Distraction!
May 30th, 2018
Tied together?
Joe isn’t talking about a damned ping-pong table here.
Sometimes Joe wonders if folks think NFL players have the attention span of a house fly the way people kvetch over perceived distractions.
First it was “Hard Knocks.” Oh, those cameras, distractions! What the hell? If cameras were a distraction, how in the world could the Bucs play on Sundays? There are a helluva lot more cameras at games than there ever were at any August practice — August, not December.
Yesterday, it was the damned locker room ping-pong table folks got worked up about, even though the group of roughly a dozen Bucs that ever played much ping-pong — most ignored the friggin’ thing — were players who excelled as starters.
However, there is a potential real distraction that could be hovering over One Buc Palace like an alien drone. And Brent Sobleski of Bleacher Report believes it is the hot seat under Bucs coach Dirk Koetter.
Dirk Koetter’s career is inextricably linked to Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston. Last year’s 5-11 record and Winston’s regression don’t bode well for the head coach. Yet, Buccaneers ownership decided to retain him for the 2018 campaign. …
Progress needs to be made in 2018, though. Tampa Bay was a trendy playoff pick prior to last season. The Bucs still have that potential as long as Winston plays well and the NFL’s 32nd-ranked defense improves. It falls on Koetter to right the sinking ship.
Look, aside from fumbles (not trivial), Jameis did not regress last year, unless someone is naive enough to believe a quarterback with a bum throwing shoulder should be throwing just fine. That’s just dumb.
Joe just doesn’t know how hot Koetter’s seat really is. As Sobleski points out, Koetter is directly tied to Jameis and from what Joe understands, Team Glazer is firmly 110 percent behind their quarterback. So if Jameis has a good season or actually improves, despite the record, then Joe believes Koetter’s value to the Bucs (and Team Glazer) would only grow stronger.
There is the issue of history. Team Glazer has only kept one coach it has hired after said coach had two straight losing seasons. That happened to be the same guy who won the franchise’s lone Super Bowl. So, if the Bucs have, say, a 7-9 season, Koetter would be hoping to buck team history.
The guy Joe believes has a warmer seat than Koetter is Mike Smith.
May 30th, 2018 at 12:08 pm
Dirk will lose his job because of his loyalty. The defense is the reason this is a give win team. With a 16th ranked unit nobody would be on the hot seat.
I just hope Jason Licht is spared his job
May 30th, 2018 at 12:08 pm
“Dirk Koetter’s career is inextricably linked to Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston”…actually it is Lovie , the GM and the G’Boy’z….
Koetter was merely the OC…and we’ll never know if Jameis was his recommendation
May 30th, 2018 at 12:11 pm
“Have in the world could the Bucs play on Sundays”, not really helping your cause there are you Joe, a vast majority of those Bucs Sunday football games no one should’ve had to watch that crap show
May 30th, 2018 at 12:11 pm
Altered:
We all know Lovie didn’t coach Jameis one lick. However, as much as Joe rags on Lovie, he got three things right: he hired Licht, he hired Koetter to coach up Jameis and he green-lighted drafting Jameis.
May 30th, 2018 at 12:21 pm
when I said last year Winston regressed, folks jumped on my head and threw a bunch of stats at me….I said statically, he has improved but did those numbers translate into good performances….no….he looked a lot better as a rookie…..made the PB….
the thing that Winston has regressed in is being a QB…..not a thrower……his decision making has regressed……he’s indecisive….his pocket awareness has regressed…..and all those things led to more T.O.’s….more fumbles…..he still hasn’t learned how to manage the game…..
dirk is on the hot seat because the entire team as well as Winston has regressed…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!….#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
May 30th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
Altered
If JW wasn’t his guy why would Koetter stay to be a head coach when he was a hot candidate to be hired somewhere else before Lovie was canned. And that’s on Koetter choosing to stay here to coach JW knowing that it wasn’t his guy. So blame Koetter decision to stay
May 30th, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Everyone who doesn’t work for government has to do a good job or they get fired- that’s life in America
May 30th, 2018 at 12:54 pm
Altered
Buc nation wrote an article stating that Dirk initially wanted Mariota over Winston. Google Dirk Koetter Marcus Mariota.
Idk how ya expect him to make better decisions when he’s playing hurt and getting hit every time his drops back but wtfdik.
May 30th, 2018 at 1:06 pm
813- He regressed because our running game sucked and don’t kid yourself-so did our offensive line. Oh yeah and Dirk Koetter doesn’t play to win. There you go. With his job on the line, maybe Koetter will grow a pair and unleash Jameis. 30+ touchdowns and 15 or less INTs is a successful year, but only if the wins follow. Jameis lead us to a 4th quarter lead plenty last year, then the D gave up the booty.
Watch the games yourselves guys and girls, don’t rely on others opinions- we all have watched enough football in our lives to understand what is going on.
May 30th, 2018 at 1:11 pm
We all know Lovie didn’t coach Jameis one lick.
BS….
I think lovie did a lot more with Winston and the offense than you think joe…..notice how our run game and progression of our franchise QB went out the door right along with lovie…..
and if dirk was such a guru, why wasn’t he on the HC radar sooner?…..because folks know he’s an OC and an OC only….
yall acting like dirk is a far better coach than lovie…..I cant tell…..he’s done less with more…..let me know when dirk wins a coach of the year award and takes a team to the SB…..until then, dirk is becoming the worst coach in bucs history…..doing less with more gets you that label…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!….#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
May 30th, 2018 at 1:22 pm
JJ
he regressed because of coaching …or lack their of….
and if smitty and dirk only coach once their jobs are on the line, they need to be sent packing…..wonder why we have a soft mentally weak team….look who leading them…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!….#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
May 30th, 2018 at 1:34 pm
Really don’t think he regressed but to each their own. He fumbled more and looked a lot worse early in the year after the injury – i’d say at that point he looked to have regressed – but not in the healthy games (week 1 and the final month or so of the year).
