Team Glazer Loot And Mike Smith
October 17th, 2018
Was accounting at play in jettisoning Mike Smith?
Now this is a unique angle Joe didn’t put a whole lot of thought into.
Maybe he should have?
In the days leading up to the removal of Mike Smith as Bucs’ defensive coordinator, Joe had noted Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht beefed up the personnel on defense, only to watch the defense plunge off a cliff in terms of play.
Generally, folks who wear suits to work at NFL team headquarters frown upon these results.
Jenna Laine of ESPN seems to have a hunch that there is more to Smith’s firing than the naked eye observes. Her numbercrunching revealed the Bucs weren’t even coming close to seeing the desired results on the investiture Team Glazer sunk into the defense.
The Bucs allocated $88 million in 2018 cap space to their defense, sixth-most in the NFL, according to ESPN’s Roster Management System. That same defense has been giving up 439.8 yards per game.
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) October 15, 2018
Those kind of results (horrible) on $88 million tend to get the quick attention of both accountants and the guys signing the checks. Think about it: $88 million on an outfit that played like a turd. The Bucs would have been far better off financially with a bunch of NFL castoffs and AAF wannabes at a bargain-basement rate and gotten the same results.
So Joe can only take from Laine’s research that Team Glazer may have been more at play behind the scenes of Smith getting launched two weeks after Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said he was safe than many of us initially thought.
October 17th, 2018 at 12:56 am
Nobody wants to have the worst Defense in history period. If there’s one thing anyone outside of Tampa or even Florida can remember about the Bucs is, apart from being one of the worst franchises in football, they once had a VERY good defense. Top 5 in modern NFL history. That’s the identity of years gone by. Numbers don’t lie but permanently being the worst D in the league is pretty motivating in itself.
I don’t see how a GM doesn’t notice $88M isn’t getting results. If you need an accountant, you’re in the wrong field of work.
October 17th, 2018 at 1:03 am
i think one of those glazer boys should try to get down with jenna…she can set them straight on the bucs…heck i say make jenna the new bucs gm – that would be wild…go jenna go!
October 17th, 2018 at 1:04 am
jenna is the first lady of football in tampa…best believe that!
October 17th, 2018 at 1:31 am
Look at em. Four week minded, hands in their pockets, smurfs, trying not to blow all of their Daddy’s money in their lifetime. OMG! Sell the doggone team to Jeff Vinik for your billion dollars that you continue to hope for. Go play with your tie-loving, fake football franchise, and join each other for tea and a gentle afternoon rain. Let us have the oportunity to be dominant, with competent ownership. OMG, enough of this perpetual hot garbage!
October 17th, 2018 at 1:33 am
They look like the four boys at the prom, with no date and afraid to ask a girl to dance. Oh my god, relieve us of these soft, rich kid errand boys!
October 17th, 2018 at 2:17 am
$88 million spent on a bunch of bums
Maybe Mike Smith knew this beforehand
October 17th, 2018 at 2:27 am
The Seattle Seahawks defense ranked 31st in defensive spending
But they have a Top-10 defense
And they are allowing 19.5 PPG
October 17th, 2018 at 2:50 am
Adam, Jenna ain’t gonna date you
October 17th, 2018 at 3:14 am
One thing for sure
No way will they be able to pay them in 2019
Not wilth Marpet new deal, Jameis huge raise,Donovan deal
Most of the bums on defense will be ghosts after the season
Look for a lot of new faces on defense in 2019
October 17th, 2018 at 3:24 am
Why is it the Glazer boys’ fault their dad was Malcolm Glazer and became a self-made success?
Sour grapes.
Why don’t we relive the Hugh Culverhouse years again.
SMH.
October 17th, 2018 at 3:27 am
You guys once again show how much you know. It’s not the Glazers fault when they put up that kind of money. They are doing their part. They know fans are sick of this.
