“You Just Can’t Play Solitaire In The NFL”
January 31st, 2023
Sharp take on Bucs.
Very interesting words from one of the greatest coaches in NFL history.
Over at The 33rd Team, Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells recently broke down each playoff team. Parcells surprised Joe by comparing the Bills to the Bucs even though Buffalo was so much better than Tampa Bay this past year.
So why did Parcells say the two teams were very much alike? Both depended way too much on one guy carrying the team, he said, referring to Josh Allen and Tom Brady.
… Each was a one-man show. Buffalo has a great receiver in Stefon Diggs. Tampa has a great receiver in Mike Evans. But it was too much on Brady, and it was too much on Josh Allen. You just can’t play solitaire in the NFL and expect to win.
Parcells ain’t lying. Chris Godwin was not his old self until maybe December. And that was it for weapons outside of Mike Evans.
The Bucs got little from their tight ends, basically because two were rookies and the other two were over the hill. Third wide receiver? Pppffftt. Joe doesn’t give a damn how you spin it, Russell Gage was a massive disappointment. He didn’t come close to earning his $10 million-a-year salary.
And of course, we all know the running game blew chunks.
So Parcells, not a surprise, hit a bullseye with this analysis. The Bucs are simply going to have to find more skill positions players or hope the rookie tight ends ball out this fall.
January 31st, 2023 at 6:07 am
Bill Parcells … ‘Each was a one-man show.’
B-I-N-G-O! And bringing back Tom Brady for 2023 would be more of the same. Time to move on.
January 31st, 2023 at 6:17 am
Trask to Evans
lmmfao
January 31st, 2023 at 6:46 am
And throw in awful coaches who can’t scheme or motivate and you have a 6-10 team the last 16 games. There will be little to no dissapointment for me next season because I have zero expectations from this organization. Todd Bowles is without question the worst head coach in the league and he’ll prove it again in 23.
January 31st, 2023 at 7:22 am
On point @BucsU… You know a HC sucks when he goes 8-10 and actually raises his career win %.
January 31st, 2023 at 7:37 am
And going from Brady to Trask, the 8-9 ‘one man show’ would become the 3-13 ‘clown show’.
January 31st, 2023 at 7:43 am
The right OC would definitely help Brady out with a better schemed offense that presents easier throws.
January 31st, 2023 at 7:57 am
This team has more problems than who’s going to be the Q.B.. We had Tom Brady this season, and we had a losing record, why would that change next year? We can’t plug all the holes in this roster. Tom has to know this too. We’re going to be bad with, or without him. Time for a new direction.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:17 am
Russell Gage and Donovan Smith have to be trade bait.
January 31st, 2023 at 8:42 am
Hope is not a plan…
January 31st, 2023 at 9:11 am
DR, I guess Bill’s should let Allen go to? Maybe Bucs can pick him up. The commonalities are Bill’s D shat them selves at the end of the season as well as their running game putting too much pressure on the QB’s to right the ship.
January 31st, 2023 at 9:44 am
A solid off-season and Bucs are back in the championship game.
January 31st, 2023 at 9:55 am
Everybody is so down on Trask! Give the kid a break and at least give him a fair chance to show what he has or has not. All the great ones started out as back-ups and/or unknowns!
January 31st, 2023 at 10:11 am
This is why there needs to be a salary cap for a player and position. Also, no rolling over money into future years. Stay under the cape each year.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:11 am
John Sinclear Says: “Everybody is so down on Trask! Give the kid a break and at least give him a fair chance to show what he has or has not. All the great ones started out as back-ups and/or unknowns!”
Spot on, lad. You need to understand, though, what we have here are some of the dumbest fans in the NFL. They would have never drafted second-rounder Brett Favre, much less let him play. They would have never drafted sixth-rounder Tom Brady, much less let him play. Idyots.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:19 am
Parcells makes a good point. Russell Gage was so. Hyped in pre season and was a non factor during season. Same goes for Julio Jones!!! Hurt all season????? Or slackers????? Or was it TB12 just not getting on the same page with his receivers????? Or was it the O line just not good enough????? Or perphaps a lot of bad play calling!!! Probably a combination of all of the above!!!!
January 31st, 2023 at 10:29 am
That’s why I love Bill. The man is a straight shooter. It’s hilarious that fans want to constantly throw Brady under the bus. Has Brady had some bad games? Sure. When fans complain about every poorly thrown pass, they’re not realizing that’s the whole issue with team. Brady has to be damn near perfect for this team to succeed. Brady had games last season during his MVP year where he had some poor throws, but it didn’t matter because he also covered up a lot.
