Accountability VI
January 22nd, 2018
One of the greatest not good enough for a playoff team.
We have just about reached the point where the Bucs have slapped season ticket holders if not fans in general in the face.
Joe has documented how teams league-wide have unloaded assistants — both for good and bad teams — because the teams either have goals or are not satisfied with just being good enough.
And after each transaction, more and more it is a message from the Bucs hierarchy to fans that having one of the worst defenses is franchise history is OK with them.
Status woe.
Today, the Tennessee Titans — you know, a team that won a road playoff game this season? — which already ran its head coach because it was dissatisfied with the development of its quarterback, apparently is parting ways with one of the best defensive coordinators the NFL has ever seen. That would be Dick LeBeau.
Meanwhile, the coaches on the staff of the Bucs responsible for the worst NFL defense in yards allowed per game, third-down conversion percentage, passing yards per game, season passing yards and sacks are entrenched in job security. The Bucs are, in effect, telling Bucs fandom, nope, no need for a change. All good. We like where we are at.
Gee, Joe remembers a time when Team Glazer was so upset with failing in an NFC Championship game, a high-ranking assistant was tossed overboard. My, how times (and standards?) have changed.
That’s one helluva hard sell to a hardcore Bucs fan nursing a beer, so peeved at the past season he can’t even be distracted by a curvy Hooters waitress.
Remember folks, inept Lovie Smith was launched for less.
Status woe.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:04 pm
At this point I would rather have Lovie run the defense than Smitty. Here is a prime opportunity to upgrade and what does the Bucs do?????
NOTHING!!!!!
Its a Bucs Life.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:05 pm
No, no, no … NEW COACH Mike Vrabel wants to bring in his own D.C. … the Titans did NOT fire Lebeau when they fired Mularkey, so this one isn’t about accountability and is just about the new Head Coach not wanting to work with the old regime’s defensive coordinator …
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:06 pm
And Tony was jettisoned after taking a horrible franchise to the playoffs repeatedly….
If the Glazer boys hadn’t been so petulant ( Daddy we want it now!!) we would be a multiple SB winner, with a franchise to be proud of, that is in the mix every year…
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:06 pm
Joe, i remember you wanted Schwartz? as i watched the Eagles yesterday i thought of you saying that. Maybe you’d make a good GM after all.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:07 pm
why would a distinguished legendary coach come to this crapshow of a franchise… does he need a charity case for his bucket list
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:09 pm
DB55 Says:
December 18th, 2017 at 4:49 pm
If that true and he hires either of the NE coordinators imma punch somebody in the face. NE def is straight trash and no one will respect Daniels. I’d rather hire Mike Vrabel.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:10 pm
And the new Head Coach was the DC of a team that gave up 27.3 PTS/G. The worst in the NFL..by far the worst.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:11 pm
DB55,
Mike Vrabel IS the new head coach of the Titans … and it’s been reported that BOTH Patriots coordinators have already accepted head coaching jobs but it won’t be reported till the Pats season ends … McDaniels to the Colts and Patricia to the Lions.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:13 pm
Johnny:
LOL Thanks man, but no, Joe’s not qualified to be a GM much less a scout.
But some things are even obvious to the untrained eye. 🙁
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:13 pm
ALSO … everyone needs to chill on the accountability thing.
The NEW ORLEANS SAINTS had the EXACT SAME Head Coach, Offensive Coordinator AND Defensive Coordinator this season when they won they went 11-5, won the division and were a miracle play away from the NFC Title Game … and the previous TWO years they had LOSING seasons.
Koetter had a WINNING season in 2016 … as Aaron Rodgers said, R-E-L-A-X
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:14 pm
“Status woe” LOL!
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:17 pm
I was really irritated when Tennessee beat KC because they were planning to fire Mularkey, which meant that LeBeau would be available. They’d already made requests to interview coordinators.
Mariota was worse than his stats show this year, Tennessee’s defense was very, very good despite injuries and slightly below average personnel. And they often made halftime adjustments that shut down the opposition and gave the offense a chance to win it. At his age, he’d probably take a consulting job for a year or two in a nice warm climate. I don’t see any reason not to do it. Give him whatever title he wants. Shrive of Shrampa is my favorite…
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:23 pm
The man is 80 years old. HOFer, great coach. HOF assistant coach is there ever is to be one. But time to go most likely.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:24 pm
Wow a link to an article about the bucs making a change after making the NFC title game.
