Report: Todd Monken Will Stop Coaching Wide Receivers
January 28th, 2018
The Bucs will make a change to their coaching staff, but not the one you might have fantasized.
Per a Tampa Bay Times report today, offensive coordinator Todd Monken will no longer coach Buccaneers receivers; he’ll go full-time in the coordinator role while assistant coach Skyler Fulton will now lead Tampa Bay’s veteran receiving corps.
Fulton, 35, bounced around NFL rosters for a few years after playing wide receiver at Arizona State. He had no regular-season catches. He joined the Bucs as an assistant last year.
So what is this move all about? Simple. Dirk Koetter wants to free himself up to devote more time to the entire team. And Monken can now exert more influence on all phases of the offense.
Joe can only hope Monken brings his brand of juice to other position groups, especially the offensive line. And no, he won’t be calling plays.
As for Fulton, he may be one hell of a coach, but are the Bucs sure he was the very best wide receivers coach available? That certainly should be the goal for a 5-11 football team. Right?
January 28th, 2018 at 3:50 pm
Plz take over playcalling.
January 28th, 2018 at 3:53 pm
of course he is not the best WR coach available. the reality is he is the only sucker willing to take the job with this joke of a franchise. it’s clear the only streak the glazers care about is the basement streak.
January 28th, 2018 at 3:59 pm
So Dirk, instead of focusing more on offense, wants to instead spread himself even more thin and do less of the only thing he’s good at.
If that is the idea of this promotion, so Dirk can work even less with the offense, yet still maintain all the play calling duties, what a disaster. If the guy had any self awareness he’d have hired a DC, then made Mike Smith the “assistant” head coach, and basically let him run most everything while Dirk took complete control of the offense and spent like 90% of his time working with it exclusively.
If you’re not going to give up your play calling duties, this makes zero sense since you’re saying you’re going to be just as controlling but spend less time on it.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:00 pm
I’m sure Jameis is ecstatic.
Dilly, Dilly
January 28th, 2018 at 4:03 pm
I respect the desire to build consistency here, it’s been a while since we’ve seen that in Tampa Bay. But I’m really worried we’re in for a miserable 2018. Lack of play makers likely being available at 7, managements inability to bring in quality FAs, vanilla offensive play calling in ‘17, and a clueless defense gives me little cause for optimism heading into next season.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:09 pm
He never said he wasn’t giving up play calling duties, just said he’d not talk about it at this time. Probably gonna see how it goes with Monken. You couch coaches couldn’t run a pee wee league.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:09 pm
Im sure Fulton will command he respect of our former Pro bowl recievers.
Riiiiight.
Another Stupid.
The hits just keep coming
January 28th, 2018 at 4:10 pm
Robertg – The first line of the fake news St Pete Times story literally says, “Bucs coach Dirk Koetter has said he will continue being the offensive play-caller next season”…
January 28th, 2018 at 4:12 pm
best of luck. they all only have 1 more year to prove their worth until it is all blown up and a new regime gets a shot to coach Jameis.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:17 pm
Dewey – I personally think this just a resume filler move, so he can say he was the OC, and in yards the Bucs will most likely be a top 10 offense, so that looks good when trying to get another job. But this just seems like Dirk handing out meaningless promotions since he knows everyone is gone next offseason. But I’m hoping, with their backs against the wall, that perhaps instead of crumbling they put it all together.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:19 pm
This head coach is trash….. How on Earth did it possibly take this long to come to that obvious conclusion. How stupid is it too have the offensive coordinator working with this group of talented receivers when clearly the game planning is what needed attention. Want this guy fired in the worst way. It’s so clear why he’s never been considered for a head coaching job up to this point, leave it to the glazers to choose second rates coaches to lead their franchise
January 28th, 2018 at 4:21 pm
42% of Republicans in a recent survey said they considered news that was factually correct to be fake news if it was news they didn’t like. You can figure th intelligence or lack thereof of people who whine and cry “fake news” just because they don’t like the truth.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:26 pm
Todd Monken is clearly a more aggressive person than dirk, unfortunately his who is bigger than his duties as head coach so he will go down swinging and continue to call plays because in his heart he knows it’s what he’s good at. How to score points in the redzone should not be something dork needs to study at this stage of his career. But because I’m a fan I could still see this team having a winning record in spite of who the head coach is. We did the same thing when Raheem was here
January 28th, 2018 at 4:26 pm
When I first read I thought he got canned and I was going to be pissed. I don’t see how this will have any positive impact unless Dirk gives up playcalling. Not aaying he should but I just don’t see the point of thia move.