October 17th, 2018 at 3:35 am
Maybe looking at WHERE the money was spent MIGHT give the Glazers some clue as to whether or not they’re getting their money worth?
o One 30-year-old DT who has played in all 5 games with 1.5 sacks, 0 FF, 8 QB hits, 3 TFL, 4 solo tackles & 6 assists.
o One 31-year-old DT who has yet to play a single game.
o One 27-year-old DT who has played in 3 games with 0 sacks, 0 FF, 1 QB hit, 0 TFL, 2 solo tackles & 0 assists.
o One 30-year-old DE who has played in all 5 games with 1.5 sacks, 0 FF, 4 QB hits, 3 TFL, 4 solo tackles & 6 assists.
o One 29-year-old DE who has played in all 5 games with 5 sacks, 1 FF, 10 QB hits, 6 TFL, 19 solo tackles & 1 assist.
o One 27-year-old DE/DT combo who has played in all 5 games with 0 sacks, 0 FF, 4 QB hits, 0 TFL, 3 solo tackles & 1 assist.
Does anyone see a trend here? Licht put all the Bucs big $$$ into 6 aging players … only one of whom is producing anywhere near (through 5 games) what fans were expecting (and most likely what the Glazer Boyz were expecting also). JPP is ‘as advertised’ but the rest of our DLine is injury-prone AND/OR non-productive.
What gets even sadder is that through 5 games the Bucs as a TEAM have only produced 1 INT, 9 sacks, 34 QB hits & 29 tackles for loss. That all by itself pretty much explains the #32 ranking in POINTS ALLOWED.
Compare those stats to those of the lowly (?) 2-3-1 Cleveland Browns, our next opponent: as a TEAM through 6 games they have 9 INTs, 15 sacks, 38 QB hits & 30 tackles for loss. Ranked #20 in POINTS ALLOWED.
Sad days in Bucsville when the good folks in Cleveland can point to Tampa and crow “We’re bad but at least we’re NOT the Tampa Bay Buccanneers”.
October 17th, 2018 at 4:05 am
Sumo
Trust me
We know who fault it is
But I’m not beating this dead horse anymore
I’m not even going to mention his name anymore
October 17th, 2018 at 4:14 am
Jonathan Banks was a 4.6 CB taken in the 2nd round. He is out of the NFL.
Leonard Johnson was a starter for the Bucs as a 4.6 CB, he is out of the NFL.
We drafted TWO 4.6 CB’s in the 2nd round. One of them, MJ, to be a nickle??
The other, Carlton, is a press corner, that we drafted to play off the line.
Ronald Jones is a RB who is afraid of getting hit. Guice INITIATES contact.
We missed on ALL THREE of our 2nd round picks.
Donte Jackson is starting for the Panthers.
Jessie Bates is STARTING for the Bengals.
I used to like Licht. But he needs to go.
He tries to “get cute” in the 2nd round and draft “differently.”
But in reality, he drafts stupidly!
This last draft was make of break.
We failed.Now, we suck!
October 17th, 2018 at 4:27 am
@Lakeland … “I’m not beating this dead horse anymore.” LMAO Lakeland. Well, except for one minor detail: the danged horse keeps twitching & pooping.
October 17th, 2018 at 6:04 am
Man, that’s a lot of $$$ for the ROI. Ok Glazers, I’ve got 4 recently emptied Cheerio boxes. They can’t run fast or run plays, for that matter. However, they are adept at getting in the way of opposing defenses! One can only surmise this to be a significant upgrade outside of JPP! The best part is you can have them for a small price: $1,000,000
You can contact their agent at One Bucs Fan Man Place!
October 17th, 2018 at 6:07 am
*offenses*
October 17th, 2018 at 6:17 am
I agree with every single comment everyone has made.
October 17th, 2018 at 6:54 am
@teacherman777, “We drafted TWO 4.6 CB’s in the 2nd round. One of them, MJ, to be a nickle??”
Neither CB drafted by the bucs in the second rounds were 4.6 CB.