The NFC title game………hard to imagine.
In Shula’s defense they didn’t have much to work with at QB and the offense was designed to be ball control and running game. And the man succeeded pretty well with the panthers.
In retrospect that was the beginning of the Glazer’s messing with a good thing and not letting the football people run the show. That worked a couple of times but an overall disaster.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:27 pm
@NFL but new.orleans had Rob Ryan for 3 seasons they chamged that and THEN had a fantastic season. 3 years of 7 and 9 and they change dc and add a rb. That’s all it takes
FIRE MIKE SMITH!
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:28 pm
We are the biggest cry baby fan base led by cry baby local media. You all praised the glazers for bringing back smith last off season. Did he all of a sudden forget how to coach in one year? This very website wrote article after article how smith was going to be a hot commodity in the offseason and a year later this same website says he is not a good coach. All of you whinning about accountability are cry baby bi polar fans. Its as simple as that.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:32 pm
Shula’s offense stunk for 4 seasons and that is why he was fired. 1996 -1999 was enough time to realize the bucs were good because of defense and not offense. The offense never progressed. Running smith after two years is totally different than shula getting run after 4 years. Apples to oranges
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:35 pm
Remember folks, inept Lovie Smith was launched for less.
^^TRUE INDEED^^
and he was launched with less talent
and he was launched after he improved his record
and he was launched after drafting heavy on offense the first 2 years
and he was launched for having the 26th ranked defense
but this staff is given another year after having:
done less with more
finish with a 5-11 record after a fluke 9-7
drafting de, cb, s,lb…signing cb, de, s,
having the worst defense in the league
he who laughs last laughs the loudest….I can hear lovie laughing now!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:35 pm
Im just excited about watching our defense give away more 4th quarter leads next season. Its so thrilling to watch Jameis and the O struggle the entire game and then to finally scrape together enough points to win just to watch our defense lay down and clock out.
The best ever was watching Bent’ Hundley tie the game on that last drive with time evaporating and then get the ball first in OT and cram that down our throats as quick as greased goose $hit. Kinda makes ya feel good knowing that a lead in the future will be just as volatile as this past season.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:36 pm
LOL….remember when smitty was, ” THE BEST FA SIGNING”….LOL….GO BUCS!!!!
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:39 pm
Still the only thing that makes sense to me is theBucs are working a deal to sell the team. We’ll hear about it when it’s done. Anything else is just pure ineptitude.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:42 pm
The Titans actually were trying to work out an extension with their coach and when that came with caveats (i.e. – replacing some offensive staff), he balked and they elected to mutually part ways.
Typically a new HC will want their own staff. There is not much accountability here other then firing offensive staff.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:47 pm
Mike Shula was the worst OC in the NFL. Cam Newton made the Panthers offense click with his running.
January 22nd, 2018 at 1:54 pm
Jeebus….How do you Lovie defenders keep a straight face.
Lovie goes to Illinois and how’s that working out? He’s making them better right? Uh no…from 2-7 his first year to 0-9 last year in the Big Ten.
Guys we need to freakin FOCUS here. It has NOTHING to do with other teams or other players. Why do we care if MM has a great year or a bad year? I ONLY care about the kind of year #3 has.
Why do we care that the Jags and Philly had good seasons? I ONLY care about the Bucs season.
It’s long past time to stop looking at other players and franchises with envy and lust…time to CONCENTRATE on OUR team.
Every season…every year is different…last year is over…it blew big chunks…I get that…I also get that repeats a long pattern for the long suffering Buc fans.
But concentrating on the rear view mirror…or looking at every other team or players does NOTHING for us.
Start building the trenches and build a pass rush ASAP.
January 22nd, 2018 at 2:12 pm
Don’t for the Bucs defense game up the most points per drive as well, an important stat for those that claim the defense wasn’t that bad since it was only 22nd in points given up (but leave out they were 6 points away from being in 29th place).
With that said, as I said before, Dirk and Mike Smith are both going to get fired unless there is a big turn around, oh and every assistant coach is going to get fired as well. Everyone has their backs against the wall, they’re all coaching for their jobs, so this is their chance to step-up… or crumble.
