“I Admire His Approach”
April 14th, 2011
Joe hates to be a tease, but Joe’s giving advance love here to an interview NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski had with FOX analyst Brian Billick.
Joe’s heard it, and it’s great stuff.
Pawlowski, aka The Commish, will air the interview about 2:05 p.m. on his Saturday show, The Blitz, on WDAE-AM 620. And JoeBucsFan.com will have the audio Sunday. Billick gives all sorts of takes on evaluating talent and on the Buccaneers. Billick, who says he’s got too high a price tag to get another NFL head coaching job, was the game analyst on several Bucs telecasts in 2010.
“I’ve become a huge, huge Raheem Morris fan. I just can’t tell you how much I admire his approach,” Billick said. “You could just see the growth of this team. You could see the confident growing. … Every outing they got better and better. … that’s all you can ask for in this league.”
Billick went on to explain how he talked to Sean Payton before the Bucs-Saints game in Week 17 — Billick was on the broadcast team — and Payton detailed that the Saints were playing straight-up to win.
Billick offers great takes on Aqib Talib, as well. He’s of the mind that the Bucs will be patient with Talib.
Don’t miss the interview this weekend.
April 14th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Justin must feel alittle creeped out on how much
you drool all over him. Not very professional.
April 14th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Everyone who knows anything about football are praising Raheem Morris and Josh Freeman and GM Mark Dominick and their development together.
The only ones who aren’t are the haters on this board and others….. they know who they are.
They will always be skeptical and haters because a “big name” coach wasn’t hired or the status quo wasn’t kept.
April 14th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Joe here,
@icancalljoe — Well, considering Justin has been working here covering the draft for Joe since 2009, your take is moronic. And if hyping and singing the praises of an in-house analyst is “unprofessional,” then, well, so be it.
April 14th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
The Sports’ MSM has hated the Bucs since the Superbowl win and every year prior to that one. Raheem & Dominick have really started to turn that sentiment around. There are several analysts that have jumped on the Buc-Train. Joe Theismann was the first one and that really surprised me. I think it was by week 3 or 4 that he started picking them. Peter King, Billick Davis and a few more. I think Sapp needs a Super Bowl to convince him.
April 14th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Love the praise from Brian Billick but WOW! he is, as The Round Mound of Rebound says, “Turrible!”
Bucs get the worst commentators!
April 14th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
props to Tuggz!
April 14th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Listen guys, the Bucs were media darlings a decade ago when they were in the playoffs every year, and two years from now, after two consecutive playoff appearances and with some entertaining offensive talent, they’ll be media darlings again. TV ratings dictates that networks cover winners who are entertaining, and the Bucs were certainly that on offense last year. It doesn’t matter that they play in a comparably small market. If they win consistently and do it in grandiose fashion, then even YRSN (the Yankees-Red Sox Network in Bristol) will have to begin to cover the Bucs more on Monday Night Football.
April 14th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
I actually liked Billick calling our games. Considering how unbelievable boring some of the announcers are in the NFL I think Billick is pretty good.
April 14th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
I am sorry that I thought Raheem Morris was not the right choice as head coach of the Bucs.I made fun of him and his ways, (chest bumps all around) like pretty much everybody else did.I really think that he is doing a fantastic job.(shows how much I know) same with Dominic. my reasoning for an experienced coach was that a experienced coach would make us respectable.that is really all I wanted ,a chance for the championship.after being a Bucs fan since the begining,(76).if you had to watch them from the 70s,to the 90s you would understand.I remember when everybody was happy if they SCORED! I think we all have gotten spoiled with their success.although I want them to be the best,I myself will be happy if they are competitive.I LOVE MY BUCS and will be there even if they were to lose every game (like the sorry a**s Lions did a couple of years ago!) people ask why Tampa Bay fans dont go to the games, and not support their team like the Lions do? How many more people are in the Detroit area? only makes sense that if you have more people,you have a better chance of selling out? times are tough right now but it will get better.those of you that can support the Bucs and dont,well you are not the type of fans we want anyways.those that just cant go, like I said you will get your chance soon
April 14th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Obviously, I respect Billick and agree with his analysis of Raheem and our team, but I also did not enjoy him announcing our games. He makes so many mistakes on player’s names that it becomes irritating after a while. I mean, it is his job to know the players name right? He also makes a ton of blunders with his speech. And you can bank on it that he will say “simple as a screwdriver” at least twice a game. But I will give him this, he is better than Kurt Warner. I would imagine we would start getting John Lynch a little more in the future as well.
April 14th, 2011 at 9:47 pm
billick is cut from the same cloth as gruden. everyone is great publicly because he wants to get back in the league and he knows that you cant criticize anyone for fear that it could offend a front office that may in the future offer u a big contract.
