Floor
September 3rd, 2015
What is the floor for the Bucs this season?.
Joe has written time and again this year’s Bucs are a six-win team. The Bucs were 2-14 for a reason.
This team needs players, and starting three rookies on offense, including two on the front line and another at quarterback, which may pay off big time in the future, very easily could cause speed bumps in the early going.
NFL.com is running a series on what the worst-case scenario would be for each team. Elliott Harrison believes the Bucs’ worst would be leader of the pack in the Bolt for Bosa with 13 losses.
Floor: 3-13. There’s no way the Bucs can go 2-14 again, right? Uh … unless Doug Martin can’t get anything behind a putrid offensive line. And Mike Evans endures the same kind of sophomore slump Martin suffered back in 2013. Devoid of help, Winston forces enough balls to throw 26 picks. Meanwhile, opposing QBs enjoy 26 seconds to throw the ball.
If, as many contend, the NFL is in the midst of a major decline in decent offensive lines, and if the Bucs still cannot get heat on a quarterback and lose 13 games, it is not a stretch to wonder about Lovie Smith’s job security.
If quarterbacks are getting the time Harrison suggests, and teams light up the Bucs (again), that is very damning for a defensive guy that Lovie prides himself to be.
If Lovie goes 5-27 after two years, that absolutely pales in comparison to Raheem Morris (13-19) and Greg Schiano (11-21) after two seasons.
Joe doesn’t think that is the type of “growing” Bucs co-chairman Bryan Glazer expects.
September 3rd, 2015 at 4:44 am
Pour me one, too!
September 3rd, 2015 at 5:07 am
Why stop at 3-13? In a REALLY worst-case scenario, the Bucs could end up 0-16.
Or in a REALLY best-case scenario, the Bucs could end up with a 16-0 scenario and be the front-runner in the playoffs.
At this point in the season … before Game 1 … what our season record will be is nothing but pure speculation. Will the team be devastated by injuries to key players? How quickly (and how well) will our OLine get its’ act together? How good will Lovie’s defense be against some pretty sophisticated offensive teams? The list of questions is endless. But the answers to those questions simply don’t exist at this point.
One thing is for certain however: that the pundits will continue to rate the Bucs down at the bottom of the pile … until our Bucs prove that they deserve to be rated higher in the pecking order. Let the season begin, and hopefully let’s all watch them grow and kick some arse along the way to a much better record than 3-13.
September 3rd, 2015 at 6:51 am
3-13 and the Lovie Sheep (lovie loyalist) will tell everyone how he improved the team and how hard the schedule was. They will say it was to stock the team with very high draft picks!!!!
Once again, if you like excuses and high draft picks, Lovie is your coach!!!
September 3rd, 2015 at 7:04 am
Quick, what is below the Bucs’s Floor??? Lovie’s basement!!!!!
September 3rd, 2015 at 7:05 am
We can go 12-4 if our O-Line blocks and our secondary can cover for 4 seconds
September 3rd, 2015 at 7:14 am
Buc Realist love that……last year or probably 18 months ago up to the start of last season I had the utmost faith in lovie and the regime and all the progonosticators had Lovie as the next big thing…I figured Lovie would take the bucs to the top ala andy reid in KC, man was I a sucka….monday morning qbing makes you 16-0, the bucs ceiling this year is probably 5-11 unfortunately and it sucks being a bucs fan when they do not address glaring deficiences on a team and expect the fans to be patient through this hogwash of an organization that doesnt seem like it is urgent to win, I will be patient with jameis and he in my opinion is someone to look forward to but his ugly moments this year will far outway the good ones, peyton threw 26 ints his first year….again the first game is the Bosa Bowl and if that is a loss, this season could get real ugly and the NFC South is the worst division in football, it will not matter if you hire a new coach because the organization is at rock bottom with a few bright pieces at the bottom but schiano at least had the team playing urgently and hard…3-13 or 6-10 its just terrible
September 3rd, 2015 at 7:37 am
There’s always college football, fellas!
