Tyrann Mathieu, Mark Dominik And Greg Schiano
April 14th, 2022
“Thanks for the advice, Greg.”
We are in the throes of draft season where, if you are like Joe, you are just about mocked out and are staring at the clock begging for it to fast-forward to two weeks from tonight when the NFL draft begins.
Listening to SiriusXM NFL Radio, you hear all kinds of wild draft stories from players, coaches and former NFL suits. One came from former Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik Tuesday night as he co-hosted “Late Hits” with Alex Marvez.
It seems Dominik hosted former LSU star Tyrann Mathieu, the future Pro Bowl safety, as part of the Bucs’ 30 player visits in the spring of 2013. In this same episode of “Late Hits,” Dominik explained the 30 visits are used more for smokescreens and gathering intel on a player than signals that the team will draft a guy. This was the case with Honey Badger, as Dominik said Honey Badger was off his draft board in 2013.
Dominik was hardly the lone NFL general manager to do that. Honey Badger, you may remember, was thrown off the LSU football team for repeated drug test failures. Honey Badger then checked himself in to a drug rehab facility.
Way too much baggage for Dominik. That was, until Honey Badger walked into One Buc Palace and met him.
“I had a guy that was off our board, Tyrann Mathieu, he was off the board,” Dominik said. “But his tape was really good. It was really good! You watch him in college and you go, ‘Wow, this kid is unbelievable.’
“So I decided, you know what? I’m going to use a [30] visit on Tyrann Mathieu. And he comes to our facility and he is dressed in a suit — and he was the only guy of the 30 guys that even wore a full suit — and I sat down with him for over an hour in my office, just me and him.
“And when I was done, my director of college scouting came in, player personnel director came in, I think our head coach came in and I’m like, ‘We are drafting that kid. Like we are putting him on the board.’ “And it was like, ‘Um, Mark. I don’t know about that.’
“[Honey Badger] was forthright. He was very honest about his mistakes. He seemed very sincere about what he was talking about. He talked very passionately about football. Tyrann Mathieu was amazing. It kind of reminded me you have to take time with these guys to get to know them.”
So what happened? The reaction from the three men who joined Dominik in his office — the coach was former Bucs commander Greg Schiano — apparently talked Dominik out of putting Honey Badger’s name back on the Bucs’ draft board.
In a twist of irony, the man who would replace Dominik less than a year later, current Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht, while then working for the Cardinals, was in charge of investigating Honey Badger’s past and it was Licht who convinced the Cardinals that Honey Badger was past his drug problems and he was too good of a prospect to pass on.
Honey Badger was selected in the third round, No. 69 overall, by the Cardinals.
Now before Joe gets rolling here, Joe always got along with Schiano and Joe thought Schiano in a lot of ways was harshly if not unfairly treated by a lot of fans. What turned out to be Schiano’s downfall was he didn’t seem to know how to deal with grown arse men. Anyone he remotely perceived as not following along like a grunt going through Marine boot camp Schiano shipped out.
Between Schiano’s inability to work with a lot of players, and his successor’s pathetic player evaluation and stubborn ego (lousy Lovie Smith), how many players in those four years got run off and then either started for playoff teams, Super Bowl winners or ended up in Pro Bowls?
Joe more and more is coming to the belief that X’s and O’s is no more than half the game. Being able to deal with players and talent evaluations is nearly as important and maybe equally important. If a coach cannot work with players and he stinks at player evaluation, he will get run out of town in two seasons no matter how smart he is, provided he lasts that long.
Those four years under Schiano and Lovie, the depths of the Lost Decade, were so rife with idiotic player moves that it wasn’t until Bucco Bruce Arians showed up that the franchise finally turned things around.
April 14th, 2022 at 5:47 am
Its schiano like piano
April 14th, 2022 at 6:06 am
Lego can forget Schiano, what a waste of skin.
April 14th, 2022 at 6:12 am
It will never be just X”s and O’s. Human beings are involved, so talent and how well your coaches relate/ connect/ respected, whatever you want to call it. This is what separates good coaches from all the rest. I mean after over 100 years of the NFL, the same plays are run by the teams. Some teams focus on different grouping of plays than others, based on the talent and using the personnel you have. Even Stoic Tom Landry of the Cowboys, that some of his players just did not like his cool calculating ways, but overall Landry still connected, and was respected. Or a Bill Parcels, Lombardi, super old school, Hard Azz coaching style, but you listen to players from then, and they have a love for the Tuna, or Lombardi. It will never be just about Talent and X’s and O’s, the Coach still needs to be believed in and respected if you are going to be successful for the long haul, year after year. Even with the Evil empire lol Billy Boy and Jedi Brady lol. The players still have a belief in Belichick, even though he can be as heartless as it get, still he is respected.
BTW very thankful Jedi Brady is the Bucs QB at least for this year.
GO BUCS!!!!!
April 14th, 2022 at 6:14 am
Pretty amazing what a real coaching staff can do and how the team will develop when your staff can actually develop the players you drafted. Who knows maybe the Noah Spence’s and Vernon Hargreaves would have actually developed into good players if they were developed properly
April 14th, 2022 at 6:24 am
1#bucsfan Says Pretty amazing what a real coaching staff can do and how the team will develop when your staff can actually develop the players you drafted. Who knows maybe the Noah Spence’s and Vernon Hargreaves would have actually developed into good players if they were developed properly
Noah Spence popped his shoulder out and he was never going to be able to play without his shoulder popping in and out. Sad stroy for Noah.
