Expect Roster Upheaval (Again)
December 29th, 2014
The fact the Bucs won the Chase for Jameis sort of takes one’s eye off the ball.
When you possess the No. 1 pick in the draft, that means you are a pathetic football team.
As much as Bucs fans are elated, the ugly truth is this team is a long, long, long way from winning. That is, under the current lot that comprises this roster.
Oh, and changes are a comin’ documents Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com.
What’s next: The season is over, but there is heavy work ahead for the Bucs. You don’t sit still after a season like this. That means the Bucs will get rid of some players who don’t fit their schemes and they’ll free up some salary-cap room. That will allow Tampa Bay to be a major player in free agency.
Just off the top of Joe’s head, the Bucs are going to revamp (again) the offensive line, and Joe certainly hopes whoever pitched Oniel Cousins and Josh Allen and Anthony Collins and Garrett Gilkey to Bucs general manager Jason Licht is locked in a cage until training camp.
Pretty sure the Bucs make a run at linebackers, as well. Suddenly, Danny Lansanah, a restricted free agent, finds himself on the Mike Williams Watch List after violating a team rule and getting benched yesterday. Last time that happened was to fellow linebacker Jonathan Casillas in preseason. Lovie shipped him out not long afterwards. And we all know about Mason Foster’s soon-to-be-public fate.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:33 am
Really, just fixing the o-line would make the team watchable again. Anything else is a bonus.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:35 am
Fixing the OLine through free agency works out….pretty much never. And with one of the worst OLine architect’s ever in Lovie choosing the guys? Yeesh.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:37 am
Lotta coaches getting fired right about now. Yet Lovie gets a pass. O_o
December 29th, 2014 at 10:39 am
I may be off on this but I wanted to float the possibility that Lansanah might have broken a team rule as much as Evan’s was “gassed” in the second half. Lansanah may not be on the team next year if they’re able to draft a top tier guy but his production was such this year that they wouldn’t want to put bad film out there on him by playing him in the less than 100% effort yesterday.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:42 am
Could be “the chase” for Leonard Williams. Go watch the post game where McCown starts talking about helping the new draft pick. Then he says “D tackle” first.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:44 am
You keep foster, get a whole new line sans mankins, omameh, and Dotson, address DE again, QB, and you need help at safety and MLB.. I think that’s just about every position
December 29th, 2014 at 10:45 am
Careful Joe….. if you keep pushing Winston so hard, people will start thinking that his is helping you pull chicks. Just kidding…we know guys graduating from EIU and ISU never have problems pulling chicks….but admittedly after being married to an EIU girl for over 35 years, there isn’t much left of me.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:46 am
Falcons have fired Smith.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:46 am
And some front office guys + coaches better be getting canned! Much better coaches have already been fired today
December 29th, 2014 at 10:47 am
People, get off the idea that Lovie is getting fired. Think longer-term. He promised the Bucs a return to solid Tampa-2 defense. It takes a few years.
Yesterday, the D was hitting good. He had to back it down to secure the draft spot. Stop acting like most of you know what the heck is going on.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:50 am
@Mike10 – Every coach that’s been fired has had similarly bad seasons and this wasn’t their first year with their teams. I’m not sure why you think that they’re better coaches. Lovie’s been to more super bowls than all of the coaches fired thus far.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:52 am
Better stated: Stop voicing your hopes that Lovie gets fired.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:54 am
Firing Lovie Smith and getting an offensive coach to replace would give the fanbase more hope for the future though. But having the worst QB evaluator in recent NFL history making the pick is just frightening. He might literally pick Mariota over Winston because one is a better Christian than the other. Horrifying to think he’s making this decision.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:55 am
Time to replace Lovie’s replacements for the last guys who “didn’t fit the scheme”.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:55 am
Bears have fired Trestman.
December 29th, 2014 at 10:56 am
whats the point of having a director of pro player personnel, he gets no credit or blame for bad free agent pick ups or college scouting
December 29th, 2014 at 10:59 am
JPP anyone?
December 29th, 2014 at 11:01 am
They set the bar with Schiano, Smith gets 2 years only.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:01 am
Had a great time at the game yesterday. First Saints game that I have been to where the fans were not overly obnoxious thankfully. Loved the camaradarie with fellow Bucs fans. Wish we could have seen what Glennon and Martin could have done behind an O-line like Dallas’s.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:01 am
Time for the coaches to rethink the way they have evaluated FAs and draft picks in the past. The track record this year is abysmal. Get some new evaluators/ideas before making long-term commitments.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:02 am
I still believe that Tedford had a lot of say on the offensive personnel, and so yes at least that guy is locked in a cage (called Canada).