What doesn’t make sense to me is? This blog has become so unbelievably pro-org yet nobody goes to the games. We had 10 blackout last year. Either everyone who kisses a– on this blog goes to the games, and noone else, or very few of you go – yet you acct like rah rah has previously finished higher than 3rd in the division. This team is a story untold.
Theycan easily go 6-10 next year or worse if freeman is injured. The defense is one of the worst in the NFL, the secondary without Talib will be terrible unless the perfect replacement is acquired.
Free is going to be excellent which will give this team a chance more often than is deserved but that has ZERO to do with Rah Rah or his “approach.” Why is it that Olson has established a solid offense and you here little about it, Rah has built a HORRIBLE defense and he is celebrated! It seems like some have an agenda – we know Billick does – 1 of 32 possible future jobs. I would take Billick as our head coach. Would you take Rah as the commentator?
April 14th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Yeah, sure, why not? Billick — like Father Dungy in Indianapolis — would have a built-in quarterback. You know how many quarterbacks Billick has developed? The same number as Father Dungy and one less than Chucky.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Shocking post by Thomas. Would have never thought he would chime in with more ignorance. First of all genius, many of us don’t live anywhere near Tampa, so we can’t go to the games. I make the 5000 mile trip twice a year, so you can shove it. Others simply can’t afford it. Besides you, I don’t think too many of us don’t go because we don’t like the coach. The world simply doesn’t have enough space for that many morons.
You say the defense is one of the worst, but that is quite simply not true. Run defense, yes, but pass defense, total yards allowed, and most importantly points allowed all say otherwise. But go ahead and twist those numbers to make you seem like you know what you are talking about.
Yeah, they could go 6-10 without Freeman, AND…. What do you think the Colts would go? That’s a meaningless point. And I’m pretty sure Olsen gets plenty of credit for the job he’s done (and by the way, it’s “hear” not “here”). Most people can’t name 5 OC’s around the league, so get over the fact that he doesn’t have Sportscenter on his lawn. Raheem is the head coach. Head coaches get the blame when things are bad, and the credit when things go good. What a concept! Welcome to the real world, glad you could join us.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Thomas, what team in the NFC would win more than 6 without its starting QB. …Nobody. …You’re making ridiculous arguments.
The Bucs won 10 games. If you can’t get excited about that, you need to look in the mirror.
In no other market would fans be down after a 10-win season, a young coach and piles of young players.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Thomas thinks the head coach has no influence over the offense or the QB. Shows how much football he has been a part of. I’m sure Raheem doesn’t attend any QB or offense meetings huh? I’m sure he has no input on offensive game plans or decision making. And he certainly doesn’t coach Freeman in practice at all. I wonder if he even knows the playbook? Maybe you should get a clue and find out what a head coach in the NFL really does before you go spouting off your mouth about something you obviously know nothing about. Every time I read one of your posts, I get a little stupider (or is it more stupid, see it’s already taking an effect on me).
April 14th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
2010 defense ranking: 17th overall
2010 offense ranking: 19th overall
Both sides of the ball had fairly pedestrian statistics overall last year, but showed an improvement from 2009. Considering we’re two years into a complete rebuild, Billick is exactly right about Raheem. He feels the same way as every other analyst on NFL network and ESPN does about this young coach and GM.
April 14th, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Yeah MOBucs, but ESPN and NFL Networks don’t have the expert analysis of Thomas. I mean, don’t even bother watching those channels, just study the posts of the famous Thomas 2.2. Everything he has ever said has been spot on right? Obviously, his wealth of football knowledge and experience trumps anyone those networks can offer, as well as coaches and players around the league. What do they know as opposed to the great and powerful Thomas. And if you need even more expert insight, check the posts of the up and coming WeNeedDefense. He has even created a list of the reasons we had a 10-6 season last year in order. Trust me guys, there is no better experts than those two football gurus.
April 15th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Well I don’t get to hear/see Billick cover home games because I do that myself. That is one reason I love going to games is because you’re not listening to a Darrell Waltrip in the booth run his mouth. You see the ENTIRE field and make your own informed judgment. Still, I don’t have a problem with Billick and he is much better than Fouts or Reggie Bush’s brother. Billick, like Gruden was a Super Bowl winning coach and knows football better than anyone watching him on TV. They both can often call the play before it happens or the teams line up. That isn’t a bad thing really.
April 15th, 2011 at 11:56 am
Hawaiian, be careful pointing out grammatical errors. Especially when you pose rhetorical questions by ending the sentence with a period. In part, i write for a living son.
Now, your rosy outlook, although fun, means nothing. 10 wins is 10 wins but 3rd place and no playoffs is well – the obvious.