But #1 BFan- Hargreaves is a poster boy for what you are saying about coaching. He was a press cover guy at Florida, and what does Mike Smith do, he plays that sorry super soft, give up first downs by positioning 10 yards off the receiver, garbage defense.
Hargreaves was a step slow, off coverage was his downfall, just wrecked his time with the Bucs. Then his attitude was not good and became a ‘Serial Loafer” BTW the Defense was instantly better when BA and Bowles cut him in 2019, as mentioned by Joe many times.
GO BUCS!!!!!
April 14th, 2022 at 6:41 am
Hard to fathom that with Mathieu’s ties to Coach Bowles , Jason Licht and our penchant for collecting DB’s we can’t figure out a way financially to get him in the fold. Make it happen JL!
April 14th, 2022 at 6:52 am
If Mark Dominik was a rock star GM then consider me Miles Davis
April 14th, 2022 at 7:00 am
Honey Badger would’ve been wasted by Lovie and Mike Smith.
April 14th, 2022 at 7:23 am
The rockstar spent his third rounder on Mike Glennon instead LMAO
April 14th, 2022 at 7:41 am
You can have all the talent in the world but what goes on between the ears is always the deciding factor.
April 14th, 2022 at 7:47 am
Joe wrote:
… ‘Being able to deal with players and talent evaluations is nearly as important and maybe equally important.’…
Amen, Joe! Amen!
April 14th, 2022 at 7:48 am
A coach, like a movie director, has to be able to deal with people who are a little bit nuts. If a person didn’t have a few issues they probably wouldn’t be playing the game in the first place.
April 14th, 2022 at 8:02 am
‘Joe always got along with Schiano and Joe thought Schiano in a lot of ways was harshly if not unfairly treated by a lot of fans. What turned out to be Schiano’s downfall was he didn’t seem to know how to deal with grown arse men.’
REALLY Joe? Schiano was ‘harshly if unfairly treated’? What could possibly go wrong with a NFL HEAD COACH who didn’t ‘know how to deal with grown arse men’?
April 14th, 2022 at 8:46 am
Would love to see Schiano as HC with AB…..
April 14th, 2022 at 8:48 am
Hargreaves and Spence were garbage draft picks and not good players; bucs could have gone with either 2 OL in round 1, in Lewan or Tunsil , back in 2016; bucs still got one 1st round pick from that draft on the roster though
April 14th, 2022 at 8:53 am
Funny how weed is a drug lol
April 14th, 2022 at 8:59 am
I think when judging Schiano you have to look at what type of team he inherited .The inmates was running the prison. People look back an say how could he trade or cut Players like Blunt and Tailb. Well they could not stay on the field for us and could not be counted on. Each had different problems drugs or other. Morris real left a team that was had to mean problem for one locker room. I do believe Morris will be a good head coach if he has learned we’re he went wrong the first time around.
April 14th, 2022 at 9:33 am
Bucs will pick Zion Johnson 1st if he is there. Maybe Drake Jackson DE in round 2 according to walterfootball. They were the top mock in 21.
April 14th, 2022 at 9:46 am
BoggyBucs lets not revise history please, Greg Schiano had no business coaching a pro team and thats partly proven by the fact he’s back in college after letting the stink from his short-lived NFL career disipate. Raheem Morris just won an SB, and hasnt had an HC offer in a decades time lol holding him to how things played out in the 2.33 years he was here is harder to do because the franchise was looking like it was holding on by a thread at the end of 2009. Thats what made the 2010 season under Morris somewhat magical, because expectations were low. ALot of people forget between 09-11 our front office wasnt anything close to the force its been the last 3-4 seasons
April 14th, 2022 at 10:34 am
Dumbernik was too weak to ever draft the Badger. If you’re the GM sometimes you override a deuce who sips off Blount for nothing.
April 14th, 2022 at 12:10 pm
Hindsight is always 20/20!
Mathieu could have turned out to be a crackhead that fizzled out. Any prospect can. But I agree Joe, coaching can make all the difference. A players coach can help some of these guys unlock their potential, both as a player and a person. But when a coach gets old and crusty it becomes time to move him on to the front office.
April 14th, 2022 at 12:15 pm
Dooley…Schiano only had 1.5 seasons before a billboard was erected in Tampa, after winning 7 games during his rookie season….with I might add a mental midget for a QB.
Go Bucs!!!
April 14th, 2022 at 12:34 pm
Joe, You hold onto things for a long time. The twenty years prior to TB12 was tough but it’s sunny skies today. With Licht at the helm, we’ll be consistently good for a long time.
April 14th, 2022 at 1:26 pm
Buc1987
Also called the team “losers” to season ticket holders iirc. My favorite Schiano moment was watching Grandpa Coughlin chew him out midfield instead of shaking his hand post-game because Greg thought rushing the oppositions victory formation proved some sort of point after 60 minutes of mismanagement. Runner-up would be his defensive front lobbying him mid-game in Miami to allow them to rush down hill instead of abiding by the poorly placed stunt calls.
April 14th, 2022 at 2:21 pm
In boot camp one is referred to as recruit, maggot or a host of derogatory names. You are not a Marine until you graduate and complete the course. Grunt is term reserved for 03Marines typically or ground pounders. Get it right Joe 😂
April 14th, 2022 at 2:38 pm
Walk into a bar………