And the Bucs will go far just getting a QB. How many of these close games this year, with this EXACT team, would have been won if we had a QB who just a little more productive?
December 29th, 2014 at 11:08 am
Zam Says:
I still believe that Tedford had a lot of say on the offensive personnel, and so yes at least that guy is locked in a cage (called Canada).
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Just can’t see Tedford wanting McCown. I believe “Lovie’s guy” was the epicenter of that mess.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:09 am
I hope we don’t draft Winston.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:12 am
Cut- Mankins, Goldson, Collins, McCown
Heavily pursue- OG Iupati, OT Bulaga, S Devin McCourty
Draft- QB Mariota, MLB Perryman, best DE available, best CB available
I’d give EDS and Johnson one more year to prove their worth. With Smith emerging at DE, it makes it less of a need IMO. Outside Verner and Banks, our CBs are trash. Pairing McDougal and McCourty would have me excited in our safeties again. If Foster is out, Perryman could come in and replace him tomorrow. Mankins is old and washed up (and to think we gave up a 4th rounder for him). I know you guys like the build the OLine through the draft idea, but Iupati and Bulaga are pro bowl caliber guys in their primes. Not a guy who had only started 8 games and someone else old and washed up who lost his only elite ability (run blocking).
December 29th, 2014 at 11:15 am
I’m going to admit that I am 100% stuck right now with who i want/think the Bucs get.
Leonard Williams is the biggest slam dunk in the draft. His floor is a Pro Bowler, his ceiling is JJ Wattish. He makes our D scary.
Mariota was the fastest player clocked in Spring on Oregon. What happens if he throws for 300 andcruns for 75 in bowl and runs 4.45 at Combine ? You have to take a QB like that.
Winston is a winner.. he’s big he’s strong he’s playing in NFL system and oh yeah he’s never lost. Hell Andrew Luck still makes questionable deep throws and doesn’t have the on field fire Winston has.
We will get a king’s ransom for the top pick. We need to retool our entire oline in the draft and this is a golden opportunity. If Andrew Luck is therr you take him. If Lawrence Taylor is there, you take him. But neither caliber of player is there.
I cannot remember the last time I was so excited to see an NFL season end. We need to hire an offensive coordinator ASAP and get to work.I want to see a Mark Trestman sitting next to L&L at the BucBowl.
Btw, if you dont think we tried our best to Tank the last quarter of the season you are blind. We sat out most our top.players and still.almost beat the Saints. That D is coming along just fine. We do need one more edge rusher a LB and a hybrid corner/
safety and we’re top 7-10 D.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:22 am
More roster upheavel by the same jokers that brought us 2-14!
Awesome!
L&L are pure hot garbage. One of the worst seasons I have ever been apart of as a fan in any sport. Lovie deserves to be fired.
Lovie’s ONLY made the playoffs three times in ten seasons. He sucks!
December 29th, 2014 at 11:38 am
@T REX
Lovie’s ONLY made the playoffs three times in ten seasons. He sucks
how many times has this franchise made the playoffs in the last 10 seasons? dude gets atleast 1 year and improvement has to be dramatic at BEGINNING of the season. improvement is gradual not instant, think we’re closer to being lions who went to the playoffs with a new coach or closer to being the raiders? don’t answer because our record says which team we’re closer to being not the head coach. wanna fire the coach and gm after one season but everyone dealt with mark Dominick all those years that’s insane…no one talks about how bad chucky was at drafting and that’s why he’s not here, we’ve been horrible at drafting ever since tony dungy left plus we cant even get free agency right
December 29th, 2014 at 11:41 am
Danny Lansanah, a restricted free agent, finds himself on the Mike Williams Watch List after violating a team rule and getting benched yesterday.
possible reasons for his benching:
maybe he was overheard saying he was going to play hard and screw up the bucs chances at the number one pick in the draft.
maybe he told lovie he was the worst coach in the nfl.
December 29th, 2014 at 11:42 am
@ bucs4lyfe
how many times has this franchise made the playoffs in the last 10 seasons?
My bar is higher than that. What did Lovie show you that he deserves another season? His amazing roster moves? His drafting skills? His coaching choices? His defense? Which is worse than Greg’s(who sucked btw)?
