No Word On Koetter’s Assistants
December 30th, 2018
Could DL coach Brentson Buckner and other assistants be retained?
[UPDATE: 8:51 p.m.]
In the three-paragraph statement issued by the Buccaneers to announce the dismissal of now former-Bucs coach Dirk Koetter it was both revealing and it let something shrouded in mystery.
Nowhere in the statement was there any hint of the status of Koetter’s assistants. We know some, including offensive coordinator Todd Monken, are at the end of their contracts. But specifically who (other than Monken) is unknown.
Joe is just guessing defensive line coach Brentson Bucker still has a year left since this was his first season with the Bucs, but that is just a guess. Not often do assistants sign one-year pacts.
Could it be that Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht, who Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer stated was in charge of the search for Koetter’s replacement, be inclined to keep some of Koetter’s assistants or even perhaps require the new coach to keep a select few?
A lot of folks are texting Joe that given Licht’s connection to Bruce Arians and given Arians’ connections to America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, that Arians is high on the list (despite Arians himself repeatedly claiming he is only interested in the Browns opening). And fans suggest to Joe if Arians is hired, the Bucs could have a Cardinals reunion of sorts with Arians as head coach, Jets coach Todd Bowles (who is expected to be fired by the Jets) as defensive coordinator and Buckner remaining as defensive line coach.
Of course, this is all just rank speculation and guessing (wishing?) right now.
[UPDATE: 8:51 p.m.] The Jets fired Todd Bowles Sunday night.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:21 pm
There are 2 guys who no matter what must not be retained, Mike Bajakian and George Warhop. Absolute morons who have no clue how to coach, Jameis is still making the same mistakes he did in his rookie year and the O-line outside of Ali is trash.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:22 pm
That would be nice…..Go Bucs!!! Get it done! Bucs4Life!!!
December 30th, 2018 at 8:23 pm
Buckner is a ham and egger rah rah coach….dime a dozen…the next HC will bring in his guys
December 30th, 2018 at 8:24 pm
If…and only if Licht could pull off an Arians/Bowles double play…I’d begrudgingly look past the .3375 winning percentage, multiple free agent foul ups and draft botches. Huge if though…
December 30th, 2018 at 8:24 pm
No to Bowles. Buckner is ready to be a defensive coordinator in his own right. I would rather see him promoted to DC, since he knows the organization.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:25 pm
Wishing????? We wish they move this piece of crap franchise over across the pond, and stop being a stain in Tampa!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 30th, 2018 at 8:28 pm
I hope nobody accepts the coaching vacancies. This ownership and butt clown GM don’t deserve to even have an NFL franchise.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:28 pm
Ah… so Monken’s deal is up. I guess he won’t be back then. Although if I was a defensive coach coming into Tampa I’d want to keep him around.
Oh well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:30 pm
I like Buckner and Monken as much as the next guy, but I don’t think ANY head coach should have his hands tied by “legacy assistants”. Let’s go with a clean slate, shall we? The Bucs kept Licht for “continuity” and that’s about as much continuity as I can stomach from this organization.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:31 pm
Lets get a coach that has a great passion for winning….we need some fire on the sidelines…….with Koetter & Mike Smith it was way too calm.
At least Buckner has some passion…..
Guess there is no way we could attract Dabo Swinney….or maybe Woody Hayes…
December 30th, 2018 at 8:33 pm
I’m thinking Arians and Bowles reunion as well. Did Bowles run a 3-4 though
December 30th, 2018 at 8:34 pm
RyJo – Gruden was forced by the Glazers to keep “legacy” coaches around and he wasn’t allowed to touch the defense (at least not until Gruden got McKay fired). Anywho that worked out quite well.
If you think you have a good system in place, and the Bucs have a good offensive system in place that matches their personal, then you should talk to coaches who specialize in other areas and get their thoughts on would they keep guys around. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but there shouldn’t be a black and white rule in any case, you should always be open to all ideas.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:36 pm
rrsrq – Vita Vea is a 3-4 NT, JPP would be a useful 3-4 end, David would be an exceptional 3-4 edge rusher. Beckwith seems like a natural fit as an interior 3-4 run stuffing LB. McCoy might be the odd man out, but he might find a second wind as a DE in a 3-4, or he can be traded for something of value and that would open up a ton of cap space. Anywho, a 3-4 really isn’t a bad fit for the personal I don’t believe.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:37 pm
We could (and probably will) do a heck of a lot worse than Arians/ Bowles
December 30th, 2018 at 8:39 pm
Felt like we were going to lose our entire coaching staff. Since their keeping Licht I wonder how many of our good coachs might be kept due to their working relationship with Lucky.
Dang, Jason Licht has a huge job in front of him. He better not botch this like his Roberto draft
December 30th, 2018 at 8:40 pm
Alaskan – Apparently Arians isn’t a FA, he signed a 4 year extension in 2015 and even though he retired he can’t coach another team until after next year without the Cardinals giving the OK first. So if someone wants him, they’d have to give the Cards something of value. May not be a big deal, might only cost like a 5th rounder or something, but something to keep in mind.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:42 pm
Why the hell would they keep assistants? They just fired the head coach who didn’t want to micromanage. Clean that staff out of there and let’s get a coach who picks his own staff so we don’t end up canning the hold overs next year.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:44 pm
Do Bowles run a 4-3 or 3-4 defense? I thought he ran a 3-4. The bucs are basically a 4-3 defense. Would this present a problem with the bucs
December 30th, 2018 at 8:45 pm
Please hire mike McCarthy unless a better option is available
December 30th, 2018 at 8:48 pm
!!!!This is a sh*t show with the main attraction being a huge pile of sh*t.
