More Chiefs Dot-Connecting
May 11th, 2014
Are fortunes pointing up for the Bucs like they did last year for Andy Reid and the Chiefs?
Two years ago there were few franchises in a downward spiral worse than the Chiefs’. Their general manager, though he drafted well, had alienated just about everyone in the front office with his brazen Nixonian paranoid ways. That’s OK if you win, but once the losses start, you are doomed and Scott Pioli was.
Then the team began to disintegrate so much and so badly and a player committed suicide at the team’s facility. It was ugly.
So too last year was for the Bucs, between the MRSA and the leaky, sleepy Rip Van Freeman stunts. The Bucs didn’t have a Plumbers-mentality in the front office but seemed to have one in lower levels. Thankfully, no one went as far as to off themselves, but like Clark Hunt did with the Chiefs after the 2012 season, Team Glazer cleaned house, bringing in a coach who knew how to get a team to the playoffs.
So after this weekend’s draft with the Bucs loading up on offensive playmakers, the comparisons to the Chiefs popped up again, this time by Pete Damilatis of Pro Football Focus.
@PFF_Pete: I said in Nov that the Bucs could have a Chiefs-like turnaround w a new QB & coach. Feel really confident about that after this offseason.
That could happen but here is the key thing to remember: The Chiefs had a decent if not good offensive line. Right now, the offensive line of the Bucs is razor-thin. Yeah, it would help if Carl Nicks returns at guard but that’s like gambling on the weather in the Midwest. Actually, gambling on the weather in the Midwest could probably get you better odds than the return of Carl Nicks.
Another thing to consider: The AFC West is pretty much a two-team division. The NFC South is much stronger.
May 11th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
On paper anyways the Bucs got one step closer to that scenario. Props to L&L for letting the media run with the smokescreen that helped them get the guys they truly wanted. Hopefully the O- line gets a little more love from Lovie, it really is the only universally agreed upon glaring team weakness
May 11th, 2014 at 1:18 pm
I’m depending on lovie making our defense feared. That’s the only way we are gonna maintain success Our oline is the unknown
May 11th, 2014 at 1:19 pm
Wow Joe I like u and this site so this is no shot to you but that’s in poor taste I don’t think you should reference someone’s death with the terrible play of a kids game. And in his defense he had relationship problems I don’t think his teams play factored into that equation.
May 11th, 2014 at 1:25 pm
I agree, Belchers murder-suicide had nothing to do with the teams record, it was baby mama drama and he was too stupid to deal with it the correct way.
May 11th, 2014 at 1:27 pm
our qb’s are the unknown, too. our defensive line is unknown. our new rookies are unknown. our offense is unknown.
May 11th, 2014 at 1:27 pm
I’m with BucNasty on that. That comment was uncalled for and irresponsible
May 11th, 2014 at 1:55 pm
He was listing the numerous problems the Chiefs had. It’s not like he made anything up, and you can’t deny that was a problem.
May 11th, 2014 at 1:59 pm
Obviously you can’t win games by winning the offseason, but you can damn sure put yourself in the best possible position to do so. This is just a major step in the process. The fans aren’t proclaiming the Bucs to be NFC South champs, but on the other hand there’s no need to downplay the fantastic offseason this organization has had thus far. Keeping it all in perspective is the best approach. That being said, I can’t imagine better preparation for a turnaround and I fully expect the Bucs will be vying for a playoff spot this season.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
BucNasty!!! & PatrickVA
The dude killed his girlfriend first. he deserves no free pass or sympathy. Relationship issues are not an excuse for murder. If that were true there would be no women left. he deserved to die. What an a-hole to kill himself in front of others that is the sad part those innocent victims who witnessed his selfish act of suicide. They now have that memory forever because he was a felonious / selfish prick. PERIOD…. if he did not shoot himself he should have either been to the table with the needle or the chair…. Eye for and Eye
PC POLICE SUCK!!!!!
Onto football, I can see the bucs turning around quicker than it took dungy simply based on the fact smith has more to work with. I love the off season moves but we are at least 1 more off season away from seriously contending for it all. Playoffs this year possibly, brutal division and no qb therefore not a deep run this year. I hope I am wrong. Not being NEGATIVE BEING A REALIST which does not mean hate to all you who love to throw that out there.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:09 pm
Very true Joe. You bring up some great points – especially the AFC West being led by 2 teams – opposed to the treacherous NFC South. Learned a lot on this piece.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:21 pm
“…and a player committed suicide at the team’s facility.” – Joe
Wait. A player actually did that at the facility???? On Chiefs property?