O’Dea is trash. Frazier is trash. O line coach? Trash. Arroyo? Trash. Lovie? Sum of his parts….trash.
Not sure how anyone can make a decent argument on why he should come back outside of some stupid tradition where a coach gets more than 1 year. Sometimes you can see from day one that he was overmatched.
lovie stole $20 mill from the Glazers tools.
December 29th, 2014 at 12:10 pm
T REX Says:
December 29th, 2014 at 11:42 am
how many times has this franchise made the playoffs in the last 10 seasons?
My bar is higher than that. What did Lovie show you that he deserves another season? His amazing roster moves? His drafting skills? His coaching choices? His defense? Which is worse than Greg’s(who sucked btw)?
O’Dea is trash. Frazier is trash. O line coach? Trash. Arroyo? Trash. Lovie? Sum of his parts….trash.
Not sure how anyone can make a decent argument on why he should come back outside of some stupid tradition where a coach gets more than 1 year. Sometimes you can see from day one that he was overmatched.
lovie stole $20 mill from the Glazers tools.
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2/3 of the poll respondents heartily concur.
The rest are the same crowd who thought Freeman should have been resigned.
December 29th, 2014 at 12:12 pm
“Pretty sure the Bucs make a run at linebackers, as well. Suddenly, Danny Lansanah, a restricted free agent, finds himself on the Mike Williams Watch List after violating a team rule and getting benched yesterday.” – Joe
Actually, he wasn’t fully benched. He was forced to sit the first half or so. He played later. So it was a slap on the wrist…a half game suspension and it’ll turn out to be no big deal.
December 29th, 2014 at 12:15 pm
How does anyone know the Lovie’s 2014 draft was a bust? I really like that WR Evans, the RB and TE were dealing with injuries this year but showed some promise. The lower picks on OL and WR we knew were going to be developmental. Maybe your judgments are correct but I think it a little soon to be so definitive.
December 29th, 2014 at 12:17 pm
“Btw, if you dont think we tried our best to Tank the last quarter of the season you are blind. We sat out most our top.players and still.almost beat the Saints. That D is coming along just fine. We do need one more edge rusher a LB and a hybrid corner/
safety and we’re top 7-10 D.”
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Duh.
December 29th, 2014 at 12:28 pm
Does anyone care lansanah was benched so was half of our squad
December 29th, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Stanglassman Says:
How does anyone know the Lovie’s 2014 draft was a bust? I really like that WR Evans, the RB and TE were dealing with injuries this year but showed some promise. The lower picks on OL and WR we knew were going to be developmental. Maybe your judgments are correct but I think it a little soon to be so definitive.
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It’s way to early to say that. Much will come down to if ASJ can stay healthy and Sims is used correctly.
Pamphile and Edwards are both raw and Warhop wasn’t the guy to coach them up.
December 29th, 2014 at 1:00 pm
Remember having the #1 has a ripple effect down the draft.
Is the 33rd selection that much worse than the 23rd selection. After the top 10-15 players start matching up more without a huge difference.
And so our 2nd round pick can also be expressed as only a dozen picks behind Cleveland’s first rounder. And it goes this way all the way down the board. We should expect an NFL quality player in our 3rd (like a late 2nd) round pick.
December 29th, 2014 at 1:22 pm
The Bucs need to start by firing Lovie, hiring a coach that understands QB development and offensive football, put a ton of money into the OL, and then draft Mariota. I wouldn’t trust Lovie at this point. Lovie made too many mistakes to ignore, especially for such a seasoned coach. You might expect that for a 1st time guy, but a veteran coach? The guy is coaching like its 1999. The Bucs need a coach to take them into the new NFL.
December 29th, 2014 at 2:09 pm
Geez, the last time the Bucs had the number one overall pick I was young. They have stunk up the place pretty much ever since with few exceptions. This just over debacle has been one of the stinkiest shows of futility ever. Then came the grand prize. Don’t blow it!
December 29th, 2014 at 4:59 pm
Sadly, Joe can confirm that is not the case. 🙁
December 29th, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Gee, when was the last time I heard that about player. Oh yeah, Mark Barron. Mayock said his floor was the Pro Bowl and his ceiling was higher than Ronnie Lott’s.
How did that work out?
December 30th, 2014 at 12:57 pm
lansanah is safe. i imagine this was just a convenient example to make because it a) shows the effort guys who made a name for themselves this year they don’t have a halo and need to keep earning their spots, and b) takes a quasi-starter out of a must-lose game.