Winner!
January 1st, 2017
Booted the stench of losing
Stand with pride, Coach Koetter.
And carry your famous big mother f^%%’n stick all around town this offseason.
Koetter accomplished what eluded the last two Bucs head coaches: a winning season. Your Bucs are 9-7 and heading in the right direction.
The stench of losing has been stomped out of the locker room. Hell, the Bucs even finished 4-4 this season at the Den of Depression!
Koetter did one hell of a job as a first-year head coach, and what’s exciting is there’s still solid room for coaching improvement. (Don’t throw the same damn wide receiver screen over and over again. Brutal!)
Joe does not underestimate how rough it was for Koetter to lose Vincent Jackson to injury after five games, and some could argue Jackson never showed up beginning on opening day.
Koetter also lost veteran receiver Cecil Shorts for several games, and Louis Murphy never played. The receiving corps was decimated, and Koetter’s star running back was battling demons and a lost burst for who knows how long.
All kinds of things went wrong for Koetter’s offense, but it still scratched its way to nine wins and a new NFL record for America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winstson, with plenty of help from a defense that made a historic midseason turnaround.
Joe believes Koetter did change the culture and significantly altered standards at One Buc Palace. And he found a way to win quickly and do it his way.
Now here the Bucs sit with mountain of free agency dollars and stability in the head coaching ranks — and with a true franchise QB who will only get better.
What a time to be a Bucs fan.
In Koetter we trust.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:32 pm
Lovie who?
January 1st, 2017 at 4:34 pm
Bring on Dalvin Cook!
January 1st, 2017 at 4:35 pm
Good season Bucs .Go get some help for the offense.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:36 pm
This is a team who’s offense will look drastically different next year. 2 new WRs. A rook and a FA. Will have a new premier RB from a deeeeeep draft of rbs. Maybe even a second TE. Just imagine if they dedicate resources to the offense this offseason! We could avg 35 a game!!!
January 1st, 2017 at 4:38 pm
Jake Butt was hurt. Supposed to be a 2nd round pick, but tore his ACL in the bowl game. Wouldn’t mind drafting him in the later rounds to go with brate.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:38 pm
Please bring in speed for the offense please
January 1st, 2017 at 4:40 pm
That’s how you win!!! Ugly yes but you always win in 2017!
January 1st, 2017 at 4:41 pm
“And carry your famous big mother f^%%’n stick all around town this offseason”
Joe, I think there are indecency laws against this sort of thing. 😜
January 1st, 2017 at 4:41 pm
Carolina got what they came here to get ( A top-10 pick ) they will pick 7th or 8th. They did everything in their powers to throw the game.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:45 pm
Without that defence how good are they ??????
January 1st, 2017 at 4:45 pm
“Joe, I think there are indecency laws against this sort of thing. 😜”
just ask kellen winslow ii!
January 1st, 2017 at 4:47 pm
Without that defence how good were they this year ???
January 1st, 2017 at 4:49 pm
Did anyone else feel strange at the end…like a loss wouldn’t have been a big deal after all? Don’t get me wrong…I’m glad they won. I am curious where they will draft vs where they would have with a loss. Cue the hate…:)
January 1st, 2017 at 4:51 pm
@Joe
Didn’t you say earlier In the season, if the Bucs win out at home, you would drop the Den or Depression? This team is not the same team as it was last year or even earlier this season.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:52 pm
That was one of the worst games I have seen in recent memory, but at least we won. Next year I hope we see lots of improvement from Jameis and the offense. Jameis was just not good (again) for the majority of this game. For someone who talks so much about being a leader, he needs to walk the talk. Very disappointed in him for the later part of this season. He needs to take it to the next level and be elite, not just talk about being elite.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:52 pm
Thank god for the defense!
January 1st, 2017 at 4:53 pm
This 9-7 season was all on the defense. We had the playoffs in reach and the offense failed. Celebrating a 9-7 season when you basically controlled your own destiny for the playoffs is a loser mentality. Just like when i hear smith and marpet giggling and talking about how good they think they played on total access. It’s pretty scary when the worst part of the team (o-line) thinks they are playing well. Who is telling these guys this?