May 11th, 2014 at 2:24 pm
@tmaxcon
I don’t think Smith has more to work with. Dungy inherited some awesome players because of Sam W.
I would say things were about equal in those terms. In fact, I’ve seen many similarities. Schiano is Lovie’s Sam W.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Bonzi
yes he shot himself in the parking lot in FRONT of a few coaches and front office personnel. Not sure how true this is but romeo crennel was trying to talk him down supposedly when he ended it.
I disagree Dungy did not have the same level of defensive talent when he took over. But that’s subjective.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:33 pm
Bonzai,
If I recall correctly, it was in the players parking lot at the stadium.
As far as the Bucs, why not playoffs? O-line can’t be worse than last year, and with better play calling and game planning, they would’ve won at least 4-5 more games last year(1st NO game, Jets, Seahawks and Cardinals off the top of my head). Defense should benefit from a solid coaching staff and at least on paper, offense is loaded with new weapons. Call me a homer, but I’m highly optimistic about the 2014 season.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:35 pm
PC police is right, in joe’s defense, I think he was simply emphasizing the negative spiral the team was in, and that (MURDER/suicide) was definitely worth mentioning, because it added more negative drama to the team. Let’s hope the Bucs can be equally if not more successful, despite all that happened last year.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:37 pm
Tampamac, you are correct the stadium was location, team offices are also at stadium.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:39 pm
WE UPGRADED the offensive line. What is with everyone and the offensive line drama. Collins is better than Penn, EDS is better than Zutah, Meradith played well last year and so did Dotson. We drafted two guys and still have Nicks who is getting healthier by the day.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:54 pm
Never wrote that it did. Just an example of how messed up things were there.
May 11th, 2014 at 2:55 pm
I am just looking forward to a real coach who can make a half time adjustment. I am also glad we got rid of the worst offensive coordinator in nfl history.
Great draft coverage JOE. You were my number one source while on the road this past week. Ty. Please don’t put any Michael Sam kissing pics on site. Lol. Shame on you bspn. Ty again. Lol. Go bucs 2014. Damn this iPhone and it’s typos.
May 11th, 2014 at 3:01 pm
Mallet Man and Bk:
Thanks for the kind words.
May 11th, 2014 at 3:05 pm
The Afc West had 3 teams in the playoffs. I would argue all day it’s every bit as good as the NFC South, actually better. Unfortunately, we’ve been the Raiders of the South the last few years.
May 11th, 2014 at 3:18 pm
Evan Mathis
May 11th, 2014 at 3:26 pm
“I am just looking forward to a real coach who can make a half time adjustment.”
so you are going to be looking forward until the next regime! lol. some of the criticism of lovie was poor timeout management and halftime adjustments. hopefully he learned from those mistakes.
May 11th, 2014 at 3:27 pm
@hawaiianbuc
“Unfortunately, we’ve been the Raiders of the South the last few years.”
have we been THAT bad? damn. smh
the raiders though drafted well this year with mack and carr.
May 11th, 2014 at 4:03 pm
@ lurker
I was going to say the same thing about the knocks on Lovie for clock management and game adjustments. With that said though he just OK’d the complete drafting of offensive players, so he’s obviously capable of adapting his philosophy without completely changing if. Some encouraging stuff going on
May 11th, 2014 at 4:04 pm
Changing it^^^
May 11th, 2014 at 4:31 pm
tmaxcon Says:
“Onto football, I can see the bucs turning around quicker than it took dungy simply based on the fact smith has more to work with.”
I disagree. Dungy inherited a rising team that instantly gave him (at least) two HOFers and a handful of Pro Bowlers. His defense was lead by Ahanotu, Sapp, Marts, Nickerson, Brooks, Mayhew, and Lynch. His OL had the likes of Gruber, Mayberry, Pyne, and Beckles. Dungy also had the Glazers as new owners with their wallet wide open. He could have done what Lovie did (free agency), if he was unhappy with what he had.
That being said, I, too, believe we might see quite a turnaround. It will depend greatly on how well (and how quickly) the ’53’ blend together.
May 11th, 2014 at 5:39 pm
Hawk,
Dungy also had to overcome the Culverhouse “curse”. I think the defense Smith inherited is close (comparing first couple of years not the dominate years) obviously, there will never be another Brooks or Sapp no matter how hard people try to compare and hope. We were very lucky to witness those two play together. Not taking away from any of the other pieces but those two were special and made the others so much better.
Factoring in the offensive players you are 100% correct smith inherited only two quality nfl starters on the offensive side of the ball in Martin and Vjax. There were a few other nice pieces but nothing to bank on, other than that the offensive cupboard was bare when smith arrived.