September 3rd, 2015 at 7:47 am
If Lovie can’t match Schiano’s win total how was he a upgrade?
September 3rd, 2015 at 8:00 am
If we do that poorly, we likely still get a great outcome. Lovie is gone and Keotter is HC. If we do great, even better.
This season is a win/win probability, regardless of record.
September 3rd, 2015 at 8:33 am
I just hope the regular season games are watchable for the most part this season. It is a kick in the gut to go through the entirely too long off season just to have to stop watching the games midway through the 3rd QTR due to the lack luster play and lopsided score. I can live with a rebuilding year with the growing pains of a rookie QB and rookies on the OL as long as we are competitive. If it looks like the Browns game repeated week after week this year, then I better find another Sunday afternoon hobby really quick.
September 3rd, 2015 at 8:37 am
Boys the scouting department and the people picking the players are the problem. Glazer boys there is no cap on scouting so spare no expense on it or u will never win. It’s broken guys
September 3rd, 2015 at 8:38 am
@rayjay1122
well said, It was a snooze feast last year!! I gave up the beer and had to start drinking coffee to stay awake the rest of the games!! This year I am prepared!!! I purchased a fancy espresso machine, Let the season begin!!!!!!!
September 3rd, 2015 at 8:38 am
the problem with firing coaches, even when deserved, is that the next guy wants to rebuild the roster and blows up the team yet again. there’s a reason we only have 4 good players, it’s because you can justify purging everybody but the few best (unless one of those few best is darelle revis) when the new HC and GM come to town. good players on bad teams end up being career leaders in the “teammates” and “coaches” stat categories
September 3rd, 2015 at 8:56 am
If we keep changing coaches every two years, we’ll keep on losing games at this pace.
It might be infuriating, but we need to stick with Lovie for another year at least. He has to get three seasons.
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:03 am
Kaput – Spot on.
Joe – 6-10 is spot on. This team has 6-10 talent and anything more is gravy
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:06 am
Joe says
“If, as many contend, the NFL is in the midst of a major decline in decent offensive lines,”
And we still can’t get pressure on the quarterback, what does that say about the talent on our entire defensive line?
I hope the Browns game was an aberration and the Bengals game is the precursor for the upcoming season…
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:14 am
By that rationale Raheem Morris or Greg Schiano should still be our HC and virtually no one was standing for that. And we shouldn’t stand for the rank incompetence that this veteran HC has brought to his position as leader of this football team.
2-14 shame
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:34 am
I feel grumpy too. Losing enthusiasm for this motley train wreck of a crew. Some surprise wins will do wonders to restore sanity all around.
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:48 am
@Defenserules
Thanks for a splash of sanity and perspective. We ARE what our record says we are 0-0!!! If you Chicken Littles wish to run around screaming the sky is falling the sky is falling knock yourselves out.
Personally I’d rather wait until it actually falls!!! Again IF the Bucs should win 8 or more games all you negative nellies will have wasted months of your lives in the doldrums for NO reason!!! If we go 0-16 there will be plenty of time to grip and jump off the bridge.
The only place I disagree with Joe is in the talent level. I think we have 8-8 talent. At least I believe with Koetter and MG8 we have 8-8 talent. I believe Fameis is better than MG8 and so I believe we are at least 8-8 talent.
You all are giving the OTHER teams far too much credit. Right now in Seattle they are gripping over OL problems. Imagine that. What must ‘ain’t fans be thinking. Brees loses his top receiver, a horrible defense loses their best player and Sean Payton seems to be phoning it in at this point.
We are NOT the only team facing issues!!! 10-6 baby!
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:49 am
If we go 3-13 then Lovie has to go. Im sorry, but one more win than last years 2-14 is garbage. I dont think it will be that bad though.
Look, for Schiano, it wasnt just 4-12 that got him fired. It was the fact that his own locker room hated him! The entire league had it out for him after kneelgate. And the messy way he handled Josh Freeman. OMG could that have gone any worse! 4-12 was just icing on the cake.