The “recreate the past” bullsh*t didn’t work with former Bucs coaches, so we’ll get the Cardinals old gang back together including a HC in bad health and a DC who flamed out with the Jets?
Because…
#lichtmyb*lls is here and Arians likes Jameis?
Remember when everyone was sucking Dirk’s dirk over him being the head coach because he developed Jameis?
How’d that end up?
#APATHY
December 30th, 2018 at 8:50 pm
@AlteredEgo
If they bring in Arians, Buckner is his guy duhh…
December 30th, 2018 at 8:50 pm
Seems they are not cleaning house. The front office is being kept.
We may be looking at keeping at least some of our current assistants and plucking a coordinator. Josh McDaniels, Eric Bieniemy, Matt LaFleur, etc.
Those who want a complete and total overall probably won’t be happy with this.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:54 pm
No to McCarthy!! He failed with Aaron Rodgers. Arians would be great for Jameis. So would Harbaugh. I’d rather see Harbaugh as HC and Kris Richard as DC.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:55 pm
Licht drafts for 4-3 defense. No way he hires a 3-4 dc.
December 30th, 2018 at 8:56 pm
Eliot really likes that to talk about licking balls lol
December 30th, 2018 at 9:08 pm
Please no Arians or McCarthy. The fact that Licht is doing the hiring means we’re in for 3 or 4 more years of failure. If you want to get rid of the cancer of losing, you have to cut out the whole thing. Keep half of the cancer and expecting it to not grow back is only logical to the Glazers. We’re in for a new mess just like the old mess. The new mess will just have a partially new name, Licht-xxx, instead of Licht-Koetter.
December 30th, 2018 at 9:09 pm
Bruce Arians is 66 with past health issues that forced him to step down as HC in Arizona. Seriously, is he the answer?
Another 4 pick game by JayMiss may kill him. Does anyone want that on their conscience?
December 30th, 2018 at 9:16 pm
LOL
December 30th, 2018 at 9:17 pm
LOl
December 30th, 2018 at 9:19 pm
So we get Arians who can get Payton Manning to come join the staff. We can take a few Pittsburg guys too, thanks.
Then let’s get the fans Kris Richard for DC and build a contender!!
December 30th, 2018 at 9:26 pm
NPR SAGE BOY
U will be eat your Jay Miss words but u won’t ever admit u were wrong. Jameis will be here for a very long time, sorry to ruin your life
December 30th, 2018 at 9:29 pm
Do we really want a HC in Arians, who loves Baker Mayfield and really wants to coach the Browns?
We need a coach who is all in on Jameis. A HC that loves him, and is really excited to work and fix him. This will be the last opportunity Jameis gets. He needs the right coach.
December 30th, 2018 at 9:32 pm
Honestly I hope we keep Duffner at DC and Monken at OC.
December 30th, 2018 at 9:56 pm
Arians will likely settle for the Bucs if the Browns hire a different HC. Arians also is smart enough to fire Warhop. He will feel real comfortable with Licht and Buckner. He should be able to pull in a better DC than Duff. If he brings in a better OL Coach than Warhop from his past contacts the OL can be fixed. Warhop was trying to play his favorite Benenoch even though he was sick likely because if another backup came in and outplayed Benenoch it would show he is a bad chooser of OL talent. Cappa came in and was out playing Benenoch so Warhop had to pull him and put Benenoch back in there in the second half. He is awful and has no concern for protecting Jameis!
December 30th, 2018 at 9:57 pm
Dilly Dilly one but person!! Agreed!!!
December 30th, 2018 at 10:02 pm
Dilly Dilly one buc person!! Agreed!!!
December 30th, 2018 at 10:11 pm
If the Steelers miss the play-offs, and Tomlin gets fired, Bucs need to go get him!!
Tomlin: 12 Seasons: 124-66-1 .652 win pct and 15 play-off games.
2 x AFC Champ, 1 x Super Bowl Champion
December 30th, 2018 at 10:35 pm
If Arians is hired and I hope he is, the Bucs should also hire his heir-apparent due to Arians past health issues. My vote would go to Kris Richard now defensive backs/passing game coordinator with the Cowboys and formerly DC with the SeaHawks. This is his first year with the Cowboys and is one of the reasons the Cowboys defense has been one of the best in the NFL this year. Richards is credited with creating the legion of boom with Seattle. As an Asst Coach-DC, I would love see what he could with the Bucs defense and especially the secondary that is in serious need of a rebuild.
December 30th, 2018 at 10:51 pm
Since the Jets fired Bowles, I took a look at a their fan’s comments. They are in the same situation as we are. A crappy HC/GM combo. They are irate that the crappy GM didn’t get fired along with the crappy HC.
Many thought Bowles was a nice guy, but a bad HC with game planning and discipline issues. He went through 3 OCs in 4 years, but kept the same DC, even though he had 3 years of atrocious defense. Even though he is a defensive coach, he did not have a good defensive team every year.
There are some coaches that are bad HCs but can still be good coordinators like Gus Bradley has shown. Bowles’ bad defensive teams worry me, and I would rather take a chance on the future with an up-and-comer like Buckner.
December 30th, 2018 at 10:54 pm
Points against…
#32 Raiders, 467
#31 Bucs, 464
#30 Bengals, 455
#29 Jets, 441
December 31st, 2018 at 12:16 am
Anybody talking about wishing this franchise move needs to either do some eye gouging or go ahead and get out of Tampa, your the stain!!!
December 31st, 2018 at 10:46 am
The Bucs next HC should be Adam Gase.