Brady, at the age of 45, had over 700 pass attempts. It was because we had such an awful run game. It didn’t nothing to support Brady. So he was constantly having to play hero ball. You see the same thing Josh Allen. If he’s not Superman, they don’t win. They have no run game, so he’s basically the run game. You also saw it with Justin Herbert.
January 31st, 2023 at 10:36 am
Its more like no one can employ Bowels as HC and win¡
January 31st, 2023 at 10:49 am
Amen!
January 31st, 2023 at 10:49 am
Well he’s right. Solitaire is a bad analogy.
You gotta be able to run the ball sometimes.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:09 am
I’d argue TB12 had weapons, but his decline and move to NE style Dink&Dunk resulted in stagnant offense for long stretches of games & a drop in drive TD conversion rate that shows up as a drop in TD production across the board for the skill positions.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:26 am
The team has too many old players and inflated contracts for sub performance players to ask a 46 year old qb to carry.
Reset and trim the fat, get younger, more physical, and faster.
This roster is stale.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:26 am
Godwin may not have been himself til late in the year but 104 catches with 1000+ yards is a gritty ACL rehab year. What a stud. Godwin is too good, even in 2002 season, to just dismiss.
January 31st, 2023 at 11:35 am
I’m not ready to give up on Gage. He battled injuries all year. The few games he was somewhat healthy showed his abilities.
The big problem was conservative coaching and the OL poor play due to injuries. One might have lead to the other. Losing Marpet was big enough but losing big Red in training camp really deflated Brady’s confidence in the OL. Then both tackles got banged up. It really shows how fortunate the Bucs were in 2020.
January 31st, 2023 at 12:52 pm
catcard202 Says:
January 31st, 2023 at 11:09 am
I’d argue TB12 had weapons, but his decline and move to NE style Dink&Dunk resulted in stagnant offense for long stretches of games & a drop in drive TD conversion rate that shows up as a drop in TD production across the board for the skill positions.
You would then be arguing for TB12 to be annihilated by the defense. The dink and dunk keeps him from getting hit when the defense knows you cant run and pins their ears back to take the QB down. The decline you speak of is of course only on Brady’s age because what else could it be… it has nothing to do with a poor azz coached team with bad scheme, not playing to their strengths, running vanilla route trees, low football IQ receivers (except for Godwin), ghost TE position (which is his bread and butter), bottom 5 rushing attack in history since merger, most drops, most tight window throws needed… worst offensive line NUMBER 32 out of 32 by Next Gen stats. yeah it was the TBs decline
January 31st, 2023 at 12:58 pm
And NE nailed it
Lets run Allen and Herbert for having the exact same issues and same results. There decline is so obvious… lets rebuild! all the Chargers and Bills fans are yelling. We cant have one player who is better than the others, carrying the others, and maybe needs some help, they say. We need to rebuild so none of our players are great. Then we can feel justified complaining because we know we cant win…. Then will you be happy Bucs fans? You would have brothers and sisters in arms in a misguided understanding of who is responsible for sitting at home at the end of the year… BTW, its ALL the coaches and ALL the players who are ultimately responsible. Not the Solitaire out there keeping the ship afloat. While they are also responsible, if Brady’s case I would say he is responsible for dragging them to 8 wins instead of 4… go rewatch every game and note how the team is unprepared to play, giving poor effort, with a black hole offensive game plan in 14 of the games.
January 31st, 2023 at 1:01 pm
Also, I agree Brady needs to move on. But for his sake, not the team’s. There are literally no moves the team could make to improve the QB position. But TB12 can make at least 3 to improve his chances of having fun and playing great football with a well coached offense again.
January 31st, 2023 at 4:08 pm
Hope is what you have when your plan didn’t work and you’re hoping to get out of the situation by the skin on your teeth.
February 1st, 2023 at 8:05 am
I think that has been the problem with our Bucs. We rely too much on hope and too little on accountability. We can’t just “hope” and dump Goedeke, Otton, Kieft, Hainsey and Gage in Brady’s hand and “hope” he’s gonna do a miracle with Leftwich’s mind-boggling designs and calls. Franchises either cut deep into their own flesh or perish in the NFL. See how the Patriots and the Colts have fallen. We cannot veer to the same way.