I think some of the Bucs “fanatics” have turned into maniacs. Y’all really come here only to spew the same negative BS rhetoric. Tmax is the king of the maniacal posters. I feel bad for you guys. You arent fans of the Bucs anymore so you are forced to be closet Jaguar fans.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:30 pm
He said Dork. lol.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:35 pm
I felt like Monken coaching the WR group was actually a strength of the team, so now he’s not going to do that, and he’s not going to call plays.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:41 pm
Honestly, this is one of the most curious off-seasons for the Bucs that I can ever remember. My concern, and people are gonna scoff at this as a possibility, but what happens if the tumblers fall into place so that we get a few more breaks. The season goes about the same, except, the defense makes two more stops and the kicker wins a game for us. We end up 8-8. What now? Do we re-up this group to maintain consistency? This is a realistic concern.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:48 pm
Rod
Yeah we hope. I think this can only help Dirk. Im definitely one of his biggest “non fans” right now. The guy was terrible last year in alot of phases. I would say he should give up play calling to be able to concentrate on game and time management etc but Im not sure if he even knows better. Some coaches are just much smarter than others. Plus I think alot of its more play design and offensive philoshopy than play calling. How a team who passes so much can hardly ever run slants, crossing routes and run draw plays is beyond me.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:57 pm
darin – Actually I think the exact opposite, I think Dirk should give up his non-offensive duties to Mike Smith who can do all the detail work HC’s need to do, then hire a real DC and then Dirk should just concentrate on being the OC full-time. The last few games of the season, when it was clear he was coaching for his job, he seemed a lot more involved and play calling was a lot better and more varied. If this move is meant to reduce his offensive responsibilities AND he’s keeping all the play calling duties, then it makes no sense to me.
January 28th, 2018 at 5:02 pm
So no Terry Robiskie? Ok
January 28th, 2018 at 5:16 pm
You just never know what’s under a horse’s tail until you lift it up. There is a long way between now and our first game….let’s see what happens….I suspect Monken will be calling plays.
And, you have no idea about the assistant taking over the WR responsibilities….the entire WR corps may have raved about how great he was….until I hear otherwise, I’ll give him a chance….every successful coach got a start at some point.
I don’t expect there to be enthusiasm over the choice…..but not negativism either.
And….albeit not as much as advertised….there is some “fake news”…..or more accurately described….inaccurate, hastily gathered….news.
January 28th, 2018 at 5:30 pm
If he’ll be full time coordinator this is actually a positive move in my opinion because dork just can’t do it on his own. This is a lot different from the weapons for Winston off-season because everyone is focused on the gm and coaches bad decisions and not the players except the d line. Some of us (me) are overreacting because it’s set up whether you can move on from guys like Chris Baker after one season but the same guy who signed him will be at it again. I won’t call down until free agency and certain guys get cut specifically Martin and Baker
January 28th, 2018 at 5:37 pm
That’s great that the HC will have more free time to work with the whole team cause the 1 thing that our defense was missing was more Dirk Koetter.
January 28th, 2018 at 5:55 pm
So he wants to babysit his homie Mike Smith’s Defense?? Interesting!!
January 28th, 2018 at 6:05 pm
Maybe, just maybe Skyler Fulton can get these WRs to focus on YAC.
