Bruce Arians Says He’s Avoiding Zoom Meetings With Players
June 5th, 2020
Is the Tampa Bay head coach taking old school to the extreme?
It seems that way. Bucco Bruce Arians is no fan of video conference meetings with groups of players and, in fact, he’s avoiding them.
Arians shared his approach while being questioned by Harry Mayes on SiriusXM’s Dan Patrick Radio this week.
“How many Zoom sessions [with players] have you done so far?” Mayes asked Arians.
“I’ve been letting the assistant coaches do most of it, because I get on there and there’s too many people,” Arians replied. “You know, I’m saving my message when we all finally get together. And the guys get tired of hearing me anyway. I’m waiting for that moment and [to] set the tempo for what we want to get done this year.”
Last week Todd Bowles, while answering a question from Joe, said he can’t tell if any player stands out in any way during Zoom meetings of his defense. Yesterday, Arians told Joe there’s nothing creative he can do online with players to help make up for lost reps during spring practices.
Joe gets it, but Joe also suspects that after the The Sickness-driven lockout ends, word will emerge that a few NFL coaching staffs were innovative and creative teaching and evaluating players during this online-only time period.
It appears the Bucs won’t be one of them.
June 5th, 2020 at 9:05 pm
We got a good coaching staff and yes I don’t think BA and Licht are sitting around waiting for July 21. Brady hopefully be face time with the rest of the offense watching film and scheming all day.
June 5th, 2020 at 9:27 pm
Sorry, tech won’t make players better.
The only thing that makes a player better are hands in the dirt, and coaches in your ear.
June 5th, 2020 at 11:00 pm
I disagree Cobraboy, I agree with Joe. During the whole “sickness” I have been on zoom meetings I have been doing linked learning and I have been looking at innovative ways to reach my customers so that when the lockdown is over we have set ourselves apart from the competition. I feel the NFL is the most competitive of all, so I guarantee there are some teams out there doing some innovative ish.
June 5th, 2020 at 11:13 pm
So disappointing. Arians doesn’t seem to change his ways and I was unimpressed by his decisions last year. They better be ready come training camp and I hope tommy and the defensive leaders make sure the players are prepped.
June 5th, 2020 at 11:58 pm
COVID issues are equalizer for all teams. Exception being teams with new QB’s, like Bucs, Fins, Browns, Chargers, etc being able to acclimate new QB to team and new offenses.
Bucs have upper hand in this regard, with GOAT, who inherits greatest collection of receiver talent on a single team, maybe in history. That is why BA is not fretting.
June 6th, 2020 at 12:10 am
Cobraboy Says:
“The only thing that makes a player better are hands in the dirt, and coaches in your ear.”
.
.
I’m with you. Every time they talk about zoom meetings and video workouts, I am reminded of the original arcade football with the trackball. Not like the real thing!
June 6th, 2020 at 2:01 am
Matt,
You are not disagreeing with Cobraboy, because your not comparing similar things. You are marketing from a desk to someone else who sits in another desk. Players don’t sit in desks they get beaten or dish out a beating. When was your work force punched in the face and then thrown to the ground?
No disrespect intended but that comparison was bereft of grey matter. Completely. …
June 6th, 2020 at 6:59 am
The Bucs benefit because there is very little turnover with players and none at all with coaches.
Our entire Defensive starters are back……all eleven and we’ve added Winfield.
Our Offense is basically intact, adding Brady, Gronk & Wirfs….
I agree that there is absolutely no substitute for physical practice….
The rookies will be the farthest behind…..
June 6th, 2020 at 7:28 am
It’s to hard for BA to keep the camera steady for a Zoom meeting from his moving golf cart! No seriously, we’re making way to much of this missed time between players, and coaches. The NFL can make up practice time staring in July which is a whole month the NFL usually takes off. They can also cancel the last preseason game to give teams more time to practice. The important thing, and worry is what kind of season will we have? When that happens I’m confident the players would’ve have ample time to prepare.
