Ira Kaufman Debates Liam Coen Blame, Talks Replacements, Baker Mayfield Power, Fans & Todd Bowles, And More
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An instant classic episode after the mayhem surrounding offensive coordinator Liam Coen’s departure. Enjoy!
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January 25th, 2025 at 7:16 pm
Thanks guys!
Go Bucs!
January 25th, 2025 at 7:35 pm
Banging on this keyboard for weeks. Secure Coen 2025. As Steve said the Glazers needed to step up and I hate to say it but the Glazers dropped the ball. Caught flatfooted, slow on the draw, too busy napping. No guarantee Coen will work out. But if you’re shooting for the moon you sometimes have to make a bold move.
Coen is history. Some of you think that is good. If I had that offer I am taking it any way I can get it. Most of you would as well.
January 25th, 2025 at 7:39 pm
Ira, thanks for trying to be the voice of reason.
January 25th, 2025 at 8:22 pm
I’m excited about next year.. maybe I’m in the minority but I expect the Bucs to be better.. Jason Litch has to hit of some FA and draft pick on the defensive side
January 25th, 2025 at 9:00 pm
Coen had no honor
January 25th, 2025 at 9:12 pm
Eh, PFF are probably the one of the best sources for OL stuff. I wouldn’t trust much else that they do, but the OL stuff is literally what put them on the map – for a good reason.
And frankly, Bredeson isn’t *that* good. He was the weakest piece on a line with a rookie center. If he’s a decent price, sure, re-sign him – he’s not a disaster and it’s continuity. But he’s not a guy who should be commanding any sort of significant money deal.
I wouldn’t be shocked to see someone like a Donovan Jackson get picked somewhere in day 2 for that spot.
January 25th, 2025 at 9:25 pm
Joe has yet to find anyone that works in the NFL who doesn’t think the PFF tribe’s OL “knowledge” is a step above used kitty litter.
That includes GMs, personnel directors, scouts and coaches.
January 25th, 2025 at 10:34 pm
That’s cute, but they’re among the biggest analytics companies in the NFL space and OL is what put them there. I wouldn’t even consider them when talking about WR/DBs, but OL is different (for one: how hard do you think it is to figure out what an OL assignment is? it’s not a 50/50, they’re going to get that right much closer to 99% of the time).
If you’re talking about just reading 1 number (the grade), then yeah, you’ve got a point. That’s dumb. And I suspect that’s what the people you’ve talked to a specifically annoyed about – hearing about that single number.
Those things only work when given context. Player X might have a better number than player Y, but when broken down into non-RPO drop backs player Y has a far better number… player X just had a friendlier situation leading to the better numer, but player Y is the better player. Same thing for scheme fits in the run game – if you know you’ve got a bunch of guys good at running power and gap, and then look at a guy grading well in a outside-zone heavy system’s one number… you’re not going to replicate that performance by dropping him into your scheme.
I’d argue that’s a dumb people problem, rather than a PFF problem.
January 25th, 2025 at 10:54 pm
Folks, sometimes in life you just have to let crazy be crazy.
The Joes and Ira qualify in regards to Bowles remaining the HC.
We’ll all be right here in the same place this time next year.
And the usual suspects will still be defending Bowles.
They’re nothing more than propagandists for the Glazers.
You obviously didn’t listen to the podcast. –Joe
January 25th, 2025 at 10:56 pm
Me, my hound and my favorite podcast. I see no fault that the Glazers didn’t proactively do anything about the Coen situation. We went further in the playoffs last year with Canales! Coen ran the ball 60/40 against Washington instead of the opposite or we’d have won. Since our run game was better he got confused about should the run set up the pass or should the pass set up the run. There can’t be confusion there. Our passing game sets up everything we do. Open the game hitting 7 of 8 passes and the run game is gonna look great. That’s what I see. What I can’t unsee is Ira’s mom putting his socks on his feet until he was 14.
January 25th, 2025 at 11:36 pm
The Bucs will be 🙂 fine, Todd Bowles has done so much for this franchise and he’s still here and has never turned his back on us!
January 26th, 2025 at 12:22 am
Sedatives and laxatives for everyone, although a few need a simple reality check.
January 26th, 2025 at 2:19 am
Kacy Rodgers was the Bucs Defensive Line Coach and Run Defense Coordinator. The Bucs Defensive Line and Run Defense were among the best in the league this year? Why did Rodgers just leave the Bucs for Detroit in a somewhat less than lateral move when the Bucs are in a position to improve the defense significantly in the draft this year and have reasonable expectations of winning a fourth consecutive division title and advancing further in the playoffs in the 2025 season?
All reports I know of suggest Rodgers and Bowles are good friends and that Rodgers liked working for Bowles. So, the only reasons that I have thought of for Rodgers to leave are Detroit offered him significantly more money, or he thought that his job security was in jeopardy because ownership will not renew Bowles’s contract next year even if the team is more successful.
