Quick Turnaround?
April 15th, 2014
Is GM Jason Licht molding the Bucs after the Cardinals?
Lovie Smith and Jason Licht have stated publicly that Bucs fans don’t deserve another rebuilding stage. Given the fact the Bucs haven’t won a playoff game in 12 years, not since Chucky hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft in victory, that’s a damned long time.
There are Bucs fans in college that don’t remember the Super Bowl win. That’s sad.
NFL.com columnist Judy Battista believes there is a chance Bucs fans may get to see their Pewter Pirates make a playoff run this year. Sure, people point to last year’s Chiefs turning things around quickly under the guidance of first-year coach Andy Reid. But Battista thinks fans should be looking at another team as a precursor to a potential quick Bucs turnaround.
That would be Arizona.
“If you listen to [the Bucs], they don’t want it to take a little while,” Battista said when asked by NFL Network’s Steve Wyche if the Bucs are rebuilding. “People point to Kansas City last year, but look what happened in Arizona. Tampa GM [Jason Licht] came from Arizona. He had a front row seat on their turn around. They went out and got a Carson Palmer. That’s sort of the formula the Bucs are taking. They want a quick turnaround. They have a base in talent that some thought was playoff caliber last year.”
Yes, but much of that talent Battista speaks of was overrated (leaky, sleepy Rip Van Freeman, for example) and the new regime already has purged plenty of it.
As Lovie always points out when discussing last year’s Bucs, “But we were 4-12.”
Nothing more needs to be added.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:03 am
man i was in 9th grade when the super bowl was won little did i know how hard it was to win a superbowl
April 15th, 2014 at 11:04 am
Id take one of those meaningless Division Titles Chucky won in 2005 and 2007, that everybody hated.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:07 am
They say that, but then they completely blew up the offense. How is that not ‘rebuilding’?
April 15th, 2014 at 11:09 am
If Lovie would have been here last year, we probably finish 8-8.
Shaw is coming to Tampa.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:15 am
McCown is our starting QB. We are not going to the playoffs.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:16 am
The last ranked offense?
April 15th, 2014 at 11:19 am
If the Bucs want to start winning and be competitive they need some offense. Score some points, don’t play to not lose, play to win by scoring some points, defense can’t do it all.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:39 am
what happened to josh freeman, Drugs? chics? michael sam? anyone know the truth? No conjecture
April 15th, 2014 at 11:44 am
The bucs will be the top team in the NFC south. We are going to give the other three QB’s hell this year. This Defense will get a championship very soon
April 15th, 2014 at 11:48 am
Yar nailed it.
And unfortunately, we have even less of an offense than we did last year. The draft will address some of it, but there are not enough picks to get the job done unless we get lucky in the later rounds.
The offense will take at least 2 years to rebuild, if they plan to rebuild it at all.
The defense wasn’t in need of rebuild but the offense certainly is now.
We need an offense that can score AT LEAST 24 points per game. Just as the seahawks did last season.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:49 am
Don,
You are asking an unanswerable question. The answer is likely in those questions you listed, but, no one wants to get sued, so, it stays as conjecture. I think it’s way too much smoke to not be. Plenty of other players flame out, but, how many get accused of the same type of rumors? Few.
I’d say the best way to put it is lack of commitment to greatness. Even when he got another shot last year, he was even late multiple times, last one in the building in Minny.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:49 am
Eh, give it a year. Lots of new pieces that need to do some gelling before we can legitImately call this team a playoff contender.
April 15th, 2014 at 11:57 am
When Jason Licht turns Tampa around, I wonder if Joe will start calling him a rockstar, instead of bestowing such a flattering title
on our ex GM Mark Dominik ?
April 15th, 2014 at 12:06 pm
At least the Gm/Coach came in and identified the main problem on offense. The O-line. Penn giving up the second most sacks in the league ( for right and left tackle) is just inexcusable. I am not saying the o-line is fixed. but at least they got rid of the worst parts.
April 15th, 2014 at 12:08 pm
Bonzai,
And unfortunately, we have even less of an offense than we did last year.
A little early to say that, isn’t it? A 4-12 offense isn’t much to hang your hat on or too hard to replace. Let’s wait until opening day to make that statement.
As you suggest, the draft will help some and don’t forget there is a 2nd free agency coming after some high price veterans are released in favor of less expensive draftees.
We have 12mil in cap space and another 10 or 12mil in cuts coming (hint: we have 11 CBs). Relax for now. Way too early to sound the alarm!
April 15th, 2014 at 12:16 pm
Arizona Cardinals 2013 Draft Picks:
1st rd: Guard – Jonathon Copper
2nd rd: Linebkr – Kevin Mitner
3rd rd: DB – Tyrann Mathieu
4th rd: DE – Alex Okafor
5th rd: RB – Stepfan Taylor
6th rd: Guard – Earl Watford, etc
If this what the Cardinals did is an indicator of who Licht might draft, I don’t see a QB on the horizon for the Bucs. Heck, Palmer is older than McCown I believe, and the Cards did not feel a need to draft a QB to start grooming for the future.
ODB, if this is an indicator, you will be happy. I would say we will draft a OT with the #7 pick, then a WR in the 2nd rd and then maybe a D-lineman in the 3rd rd. It would be disappointing to not pick up a QB.
April 15th, 2014 at 12:31 pm
Buccaneer Bonzai…I think Lovie is worried about fixing one thing at a time and is choosing to fix the easy part first. The defense. The offense will be built over time.
April 15th, 2014 at 12:31 pm
The thing that is a little disconcerting to me is if Jeff Tedford does a great job with our offense then he will be promoted to a head coach most likely in a few years.
April 15th, 2014 at 12:34 pm
I think we can wait for Tedford to call his first NFL play before we start worring that he is so great that he will leave after a short stay!
April 15th, 2014 at 12:44 pm
If Buc fans see a swarming smothering defense that loses close games and wins a few here and there. That will soothe the masses for now.
Buc fans love defense.
I was at that Saints game last season when the D was shutting Brees and Co down for 58 minutes and 30 seconds. Every time the D came back out on the field, the place erupted. You could feel the energy in the stands.
It’s kind of like the Dungy theory. I hope they have even close to that smothering D that Dungy had. The hell with the offense for now. I’ll take a few first round playoff losses at this point.
When you clean you’re house, you clean one room at a time. Fix the defense first!
I just hope Buc fans can be patient though. I think they will because of Lovie’s resume.
April 15th, 2014 at 1:00 pm
I blame the coaching staff for the bad season…of course the players have a lot to so with it. But we were the most talented 0-8 team ever
April 15th, 2014 at 1:42 pm
He had no choice but to blow up the 32nd ranked offense. I agree with its too early to tell or make the statement that the offense will be worse this year until the games are played not even when the roster is finalized. Can’t get any worse than 32 though.
April 15th, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Consider Lovie and Tedford have had a year off to ponder and plan. They also teamed up early in the process.
The defense is pretty simple and many players are already familiar with it.
The offense most likely will start vanilla and the wrinkles should come in time.
In addition, we have proven mature coaches and won’t be relying too heavily on rookies either.
Sound thinking trumps tired slogans. Expect a .500 team that won’t be a laughingstock and be giddy if we do any better next season.
April 15th, 2014 at 6:48 pm
Logan Thomas for QB in the fourth round!