Rebound With “Summer Of Lovie?”
March 23rd, 2015
Many Bucs fans are still walking around in a daze like a guy on an all day bender who saw his final bar tab.
There was so much excitement in the Tampa Bay area last year when the large, vocal majority of fans were granted their wish for Lovie Smith. There was rejoicing in the streets.
Alas, not quite a year later, despair was everywhere. No one, not even Joe, not even a Bucs hater, could have envisioned how the Bucs bottomed out so badly. If there was a surprise in the NFL last season, Lovie leading a team to a victory lap in the Chase for Jameis was it.
Well, FoxSports.com believes Bucs fans are in for a treat and is offering 11 reasons why Tampa Bay will turn things around this season. Here is the first installment in the series:
Few people envisioned Lovie Smith’s first season with Tama Bay playing out in such a disappointing fashion. The Buccaneers were a trendy pick to win the NFC South this past offseason due in large part to Smith’s impressive credentials — three division titles, a conference championship and NFL coach of the Year award. The resume offers plenty of reasons to believe that one more summer of Lovie in Tampa Bay will get this team turned around.
Simply put, a comedy of errors doomed Lovie and the Bucs last season, all largely based on really, really bad talent evaluation. It began with the jettisoning of Darrelle Revis. Oh, the Bucs said, we can get many players for his salary. True. The problem was who .was purchased
Anthony Collins, Ghost Johnson and Josh McCown turned out to be a (roughly) $29 million collective mistake. They were just the beginning.
Yes, the Bucs can only improve. The first step is sharper player evaluation. It was almost like last year Lovie used his heart, not his head, on players he hoped would bring wins.
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:02 pm
Good news everyone, We can watch the Bucs and Lovie lose from home!!!
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:07 pm
if player evaluation has never been your strong suit, don’t expect one off season to change that.
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Personally I thought it started with the jettison of Penn and zuttah.
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:15 pm
GOOD NEWS:
Bucs will TRIPLE their win total and treat their fans to a 6-10 season….!
You go, Lovie!!
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:17 pm
Weak talent evaluation = wrong pick at #1!
Lovie stated today that he is not opposed to trading down from the #1 pick after throwing the game against the Saints to get that #1 pick…blah. ..blah…blah…Lovie does not have a clue what he is talking about!
Trade the #1 pick for a new HC and trade Lovie Smith to some other team for a 6th round draft pick (Tampa gives the pick to get rid of him)! Any one who thinks Famous Porky Jameis is the #1 pick needs to revaluate their choice in QB’s and their choice in HC’s!
The only thing worse than having Lovie Smith as the HC is having to wait another year to seen if the Glazer mob grows the courage to move on and pick another HC. IT DOES NOT MATTER who the Buc’s pick unless the get a new HC! At least if they pick Mariotta, the Buc’s will have a QB of the furture (besides Glennon) for the new HC!
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:26 pm
Two 1’s, two 2’s and some cash for Sean Payton would be great. Payton would know what to do with Glennon I believe.
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:32 pm
@ Greg
“U mad bro”
As a fan I hope Lovie turns this thing around. Wasn’t excited by the Rah hire or Schiano hire, but I still wanted the team to succeed. I think this team is better than they were already last year, from FA, cuts , coaching changes and upcoming draft pick Jameis Winston.
March 23rd, 2015 at 3:58 pm
Something tells me that we are in for another miserable season. If we do and the Glazers jettisons L & L, I hope we really upgrade to someone who knows talent.
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:02 pm
Perhaps the worst “talent evaluation” came not in the players but in the coaching staff Lovie selected. Tedford was a college coach…Marcus Arroyo was a joke…and what can you say about Warhop!
This really frightened me last year because I had visions of Tony Dungy….Lovie’s mentor and the Clyde Christiansen hire. I thought we were doomed.
But you have to give Lovie credit. He learned from that mistake last year and moved quickly to secure Koetter and then Bajakian.
Koetter could have added several more wins to last year’s record just with better coaching…preparation…scheming and game day play calling.