Objectively all passing stats improved even with the injury. Objectively if the defense/special teams did their job late in 4 games he’d have had his 2nd winning season in a row along with like 6 game winning drives.
He’s got to improve on his decision making and protecting the ball.
He’s got to learn to take more of the easy stuff.
But in general I don’t think he really regressed as much as it was just a sh1t year for our team. I definitely have higher expectations for this offense this year than the defense either way. Everyone needs to step up
May 30th, 2018 at 1:45 pm
DB55, this is slightly off topic, but one of your recent comments is getting trolled over at SBNation. We don’t often agree (primarily regarding your 6’4” 300lb All Pro/Pro Bowl blind spot) but you certainly bring more to the table than some. FWIW I do agree with your anthem stance. Anyway, I thought you might be interested:
https://www.bucsnation.com/2018/5/30/17408204/the-crows-nest-doug-martin-speaks-ali-marpets-life-and-potential-2018-storylines-bucs-buccaneers-nfl
May 30th, 2018 at 1:49 pm
When you can’t out perform your own lousy defense then yes, you have regressed. All those *whisper* (fumbles) were lost opportunities to score and gave the defense more opportunities to give up more scores. So to answer the hard question that my rose colored glasses wants to ignore. “Jameis has to play better and put points on the board” Stop giving it back to the defense.
May 30th, 2018 at 2:01 pm
Jameis just needs to ignore Dirk playing for FGs and play to win the game like he did at the end of the NO game. Winston is going to be here for a very very long time, and FG Dirk probably isn’t, so Winston needs to ignore Dirk and play to win the game. Do that and everything will be fine. Play for FGs, like Dirk has done since he’s been here, and the team gets blown up next offseason.
May 30th, 2018 at 2:07 pm
Objectively, we need to stop trotting out excuses for ANY member of this TEAM. It was not ONE aspect that led us to 5-11.
Absolutely YES! IF he had a running game, IF the special teams, IF the defense, IF the coaching……ALSO, IF he hadn’t fumbled, thrown a pick, read the defense, threw the ball accurately.
No one on this team is without blame, so stop making excuses. EVERY player and coach on this team is on the hot seat, 5-11 says so!!!
May 30th, 2018 at 2:12 pm
Where are these people getting there data from? Suddenly getting injured meaning throwing for less yards means regression? If theguy balls out this year there are so many people that can’t jump on the bandwagon because all they’ve ever done is criticize
May 30th, 2018 at 2:13 pm
Winston had 7 lost fumbles last year, and at least two of them were not real. Winston got charged with a fumble inside the 5 at GB when he handed off the ball to Barber, Barber then bobbled the ball and lost it, the handoff was clean, the fumble was on Barber, but because he never had the ball Winston get charged with the fumble. Then you have the fumble at the end of the Carolina game where Winston didn’t fumble the ball, period. So now you’re down to 5 lost fumbles and I haven’t even looked at the others to see what else got messed up by the refs, but at 5 he’s one ahead of Tom Brady and tied with Kirk Cousins.
Last off season it was all about how Winston HAS to stop trying to force the ball, he can’t throw INT’s, so he cuts down on his INTs by not forcing the ball. But when you do that it means you hold onto the ball longer, and behind a bad offensive line that’s not a good things. Then in addition to being told to not force the ball, and playing behind a bad line with no running game, Dirk still runs a deep ball offense that means you have to hold onto the ball even longer… but whatever you do don’t throw an INT… So he does that and now he’s getting stripped sacked because the o-line can’t block, and the fake news whiners now claim fumbling is a huge issue. No, fumbling isn’t a huge issue if Dirk simply shortened up his passing game, at least at times, or if you get the running game going and get better o-line play like in 2015 when Winston didn’t have any fumbling issue.
May 30th, 2018 at 3:10 pm
Bucfanman FTW! He nailed it. This was a total team loss last year..from ownership down to the fans. None of us got the season right.
I’m not concerned about DK’s hot seat or that his HC career has become dependent on Jameis. Half the coaches in the NFL are on the hot seat and another dozen or so have their careers dependent on their QB. QB IS the most important position on the team and so most coaches are tied to them if they want success.
Some doubt Koetter….some doubt Jameis…some doubt Smitty…some doubt Licht. I don’t doubt any of them. My mind is in a great place and feeling relaxed and positive. Now if we win less than nine then it’s not just Koetter…the entire staff will go and perhaps Licht with them. It will be a total overhaul.
This is not news!!! It’s life in the NFL. As the cliche goes…”it is what it is.”
I do not feel sorry for any of these people. They have a great opportunity in ’18 and whether they succeed or fail they are all MILLIONAIRES!!!
Let’s just relax and enjoy the ride.
May 30th, 2018 at 3:27 pm
Coach is not “tied” to the QB. He will bench the QB by 5th game if we don’t have 2 wins.
May 30th, 2018 at 4:53 pm
again, before and after his injury, Winston was having trouble with his decision making……he was playing decision making has regressed……he’s indecisive….his pocket awareness ….his pocket awareness was still trash…..
you can talk numbers all day until you blue in the face but if you saw Winston in 20015 and then saw him last year you would say he regressed…..even in the bears game he was indecisive and his pocket awareness was trash…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!….#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
May 30th, 2018 at 4:55 pm
Bucsfanman Says:
May 30th, 2018 at 2:07 pm
Objectively, we need to stop trotting out excuses for ANY member of this TEAM.
^^BINGO^^
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!….#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
May 30th, 2018 at 5:29 pm
I need a turnover and some coffee with this article.