It looks like to me that ownership never wanted Bowles; that Arians put them in a situation where they felt like they had to give him a shot. Given their cap situation and the need to largely rebuild the team after mortgaging their cap space to try to repeat as Super Bowl champs, ownership seemed to be content to keep Bowles as a caretaker Head Coach until they paid off their dead cap and reloaded the roster enough to be competitive again. Then, I think that ownership planned to hire a new Head Coach. I think that no one has been more surprised than ownership to see the Bucs continue winning the division and making it to the playoffs with an improved record each season.
What is the evidence for my supposition?
If the numbers I found online are true, Andy Reid is the highest paid Head Coach with a salary of $20 million/year, while Bowles has either the lowest or second lowest salary for a Head Coach at $3 million/year. The salaries of coordinators and position coaches seem to be deep dark secrets; at least I haven’t found a source for the information. But, presumably, the other coaches make less than the Head Coach, so there is a lot more salary room for Reid to recruit and retain coaches than their is for Bowles. If the Bucs wanted to keep the Head Coach who has won the division championship every year during a significant rebuilding of the team, they could have given Bowles a raise, or extended his contract, or both. And, if Bowles got a raise, there would be more salary available to use to recruit and retain the coaches Bowles wants.
I have to wander if this was a factor in the recent Coen saga. If, for example, Baker or Bucky missed the season with injury and the Bucs crashed and burned, would Coen have been out of a job along with Bowles?
The last that I heard, Larry Foote, the Bucs Inside Linebacker Coach and Passing Defense Coordinator is also without a contract. Talk about a guy trying to make bricks without straw or mud! The Bucs won the Super Bowl with a major investment of draft capital and salary cap in the two starting Inside Linebackers. This year, the Bucs had a second round player in his thirteenth year on a one year contract, a fifth round pick that was two slow to play three downs or play sideline to sideline, and a fifth round pick who was mostly adequate for four games until he was lost for the season. The Bucs pass defense depends upon help from the linebackers underneath. The injuries this year at ILB and the injuries in the secondary exacerbated one another and made the job of Passing Defense Coordinator insanely difficult. That the Bucs won ten games and held Washington to 23 points with Jayden Daniels playing quarterback is a testament to the resourcefulness of Foote and Bowles.
The Bucs need to extend Foote at least until the end of Bowles contract. If that means promoting Foote to Assistant Head Coach and giving Bowles and Foote a raise for the coming year, do it whether you want Bowles back after 2025 or not. While you are at it, also offer Kacy Rodgers a promotion to Assistant Head Coach and try to get him back for Bowles’s last year. The Bucs can afford to spend that much money for one year to keep the rebuild on track considering that KC and others shell out those kind of salaries every year. The Bucs coaching salaries make me think of the Rays winning on the cheap.
January 26th, 2025 at 5:38 am
Sharp-witted podcast, right on point.
Mayhem for sure this week. Fully agree with Ira about Coen.
True words, Todd always has the team ready opening day and they also fully respect him.
Taking the philosophy from what Mike posted. Not worrying about Coen. Not losing any sleep over it. Good points by Mike. We had no control over what he did.
Many would love to be OC for the Bucs with the phenomenal players we have. Yes, there are worries that Todd may retire in two years. However, if the OC does well, they could be the next HC of the Bucs when Todd does retire. A win-win.
January 26th, 2025 at 6:46 am
Glazers will rue the day they let Coen walk. He’s a generational talent. Took our offense from 23rd to 4th without Godwin for most of the season and without Evans for 1/4 of it. Anyone who thinks our success was strictly due to talent is mistaken. Next year this offense will regress without Coen. Glazers decided to keep our defensive genius of a head coach who’s pass D has been in the bottom 5 the last 2 seasons. Without Corn’s offense we would have had a losing record and Bowled would have been fired and we would have finally been put out of our misery.
January 26th, 2025 at 8:09 am
From BSPN:
This wasn’t the first time Coen had changed course. In December 2017, he accepted the offensive coordinator position at Holy Cross before then taking the job as the assistant wide receivers coach with the Rams. On Jan. 23, 2024, Kentucky quarterback commit Stone Saunders told Kentucky Sports Radio that Coen said he was staying at the University of Kentucky as its offensive coordinator.
Coen was then hired by the Bucs on Feb. 3, 2024.
Once a snake – always a snake
January 26th, 2025 at 12:14 pm
@Joe
I listened to the podcast after you commented on my post above….
Lying about Joe and misrepresenting Joe is not acceptable. That’s why the rest of our post was deleted. Joe knows what fans want. That’s why Joe polls them weekly during the season.
January 26th, 2025 at 12:37 pm
J Light and team has done a great job drafting Offense.
On Defense, it’s been more hit and miss- the Bucs D is an NFL average Defense.
The Bucs won the division despite having a negative turnover differential which is a credit to their Offensive production.
The team needs an Edge Rusher that makes plays and a legit Middle LB.
Signing FA Carlton Davis wouldn’t hurt either.
Coen leaving is the way of the NFL today- Coordinators that are ambitious will seek and manipulate ,if necessary, their way to a HC position.
There’s plenty of tape in the NFL on what plays work and don’t work-Bowles and Licht have shown they know how to pick the right OC.