Dungy at least had a halfway decent line he inherited and having WD40 didn’t hurt in the beginning.
I do think the ownership scenario is very much equal has the Glazer clowns did open their wallets for smith that being said it took 12 years of losing and them bailing Manchester United out of debt which essentially ignored the bucs franchise for years. I think and this is only my personal opinion the glazers rode the Superbowl victory too long and lost the community support obviously the disappearing season ticket waiting list speaks for itself.
I love McCown’s approach and leadership just not sold on his play. It depends on which Josh we get. I’d be happy with a playoff game this year and start a serious run the year after with a big run year 3. rome was not built in a day as Licht stated. not only upgrading players but changing culture will be key. Smith’s style and the obvious respect players have for him will help the team gel and I really like his staff over any offensive staff Dungy put together. All though Tedford is a NFL unknown and could very well flop I have confidence he can adjust even without a quaterback. . it will be fun to watch thankfully all the mrsa and little napoleon drama was hard to stomach.
I got pretty liquored up the other night and was hoping Sapp would knock out Schiano on the nfl network set. Even tweeted 99… received a surprisingly nice / comical reply surprisingly.
May 11th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
@ tmaxcon
Culverhouse was dead and buried long before Dungy came to Tampa.
As for the defense being equal, well, as you’ve said, “that’s subjective”, and I’ll agree with that.
“was hoping Sapp would knock out Schiano on the nfl network set.”
LOL!
Ala Scot Brantley doing same to Dumbgig years ago? That was priceless!!! I haven’t listened to Dumbgig since. Radio can’t get any better than that moment!
May 11th, 2014 at 7:26 pm
Curse of Culverhouse was alive and well when Dungy took over the man was dead but lack of attention to franchise was still there in my opinion it took the glazer clowns building one buc palace to put the Culverhouse demons to bed for good. Obviously I’m not being very serious but Culverhouse destroyed the team. I’m old and remember him well and his crazy arse son was nuts.
May 11th, 2014 at 7:56 pm
The chiefs would have been 4 & 12 with our schedule last year. That team is way overrated
May 11th, 2014 at 7:57 pm
Whoops. Did my response get dumped?
Sorry, Tmaxcon, I guess Joe didn’t like what I said. He has to protect his friends, I guess(I’d tell you who/what I’m referencing to, but he’d probably dump that too. Suffice to say, I bet you’d have gotten a chuckle out of it).
May 11th, 2014 at 7:58 pm
I take that back. There she blows. There must be a huge lag on my computer.
May 11th, 2014 at 8:02 pm
Guys, Joe referencing Belcher’s death is in no way in poor taste. He is referencing a fact, the team was in shambles, that only added to it. Ignoring it would have been poor journalism.
May 11th, 2014 at 8:12 pm
Oh I remember Culverhouse VERY well. I worked for the Bucs in ’76 and there wasn’t a cheaper ‘business’ in the country. I quit before the next season in a compensation dispute. His people had huge headaches, the next year when they discovered that NOBODY would work as cheap as even the raise I was asking for. Believe it or not, I smile about that time in my life. If I hadn’t moved on, I’d have never gotten to work for the league (20 yrs). What a blast!
To me, the ‘Culverhouse Curse’ died with him. The franchise started changing, albeit slowly, almost immediately. And yes, his son was certifiable.
May 11th, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Hawk, glad you have had a dream job for so long. Nice outlook. I have buddy who has worked for bucs about 15-16 years I guess. Low level position not his primary gig but involved none the less. I had field passes for rams bucs game 2000 and was blown away. It probably is old hat for you but that was an amazing experience for a regular fan like me. I was in law enforcement late 80s and had several encounters with Culverhouse’s pretty sure you’ll figure out which one since you been around so long. I was federal not local. Anyhow that’s irrelevant I hated that entire family with a passion after my experience.
May 11th, 2014 at 10:57 pm
F the police yea cops get the big F
May 12th, 2014 at 5:23 am
@ tmaxcon
I’m glad you got to experience an ‘on-the-field’ game. There is no way to describe it to someone who hasn’t been there.
Back in the day, I was no fan of ANY of the Culverhouses. Since then, I’ve learned to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’. :^)
I marvel at what McKay did in spite of the ownership (and no free agency).
May 12th, 2014 at 11:53 am
Also KC had a powder-puff schedule this year, much like the Bucs did for Raheem’s 10-6 season. Did a lot to get them to that 8-0 mark.
From the looks of it there are only 3 glass-jawed opponents the Bucs face this year.
May 14th, 2014 at 9:20 am
While I’m very happy for who the Bucs picked and the draft, I think the playoff’s are kinda a reach this year.