Oh yeah I’m pretty sure Koetter can count to 12! There’s another W right there.
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:03 pm
Actually Lovie is just terrible at talent evaluation period. I mean he did legitimately once believe Devin Hester was an elite #1 receiver so….
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:09 pm
The past is the past.
Are we going to make another drafting mistake this year. I think yes.
Would you use your first round pick on a Steve McNair. Its a close call. I see Winston as a step down from a Steve McNair.
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:18 pm
Nah Sharper is a rapist )
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:21 pm
Lovie’s an idiot
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:34 pm
Lovie is a moron who is stealing from the glazers
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:38 pm
not sure why anyone is surprised. he is doing the same thing here he did in Chicago. bad personnel moves and outdated philosophies. At the end of the day the bucs and bucs fans will be left with broken down system specific players with bad deals. it will take 3 to 5 more years to recover from the disaster that is Lovie Smith.
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:41 pm
Yes we will improve to 3-13
March 23rd, 2015 at 4:46 pm
My conspiracy theory : Lovie’s being incompetent on purpose to get revenge on the Glazers for firing Dungy….
or He’s just that incompetent.
Btw…I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, just throwing that out there to nibble on.
March 23rd, 2015 at 5:04 pm
worst case scenario is that Lovie goes 5-11 but wins that last 3 out of 5 games. Then all the lovie-sheep will say how we are now going in the right direction, even though he finishes 4th in the division again, and the last win was against a team that was resting their starters for the playoffs!!!
March 23rd, 2015 at 5:04 pm
@blackmagic00
I really really really hope you are joking
March 23rd, 2015 at 5:15 pm
I agree, player evaluation has to be more astute… However, we signed the best free agents that were available and had to overpay them to sign them…
The real mistake was thinking this team had a chance to be competitive last year… No QB, no pass rush, new offensive scheme, new defensive scheme (the fourth one in five years), bad offensive line (even before Zuttah and Penn were gone)…
In hindsight, we should of saved the cap space and just signed depth players… Just like we did this year… Maybe they have learned a lesson… Desperate teams always get screwed…
March 23rd, 2015 at 5:17 pm
“the first step is DARREN sharper player evaluation” would of been funnier
March 23rd, 2015 at 5:35 pm
I hope this “Summer of Lovie” is nothing like the “Summer of George”.
March 23rd, 2015 at 5:41 pm
I see the same Lack of attention on the OL being made this year that was made last year..
Just because you boot the FA mistakes you signed last year, doesn’t mean you’ve fixed the problem w their respective backups…
And you don’t replqce a MLB who is less than avg in coverage with one who is worse in coverage and expect improvement… And then there’s safety, and TE, and pretty much everything but WR
March 23rd, 2015 at 6:01 pm
Bunch of loser “fans”. Love is a great coach. Whatever happened last year doesn’t change that. We will definitely bounce back this year. So, all of you losers that don’t support your team can get ready to change your screen names. I wish you would just find a new team to troll.
March 23rd, 2015 at 6:18 pm
Buccos…see ya at the game.
March 23rd, 2015 at 6:23 pm
@buc1987
If Buccos does show up, you better see him before half-time. Because after half-time he will be wondering what happen, how the “talent” is not listening to the great lovie, and will get mad and leave!!!
March 23rd, 2015 at 6:47 pm
The comedy or errors and poor talent evaluation was here before Lovie arrived.
Five years of it……
Team showed a lot of signs of turning it around, and some good talent was brought in, like Mr. Evans.
A little patience.
March 23rd, 2015 at 6:53 pm
If we have a really good draft, and i mean a really good draft with trades after we pick Winston
March 23rd, 2015 at 6:54 pm
We can be a much better team
March 23rd, 2015 at 7:42 pm
Kind of reminds me of after the 2009 season. No one expected us to win one game then in 2010 WOW!
Not saying we will go 10-6 but I think this team can really improve.
March 23rd, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Year looks good to me.