The Bucs Will Win (Or Lose) On Defense
June 1st, 2010
Joe has had some good banter over the past few days about the Bucs running back situation. Many feel the Bucs offense must play well for the Bucs to win.
Herm Edwards doesn’t subscribe to that philosophy. The former Bucs secondary coach is now slaving for the Bolshevik cable network BSPN. A hard-core Twitterer, Edwards was asked for his outlook for the Bucs and his response didn’t surprise Joe.
@janimal45 Hey Herm your thoughts of the Bucs this season?
@HermEdwardsESPN Tough sch(edule). the d will be the key, the qb is young
Joe would expect nothing less from a defensive coach. Defense wins games.
But Joe found it curious his little comment on quarterback Josh Freeman. Most pundits point to Freeman as being an asset. Apparently, Herm doesn’t think so.
June 1st, 2010 at 7:05 am
How about a JBF poll who is the worst coach ? Morris or Edwards. Herm already screwed up Jets and Cheifs, didn’t he open the door for Morriss??
June 1st, 2010 at 7:23 am
jlynch:
Wow, that’s a little harsh. Herm wasn’t that terrible. The Chiefs were on the downside when he got traded (?) to Kansas City. Joe could smell the end for him before his first game in Kansas City. Joe also believes he watched Herm coach a playoff team. To quote Peter King, it’s “dubious” if Rah will do that with the Bucs.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:24 am
Herm also says the Bucs schedule is tough! Anyone who claims that has to be dismissed
June 1st, 2010 at 8:25 am
ANY young QB is a liability until proven otherwise. Even the Jets would say the same.
Hopefully he proves them wrong this year, but until then…
June 1st, 2010 at 8:27 am
Joe, jlynch is right. The Jets wanted to fire him. And there was some closed door discussions and He went to Kansas City. Where he sucked once again until he was let go. Bottom line, he was that terrible! And so is this amatuer we have running the Bucs right now! Dubious? Rah will never have a winning season as a Head Coach, much less coach a playoff team.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:37 am
I agree with Matt. Nomatter who promising a young QB is, he is still a liability for his first 2 or 3 years. You can hope for, but not expect greatness during that time.
We were a playoff team for years with a lousy offense and a great defense. That is the era Herm comes from, so his train of thought is no surprise. I don’t think our defense can be expected to be dominant though. It’s going to a a full team effort. The offense will need to score 21-24 points a game. I doubt we’ll be winning any 9-6 type games this year.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:41 am
Meybe when Herm said” the QB is young”, he meant “the QB is young”!!!!
Josh Freeman is 23, with 1/2 season of starts under his belt. I didn’t read any implied critisism there! Name one great QB who was playing at the top of his game in his first full season?
Again, I expect PROGRESS from Freeman this year, not a Payton Manning impersonation. Gonna take him another year or so, but the Future looks bright. I think what Herm said makes sense. A young QB won’t carry this very young team. But if the Defense can carry us, Josh is capable of winning some Games.
But it’s naive to believe a team this young will be competing for the playoffs. Once the Team gets experience together, that will be goal for years to come! I can still be excited watching them grow up this year!
June 1st, 2010 at 8:42 am
jlynch:
So Raheem Morris gets ONE YEAR with a REBUILDING franchise that the owners refuse to buy good free agents to help rebuild with and you wantt o grade his coaching career on that? Seriously?
Why so many think Raheem is so horrible is seriously mind boggling. You people are absolutely ignorant to the situation he was thrown into.
As far Herm’s comments on Freeman: seems to be another case of JOEBUC just reading to far into things and making nothing into something for the sake of several daily columns (to keep us coming back and reading…it works). Just because he said the QB is “young” does not mean he doesn’t think of him as a long term asset.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:50 am
By the way, Joe, great site!! You have a lot of really intelligent People posting here. Thanks for the oppurtunity to throw my two cents in!
June 1st, 2010 at 9:01 am
tampa2:
Joe’s not saying Herm is Bill Walsh but he’s not one of the worst either. Kansas City was a sinking ship when he got there. His demise in Kansas City was very predictable.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:02 am
Capt.Tim:
You are more than welcome. Thanks so much for the kind words. Joe appreciates them very much.
By all means tell your Bucs friends about Joe!
June 1st, 2010 at 9:05 am
Herm is another coach that would have been better off as a DC and not an HC. I wouldn’t mind seeing Herm as the Bucs’ DC to allow Rah more time to focus on the offense, where Greg Olson sleeps, and the real problems are right now.
June 1st, 2010 at 9:15 am
BigMacAttack:
Just a guess, but Joe believes Herm wouldn’t come here. Not now. If Rah has his contract re-upped, perhaps. Herm’s getting paid almost as much working for BSPN putting in about 1/4 the hours and has job security.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:19 am
Yea, the NFL is a pretty volatile place right now, and TV is much safer. There is always the possibility of a career in offshore drilling. I always liked Herm, Lovey & Rod. Those guys rocked, just not out on their own.
June 1st, 2010 at 11:31 am
It is a hard schedule for the bucs, as it contains games against other NFL teams.
June 1st, 2010 at 12:04 pm
What we should’ve done after last season was bring back some of our old coaching staff that helped make this team in the late 90’s, early 00’s. Herm right now is unemployed. Long ago, he was a very good defensive backs coach for us. We should’ve brought him back to help coach the defense. Our staff definitely needs upgrading.
June 1st, 2010 at 12:12 pm
i take that back he is employed at ESPN, but still we could’ve asked him to come back. people leave sports networks all the time for coaching jobs.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:23 pm
clearly what herm meant by tough schedule was our division games where most predict the bucs to go 0-6 or 1-5 – which means no shot for the playoffs. I doubt that he has the rest of the scheduled memorized but do agree that it should be soft if this were a legit nfl caliber team – it isnt – I would rate this bunch as an elite UFL team or a very solid SEC team.
On Freeman, Herm just said what every objective authority thinks about Freeman – the jury is out – there were some very good and very bad signs from him right now. And no, nobody in their right mind would say that he is a better prospect than either Sanchez or Stafford. There is no way that either of those teams would trade those guys for Freeman. FReeman is still a major project!! Stafford is a minor project and Sanchez well he has already led a team to a league title game and looked solid in the playoffs!
Herm was correct with his comments and trying to attack his head coaching success is just a way to dismiss his points, btw if his points are weakened by his coaching record – how strong is anything Rah says or does after that 3-13 debacle? thought so.
June 1st, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Too bad we couldn’t swoop Rod Marinelli up when he got canned by the Lions. Id love to have him working with McCoy.
But when you look at guys like Marinelli, Edwards, even Love Smith, and they struggled as head coaches with far more experience than Ray, I wonder where folks get all the optimism from.
June 1st, 2010 at 10:17 pm
their optimism is fueled by their hatred for Gruden and how desperately they want to be proved right by advocating for his firing mostly based on untruths told on sportstalk radio by the Big Dog!
Gruden wouldnt cozy up to the big dog, so he accused gruden of being an egomaniac for years to fuel his firing and now we have a regime that has hired Duemig to spin positivity to the sheep.