I expect a limp 7-9 type effort, but who knows. Dirk was much better in the last few games of the season when it was clear he was coaching for his job. The offense looked better not just because Winston was healthy, but also because the play calling was much much better and wasn’t completely predictable. The defense continued to be complete garbage however, and that should be concerning, but then again if you’re starting Ryan Smith and Chris Conte, I don’t see how you wouldn’t expect to be the worst defense in football.
January 22nd, 2018 at 2:18 pm
Relax Joe! The 2018 season is about 2 things: CONTINUITY & ACCOUNTABILITY. If the season doesn’t end in a playoff birth EVERYONE is getting fired. U can’t keep changing coaches every 2 years & hope things will change for the better. Front office is trying a different approach. Let’s see what happens…
January 22nd, 2018 at 2:41 pm
I wonder why no one has even blamed Light for what’s happening this team lacks talent in so many positions and I would think that’s our GMs job and the scouts to find talent we haven’t hit on a 5 , 6 or 7rd draft pick since he has been our Gm and and some of them ain’t even in the team so we are just wasting picks our free agency signings have been horrible when will the GM start to feel the heat
January 22nd, 2018 at 2:45 pm
@Rod … “for those that claim the defense wasn’t that bad since it was only 22nd in points given up (but leave out they were 6 points away from being in 29th place).”
Very good Rod. Playing ‘What If’ with statistics is always fun. ‘What If’ you subtract the 28 points given up by the Bucs offense & STs from the defense’s 382 Points Allowed. You’d have 354 Points Allowed … putting them in 17th place defensively in terms of Points Allowed: 1 place BETTER than the Bucs offense which ranked 18th in terms of Points Scored.
Oh and ‘What If’ you subtracted the 3 TDs scored by the Bucs defense from the 335 Points Scored by the Bucs offense. The resultant 314 Points Scored would change the Bucs Offense ranking from #18 to #22. Man what a fun game.
January 22nd, 2018 at 3:25 pm
@ bucs55
You are the definition of whinning cry baby fan. How many gms hit on majority of their 5th, 6th or 7th rounders? The answer is zero. Off the top of my head caleb benonch and kevin pamphile were 5th round picks in 2 seperate years. Having said that, licht has done a lot of damage in the udfa department ie humphries, brate, barber just to name a few. Does that make up for not hitting on a 7h round pick? Jesus….
January 22nd, 2018 at 3:37 pm
Dungy ball > Morris/schianno/Lovie/Koetter ball.
By a long way.
After he pulled us out of the 15 year abyss he should have been able to have whomever he wanted as OC.
January 22nd, 2018 at 3:48 pm
He will get snatched up quickly
January 22nd, 2018 at 3:55 pm
He better not be laughing because the wolves are rightly howling at his door (who could have guessed?). Unless Lovie has a dramatic turnaround in 2018, Joe will lay cash he’s not around Champaign in 2019.
January 22nd, 2018 at 3:58 pm
Better to fire coaches every 2 years than 3. Seems like a wasted year to me. As far as LaBeau, hire him! Adios smith. Cmon licht grow a pair. If lichts bankin on smith to save his own job he is in big trouble.
January 22nd, 2018 at 4:02 pm
I don’t see how he finishes the season in IL. No dramatic turnaround is in the cards. Nice man, but completely inept. Def out before New Year’s Eve 2018.
January 22nd, 2018 at 4:18 pm
joe
he’s laughing because licht and the glazer gang thought the grass was greener on the other side…..
turns out, its dry as a desert in TB…..he’s laughing alright….so is the entire nfl….GO BUCS!!!!
January 22nd, 2018 at 4:38 pm
Accountability,
1. Owners
2. General Manager
3. Head Coach
4. Coordinators
5. Assistant Coaches
6. Players
January 22nd, 2018 at 5:12 pm
Lovie sympathizers forget Koetter came in here that second year and drastically improved the O Line and made the offense slightly watchable. Those 6 wins that season had more to do with Koetter then Lovie the gurus defense.
January 22nd, 2018 at 5:50 pm
Love should have been fired and so should Koetter and Smith- plain and simple. Keep doing it until you get it right.
January 22nd, 2018 at 6:12 pm
Running off coaching staffs every two years is how bad teams stay bad. You can’t say we have no talent at DE, and one good corner, and then say it’s Mike smiths fault they sucked. Pick one or the other. They won’t 9 games last year with this just dreadful coaching staff you know.
