The Savvy Eye Of Bucco Bruce Arians
February 23rd, 2021
Earned trust.
Joe is on record saying Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians is the best coach in team history.
Think about it: John McKay was good, but he couldn’t get the Bucs over that last hump into the Super Bowl. Same with Father Dungy. Chucky? He did an awesome job getting the Bucs to the Super Bowl in his first year and winning the dang thing. After that, he was pretty much a mediocre coach.
Arians? He took one of the most moribund franchises in football and within two years took a serial loser and built it into a Super Bowl winner. That, friends, is coaching.
One of the very first moves Arians made wasn’t exactly popular. Adam Humphries was a free agent and had proven to be a solid slot receiver. Even Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht said he would do everything in his power to bring back Humphries. That didn’t happen.
Arians wanted Chris Godwin as his slot receiver. Why? Because Arians wanted speed at slot and he liked the way Godwin blocked.
It was a brilliant stroke by Arians as Godwin blew up and was selected to the Pro Bowl. Now, Godwin is among the most coveted free agents in the NFL.
How good is Godwin in the slot? Well, the PFF tribe has stats that suggest there may not be any better.
Chris Godwin caught 85.7% of his targets when he lined up in the slot during the 2020 regular season
This was the highest rate among all pass catchers with at least 110 pass routes from the slot#GoBucs pic.twitter.com/Kr2LhKUXFs
— PFF TB Buccaneers (@PFF_Buccaneers) February 22, 2021
This just goes to show how valuable Godwin is in Arians’ offense. Yesterday, NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport said no way Godwin walks out the door of One Buc Palace when the free agency dinner bell rings, when folks are digging into their corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day.
Whatever way Arians decides to go with his free agents, in Joe’s eyes Arians has earned the street cred to be trusted.
February 23rd, 2021 at 5:20 am
In BA I Trust!
And for all the haters, where is the “Thank You!^ for this man and his staff. Even Ira took his shots along the way.
Godwin is the prime example of hard work and professionalism.
Hes a core, homegrown Buc!
Go Bucs!
February 23rd, 2021 at 6:13 am
Sport- Forget about it. They’re still curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth asking for “ma-ma”!!! It’s a worst-case scenario.
Retaining Godwin would be huge. Lot of guys to sign though.
This is what happens when you field a winner.
BTW, Arians is a Hokie. If you haven’t figured it out yet, just know that the turn-around of this team and culture is NO surprise.
Go Hokies!
Go Bucs!
February 23rd, 2021 at 6:29 am
I was tuff on Arians for a while but to turn a perennial loser into a superbowl champion inside 2 years is something to speak about! Think of all those perennial playoff teams that couldn’t even get to the championship games and he gets the Bucs there in two??? Ridiculousness!!!!!! If we repeat he will be on his way to Canton eventually. Major props on his coaching staff making great adjustments.
February 23rd, 2021 at 6:34 am
Mike evans is the key to keeping Godwin
If we can convince godwin to take the mike evans special which he got from bucs for being an elite receiver. Would you take this deal and play on a now winner buc team. With another year of brady. Maybe 2. Around 15-16 ish a year.
And mike is probably my favorite offensive player. He has been a buc his whole career. Hard to believe he is only turning 28 at beginning of season. So he is not past his prime. However , he went missing in games last year. I know his tds were best in career. But he went mia in games. And it may have something to do with brady spreading it around. But Randy moss was still able to get majority of looks from brady though and put up huge numbers. And if i had to pick Brady’s go to guy …it would be godwin even though he had drops by end of year. Brady even said godwin has best hands of any player he played with (again moss was best in a landslide)
So back to mike …he is the key. He said he wants his guys back. Sounds like he is willing to work on his deal somewhat to help others. So he has to extend the length of his deal. They already tweaked deal to where his cap hits are 18 and 18 mil the next two years. Way to much. So extending length is key.
I know they keep talking about cap being unknown? This is year to sign a big deal. Cause it’s the last offseason before 17 game season. Guys contracts will go way up having to play extra game. (Cause no guys getting big deals play much preseason so totally different). So again …sign as many big deals as you can. Cause the cap is about to go way up and deals about to go way up.
So mike …please help. You have got 70 mil in career earnings. Hook up your little bro now. Love to keep godwin.
February 23rd, 2021 at 6:38 am
Bucsfanman … ‘Go Hokies’? THAT’S your takeaway regarding BA’s upbringing? Now if you’d tied him to his time with ‘The Bear’ at Alabama I could’ve related. Just pulling your leg; Virginia Tech has a pretty campus.
And Joes, there’s an underlying question in this article that all the national pundits keep avoiding: ‘Who should REALLY get the credit for putting together this championship team?’ Seems like you gave it exclusively to BA in this article …
“Arians? He took one of the most moribund franchises in football and within two years took a serial loser and built it into a Super Bowl winner.”
BTW, I agree IF that’s what you believe. I’m still convinced that BA (and Todd Bowles) made it known WHO they wanted and Jason found a way to make it happen. Also believe that there was a lot of luck involved (like Wirfs still being available when we picked? and Tom Brady picking us instead of the Colts or several other suitors?), but it takes a lot of hard work AND a certain amount of ‘luck’ to go from ‘serial loser’ to SB winner in just 2 years IMO.