January 1st, 2017 at 4:55 pm
I think only the second coach in bucs history to have a winning season in first year coaching the team.
Extremely well done.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:57 pm
Now please hire an OC to run your offense as you seem overmatched in that regard. The Bucs surprisingly won on defense and did almost nothing on offense, mainly due to injuries and incredibly horrible ultra conservative playcalling. Dirk gets plenty of credit for the 9-7 win and it was much better than anyone reasonably could have thought – I mostly like him, but man, the offensive play calling was awful. Sure losing multiple offense starters at every skill position kills you, but nothing about having a 5th string RB in there means you run it up the middle on every 1st down over and over and over and over again. I think Dirk will figure it out and hopefully Dirk can keep Mike Smith around (who would have thought anyone would want that after the Atlanta home game). Things are looking bright, Winston was great this year regardless of what the morons think, now the team needs to get him more than Evans to throw to – I mean year Brate played well and Humphries does OK versus zone defenses, but you need more than UDFA’s as backups, you need some people with the skill to win 1-on-1 and Evans is the only WR/TE that they have that can do that.
January 1st, 2017 at 4:58 pm
Eric – Hum, not sure if that’s a good stat or not. Gruden was the only other coach to do that, and Gruden had his best year in his first year… Hopefully that’s not the case again (and I don’t think it will be).
January 1st, 2017 at 4:58 pm
Not all that positive to be honest.
Had a very Lovie esque end to the season. Just played against a team who was begging us to beat them.
Dirk Koetter’s offensive play calling is average at best. Jameis is inconsistent, but at least his excuse is he’s young. You can just feel Dirk taking the life out of the offense.
Jason Licht will need to really bring in some talent offensively because I fear we may have hired an above average OC as our HC.
Thank the defense for the winning season. Lets hope we can keep Mike Smith.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:00 pm
Didn’t James just set the touchdown and yardage records for the franchise?
Can he improve, of course.
Is leading a team to nine wins in your second year outstanding?
Damn straight.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:05 pm
The sky is the limit, up up and away. Progress at last, 2017 is looking better for the Bucs already. Now if we can get a 20 game regular season format the off season will be shorter.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:06 pm
Fixing that O-line should be a priority in the offseason.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:16 pm
Eric Berry would be a HUGE addition to this defense if KC can’t afford him.
Forget about Alshon, I think Pryor would be a good addition with Jameis not letting him act out.
with the amount of money we have to spend and the holes on this team slowly getting smaller I have full confidence in Licht to do whats best for this team.
Don’t forget CB too, we have 1 maybe 2 years at best with Grimes, we need to draft one in the later rounds who will be able to take over for when Grimes is done.
GO BUCS!
January 1st, 2017 at 5:17 pm
Jameis is still the 2nd youngest starting QB in the NFL (only recent starter Goff is younger, Dak is older) and just set new team passing records for yards and TDs and became the first QB in NFL history to have two 4000-yard seasons to start a career.
He hasn’t missed a start, has been incredibly durable even behind a terrible OL this year, he’s been a great leader on the field and has had zero off the field issues and turned a loser franchise into a winning franchise in only his second year. He’s been an absolute best case scenario so far and he’s not even 23 years old yet.
Those who bash Winston should just spend your Sundays licking the floors of peep booths as this football thing just isn’t working out for you.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:19 pm
Hire a Offense Coordinator, and hire Shawn King from South Florida to coach the Quarterbacks.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:21 pm
The Bucs have tons and tons and tons of cap space… and so do 27 other teams, and that’s before the cap increases.
Free agency isn’t going to be much of a fix as any good players will get tagged or resigned and the FA depth is already pretty shallow.
The Bucs best chance in FA will be if Winston can recruit some guys to come here. Everyone has money so it’s going to come down to that really. Hopefully the team lets Winston really sell players on the team and maybe the Bucs can become a destination for players instead of being one they settle for – or the Bucs have to way overpay for.
