“Maybe It Wasn’t The Vision In How To Use Him The Correct Way?”
November 15th, 2017
Ex-Buc talks about 0ne of many who got away.
Some Bucs fans have change-the-coach fever.
Like moths to a bright light, they are attracted by the glow of Chucky’s personality and want him to become a Bucs head coach.
Hey, who knows if the game has passed Chucky by? But at least he would look cool on the sidelines cussing out referees!
These same fans already want to turn the page on winning Bucs coach Dirk Koetter — before he has even finished his second season!
Joe brings this up becuase Koetter’s predecessor, Lovie Smith, was brought up in the comments here yesterday. Joe mentioned one could damn near field a decent starting defense from guys Lovie either wanted no part of, or didn’t feel like coaching up. D.J. Swearinger, Mason Foster and Rashaan Melvin were just a few names Lovie washed his hands of that are having success with other teams.
One name Joe also mentioned was safety turned linebacker Mark Barron. The Alabama product appeared on “Late Hits” last night, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, which happened to be co-hosted by the man who drafted Barron with the Bucs, that would be former rock star general manager Mark Dominik.
After Barron’s appearance, Dominik discussed why Barron didn’t work out in Tampa Bay and without naming a name, Dominik threw Lovie off the cliff.
“He has always been great,” Dominik said of Barron, who he added is an “instinctive football player and that has never changed. The people that say he wasn’t very good in Tampa. Well, he was very good in Tampa. You know, maybe he wasn’t quite the perfect fit but the guy had 100 tackles (laughs). It wasn’t like the guy wasn’t making plays. Maybe it wasn’t the vision in how to use him the correct way?
“When we drafted him — Greg Schiano and I — the idea was keep him on the field at all times. Put him in the back end, pull him up on third downs, second downs, it doesn’t matter. You could move him all around. You could rush him, you could blitz him, he can play in coverage, he can handle a tight end in coverage as well and the Rams figured out a way to do that.”
Barron didn’t have 100 tackles with the Bucs but he did have 88 in both his first two seasons under Schiano. In his last full season with the Bucs, Barron also had two sacks and a pair of picks. With Lovie, Barron appeared to be on his way to 100 tackles with 49 through seven games but he was getting fried on pass plays worse than catfish at a Friday fish fry.
There is no doubt that when Lovie took over, Barron’s play sharply deteriorated and Lovie quickly threw in the towel. Barron was traded to St. Louis for a fourth- and sixth-round picks.
Luckily for Barron, he was traded to a team that had a defensive coach with a clue. Yes, Jeff Fisher may have been one of the more overrated head coaches in recent NFL history, but the man knew how to coach defense and he flipped Barron to an outside linebacker and Barron blew up racking up 100+ tackles the past two seasons for the Rams.
Joe remembers once via a conference call asking Fisher about what he saw in Barron. Fisher told Joe he had watched tape of Barron and thought he had the qualities to play linebacker. Now how the hell could Fisher see this just on film and the guy who saw him every day in practice couldn’t figure this out? That’s why the same guy is turning the University of Illinois football program into a total joke.
Barron played so well that the Rams decided to cut ties with middle linebacker James Laurinaitis, moved Alec Ogletree from outside to middle linebacker and had Barron replace Ogletree. Now that defensive mastermind Wade Phillips took over, he moved Barron to an inside linebacker position in a 34 defense.
And folks actually have the nerve to confess in public they don’t know why Lovie was fired.
November 15th, 2017 at 3:28 am
Check the archives.
I was the frst to call for his switch to LB.
I am so sure of it, I would put money on it!
November 15th, 2017 at 4:10 am
I’m still pissed at how Lovie didn’t utilize this guy right.
November 15th, 2017 at 6:32 am
Joe must REALLY be hitting the bottle hard or he keeps hitting his readers across the face with his constant references to losing head coach Koetter as a “winning” head coach. Hell by Joes standards the Bucs have the best “winning” percentage of any team in any sport in the history of sports!
November 15th, 2017 at 6:48 am
It’s crazy. You can be a total train wreck as a coach and lose lose lose and get bought out for millions of dollars to simply go away .
