Top 30 Buccaneers Mysteries Of 2014 — No. 13
March 2nd, 2015
In many ways, Tampa Bay’s 2014 season was more bizarre than the MRSA-infected, quarterback-gone-mental, Fire-Schiano-billboards campaign of 2013.
There were plenty of real Bucs mysteries last year, and Joe’s revisiting the most interesting of the bunch.
No. 13 — Not Trading Up
How exactly did the Bucs assess their quarterback situation last year at this time?
Every new regime must have a plan to win a Super Bowl. So did Lovie Smith, Jason Licht and Jeff Tedford really believe they could return glory to Tampa with ancient journeyman Josh McCown and/or Mike Glennon?
It’s hard to believe smart football men could tell each other that with a straight face.
The Bucs were sitting with 38th overall pick, their second-round choice in the 2014 NFL Draft, while the Vikings sat at No. 40 and traded that and a flimsy fourth-round pick to Seattle for the No. 32 pick. Minnesota used it to bag quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, the eventual Rookie of the Year. Tampa Bay also sat on its hands as the Raiders drafted QB Derek Carr at No. 36, another rookie standout.
Why didn’t the Bucs trade up?
One could speculate it’s possible Tampa Bay somehow was preparing to be the worst team in the league and win the Chase for Jameis, but that’s ludicrous.
Not trading up last year remains mind-boggling. What was that QB plan?
No. 14 — The Glennon Clarification
No. 15 — No Help Wanted
No. 16 — Sticky Spot
No. 17 — Virgin center
No. 18 — Investing in seven starts
No. 19 — Returner decisions
No. 20 — VJax’s wrist
No. 21 — Anti-Jell
No. 22 — Seferian-Jenkins boasting about penalized pose
No. 23 — Never moving Michael Johnson
No. 24 — “I didn’t want to put more points on the board”
No. 25 — Glennon success without an offensive coordinator
No. 26 — Putrid punting
No. 27 — Defending three-step drops
No. 28 — Eight consecutive red zone runs versus Rams
No. 29 — Leaky Sean Glennon
No. 30 – Jorvorskie Lane
March 2nd, 2015 at 6:35 pm
How can you write this a day after writing about the importance of “highlight reel” ASJ?
Easy. Joe’s written about 1,000 times that Priority 1 has to be quarterback for any team that wants to win. –Joe
March 2nd, 2015 at 7:03 pm
Agreed. But to be fair, if Joe was at the helm Bridgewater wouldn’t have been the all important QB they traded up for…
That would have depended on the price.–Joe
March 2nd, 2015 at 7:07 pm
This isn’t a mystery. Lovie thought he’d be able to get to the playoffs with Rex grossman level talent. Hopefully this year there are enough opposing voices (Koetter, Licht, the glazers) to convince him otherwise
March 2nd, 2015 at 7:51 pm
It’s no mystery why they didn’t trade up. Trading up can be costly, and this team needs quantity in addition to quality. And then people would’ve been complaining about something else if they HAD traded up…. Does anybody think a rookie QB without an OC or an experienced NFL QB coach would’ve thrived this past year? People will always find a reason to complain.
March 2nd, 2015 at 8:00 pm
I beleive Lovie thought he could win with Mccown especially since Mccown was coming off the best five games of his career. However Lovie was also likely thinking the OL Licht built would be serviceable. He also probably didn’t expect the defense to struggle like they did.
March 2nd, 2015 at 10:20 pm
Joe, This coming from the general of the glennon mob after the steelers game. That got on my nerves how you flipped sides twice
March 2nd, 2015 at 11:15 pm
A beer and some rolling papers if ya know what i’m saying
March 3rd, 2015 at 3:04 am
LargoBuc Says:
“I beleive Lovie thought he could win with Mccown especially since Mccown was coming off the best five games of his career. However Lovie was also likely thinking the OL Licht built would be serviceable. He also probably didn’t expect the defense to struggle like they did.”
True and he sure did not expect his OC Tedford to get a call from the widow maker during preseason and be unable to contribute until the Bucs were 2-9 or so where Lovie just told him to stay away to enhance the chance of snaring the #1 overall pick… McNown, the OL, Tedford, the absence of any offensive weapons besides Evans and V-Jack (when he didn’t drop the stone) all contributed to the trainwreck…. In retrospect it was idiotic to pass on Bridgewater or Carr and I think the Bucs could have got the Seattle pick with the 38th overall and their 5th rounder but to be honest they would have been pummeled behind the OL just like Bortles was throttled behind a bad Jaguar OL…..
March 3rd, 2015 at 4:23 am
“Why didn’t the Bucs trade up?”
As you pointed out Joe – the price to move up and get either Bridgewater or Carr was a 4th round pick. We didn’t have a 4th round pick. So we would have had to trade this year’s 3rd round pick instead. Bad deal – not smart.
C’mon, dude. we had this year’s fourth-round pick, which we traded a few months later for Mankins.–Joe
Aside from that – I don’t think the Bucs were all that high on ANY of the QBs who came out last year. They probably did not see any potential franchise QB in that group – and time may well prove that assessment correct.
I believe the Bucs also had their eyes on Winston going back to last off season and assumed that Mariota would be coming out in 2015 as well. Since both those QBs are way better than any of the 5 who were considered “good” prospects in 2014 – I believe the decision was made to pass on last year’s QB crop and add some good offensive weapons instead – so that when the legitimate potential franchise QBs came out this year they would be prepared to move up if necessary to get one of them – and that QB could then come in with some good weapons already in place to help him succeed.
I do believe that there’s a reasonable chance that the Bucs would have picked Carr with their 2nd round pick if the Raiders had not grabbed him 2 pick before them. We will never know.
Quite Frankly – WHO CARES.
Bridgewater and Carr are nowhere near as talented as either Winston or Mariota – so even though 2-14 really sucked and we didn’t get a QB last year – I’m sure that Joe and everyone realizes how much better off we are now because we DIDN’T try to draft a QB last year.
If the Bucs had agreed with Joe and thought that Manziel was a great QB prospect – then they would have taken him at #7 and we would be sooooo unbelievably screwed right now. Thank God they were smarter than that. Joe also wrote dozens of times before the draft that Bridgewater would be a fantastic first-round pick. Joe’s archives work just fine.–Joe
What was that QB plan?
March 3rd, 2015 at 4:28 am
So – “What was that QB plan?”
Simple – hold out for next year (2015) when one or more actual and legit franchise QBs would be available.
March 3rd, 2015 at 4:36 am
“C’mon, dude. we had this year’s fourth-round pick, which we traded a few months later for Mankins.–Joe”
Price goes up if you have to defer to next year the price you are paying to move up in this year’s draft. They didn’t think it was worth it – Bottom Line.
It’s all good Joe – Winston is way better then either Carr or Bridgewater. We will be much better off the way it worked out.
March 5th, 2015 at 4:17 pm
[…] No. 13 — Not Trading Up No. 14 — The Glennon Clarification No. 15 — No Help Wanted No. 16 — Sticky Spot No. 17 — Virgin Center No. 18 — Investing In Seven Starts No. 19 — Returner decisions No. 20 — VJax’s Wrist No. 21 — Anti-Jell No. 22 — Seferian-Jenkins Boasting About Penalized Pose No. 23 — Never Moving Michael Johnson No. 24 — “I didn’t want to put more points on the board” No. 25 — Glennon success without an offensive coordinator No. 26 — Putrid Punting No. 27 — Defending Three-step Drops No. 28 — Eight Consecutive Red Zone Runs Versus Rams No. 29 — Leaky Sean Glennon No. 30 – Jorvorskie Lane […]