BTW the team with the 2nd most space behind the Bucs? The Patriots. That’s the type of offseason you’re talking about, there isn’t much depth, all the stars will get locked up, and the Bucs might have a very very hard time even getting to the salary floor.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:23 pm
lets hope bucs qb works on his accuracy(can u teach that?) which he overthrows everyone and bucs bring in speed all around.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:33 pm
A 22 year old QB (Josh Freeman) went for 25 TDS, 6 INTS… 10-6 record. Just saying
January 1st, 2017 at 5:47 pm
LakeLandBuc – Josh Freeman had a ton of 4th quarter comebacks too and was a fantastic young QB, the best in football. Then the Bucs hired Schiano who drove him to a life of drugs (allegedly) and ruined his career. Freeman had all the tools except the mental side of things, obviously Winston has no issues there, and is a very different guy. But we get it, they’re both black, thanks for point it out. Anywho the sun is going down and I’m sure you got some crosses to that need lit, I’ll let you get to work.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:53 pm
Rod Munch, thanks for your excellent recap on Jameis … agree 100%. He’s become the heart of the Buccaneers and he’s done it with mediocre protection & relatively few weapons to work with. Defense obviously made a huge difference 2nd half of the season, and probably accounted for half our wins (possibly more). But the same could be said for teams like Seattle and Denver. Hey, it’s a TEAM sport, and sometimes the offense carries the load, sometimes it’s the defense.
Kudos to Coach Koetter and his staff for an outstanding season. My personal belief is that this team over-achieved after suffering so many early injuries, especially considering Bucs had relatively little true depth to begin with. But over-achievement is what all teams should strive for. Mike Smith and his staff also did an incredible job with this defense, and I for one will miss him next year (yes, I’m convinced he’ll get another HC gig shortly, and he certainly deserves it).
Bucs have a lot to improve upon this off-season, but I’m also convinced that Jason Licht has a good handle on what our needs are. Even though I didn’t agree with several of his past selections & acquisitions, no GM is going to hit a home-run with every player they draft or pick up in FA. On balance, he’s done an excellent job.
Bucs are in good hands for 2017 and the future’s looking bright.
January 1st, 2017 at 5:58 pm
DK lost his starting OG and his #2 WR at the start of the season. Shortly after than his star RB went on the IR for months and returned hobbled by drugs.
The “star” TE turned out to be a head case…remember when DK had to run ASJ from practice in training camp. That must be fun for a first year coach.
This has been a very good season…solid. Most of that is thanks to DK’s talent and steady leadership through all the crisis after crisis.
Most importantly there is no reason to not believe we’ll compete again next year for the playoffs.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:03 pm
I agree with Rod Munch abaout the free agency situation as he detailed above… BUT the one place it should be deep – and where there will certainly be more talent available than what the Bucs currently have on the roster – is the WR position. That’s also the one area where getting to play with a franchise 22 year old QB will be a BIG draw to free agents. The hope is the Bucs can attack wide receiver depth in free agency and attack the o-line, d-line, secondary in the draft.
January 1st, 2017 at 6:17 pm
0 games to play – but enough wins for even Big Hog to admit that there was “improvement over last years team”.
Not that he will…
Good job coach Koetter
January 1st, 2017 at 7:33 pm
He called it 1x too much…. needed to get them to come up. Probably don’t drive for the winning TD if he didn’t do that… it’s the run playcalls that are a problem.. we live running into brick walls.
January 1st, 2017 at 11:00 pm
DK did an admirable job considering it was his rookie year, injuries, lack of depth, a defense that took half the season to gel and an erratic kicker. He has changed the mentality for the better.
January 2nd, 2017 at 12:28 am
Some other facts that can’t be avoided.
Koetter’s play calling was terrible against the Raiders in over time.
Koetter almost blew the Panthers game with his play calling TWICE.
Koetter had poor clock management that cost us the Rams game.
Koetter’s offense could do nothing after the first qrt against Seattle. Thank the defense for that win.
Koetter’s offense struggles against THE SAINTS. THE SAINTS!!!!!?!?!?! Won a game with just 16 points.
The first real bad sign was the first game of the season against Atlanta. The Bucs were rolling and suddenly he took the light out of it. Soooo conservative.
I like Dirk, but he needs to let someone else call the plays. Mike Smith might not be here to save him next season.