MJ Stewart ran 4.54 ranked eleventh CB in his draft class
Carlton Davis ran 4.53 as a 6.1 CB ranked seventh CB in his draft class
Mike Smith and Hoke are to blame. They’re scheme sucks with everyone of their CBs playing 6-8 yards off the WRs.
October 17th, 2018 at 6:55 am
Koetter said it was his decision. Yah right.
Anyone that thinks that is clueless. Licht’s job is on the line too. He brought in all these free agents and drafted young secondary. It looked horrible on him. Problem is mike smith defense scheme was so lame , we don’t know if they were good decisions by licht or not. There is talent but that talent was wasted by the likes of mike smith. My 5 year old nephew more qualified to call plays.
The owner and GM were involved- no question.
October 17th, 2018 at 7:27 am
Even if the Buc’s manage to pull this season out to maybe 9-7, do you really want this regime signed for another 3 years or more? Only to go 6-10 and 5-11, or maybe 8-8…Either will the Larry, Moe or Curly Glazer.
Licht=SUCKS as a GM, there is no defending him anymore..non productive high round draft choices is his downfall along with FA wasted $. He is OUT OF TIME despite the 1 year extension, which should cover his moving costs.
October 17th, 2018 at 7:49 am
Reading between the lines…. I’m sure Glazer’s said to Dirk “you can resign or you can fire Mike Smith—your choice”. Yes Licht got the groceries. They may have been wasted on the wrong recipes. Change the Chef. If the soup is still bad, LiCHT has got to go.
October 17th, 2018 at 7:49 am
the problem is not JPP but the batman and his cast of friends, and it does not seem to matter what year they become the caped crusaders compadre’s, common thread year in year out as they are dancing with the stars. after watching this team since 76 thru good and bad, i can not understand the accolades and praise put on the great one, he has never had a double digit sack season, has never elevated his teammates play around him, was injured his first two seasons, every year near the end he ends up getting hurt and sitting, now 5 games in not only is he not producing but now he’s in a boot? who in their right mind would want him on their team, every year to open camp his attitude is well i almost at the end now been doing this along time my knees yada yada yada, he’s the problem get rid of him, his contract and start finding some football loving defensive beast’s, or he will infect vea with sub par mediocrity, he is a fraud, been stealing glazer loot for a decade, and stealing fans hearts and crushing their dreams
October 17th, 2018 at 7:55 am
If you want an aggravating exercise, go through the staffs of past Buc teams and play “where are they now.” Even Raheem Morris has staff members still active in the NFL. Huge drop off in coaching staff after Raheem. Then Lovie had some success with staff. Dirk has very few people on his staff that will be in the NFL next year. Total house cleaning coming.
October 17th, 2018 at 8:39 am
I thought that the article was going to discuss how much Mike Smith has left on his contract extension(!), but this is far more disturbing and is par for the course to how Team Glazer operates. They love to pay people not to play, coach, or manage. As others have suggested, look for the team to blow up the defense yet again this year. #PaidFloridaVacation
October 17th, 2018 at 8:40 am
Well if Licht used these funds and didn’t get results..shouldn’t he be holding the door open for Dork as they make their way out? Ladies first and all….
October 17th, 2018 at 8:45 am
the worst defense in the nfl and potentially in nfl history is simply not allowed to be seen dancing on the sidelines – it’s a bad look – shows lack of focus, and it’s not taking ownership of the situation at hand – it sort of shows smith or koetter has lost the defensive leaders in the locker room early in the season – no dancing, prancing or romancing when your’e getting throttled – these players must have low football iq’s or something…the defense should be called the “fun bunch” until they start clocking and knocking dudes around…
they seem scared to crunch dudes and smash dudes up – they play and hit softer than any other team at the moment…
i can go on, but i’m going to take a break form posting and hope things change with the dc switcheroo…
at least someone at the top said “enough is enough”
all of our defensive stars now have their jobs on the line….
and all the young guys growing into positions get a bit of a pass at the moment…
the guys who’ve been here a while are now officially under the “deep scope” now that smitty is gone…
the whole “fun bunch” either needs to ball out or get out…
the writing is on the wall
October 17th, 2018 at 8:50 am
@westernbuc
oh my…not trying to date jenna via joebucsfan foo!…but i do appreciate the fact that she knows her football and keeps up with the beat of this crazy soap opera team
October 17th, 2018 at 9:04 am
Licht is the blame here. He can’t draft and he can’t sign decent free agents, what else does a GM do?. Fire him and get a good GM that can evaluate talent.