There is no disputing that dom has done a good job. There is much disputing that rah has. If the o coordinator isnt responsible for the offense as you suggest – why did dungy run through them and why did the gruden bashers kill gruden for the mediocre offense and give him no credit for the defense? You sheep cant have it both ways – even though i hear thats popular in hawaii.
Take talib off that d and it gets much worse. If things are so rosy, why is jax selling out while we have a 30k season ticket base with ownership begging to move home games? This org is struggling since 2009.
April 15th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Rah is the 100% sole reason why Josh Freeman is our QB. As he said initially “Freeman is our franchise”.
2009 was one thing for a rookie coach, but I can count Raheem’s head coaching mistakes in 2010′ on one hand. That is more than I can say for about 20+ other NFL head coaches. Raheem did a jam up job in 2010′.
I loved Jon Gruden, still do, but he truly couldn’t draft worth $h!t and he a Brucie were joined at the hip, so Jon doesn’t get a pass from me. It took me a while to see this butt in hindsight, Jon was probably in the bottom 10% of quality players picked during his tenure. He got a few good players, but his best picks were probably Tanard Jackson and Aqib Talib. What does that say? Davin Joseph is good but has not really lived up to a first round talent IMO. It is what it is, and this team has been much better off with Raheem at the helm.
It must be very difficult “IN PART” writing for a living with your head up your @$$, unless you have a piece of plexiglass in your stomach. 2.2 is living proof that people can be educated far beyond their level of intelligence and not have a lick of common sense.
April 15th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Now u sheep give rah 100% of the credit for drafting freeman. That exposes how much of a rah-shill you are. Dom gets credit, doug williams get credit, jags, greg olson, doug hickey were all involved.
At that point luke mccown was the franchise, then lefty then josh j. Remember if the hc is responsible for th o, he was horribly wrong with wasting time. Remember john lynch said in the preseason that they were foolish for not playing free. And my head is . . .?
April 15th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
First of all Thomas, don’t call me son. I love how you say there is much disputing Raheem has done a good job. From where? From who? Where are the facts to your argument. You write for a living, so I would imagine that normally when you make an argument, you back it up with facts.
Apparently comprehension is not something you do for a living. Where did I say Olsen isn’t responsible for the offense? I said to give the head coach no credit is ludicrous. Look it up son. I absolutely always gave credit to Jon Gruden for the defense, so again I don’t know where the hell you are coming up with this nonsense. Like I said (if you could actually comprehend), the head coach gets both the credit and the blame. Calling me a Gruden hater is completely false, and once again a pathetic attempt for you prove your point.
You just go ahead and continue to believe the attendance is based on the public’s dislike of Raheem. I’ll continue to live in reality.
As for the other QB’s being the franchise, that’s complete BS. There has never been one quote by Raheem or anyone else saying that, so you are just flat out lying. From day one they said Freeman was the eventual starter and franchise QB. Why the fock do you think they traded up in the first round to get him? They had the plan to bring him along slowly, that plan obviously didn’t really work, and they adjusted the plan. Maybe they should have started him from day one, but who’s to say how things would have turned out had that happened. It’s called a difference in philosophy. Some people believe in throwing a QB out from day one and letting them suffer and learn, others believe in letting them learn by watching. It’s a constant debate, and there are great coaches on each side of the debate. Maybe you should spend a little less time writing, and a little more time paying attention.
April 15th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
“Where are the facts to your argument”
13-19. 4th and 3rd in the division. No playoffs. Horrible defense because they cant stop the run, cant pressure the qb. Inmates running the asylum: i.e. THC Jax, Talib, J Stevens, Geno Taze (I will leave Mike Will out). Recycling assistant coaches like soda cans.
You can act like 2009 didnt happen, and you can act like 3rd in the division is great, and you can act like the run d and pass rush squads are improved – but it doesnt make it true.
Yes, Free appears to have panned out. But RAh RAh’s job is not to coach qb, nor to call offensive formations or plays or personnel.
April 15th, 2011 at 4:33 pm
That’s better. Funny how you blame Raheem for 2009, but you don’t blame Dominik, Olsen, Williams, and Hickey. I guess Hawaii is not the only place that likes it both ways, huh? Again, you can’t classify the defense as horrible, because the facts simply don’t add up to that conclusion. Those facets were bad, but overall, the defense was about average (statistically above average). Spin it how you want, it is the truth.
Yes, we didn’t make the playoffs last year, you might have mentioned that once or twice. Yes, ultimately, that’s not good enough. However, we won one more game than Gruden’s last year (2 years in fact, even though we made a quick cameo in the playoffs that year), so what does that make Gruden? You can choose to think 10 wins is a miserable season, I tend to live in reality and feel it’s not all that bad to win 10 games in the NFL. I will take 10 wins every single season and take my chances.
