“We Chose To Suck”
May 17th, 2018
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken has spent countless hours studying the Buccaneers’ red zone woes last season.
Today, he offered an explanation.
Yes, the Bucs were among the very best in the NFL at getting to the red zone. They were second-best in the NFL at first downs. But they were bad at converting.
The verdict? “We chose to suck,” Monken said.
Monken said it multiple times to Joe and local media assembled today at One Buc Palace, and he said he advised the team as well.
Interpret that how you wish. Throw the blame where you want.
Last season is long gone, but the failure was real and the key players seem to know what happened and why.
May 17th, 2018 at 12:58 pm
Well I hope they choose not to suck this year
May 17th, 2018 at 12:59 pm
I wonder how the coach and GM feel about this revelation.
May 17th, 2018 at 1:04 pm
OR
“as a coaching staff, we chose to let the players suck”
This is a bidness, players and coaches can’t be to far gone to see that, you can’t produce? You can’t stay…
May 17th, 2018 at 1:21 pm
That’s a very Kanye West-like statement
May 17th, 2018 at 1:28 pm
The Purple One, actually….
May 17th, 2018 at 1:30 pm
UHHH the coaching sucked!!! just saying when you have #KluelessKoetter and ManiacMonken in charge that’s exactly what you’ll get.
May 17th, 2018 at 1:33 pm
Can’t believe we didn’t drill down on him. WTH does that mean??
Like to know what he was implying.
Let him off the hook to easy!!
May 17th, 2018 at 1:56 pm
“We chose to run low % long developing plays with a high chance of massive disaster too often”
May 17th, 2018 at 1:57 pm
“We chose to suck” also means “we can choose to succeed this year” which will be a strong coaching point. Football is a game of wills… make it happen!
May 17th, 2018 at 1:58 pm
I have nothing ….when a coach shuts down all debate by being honest then there is no debate lol
May 17th, 2018 at 2:01 pm
refreshing remark.
is the unsucking I am concerned with though.
May 17th, 2018 at 2:07 pm
You can only choose to suck if you know how to succeed. It was apparent the coaching staff doesn’t know how to succeed. It’s like a science experiment each year. It all starts from evaluating the talent on your team and knowing where your deficiencies are. They screwed up before the season even started last year.
Last year’s team with another coaching staff could have easily gone 10-6 at the very least. Losing close games comes down to coaching and play calling. I’m not absolving the piss poor play from the players, but countless teams squeeze every bit of talent from no-name players. You can’t always blame the kicking game. You shouldn’t rely on the kicking game.
Can they right the wrongs this year? That’s the million dollar ?
May 17th, 2018 at 2:08 pm
That would make some sense because of comparison 2016 to 2017! I would have to say it’s the player for execution but the coaches may have psychologically motivated them to be bad, push the wrong button and they don’t know it (loose a locker room)! Between the players and the world (per say) is the coaches and some speech may have been taken the wrong way, deflating the players, choosing (motivating) them to lose! I thought it had been Mike (DC) back in the season! I’m not there so what I think should be taken with a grain of salt!
May 17th, 2018 at 2:26 pm
I would say some of the coaching is real good you don’t get that many first downs and red zone ops without some good coaching !!However the inability to do some of the basic things along common sense lines is evident !! Hence the poor td conversion and short yardage run conversion !! Koetter , Smith and Light suffer from a nepotistic relationship and tend to blame players rather than their lack of ability to communicate and teach effectively. M Smith has this disease big time !!!
Is infecting Monken and Koetter
Light is tolerating it under his watch !! Move Smith to consultant under Light and get a new d cood . Smith has more value in this position and the others will be better for it !!!
May 17th, 2018 at 2:27 pm
Can’t argue with that.
The biggest question for the 2018 Bucs: Will Monken be a real OC running his own scheme and play designs?
May 17th, 2018 at 2:59 pm
I would like to know who chose to suck. If they feel everybody did including coaches, there needed to be a coaching change. It starts at the top.
May 17th, 2018 at 4:46 pm
What Monken should be studying is what plays have resulted in touchdowns by other teams that we could add to our red zone playbook. Then work on finding some more redzone plays that no NFL team has used yet. Other teams have likely studied who Jameis usually throws to in the red zone and blankets those players. They knew we could not punch it in running with our lousy OL last year so it made it much easier to defend. This year with a better and more powerful OL we should also try to run it in more. Use Howard, Auclair, and Brate. Then put Vea in the backfield with Barber. Remember Via used to be a running back and he can also be used as a powerful fullback to help Barber punch it in sometimes. Keep the defense guessing. Use some trick plays also.
May 17th, 2018 at 4:50 pm
@unbelievable … “The biggest question for the 2018 Bucs: Will Monken be a real OC running his own scheme and play designs?” Aw come on, Dirk’s already answered that question. He’s already told everyone he’s gonna call the plays this season (with lots of ‘input’ from Monken & others). Fact is he likes calling plays. Fact also is that the Glazers hired him to be HC AND OC (give up OC & his HC gig may soon follow). Might even be a little ego in there (after all, Bucs offense has amassed a lot of yardage in his 3 years as OC).
May 17th, 2018 at 5:24 pm
@DR,
Yea I just don’t understand what the job of an “offensive coordinator”’ is, if he’s not calling the plays, or at the very least designing the plays and the scheme.
I’m all for 4 verticals and what not, but ya gotta mix it up and throw in some new tricks. Our offense was so darn predictable last year, and even in 2016.
Now maybe some of that was due to limitations of our offensive line and/or running backs, but to me that means you have to get more creative. Not more basic and predictable.
I say let Monken have his chance and be a real coordinator.
May 17th, 2018 at 5:27 pm
A lot of the first downs were due to us playing catch up after giving up points. It has a lot to do with your opponent keeping things in front while holding onto a lead. Only TDs matter when the clock ticks to 0:00. Everything else is lipstick on a pig.
May 17th, 2018 at 7:34 pm
Good coaching staffs do not ALLOW their players to have such a choice… go ask Mr. Belichick or Mr. Saban.
May 17th, 2018 at 10:55 pm
He is hinting that Dirks playcalling is vanilla.
May 18th, 2018 at 11:26 am
Joe, they did a lengthy piece on this quote and also quoted JoeBucsFan on Moving the Chains yesterday on NFL radio. Kirwan said it was a little one sided to lay all of the redzone issues at the players feet and Bucs fans know quite well Koetter and Monken need to shoulder part of the blame for things like sticking with Martin and his low per carry average and not making sure Djax and Jameis were in sync better. It was a huge plug for JoeBucsfan.com I was very impressed and they talked about this at the very end of the show. I am going to say that Monken needs to come out at some point like Koetter and state they all are to blame or I am losing alot of respect for that guy. To just say “we chose to suck” and then talk about fumbles penalities etc (all player caused issues) really doesnt give the entire story.