October 17th, 2018 at 9:34 am
some of yall folks don’t get it…..smitty was given talent to improve the defense and it got worse….simple as that……
if the GM drafts a player and that player doesn’t progress from year to year, then you have to look at player development…..you have to look at the coaches…..
if smitty cant figure out how to have an average defense with 4former 1st rounders along the dline, PB LBs and 1st &2nd round picks in the secondary then he doesn’t deserve to be in the NFL as a coach…..simple as that…..
licht can draft but the coaches smitty in particular have been screwing him over…..player throughout the defense have been regressing since smitty took over…..is licht perfect at drafting?…no but name 1 GM that is…..its all about coaches developing players and coaches putting players in position to succeed….
smitty never developed players and never put them in position to be successful…..that’s what it all boiled down to…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
October 17th, 2018 at 10:14 am
Dear glazers
I am a lifetime Bucs fan never enjoyed watching another team for 30 years.
Stuck with team for all the crap it’s been through.
Sell the team, make your money, I don’t care if the new owners move the team.
October 17th, 2018 at 10:37 am
We u Can’t draft you have to sign free agents
Jason is the problem #
October 17th, 2018 at 10:38 am
@Bird … “There is talent but that talent was wasted by the likes of mike smith.”
@813bucboi … “some of yall folks don’t get it…..smitty was given talent to improve the defense and it got worse….simple as that.”
We’re about to find out how much Mike Smith was to blame, aren’t we. Scapegoat Smitty is gone … personally dying to see all that talent Licht up the field this Sunday against the ‘lowly’ Browns.
You know bucboi, on reviewing the numbers I noticed that Smitty is tied in sacks with Allen, Gholston & Unrein and actually only 1 QB hit behind Allen (but tied with Unrein yet again). Wow, the Scapegoat came sooo close to tying our 3 Beasts of the Bay (hey, Monsters of the Midway was already taken).
October 17th, 2018 at 10:53 am
Defense Rules great stats and shows where the problem lies, it sucks being a bucs fan and being able to comprehend college football and talent and then the bucs just skip over those players and then they become really good in the NFL yet the bucs go and get players from d-3 schools or NC a & T for what reason??
October 17th, 2018 at 11:18 am
Oh Yeah, Accounting was at play allright. Pressbox Smitty’s no-accounting this is. And Koetter is on deck after this season. If he loses to Clevland, the table will be set in stone. Yes Joe, This is a..Must win for Koetter this Sunday. He’s gotta somehow win 6 more this season. And I do not see them unless Dufner can turn magician for him. Now I don’t want my Bucs to lose Joe. But I son’t think Koetter is our long tern answer. Not if we are serious about creating a winning team thru the years.
October 17th, 2018 at 11:42 am
Smitty was given bodies not talent over and over and over again. the talent with caliber of players like JPP has been practically nonexistent. It seems that Brent Grimes is aging before our eyes. BucBoi , Robert Ayers. T J Ward, and swaggy Baker did not play a down this year, just an example of the swings and misses that Licht is responsible for. his penchant for signing for aging players that don’t play
well enough to earn their contract hurts the team and would handcuff any defensive coordinator. Just because a player has earned accolades in the past
does not guarantee they meet or exceed past play. I might blame
Smitty for having a defense that appeared to have too many players confused last week,but that is all Licht has put most of eggs on the offensive basket and not drafted defensive players with a plan to develope them before their rookie season.