2009 was awful, and i won’t forget it. I also won’t forget our 4-12 season in 2006, or the 90s for that matter. It was bad all around. And yes, it is completely fair to give Raheem much of the blame for it, even though he was given a young, talentless team to work with. As I said, the head coach deserves the blame just as they deserve the credit.
And yes, Raheem’s job is to coach the QB, it is to coach the entire team. Again, play a sport before you talk. He may not call plays, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t coach them and have the final say on everything. I don’t think you have any idea of how closely Olsen and Morris work, nor do you have any idea how the chain of command works in football. You should get a clue before you speak.
April 15th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Funny how Raheem didn’t draft any of those guys you listed, and they all had problems before Raheem was the coach. Interesting little nugget you left out. I’m sure that was purely an oversight on your part. But why leave out Mike Williams, we all saw how he was incredibly intoxicated he was. He was probably out drinking with Raheem I bet.
Give it a rest dude. Your act is old, and your arguments are a joke.
April 15th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
It is sad to try to blame the prior regime for the behavior of players during the current regime. And hey clueless – who was their position coach when these guys were drafted and acting like fools? Um Rah Rah, most position coaches are involved in the selection of the draft picks. He was their “boy Rah” then and he is their “boy Rah” now.
I rarely have any inside knowledge but I have been told this: before rah rah got the job he was known to be hanging out more than occasionally with his buddies err players. His buddies err players did want him to get the job b/c it meant job security except for Mike Clayton who Rah and Dom were tricked into wasting 8 million or org money on b/c he was one of the pro-rah rah boys – and then when boys repeatedly boinked off his stone hands they were forced to cut him (and 8 figures of guaranteed $).
I have heard but haven’t confirmed that the “hanging” continues today which I believe is not a good thing. You may think it is good to have your head coach as one of the boys b/c they are the same age, I don’t b/c it encourages conflicts of interest and ultimately division. I believe that this team has NO discipline – I have been to watch them practice per invitation. It was no where close to the intensity, organization, pace and attention to detail that I saw under Dungy and Gruden. It seemed like a high school practice. I believe that they would have made the playoffs last year with the same players and either one of the other two in charge.
MAybe you guys think this kind of thing is good for a young team. I realize that he is a hyper-excitable kind of guy, I know he cares and works hard, I just think that he is ill-equiped to be a head coach at this level. I thought that he was very good as a D Backs coach though b/c he is a decent demonstrator of technique. Just because you are excited and can teach D Back technique doesnt make you CEO material – it is like taking the mail clerk right to CEO. The company can still be productive because of experience and goodwill and the people that remain – but is its potential maximized? Is it best in the long run? I say HELL NO!
THE ONLY REASON HE WAS HANDE THIS JOB WAS BECAUSE HE TOOK IT FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR. I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS SPECULATED THAT THE VALUE OF THE DEAL WAS ARCHAIC FOR A HEAD COACH WHICH IS WHY IT WAS NEVER MADE PUBLIC.
April 15th, 2011 at 7:41 pm
I’m not blaming the prior regime at all. I blame the players themselves. And correct me if I’m wrong, but i didn’t know Jerramy Stevens was coached by Raheem as his position coach. So you want to blame Raheem for drafting Geno Hayes in the 6th round and Tanard Jackson in the 4th round? Really? And you think they drafted Talib in the first because Raheem said so? My God you are an idiot. I promise you this, although he may have had a say, that’s all he had. The decision wasn’t made by him. You and I both know that is a fact.
Every single statement you just made is not fact. You have no sources, just what you heard. Excuse me, but that does not work for me. I don’t believe you, because you are simply not credible. Until you can back up your accusations with facts (or sources), you are a liar. You are pure scum for trying to spread rumors about the team, and you should be ashamed of yourself. I have a hunch (sound familiar) that you haven’t heard a damn thing, and that you are purely pulling this information out of your arse. You have an agenda against him for whatever reason, and it is pathetic. Only a truly unhappy person would enjoy doing what you do. I’m just glad you don’t go to the games so I don’t have to be in the same building as you at any point in my life.
April 16th, 2011 at 10:15 am
Those are not the words of a “Buc Fan”. Maybe a fan of your own warped opinion, and distorted facts, but not a “Buc Fan”, not now, not then, not ever. 100% pure “D” a$$hole all the way. You need to get laid in the worst possible way. Cash in the savings bond your parents gave you and buy a whore, but don’t take her back to their house. You should move out and give them a break. See if they’ll take you on “Biggest Loser”, I’m sure you meet every qualification with flying colors.