As for Raheem, it wasnt just 4-12 for him either. It was the 0-10 finish after going 4-2. And we didnt just lose ten in a row. Every week we got our @ss kicked! How could our defense get shredded like that week after week! Your MO is defense Raheem…DO SOMETHING! Of course part of it was on Dom. But holy spit was it ugly.
So no, I see no situation where 3-13 would be acceptable. But just remember it wasnt just the record that got Raheem and Schiano fired. Esp Schiano. Had he had just a shred of respect in that locker room, he probably would have returned.
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:50 am
BTW Can some of you explain something to me. Last year we were the darlings of the league! The vast majority of these same experts forecasting gloom and doom for us this year said we were a playoff team last year.
Why do you all give so much credence to a group (“experts lol”) who were so freaking wrong last year?
Is there NO accountability in America anymore? These “experts” totally scrwd the pooch and yet this year we’re willling to accept their opinions?
September 3rd, 2015 at 9:52 am
@Largo
Look, for Schiano, it wasnt just 4-12 that got him fired. It was the fact that his own locker room hated him! The entire league had it out for him after kneelgate. And the messy way he handled Josh Freeman.
YES!!!
September 3rd, 2015 at 10:04 am
You are right StPeteBucsFan, I overslept and woke up foggy headed this morning. The extra strong coffee has kicked in, I know I can count on you for a positive reality check when I slip into the Buc doldrums. Good job at staying Bucs positive.
September 3rd, 2015 at 10:36 am
There are many, in here, who have compared Jameis to Luck. The QB who took a bad 2-14 team to 11-5, in his rookie season by “elevating the play of those around him”.
I am going to step into the ‘Circle of Negativity’ by saying I doubt this will happen (but it would be nice).
There is also a group who, after three preseason games, see very little reason to believe the Bucs can pull off more than two or three wins.
Now, I will join the ‘Group of Eternal Hope’ and say this is also unlikely.
Before the first preseason game, I thought/hoped the Bucs would win six (6) games (seven, if they got lucky). But based on what I have seen thus far, I am thinking/worried that I am going to be happy, just four or five times this season.
Lovie probably needs to win six/seven games to keep his job, and AT LEAST four must come in the second half of the season. If he wins early and then crashes, ala Raheem, he is likely to be getting ‘Money for Nothing’ in 2016.
I do not like changing coaches every two years, either, but if you choose rotten wood for your floor, you don’t just keep walking on it because it looks bad to keep going back to the lumber yard.
September 3rd, 2015 at 10:49 am
@Hawk
That is an excellent point! It’s not just the final record but how we get there.
If we won our first six and then lost the rest he’d be in greater jeopardy than if we lost our first ten and then finish on a six game losing streak.
We’ll all know if there is any genuine improvement in this team by the end of the year. There will be plenty of time to fire Lovie if that’s what is merited.
My Lovie love ends at 10 losses. We must win six games this year with this talent and the level of competition in our division.
In case anybody hasn’t noticed…the Falcons are also 1-2 and the Saints are winless! The sky is falling everywhere. LOL
September 3rd, 2015 at 11:56 am
I guess all comments point to this being another weak season for the Bucs.
I looked at the schedule and saw at least 8 easy wins and maybe 9.
The problem with predicting an NFL RS record for any team is that there is no way of predicting injuries for either team that may change an otherwise, on paper, reasonable analysis.
If OL’s are bad around the league then a lot of starters (QB’s RB’s) may have injuries by mid-season. Yes, including the Bucs. But, teams with top shelf QB’s and RB’s are hurt more by the absence of their top shelf players than teams who struggle with middling players facing a similar loss of starters. EX: GB without Rogers is different than TB without Winston.
I’m willing to put my money on the Bucs having more good fortune this year. I really don’t have any more patience for moaning about something that hasn’t happened yet or roasting a coach who is making the right moves with the cards he’s being dealt.
Go Bucs..!!