October 17th, 2018 at 12:10 pm
teacherman777 Says:
October 17th, 2018 at 4:14 am
Jonathan Banks was a 4.6 CB taken in the 2nd round. He is out of the NFL.
Leonard Johnson was a starter for the Bucs as a 4.6 CB, he is out of the NFL.
We drafted TWO 4.6 CB’s in the 2nd round. One of them, MJ, to be a nickle??
The other, Carlton, is a press corner, that we drafted to play off the line.
Ronald Jones is a RB who is afraid of getting hit. Guice INITIATES contact.
We missed on ALL THREE of our 2nd round picks.
—————-
Ronde Barber was a legit 4.63.
The only thing you’re right about is Banks, that’s it. Carlton Davis officially ran a 4.53 40 at the Combine and a 4.44 at his Pro Day. Stewart ran a 4.54 at the Combine and didn’t run at his Pro Day, granted, Stewart has looked much slower than that but he ALSO looks about a million times better than Barber did during his rookie season (he didn’t play in one regular season game).
Derrius Guice doesn’t initiate ANYTHING…he’s done for the year. If we had drafted him you would be complaining that Licht drafted a guy that got hurt for the year. Just a stupid and misinformed post altogether. Please save it for your misinformed friends that don’t know any better.
October 17th, 2018 at 3:50 pm
DR
you’ve dug yourself into a big enough hole by hanging on smittys nuts for 2years….lol….I told you and @realist smitty was trash and his scheme was outdated…..finally someone at OBP agreed with me….
why mention the depth as opposed to the starters?…..smitty didn’t have more sacks than JPP, curry, or GMC…..allen and urein have been hurt…..cant control injury….
you act like smitty had a great defense in 2017 and with the addition of better talent the defense got worse….lol…
new flash: smitty was not fired because on 5games in 2018……he was fired because his defense has been horrible since 2016 outside of 5 fluky games……
FYI, imo, nothing will change because dirk has lost the lockerroom……it was mentioned that players wanted buckner but he went a different direction…..dirk is a dead man walking….
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
October 17th, 2018 at 4:02 pm
bob
you get talented players thru the draft…..if you cant develop them then that’s a coaching problem not a GM problem…..
you can also get talented players thru FA….but if a player doesn’t want to become part of your team, it not much you can do…..
teams don’t let talented player just walk and there isn’t 20teams with a HC and GM dumb enough to trade k.mack or any of their other good players like jon gruden…..
you say the only thing you blame smitty for is having players look confused last week….lol….they’ve been looking confused since 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
look how godwin has progressed as a 4th round pick……look at hump…..marpet….brate….barber…..all those offensive players have gotten better each year…..I cant name 1player from the defense that we drafted that has progressed under smitty…not one…..
that points to coaching…..theres a reason why the glazers extended licht and not the coaching staff….this staff is screwing licht over and the glazers know it……
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
October 17th, 2018 at 5:18 pm
@Bucboi
Therein lies the point you refuse to recognize Licht has spent the vast amount of
his time drafting Offense. And Godwin was a third round number 84 . He obviously had talent and a body of work to draft him. Part time or oft injured players do not make a defense. Another point showed promise in year one
but was used sparingly in the beginning of the season. Anthony Collins, Swaggy Baker, T J ward, Robet Ayers all out of the NFL. Mitch Ulrein out after his second long term concussion and his recovery is unknown. Jason Licht has not done his homework properly on most of free signings. Licht should have also
brought in corners through draft last year not when he had to. Not enough time for developement. If Ronde needed a year so too have the corners Licht has brought in.Grimes has slipping since 2017. Not one pass defense so far.
No question anybody with an open mind would not question these failures to improve the team.
October 17th, 2018 at 5:30 pm
Now on Grimes ,that is also on both Koetter and Smiity who wanted him back. ,but Licht signed him to that rediculous 10 million dollar deal. They could have tried to sign two experienced corners for that.