“I Don’t Think Dirk Koetter Is Going To Wait Around”
September 28th, 2016
Heads may roll, claims Pat Kirwan.
When a coach publicly discusses a culture problem in the locker room, something is simmering beneath the surface, perhaps something major.
That’s the word from Pat Kirwan. The former Bucs scout, Jets linebackers coach and pro player personnel director took to his “Movin’ the Chains” show this week, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, and said he believes when Dirk Koetter admitted the Bucs had a culture problem after Sunday’s game, it represents something negative going on behind the scenes.
A Bucs fan called Kirwan and his co-host, Jim Miller, and asked about Koetter’s comment and how the culture could be fixed.
Kirwan believes, at best, Koetter is taking a page from Bill Parcells to motivate his players through the fourth estate. But it could run much deeper than that.
“Those are strong statements and a plan has to be presented sooner or later and maybe some heads have to roll,” Kirwan said. “Unfortunately, with the way contracts are and guaranteed money, maybe that is not attainable at every level. You watch: I think Dirk Koetter is a very organized guy. He speaks the truth and this is a Bill Parcells technique. Bill, occasionally, would talk to his football team through the media.
“Some coaches never do that. So do it. Some basically are saying instead of sitting down with my team I am just going to put it out there so everyone else can start applying pressure to them. It is effective for some and not for others. We will find out.
“I don’t think Dirk Koetter is going to wait around to have guys that he saw on this team get other coaches fired. I don’t care how you got your job. I worked for four head coaches. They look at players. ‘Hhhhmmmm. That guy got the other guy fired. He ain’t getting me fired.’ So if there are leftovers that are not committed or late for meetings, whatever, can be the issue. He just got rid of Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Maybe – and this is real speculative on my part – maybe he found out there were others who were out with him? Who knows? But he is saying something that he is trying to make sure his team understands. He is not going to tolerate it, whatever it is.”
Miller is convinced tweety Austin Seferian-Jenkins was part of the culture problem, and that’s why Koetter launched him last week. Miller explained what he thought Koetter was trying to say.
“Not even three weeks into the season you see a player with an incident out at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Miller said. “I think he has made the point he wants players to focus on football and the priority is football, and that decision was made and should send a message to everybody else in that locker room: ‘You better be about football or you are not going to be here.'”
Miller stopped just short of calling ASJ a cancer. But no one knows how many times ASJ may have shown up late to meetings or to practices, Miller said, or how often ASJ simply had his head out of the playbook while at One Buc Palace. Miller did say ASJ “clearly” was not about football being out at hammered just a handful of hours before he was due to work Friday morning at One Buc Palace.
As a pro player personnel director, Kirwan said he regularly took calls from cops informing him of players late-night activities, usually younger players. Cops would tell Kirwan who was out and about at 4 a.m. when they were scheduled to be at work for physical therapy or for meetings at 7 a.m.
“Koetter might have gotten a couple of those calls,” Kirwan said. “He might be dealing with that issue now. I don’t know that that’s it, but when a coach says something as strong as he just said it, then maybe it is there and he put it in front of the team in the media which takes guts to do it but he did it.”
Joe thought Kirwan’s words were very interesting about players getting coaches fired. Koetter, of course, was offensive coordinator last year. He saw what happened behind closed doors first-hand. So it could be Koetter knows what players not to trust and is waiting for reasons to cut bait with them.
Last Friday morning, Koetter may have taken his first opportunity to pull out the fishing knife.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:20 am
it’s been my belief that there are internal problems on the Bucs and they will not attain to any level of success until they are resolved…today’s athletes are all about themselves…they struck it rich signing a huge contract and that takes the incentive to work hard…go out and drink, get drunk, live like you haven’t a care in the world, after all, it’s just a game that kids play, don’t need to improve skills, just rely on what got you to the big time….sad, but true…you can see it with the DB’s, oh well, another huge chunk of yardage, big deal, my check hits the bank by direct deposit so what do I care? Those of us with real careers know the standard we have to uphold and the energy we expend in our labors and get paid a fraction of what these overgrown brats get paid. No support for them here. Drink on, party on…
September 28th, 2016 at 7:23 am
Axed because your out late ………how about cutting somebody cause they can’t make a play there’s a new concept for ya!! 13 games to play with 8 more games to win!! UPSET SUNDAY!!
