled 3 times (that’s incredible in 11 seasons).
Point is … very similar WR skill sets and they fulfill similar roles … Both get targeted deep often. Reception rates are virtually identical and yds/reception is similar. Perhaps their both being around 50% reception rate is the nature of the beast for WRs like the two of them?
July 21st, 2016 at 5:13 pm
So true,agree with feel the power and defense rules and it takes both
QB and receiver to complete a reception.longer passes have lower completion percentage
July 21st, 2016 at 6:11 pm
11 drops is not a ton & 6 of those came in the giants game i believe
July 22nd, 2016 at 7:35 am
Job 1 as a HC. Win.