January 28th, 2018 at 6:09 pm
@Rod … “But this just seems like Dirk handing out meaningless promotions since he knows everyone is gone next offseason.” Having read what you’ve written in the past Rod, I doubt you really believe that. That’s like saying Dirk Koetter is hanging on just to collect the paycheck (i.e., why else would he stay as HC if he knows he’ll be gone as you stated). Koetter, Smitty, Monken, Hayes, etc … they’ve ALL had long & successful careers elsewhere, and they won’t go ‘down’ without putting up the best fight that they can. But they need the weapons to fight with, and that’s where Licht & the Glazer Boys come in.
I agree with you BTW about restructuring. Licht & the Glazer Boys painted this franchise into a corner when they made Koetter the HC AND the OC. Not fair doing that to a first-time HC. I’m convinced they brought Smitty onboard as DC solely because of his HC experience & past relationship with Koetter (i.e., so he could help Dirk learn the ropes as a HC). Thus the ‘painting us into a corner’. Smart thing to do to ‘save face’ at this point is to promote Smitty to assistant HC as you say and let him functionally run the team while Dirk focuses on the OC role. And of course bring in a new DC (it’ll be hard to find an highly-experienced DC to sign on under these conditions though I’d surmise).
January 28th, 2018 at 6:10 pm
Dirk Koetter coached Skyler Fulton for 3 seasons at Arizona State. I’m sure he knows what Koetter expects from his WRs.
January 28th, 2018 at 6:17 pm
This whole “best coach” available that Joe is harping on is utter bullsh!t. How exactly is that determined? Just like the roster, it’s about building a team, rather than collecting talent. If Fulton works well with the receivers and knows how Koetter and Monken want them coached, I see no reason at all to p!ss and moan about whether he was the “best coach”. Not every coach on ANY staff is a rockstar. Having a good coaching staff isn’t a celebrity game.
January 28th, 2018 at 6:37 pm
Kpetter is pretty worth..less. He should have ran to the glazers and Licht to fire his Defensive Coordinator..HomeBoy Mike Smith instead. But we are stuck with him for next season. Hopefully, its his….and Koetters last!!
January 28th, 2018 at 6:45 pm
@StPeteBucsFan must have got that survey from CNN. Lol
January 28th, 2018 at 7:08 pm
Coaches coach and players play at the end of the day Jameis decides where and who he is throwing the ball to. Once he turns the corner Sky’s the limit
January 28th, 2018 at 7:20 pm
Wait a minute are we ….Back to LOVIE’S FRIENDS & FAMILY…but it’s ok, we got stability now…what a damn joke..inexperienced coaching gives you mediocre play on the field!! TAKE A KNEE …KEEP AMERICA FREE…let’s not MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN …coach K year three THE REGRESSION CONINUES!! TRUMPMAXCON STAY ON THE BLACK!!
January 28th, 2018 at 8:06 pm
BigHog, I’ve like your passion, even if it was over the top, but “let’s not make America white again”? Reallly? That’s the most racist statement I’ve ever read on JBF, and there’s been plenty that I thought were veiled racist statements against African Americans. You just pulled back the veil on that one. Fight fire with fire, I guess. I’m glad I’m not one of your white friends, if you have any. Wow
January 28th, 2018 at 8:19 pm
Lol
He sucks though.
January 28th, 2018 at 8:20 pm
BigHog, I also find it funny that you always say “keep America free”. You voted for Obama twice and he is in favor of redistribution of wealth. The government taking what you’ve earned and giving it to those who haven’t is the opposite of freedom. I grew up in poverty and understand the grind and I want to keep what I’ve earned, just as I want you to keep what you’ve earned. America is about having the freedom to make your own path, not walking on someone else’s. When you understand that, you’ll understand the real freedom that you have.
January 28th, 2018 at 8:25 pm
I saw an offense that came to play unprepared each week.
Maybe this is an improvement because he’s not distracted by multiple jobs anymore.
But it’s shocking the guy can do poorly and gets “promoted” to the sense that he is expected to handle more of the overall offense.
