What the Bucs need to change going forward.
Over the course of the last few seasons the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have made enumerable changes. With the potential of seven rounds of the draft, and undrafted free agents, not to mention free agency signings, the on the field product is bound to change. There have been numerous hits and misses.
The Tampa Bay franchise itself is, as Winston Churchill once said “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”, perhaps one of its most endearing qualities. However, that can be one of its most taxing attributes, as fans well know. It takes no particular hutzpah to challenge the mediocrity of the Tampa Bay product on the field since the glory days of their sole Super Bowl victory.
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Tampa has had its share of challenges with ownerships and management as well. The Glazers at one time seemed to be cheap, unwilling to pay market rate for the requisite talent to compete in the NFL, coaches or players. In recent years they seemed to shed that moniker.
The 2016 version of the Buccaneers has capable talent at practically every position. So what is the problem? Why, if not winning, are they not competitive week in and week out?
While there is much to be said about consistency, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” Tampa Bay is consistently inconsistent. That is to say this and this only. They do not play hard, whistle to whistle, up and down the lineup, period. Period added for emphasis.
Granted, certain philosophies will eventually overcome those with lessor gravitas. There are owners who know how to allow “football people” to manage their organization. They are not normally involved in the day to day operation of the football side, as opposed to the business side of the game.
There are “football people” who can be depended upon to evaluate talent and those who make reaches that are inexplicable. Then there is the ever present coaching staff, who are from time to time allowed to make personnel decisions. There have been catastrophic failures as well as auspicious triumphs in all of these categories
Coaches though, coaches honestly hold the keys to the organization. If the coaching staff has no rapport with the players, the players don’t “buy in”. In an interview with Tampa Bay Times Staff Writer Rick Stroud, head coach Dirk Koetter was quoted.
“We’re just missing something, I feel like, and as my title suggests, it’s my job to speak up,” Koetter said. “I feel like sometimes we find too many ways to lose a game instead of creating ways to win a game. Now, when I say that, I put myself right at the top. I’m No. 1 on that list.
So I’m not calling out any player or any coach above myself, but that’s just how I feel. And until we change that, we’re going to have nights like (Sunday) night.” If the players don’t believe wholeheartedly in the coaching philosophy, no matter what the philosophy is, the team will not perform on the field of play.
The players have the responsibility of executing the plays the coaches call. At some point in time on any given play, the players will have to make a decision in their own minds what to do. Jameis Winston made a play that I hope will be shown repeatedly in the film room this week.
While setting up to pass in the red zone, he fumbled and it was returned for a touchdown. He got crushed as he let the ball go, and although he had a defensive lineman on top of him, he got up and he was the only Buccaneer to make the effort to be within ten yards of the man who scored. Follow that man’s lead. If not a winner, at least he displayed no quit.
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