June 6th, 2020 at 8:33 am
I agree with you Joe and Matt. While I also agree with the simplistic concept of a football player needs his hand is in the dirt to get better, he also needs help in keeping has focus.
Zoom conference would keep the players focus on what he needs to do every day to have an edge. A truly hungry coach is out there figuring out ways to give his team an edge using whatever he needs to, including Zoom. I have had my office at home for many years now – there is not a more difficult place to work bc there are so many distractions.
June 6th, 2020 at 9:48 am
Matt Bucs Fan Says:
I make three assumptions:
1) You never played football at any higher level
2) You don’t have to get brutally physical with your clients in every encounter, and
3) You are not judged for the efficiency of how you drive your client’s ass into the ground.
I’m sure Zoom is great. I use it for production meetings when staff are not together, like during this Plandemic.
I also played and coached football at the highest levels.
While focus is important, no doubt, and a virtual meeting is a semi-substitute for a position or team meeting…a very poor substitute, but better than nothing…that is NOT what makes for winning football.
You can preach and teach technique and strategy all you want, either in a classroom or a Zoom. But all that tech time is pee in the wind unless it translates to the ONLY place that matters: the football field. And the ONLY way that happens is sweat, blood, dirt and grass, period.
Want an example? OK. Recall how we were told repeatedly about how fantastic Jameis Christ was in the classroom, about is high “Football IQ”, and how he studies defenses since grade school. How he got to One Buc Palace at 5am, first to arrive, last to leave, how he was a study geek. Then the dude goes out and throws 30 picks and leaves the ball on the carpet repeatedly.
The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.
I am sure Zoom meetings are better than no meetings since right now there is no choice. But to say they are a substitute for any on-field activity and learning in any way shows a great naivety of how football is played.
The players that, without question, will suffer the most are the rookies. Although I am very encouraged by the draft, at this point I expect the rookie class to be non-players for several weeks into the season simply due to lack of physical time on the field and super steeper learning curve for this season.
June 6th, 2020 at 9:51 am
BTW: whatever happened to that spendy Virtual Reality set up One Buc Palace had for QB’s, where they could take virtual reps against a huge computer screen?
Collecting dust?
June 6th, 2020 at 10:35 am
Guys. They’re doing Zoom meetings. Just BA is not. I think most head coaches are trusting their assistants to handle those. So it’s not like our units and position groups aren’t having them. R-E-L-A-X. We have a great head coach who now has Robo-QB at the helm. We will crush people this year and take years of frustration out on some teams. Keep in mind the NFC is not used to facing Brady, so I feel that could be a huge advantage since he will recognize 95% of the defensive setups at the line of scrimmage. GO BUCS!!!
June 6th, 2020 at 11:18 am
All I’m hearing is criticize, criticize, criticize. Go Bucs.
June 6th, 2020 at 2:20 pm
So no communication or interaction between HC & players is better than some? BA is “progressive” enough to bring in a female DL coach but, he can’t teach, evaluate or critique over Zoom, because he’s too old school/ stubborn. Sorry but, it does sound lazy.
Do any of you Belicheat fans out there know what the hoodie is doing, in this regard? My guess is that he is talking to his guys!
June 6th, 2020 at 3:59 pm
Innovations, perhaps, that have the most impact will be in how BA and staff are able to to use the dramatically shortened training and preparation on the ground. I agree with you, Cobraboy,
June 6th, 2020 at 10:43 pm
Joe you are 100% correct on your assumptions.
This is one of the problems with all of our recent coaches- they’re all stubborn af and set in their ways.
The coaches who achieve and sustain success are the ones who constantly adapt and change. The ones who remain set in their same ways and refuse to learn new things over the long term always fail later on.
June 7th, 2020 at 1:39 pm
1. Of course nothing beats a physical practice. However…
2. If people think NFL teams are not high tech, that’s beyond naive. When players and coaches are not on the field, they are on computers, tablets, you name it.
No, you cannot replace practices with Zoom. But you can sure do gameplans and player breakdowns and film study on Zoom and other pieces of software.