February 23rd, 2021 at 7:21 am
Oh he definitely has the street cred on Fa decisions. He got the best FA in history to come to Tampa.
February 23rd, 2021 at 7:21 am
Joe is on record saying Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians is the best coach in team history.
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Arians deserves some credit for sure. Smart enough to get out of the way. But Tom Brady at quarterback would have turned a lot of lousy coaches into the best coach in team history.
February 23rd, 2021 at 7:44 am
Oh, I was at times critical of Arians, Leftwich and Licht at times. Not sure if I ever criticized Bowles. Maybe. I was also complimentary at times.
But never again will I criticize them.
And I agree Arians is the best coach. But relative to the others, Gruden and Dungy were great.
Think about this: This team has had 12 head coaches. 2 have won SB here. One elsewhere. Two others took other teams to a SB. Five of twelve have coached in the SB. Pretty remarkable.
February 23rd, 2021 at 7:47 am
Godwin is a tough one to guess at coming back – maybe the MOST difficult. Does he want the highest contract he can get? Or is $14MM ok? The Bucs have a LOT of quality depth at WR. How much will Brady influence this?
I definitely think Tyler Johnson is his replacement, but do the Bucs think TJ can adequately do the job in the slot with blocking and consistent catching?
For the crazy people who think Shaq should be allowed to run away bc Vita ea got Shaq all his sacks, pleeeeezzpze give me a break. The Bucs went about 10 years without a quality pass rusher. Jason Allen is nothing in Jax bc no one else on the DL needs to be doubled. Its a team game; yes, Vita helped Shaq and JPP, that is how it works. If the Bucs can only rush 4 and get pressure on the QB, we have a great defense. Lets keep it.
February 23rd, 2021 at 7:50 am
I wonderful what Godwin’s catch percent was in the post season with all the drops. I think CG is a superstar but geez he dropped so many passes in the post season that it’s gotta be concerning a little bit. I know ME13 had a season where he had the case of the dropsies and he came out of it.
February 23rd, 2021 at 8:15 am
If a fish stinks from the head….the opposite is true….let’s throw some luv to the Glazers for sticking with Licht who attracted BA who attracted Brady who’s tide lifted all boats…..winning the SB.
February 23rd, 2021 at 8:30 am
The Bucs don’t beat the Packers and Chiefs if not for the D. I’m all for keeping Godwin, but not if it means Bucs lose Barrett or David or Suh.
February 23rd, 2021 at 8:56 am
He cut Mr Pick-6 and signed Mr 6-Rings, now Mr 7-Rings. That makes him the best by itself.
February 23rd, 2021 at 9:42 am
It is all about tandems with the Bucs, keeping CG and ME together, LVD and Devin together and Shaq and JPP. The questions are Fournette and Rojo, Gronk and Brate/OJ, Suh and Vita – gonna be tough to do
February 23rd, 2021 at 9:54 am
Bird … I appreciate your logic about extending Evans’ deal, but I’m still of the opinion that kicking the can down the street is never the answer to problems. ME13’s contract is an excellent example. Back in 2018 he signed a 5-year, $82,500 contract (average salary: $16,500 per year). Bucs have now ‘restructured it’ a couple of times (at least?) to extend him through 2023. But look what that did to his CAP hit: it was $8.4 mil in 2020, but rises to $16.6 this year, then to $18.4 in 2022 and to $18.9 in 2023. That all has to be paid off in one way or another.
Imagine not 1 ME13 on a team, but a number of them as teams keep restructuring contracts. The future gets bleaker & bleaker, to the point that you’ve either got a lot of geriatric players on the roster who you can’t afford to get rid (because of what you still owe them) OR you’re eating a whole bunch of Dead CAP money (so you can release or trade them). Bucs aren’t there thankfully, but several other NFL teams are, and it’ll be several years before they can clean up the mess they’ve created. Lordy, this is sounding more & more like our Federal government’s approach to ‘balancing the budget’. My apologies Bird.
February 23rd, 2021 at 10:02 am
Dungy>Arians>Chucky
February 23rd, 2021 at 10:55 am
Defense rules
All good. No apologies necessary
I have no clue how contracts work.
I thought extra year could be added at lower figure and total contact gets spaced out more evenly
I thought wrong
February 23rd, 2021 at 11:01 am
Defense Rules- LOL! Fair enough my friend. You know Hokies are a little “special” to begin with!
Great campus, great fans, usually great people.
February 23rd, 2021 at 11:54 am
I can’t get back on the Godwin Hype Train. He absolutely sh*t the bed in the playoffs. Bright lights got in his eyes. T Johnson and S Miller made the plays.
February 23rd, 2021 at 8:17 pm
“Chucky? He did an awesome job getting the Bucs to the Super Bowl in his first year and winning the dang thing. After that, he was pretty much a mediocre coach.”
Well said Joe, yet he gets all the credit for taking a Dungy team to the SB that just needed a little more infusion of offense to get over the hump to the big show.
Living here on the west coast, I’ve seen practically every Raider game since Gruden came back to the team and though he may be a very good offense-minded coach, he is just a mediocre HC, at best.