Coach Cowher Good; GM Cowher Not So
December 30th, 2009
Simply put, since the late, great Chris Thomas — the Great GOB — left us nearly six years ago, Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune has picked up the mantle as the voice of reason within the Tampa Bay sports community.
Today, Henderson writes his second column in three days outlining what may happen if Bill Cowher comes to the Bucs.
In short, Henderson writes: Cowher as Bucs coach, good. Cowher as the Bucs football czar, well…
One reason the Bucs are in the place that they are is that the Glazers, who long believed in checks and balances, threw that philosophy out the window, likely still drunk from the Super Bowl champagne, hiring a Chucky puppet (Bruce Almighty) to run the football operations at One Buc Palace.
Henderson isn’t as smitten as some Bucs fans who are eager to grant Cowher — a man who has never run a front office, a man who has never run a scouting department, a man who has never run a draft and more importantly, a man who has never dealt with a salary cap — full and complete power of the Bucs football operations.
If there are actual talks, and if they do get serious, Cowher is expected to want total control of football operations. He didn’t have that in Pittsburgh. He’ll want to decide who is drafted, who stays, who goes – all that stuff. Maybe you trust his football mind enough to do that. More importantly, maybe the Glazers do.
But if they’re trying to plot the future direction of their franchise, they have to be awfully sure about setting up another system with an unchecked strong man at the top.
We’re getting way ahead of things here, of course. The Glazers haven’t commented one way or the other publicly since stories surfaced over the weekend indicating they had their eyes on Cowher. They could poke a hole in all this quickly by announcing Raheem Morris is coming back and that’s the end of it.
As Joe wrote earlier this morning, people can legitimately gripe that Bucs general manager Mark Dominik is inexperienced. But he already in less than a year has more front office experience than Cowher.
It’s just something to ponder before jumping into the Cowher pool head first.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:50 am
You make it sound like Cowher would be running around doing everything like some crazy one man freak show. All “complete control” means is he would get to pick the GM he wanted and the scouts he wanted, and his soordinators and coaches….ect. ect. I really don’t get this “complete control” argument. There is nothing wrong with Cowher putting together his own team to run the show.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Dawd forbid he replaces some of our scouts and other front office people with proven guys that he has worked with for years in Pittsburgh. Our scouts have done such a great job.
December 30th, 2009 at 10:59 am
If you look at teams that are consistently good, which is what a lot of people are saying is what they want, you have to keep the head coach and coordinator positions fairly stable. Switching every year does nothing. What were you expecting to see from Raheem this year? He’s never been anything other than a position coach. Give him another year. Under Raheem the defense has played well. When Olson has committed to running the ball, our offense has played well. With a good draft, we’ll have a winning season next year.
December 30th, 2009 at 11:01 am
On an unrelated note, Vic Carucci picks Jeremy Trueblood for the Pro Bowl
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d8155a051&template=with-video-with-comments&confirm=true
December 30th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Jimminy Christmas what’s going on?
All this “Cowher is a mad scientist who wants to take over the Bucs Organization” is just crap. There will be a GM, talent scouts, etc., I doubt very much that Cowher will he working out contract extensions with Donald Penn or B. Ruud.
Personally I think people just like to bitch and moan about things that aren’t even happening!
I like having Dominik keeping a check on Raheem? Like that ridicuous contract extension for Michael “hands of stone” Clayton? Or what about letting Bucchanon leave? Great moves there!
Hell is Cowher came to Tampa and fired everyon in the front office I wouldn’t shed a tear – especially if he brought in the people whom he has worked with in Pittsburg. Don’t forget these past few years as a TV analyst don’t you think Bill has had dealings with MANY people in the business?
The problem is this – most fans, like CharlieB, only remember the last 2-3 games. Sure Raheem looks better when the team wins but I’m thinking LONG TERM.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
If you want mediocre football organizations – Let Raheem have more on-the-job-training with the blind leading the blind.
If you are SERIOUS about getting a winning product on the field in 1-2 seasons hire someone who has PROVEN they can do it – bring in Cowher and cut your losses NOW.
Personally if I were Cowher and I was reading the media I’ll tell the Tampa area to stuff it – keep you homegrown crud and wallow in the basement of the NFC South.
Just 6 weeks ago EVERYONE was calling the Bucs the laughing stock of the NFL – now these same people want to give the mastermind another year! How sad…
December 30th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Mr. Lucky,
Cowher had 15 years with Pittsburgh. He inherited a talented team and it took him 15 years to win a super bowl. He took it to the playoffs immediately, but a talented team that doesn’t go through an entire overhaul is easily capable of that.
Raheem Morris inherited a team with aging veterans and no money to buy free agents. The Bucs are rebuilding with young guys. What did you honestly expect? Last year, the defense quit on Gruden once Kiffin said he was leaving and they were 9-3. No one is quitting on Raheem. What does it really matter that we signed Clayton? Next year is uncapped. We could cut him and it wouldn’t hurt us. If he regained his form from his rookie year it would have been a steal. I think it’s funny how you claim I’m short-sighted, yet at the same time are crucifying a rookie coach of a rebuilding team after his first year.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
I agree with Charlie…maybe it is the name! Anyway, there have been many coaches that had crazy rookie years riddled with crazy rookie decisions. To say the Bucs have not improved is nuts. All this talk about “the Seahawks are a bad team” is BS as well. They still have a better record than TB, so they beat a better team. It is also nuts to think the Saints looked past Tampa, when a win would have given them home field through the playoffs (they got it anyway with help). Cohwer is a great coach, and to think otherwise is foolish, but we may have the next great coach in Morris. Walsh and Noll both had bad rookie years, as did Johnson and Parcells. Should all of those teams canned those guys after their rookie year? How many Super Bowls would have had different outcomes if they did. The team is responding and Morris is very young. Maybe he sticks around for 15 years, but I doubt Cowher is in for another 15 years of coaching at this time.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Cant we all just get along?
Maybe Joe could work in another picture of the goat. I think we all agree that was funny.