September 28th, 2016 at 7:31 am
We knew that ASJ had problems….but who else, I don’t have a clue. They haven’t tipped it off if they have problems. Does anyone have thoughts on who they could be talking about?
It looked like they fought hard in that game until the very last minute….the offense was extremely good but had two very unfortunate/unlucky turnovers and missed a field goal.
The defense was awful but that looked a lot more like bad play calling and players not in a position to make plays.
Whatever it is on defense we need to fix it quickly.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:32 am
The culture problem goes back to the Raheem days. 3 coaches later and it seems Dirk will do whatever he can to avoid being the next victim. I hope he succeeds cause as a fan, I am getting real tired of the losing ways of this team.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:34 am
Wow – thank you Joe for capturing this. I see that Pat and Jim really endorse Dirk and for the most part people seem to really want to see the Bucs turn the corner.
I like the no none sense approach and the call them out now because if not THEY WILL GET YOU CANNED.
I personally thought that the Verner play and VJax incidents are the typical plays that plague this team. The mental farts at critical times are selfish and cancerous. We have to keep cleaning house it seems.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:42 am
Whatever the problems related to “culture” at One Buc Place, many fans can see that players like America’s (2nd Most Hated) Quarterback Jameis Winston and Kwon Alexander are not the problem. They want to win now, and I hope that they know that a lot of fans appreciate their hard work, although as we know, sometimes hard work is not enough. Still, we have a good, young nucleus of players, and that is why I would support being much more judicious about bringing in free agents in the future (the Aaron Ross mention of “paid vacation” comes to mind) and instead focus a lot more on the draft. Stockpiling draft picks is easier said than done, but it is possible. The GM also has to make the picks count. It may take us longer to win, but with all the free agents that we have brought in the last few years, it’s not working out either.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:47 am
JMN hit the nail on the head!!!! The Bucs Organization has been battling this since the RAH/Dom never ending frat party!!!!
I am very interested to see what happens during the bye week!!! I will be very interested to see what clean up will happen this offseason!!!! The real core is very young and it is time to clear the way for them!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!
September 28th, 2016 at 7:48 am
Interesting. Unfortunately that means they are more than a couple players away from truly being a contender.
Instead of S, WR, and another DL to pass rush they may need a couple more.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:55 am
How much do you want to bet that the problem players go back to Dominik’s acquisition.
September 28th, 2016 at 7:59 am
Well let em roll. Tired of the losing ways.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:12 am
culture = standards. that’s what everyone are trying to say.
When the veteran players are imports and rookies are starters you cannot keep high standards. Building it from scratch is very difficult.
Its like tying a young tree to a stick when planting it so it will grow straight. we simply don’t have these “sticks” around. we are so falsely happy when a rookie becomes a starter in his first season but this only an indication to the strength of the roster. What we see is the result of that.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:13 am
“I’ll tolerate you until I can replace you”
Mike Tomlin
September 28th, 2016 at 8:21 am
We lose to Denver and the season is over from a playoff standpoint
Guys we just don’t have enough talent at the end of the day
We need a D end and D tackle 2 safety’s a wideout another guard
And another corner.
We are 2 good drafts from being average
I said 7-9
6-10
I think the glazer boys have run this franchise into the ground.
They just don’t have it
September 28th, 2016 at 8:32 am
Well Coach K can point and do so with some validity at certain players, but clock management falls on him 100%!!!!
Yes I think theres other problems….now its 100% Coach K’s job to fix them. We’re not going to the playoffs this year….we’re still rebuilding so NOW is the time!
September 28th, 2016 at 8:37 am
This team has to many “pros” that have figured out that you get paid win or lose. For them the result of the game isn’t important, but they sure don’t want to get hurt, because then you may not get paid. One of the smartest things during the Dungy turn around was drafting kids from winning programs. Kids that maybe lost 3 college games in their career. Players that expect to win every week and won’t accept losing as the norm. I don’t mind cleaning house, even if some of the losers are a surprise to us fans.