January 22nd, 2018 at 6:17 pm
You fools it is a lack of talent. Last year Joe was jumping with joy because the Bucs locked in Smith long term. This year he wasn’t able to get the sh1t talent to perform. If Bellicheat doesn’t have Brady do you think he wins six SBs? No coach can do well year in and year out when they lack talented athletes. N Spence bust, Ayers old and useless, V Hargreaves bust, Conte sucks. Pretty much impossible to do well when you have zero pass rush and a weak a$$ secondary.
January 22nd, 2018 at 6:29 pm
NFLNut, spot on. Accountabilty argument is old and a bit weak. Every team that changes any one of its staff members can be described as exercicing accountability. Additionally, why someone was released, fired or not retained is a guess at best. Anyone have any public statements from accountability threads 1-6 owners or coaches saying why they made the move? Reference this thread, why would a former DC who runs a different scheme retain a DC who was hired by a different head coach?
January 22nd, 2018 at 6:29 pm
C’mon, Bucboi
No reason to be laughing if you own an 8–24 record . Lovie and Licht failed to make the team better when they took over. They let some good players go and got worse by doing it. Licht admitted responsibility for Anthony Collins.
Should be no debate that Lovie might know linebackers.but he he was terrible at bringing in bad corners and playing them repeatedly.
January 22nd, 2018 at 8:34 pm
Bucs go 9-7 next hear and everyone keeps their job only to fall flat again
January 22nd, 2018 at 9:02 pm
The bucs are keeping status woe because they have changed coaches every two years. Ownership just plain sucks. They suck in England and they sucks here.
No more money from me.
January 22nd, 2018 at 9:21 pm
Bucs are a joke right now
January 22nd, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Webster
If I recall phaphile wasent even his draft pick you idiot and he has picked up some decent players in the UNdrafted free agaents but he has put us in a lot of holes with the free agents he has waisted money on players like Johnson Collins Baker Ward trading up in the second round for a kicker when we have huge needs at the safety defensive end corner even offensive line cutting players that have went on to be pro bowl players like Donald penn Jeremie zuttah look at how many players start in the nfl today that are former Buc players that didn’t even get a chance the first 3 rounds should be easy for a GM and his scouting department the last couple of rounds is where they should make there money and have players that can develop and become good players not players that don’t even make the team he has gone 3 years in a row that one player from his draft class gets cut
January 22nd, 2018 at 11:26 pm
Bucs have been a joke since January 17, 2009
January 23rd, 2018 at 12:21 am
Buc555
You are the idiot. Jason licht has always controlled the draft even when lovie was here. There are many articles that validated as such. Lovie had the final say on the 53. Pamphile was drafted by licht you idiot. I wanted to stop there but becsuse you spewed so much stupidity, i had to go in on you. Lovie you idiot had control on who we cut ala revis, zuttah and signing johnson, jenkins etc. These were lovie players. Licht drafted players are still here for the most part. Idiots like you want to cut sims, donovan smith etc. Licht did not trade talib, let bennett go, let blount go. Yes i did not like penn leaving but thats the only player licht let leave that mean something. Tell me some one else on a team licht let go idiot. Fyi…1st round draft picks have a 50% bust rate. Prior to licht, the bucs had a 75% bust rate on 1st round picks. To this point licht has a 75% success rate on 1st rounders and hargraves can still turn it to 100%. No gm hits on every pick. You are the same idiot crying about the vickings making the playoffs yet you are clueless to the fact they picked the wr treadwell about 3 years ago in the 1st round and he sucks. Every pick is not great idiot. You are such an idiot that u cry over 6th and 7th round draft picks
January 23rd, 2018 at 12:56 am
That simply is inaccurate. Flat out wrong.
Lovie had full and complete control over all personnel decisions. There wasn’t a player on the roster that Lovie didn’t sign off on, including Jameis.
January 23rd, 2018 at 7:20 am
Is it me or are there some really good coaching choices out there for coordinator positions?
Frankly, if we were looking for an OC or DC, I’ve seen multiple options that might be an upgrade over the last week or so.
Certainly, with Monken also being the WR coach, couldn’t we bring in a new OC? Technically Monken is also the OC, but bump him to Asst Head Coach and fill the spot.
And I get that Mike Smith wasn’t given the tools to succeed on the defensive line, but I would take Dick LeBeau over Smith any day of the week.