Man. I wish my job would do that for me.
November 15th, 2017 at 6:56 am
Losing players like Mark Barron is the result of constant coaching turnover, especially when it comes to the defense. Each coach came in & wanted to ‘change things’ to fit their defensive mindset & philosophy. Raheem (2 yrs) had already been with the Bucs so he didn’t get to do that much in his shopping, but Schiano (2 yrs) & Lovie (2 yrs) certainly did. Koetter focused on offense obviously, so Smitty (2 yrs) has been stuck using what he was given … which has been pretty much Lovie Smith’s leftovers & a sporadic draft pick here or there. Instead of building this defense from the trenches out, Bucs built it from the back-ass in. Hmmm, how’s that worked out for us?
November 15th, 2017 at 7:00 am
Losing head coach is Lovie equivalent, maybe worse when you consider the talent pubichead has to work with now.
November 15th, 2017 at 7:38 am
Defense Rules nailed it.
That’s why I’m against a coaching change now.
November 15th, 2017 at 7:55 am
Teacherman 77 sorry buddy- I calied it girst
I was screaming that he couldnt cover- not long after he was drafted.
And he still cant
November 15th, 2017 at 7:57 am
Lovie and Licht have torn this team down completely, Donald Penn and Mark Baron are 2 glaring examples…..and then there is that drafting of a kicker
November 15th, 2017 at 8:11 am
And Dom is such a lying hypocrite!!
Worst GM in NFL history
We didnt need a “in the box safety. We definitely didnt need another Linebacker!!
We had just had the honor of having the worst secondary in the NFL.
I believe Dom wanted Morris Claiborne, but traded back a few spots- and Dallas outsmarted him by trading up one spot in front of us.
Either way- Dom proclaimed Barron as a safety who” would shut down Opposing TEs, and was great in coverage.”
Total lie
Barton was used as a LB at Alabama. Showed absolutely no coverage skills.
Yet another stupid move by our horrible excuse for a GM.
I doubt he ever gets another job with an NFL team
November 15th, 2017 at 8:13 am
Melvin is a free agent in the spring I think…Bring him back…much needed…
November 15th, 2017 at 8:18 am
The sad thing is that this is so far down on the list of the inditment of incompetent lovie that is really does not even matter!!!!!!! That buffoon’s scheme is so antiquated that it does not work even in college!!!!!!!! I think a lot of the so called fans forget that he took this team to the very bottom of the NFL!!!!!!!!! We have a lot to fix still from the devastation that was caused by the worst coach in bucs history that was coach my scheme!!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 15th, 2017 at 8:38 am
hiring lovie smith set this franchise back so far . i’m almost ashamed to admit i was happy when i heard the news that we hired him
November 15th, 2017 at 8:42 am
@johnnybuc
That fans wanted 1996 back again!!!!!! and know they have moved on to 2002!!!!!! They do not want to see a team get coached up and the roster continually built and added to!!!!!
They want a time machine!!!!!!! Maybe that is why they keep playing the same old music at the stadium!!!!!!!! I bet half the fans still have the same hair cut that they did in high school!!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 15th, 2017 at 9:00 am
Ummmm, Joseph…the picks the Bucs received from the Rams for Mark Barron turned into Kwon Alexander and Ali Marpet.
Do you still want that trade back?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
November 15th, 2017 at 9:09 am
Capt Tim: Claiborne…… Yeah he had one tackle for the Jets on Sunday and was a complete bust in Dallas….. Jerry Jones and Dom really did think the guy was a special cb and he turned out to be a complete bust. Jones had Rob Ryan as his DC (before Kiffen/Marinelli) and Garrett a his puppet head coach. Claiborne had a Wunderlich of 4 (out of 50) yet big Jerry and Dom were both enamored with the guy and Jones actually gave up a bit to move ahead of the Buc and get him and Dom got Barron. Did not work out too well for either club and further hits home the point you said of Dom being inept…. Licht may be following the same path when one evaluates the 2016 draft which looks to be just a bunch of busts right now….