Dirk should be more of the HEAD coach. But this guy has not shown to be capable outside of being a WR coach.
January 28th, 2018 at 8:26 pm
42%of republicans vs 100% of democrats label something fake when they don’t like what they hear. Fact.
January 28th, 2018 at 8:36 pm
There may be more to this than meets the eye. I read he’s going to be a “walk around OC.” If Koetter is going to call the plays, wouldn’t you want your OC in the box? Then, you let Fulton work the receivers on the field.
January 28th, 2018 at 8:50 pm
Thank you St. Pete Bucs fan. These people have no idea how dangerous it is calling everything they don’t agree with ‘fake news’. Or polling or jobs and employment numbers for that matter. That is until their guy is in power or it suits their narrative.
Local papers especially good ones like SPT are so important to have for many reasons. One example is in every town that once had and lost their local paper corruption in local politics shot up. It’s important to have someone covering all the city and county commission meetings to hold those politicians accountable to what they’re up to.
BTW-Dirk did say he’d be calling plays for the foreseeable future. When ask he said he was sorry he every told the press he was even considering giving it up.
Facts do matter.
January 28th, 2018 at 9:26 pm
Sheesh…..You guys gotta go there on a sports blog. Yeah facts do matter. You know what else matters? That would be a full and complete story. Shoot, take that survey for example……While I’m sure it’s accurate what it conviently does not reveal is the amount of times “fake news” was claimed and was correct.
You don’t believe in fake news then tune into the other side of the fence for a change and see how drastically different a story gets told or reported. One side is almost always peddling some BS and the viewers in the middle are left being the victims of some 42% stat that makes us look like idiots.
We lose. We are fed a BS narrative at a good percentage if we choose to believe everything from one side of the fence. And if we choose to use a BS 42% stat(that don’t tell the whole story) to attack somebody else it makes us no better then the ones who feed us BS narratives on a daily basis.
That’s my two cents you guys argue the rest. I’m here for football
January 28th, 2018 at 9:36 pm
BucEmUp apparently wouldn’t know a fact if it bit him in the cojones.
January 28th, 2018 at 9:57 pm
Concerning Monken it doesn’t mean much to me at this point. Despite everybody blaming the defense for most of our losing I tend to blame the offense more. That’s because we were built to win with offense…..That means having an offense who gives us leads to work with one defense…..That means being able to go blow for blow when Arizona or New Orleans put up big points on us…….We are more then a rush attack away on offense IMO. What happened when we were gashing New England in the first quater with our rush? Granted we weren’t able to run successful in many games last year but in that one our playcaller choose to ignore what was working………That’s more then just play calling I think too. That was gameplanning. We stubbornly stuck with our gameplan, that’s also a lack of adjustment.
So many problems with this offense. I have serious doubts promoting one guy makes that big a difference. My hope is to see better game planning, preparation, and in game adjustments……Without that I don’t see this team having success
January 29th, 2018 at 12:06 am
So, what’s PJ Fleck doing these days?
January 29th, 2018 at 8:43 am
What is a real fan?
Someone who actually roots for the team, and all phases of it, to do well.
I wonder, how many commenters above actually fit into that category?
January 29th, 2018 at 8:46 am
BTW, this is not a promotion for Monken. He was already the offensive coordinator.
January 29th, 2018 at 11:03 am
lol…..incompetence at its finest!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
January 29th, 2018 at 11:15 am
After 3 years monken the offensive coordinator is going to actually touch a play sheet?
“Wow, we are going places”
Kandy Faker
January 29th, 2018 at 11:30 am
Meh, meaningless move … the receivers don’t need much development other than Bobo and Monken was already the O.C., so … what’s the point?
January 29th, 2018 at 3:46 pm
Defense – I didn’t mean I think Dirk is trying to get fired, I just meant he knows they’re all on the hot seat and might be looking out for his guys – so a “promotion” looks good on the resume in any case.