September 28th, 2016 at 8:54 am
This team will never win consistently with GMC playing a key role. The defense has taken on his carefree weak ass personality and have learned how to accept losing following his lead… mccoy is a good player but he is too soft and mentally weak to lead… cry all you want gmc fan boys but he is the problem the truth will be set free…. let’s just hope gmc has not infected / or lvd since they’ve been together the longest
September 28th, 2016 at 9:00 am
It sounds more like an internal problem (ownership/GM). If this culture problem has gone back to Raheem the majority of players weren’t here then.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:44 am
Tmaxcon nailed it. McCoy is the complacency Captain. He is the one that Jameis had to tell to back off the “leadership” roll and he is hard to get rid of because his Contract is stupid. I thought the new D-line Coach Hayes could straighten him out, but I guess not.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:55 am
i hate to think i’m right, but we have some talented players at the very top of the payroll and the stat sheet on defense who have seen 3 or even 4 head coaches come through the door, and have no idea what a winning season looks like. we have a DB who got paid well (albeit not as well as he predecessor) tp come here and has largely disappointed under 2 coordinators at this point. we have a DT who for all his talent has never been on the field for a winning season or even a top 10 or 15 defense. we have a LB (who i love watching play) whose job it is to inform the fan base multiple times a season that the defense had a letdown on the mental or emotional side of their job at least a few sundays every year.
September 28th, 2016 at 9:58 am
It’s not GMC’s fault that he came to a loosing organization, he’s not the problem. If that was the case I guess we been to get rid of LVD and Doug Martin as well right? They have only been forced to adapt to this culture unfortunately, I get what your sayin TMAX but it’s the culture that has to be kicked out. not your best players. It’s not gonna be easy to change this losing culture we have been plagued with but u can’t just get rid of your best players in hopes of curing it because they had to adapt to it over the years. That’s part of the reason we brought Jameis here. He’s a winner and hates losing. If u go back to college players like GMC all came from winning cultures and we’re team captains. It’s the bucs as a whole, not individual team leaders.
September 28th, 2016 at 10:53 am
That GMC talk is stupid. He is not the problem. He may not be the answer but he’s not the problem. When you look at the D and try to guess who the problems are it really points to the d-line and secondary… Look at who they let go and where they brought in talent/leadership. Everyone wonders why Jonathan Banks has fallen out of favor, here’s your sign. I mean Alteron Verner’s skill set has obviously declined but they keep rolling him out there for a reason. Hopefully by the end of the season we’ll see some development from the younger guys.
September 28th, 2016 at 12:03 pm
I said this around week 5 last year….with this team lacking talent everywhere I would trade GMC because he has more value on the trade market than he does on this team….trade him for a first and a mid round pick to the Texans or a playoff contending team…hold on to your first round pick and then trade down with the other to collect more picks…there you have it…we would have at least 9 or 10 picks to work with in addition to some cash to spend in FA….GO BUCS!!!!
September 28th, 2016 at 12:06 pm
Didn’t ASJ tell the officer he was on his way to his QB’s house? hmmmm….
September 28th, 2016 at 12:15 pm
How would cops call Kirwan the day after they knew players were out late? Does every cop in town have a straight line to Kirwan? Does he have a team of PIs that follow every player 24/7?
September 28th, 2016 at 4:02 pm
Every NFL team has private investigators on staff that normally are former detectives or FBI agents. A cop can easily call the team’s security chief and get through to an executive. Joe is quite confident the Bucs encourage cops to do so in return for something/something (access to private practices, sweet tickets, field passes, you name it).
September 28th, 2016 at 5:05 pm
@Joe
and some cops will work as bouncer during off duty, or know and talk to bouncer to know who is at certain drinking and exotic establishments!!!!
September 28th, 2016 at 6:24 pm
hmmmnn, probably one of the most..eye catching articles from you in some time Joe.. Actually got ME..thinking….WHo knows Koetter might have to do some house cleaning after this season. Kinda late now though. But there might be something going on with the players. ASJ was definitely lackidasical. Seemed almost like he was..bidding his time. Whose next? Kirwan is on to something. Find out whats up. Don’t let it slip away into the night.
September 29th, 2016 at 7:16 am
@mike johnson
Well, I guess I am glad that you are at least listening to Pat Kirwan!!! Even though I have been telling you the same thing for a while now!!! This year is about coaching the lovie out of them!!!! Some they will be able to coach up and some will be replaced!!!!! Its time to see who wants to win around here!!!!
The culture is changing!!!!!