November 15th, 2017 at 9:55 am
@d-rome
thank you for pointing that out….
joe and others act like lovie dumped him for nothing….he gave up 1 starter that as joe pointed out, “was getting fried on pass plays worse than catfish at a Friday fish fry.”…for 2 younger more productive players that have been day1 starters….
and why are we talking about former players and former coaches anyway?….we need to be talking about how the so called offensive guru cant score with the amount of weapons he has in place…..or why are we 3-6?….GO BUCS!!!
November 15th, 2017 at 10:32 am
@ Joes
This type of article just points out how bad the Glazers are at picking coaches through out the years. Great coaches adjust to the players they have. They don’t keep dumping high round draft picks or wasting picks. Not to say the coaches don’t get a mulligan once in a while. Its just crazy how many players the Buc management have cut or traded and gone on to be productive starters for other teams.
November 15th, 2017 at 12:11 pm
Revis
Talib
Barron
Michael Bennett
Jonathan Casillas (Captain on Giants)
DJ Swearinger (Captain on Redskins)
Mason Foster (Captain on Redskins; solid Rick Flair celebration)
Akeem Spence (less of a fat slob compared to Baker)
Adrian Clayborn (better than Will Clark)
Simeon Rice (apparently can do jumping lunges with 135lbs…better than will Clark)
November 15th, 2017 at 12:40 pm
Who’d the Bucs draft with the picks they got for Barron? I’m curious …
November 15th, 2017 at 12:52 pm
Nut, see above. Kwon and Ali.
November 15th, 2017 at 1:09 pm
@NFLNut
they got the Rams 4th and 6th round draft pick which helped them move around the draft that year!!!!!! Exp the Bucs use a 3rd and 4th to move into the second round to move back into the second round for Ali Marpet!!!!!!!!!!
November 15th, 2017 at 2:25 pm
Trading Mark Barron may arguably be Jason Licht’s best decision as GM outside of his picks at the NFL draft. Not sure why Joe felt compelled to use *this* example to further bash Lovie Smith.
November 15th, 2017 at 2:29 pm
Realist, I’ll always equate Mark Barron & Luke Kuechly, plus several others who ‘got away’. Bucs chose Barron at #7 in the 1st round, then Panthers chose Luke Kuechly at #9 in same round. (We won’t talk about some of the other 1st rounders in that 2012 draft like Dontari Poe (DT – #11), Fletcher Cox (DT – #12), Michael Brockers (DT – #14), Bruce Irvin (DE – #15) or Chandler Jones (DE – #21). Forget DLine needs, at least we got our Safety. Or LB, not sure right now.
November 15th, 2017 at 2:38 pm
teacherman is right- well, I don’t know if he was the first, but him along with several others (myself included) were all saying he should play LB when he got here.
But, wtf do we know?
November 15th, 2017 at 3:21 pm
And the Succaneers still suck with a new regime.
November 15th, 2017 at 3:40 pm
He was an in the box safety at Bama, and that was and is his strength, not playing in space. He took horrific angles at SS, was not fast enough to play that position in the NFL. Still, his ability was obvious. Just took some creativity, which our coaching staff didn’t have.
November 15th, 2017 at 8:12 pm
My statement is …This team was totally “crap” when LOVIE took over! Some here play blind to that fact! TAKE A KNEE …TAKE THEM HATER-BLOCKERS OFF!
November 15th, 2017 at 8:22 pm
You are wrong BigHogHeinous!!!! The team was “bad” then incompetent lovie came in and made it the worse team in the league!!!!!! then the following year was a historically soft schedule, But the Glazers saw right thru that!!!!!! coach my scheme was exposed just as his scheme was!!!!!!!!
And now his antiquated scheme does not even work in college!!!!!!! keep taking a knee to disrespect a great American Icon!!!! You don’t think that names are being taken down for those that are doing the “Anthem Protest”???????? We got nothing but time and patients my friend!!!!!!
Go America
And GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 15th, 2017 at 11:16 pm
You go Joe.
You go Joe!
Lovie fargin’ Smith.