Commish: Glazers Must Show They Care About Winning
With Sunday's 23-13 loss to the St. Louis Rams, the Buccaneers hit a new low in what has been an excruciatingly long season for Bucs fans.
With just one game left to play in the 2013 regular season, the best record the Bucs can end with is 5-11, which means Greg Schiano and his staff will not be bowl eligible this season.
I'm sick of the losing, the stupid comments from the head coach, treating the fans like idiots, and all these college jokes.
The time has come for the Glazer family to show the Tampa bay area that they truly care about building a winner with the Buccaneers. This means that the people running this organization that have failed to make the playoffs for the past 5 years be held accountable for their lack of success.
Since Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen were fired in 2009, the Glazers have thought it to be wise to hire people in critical positions in the organization (GM and head coach) with no experience or track record at those positions before they were hired here. Mark Dominik, Raheem Morris, and Greg Schiano have all tried to learn on the job. With the results all ending in a failure to make the playoffs in each of these 5 seasons, I'd say that learning on the job has not worked out.
Personally, I like Mark Dominik and think that he has brought in some pretty good talent, but the Buccaneers have yet to build a good "team" under his watch. We can go through each of Dominik's decisions since he took over as general manager in 2009 and I think you'd see as many successes as failures. However, Dominik's record of 28-51 as Bucs general manager with zero playoff appearances is difficult to overlook.
Is Dominik solely responsible for the moves he has made to build the Bucs? The answer has to be no. No human being in their right mind would sign as many football players from Rutgers for their NFL franchise unless they allowed outside influence. Dominik has the final say in personnel decisions, but it is obvious that he allows his coaches to have too much say in this aspect of his job.
As for the Bucs two head coaches over the past five seasons, both have had zero head coaching experience in the NFL prior to being hired by the Buccaneers. I don't have a problem hiring a head coach with zero experience at the job in the NFL, but neither Raheem nor Schiano had much experience in the NFL as assistant coaches before they were hired by the Bucs as head coach. Learning on the job did not work for Raheem Morris and it has not worked for Schiano.
Of course, there will be those Bucs fans that say you can't continue to change coaches every two years in the NFL. Those same fans will say that they don't want the Bucs continuing to change coaches like the Raiders do. The fact is that the only reason a team would be forced to make moves relating to their head coach every 2-3 years is because they continue to hire the wrong people.
Raheem took over an organization that had been gutted. He floated along for a few years, but allowed the locker room to go into chaos.
Greg Schiano was brought in to clean up that locker room, bring discipline, and get rid of the players that were a problem. Job accomplished. However, I guess winning was never discussed here.
Perhaps the next head coach can be brought in to win.
It's time that the Glazers show the Bucs fans that they care about winning and getting back to competing for the playoffs and a Super Bowl. It's time for the Glazers to fire Greg Schiano and be more aggressive in finding their next head coach than they had been in their last two head coach searches. Why settle for leftovers, when the best head coaching candidates are the ones that are hired first?
It's been five years since the Bucs had a head coach that was respected by their fans and by teams around the NFL. Perhaps the Glazers need to show some aggression in finding a person to lead their franchise who has a track record of success in the NFL.
A few names come to mind when thinking of that word "respect." Former Bears coach Lovie Smith and former Cardinals head coach and current Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt come to mind. Both of these men have extensive NFL experience as coordinators and head coaches, and have proven that they both understand how to run an organization. Of course, the Houston Texans, who have fired Gary Kubiak, have already interviewed Lovie Smith and plan to interview Whisenhunt soon.
Names like 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman, Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, and Saints offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael are just a few of the top coordinators without much head coaching experience, but with a proven track record to bring respect back to the head coach job for the Bucs.
I will soon write a piece as to why I believe that hiring an offensive-minded head coach would be the smart option for the Bucs. Today, it's just about getting this process in motion!
I understand that the Glazers and the Bucs have invested a lot of money into free agents over the past couple of years, but lets not confuse spending money for truly wanting to win. Before the newest CBA went into effect, the Bucs were one of the lowest spending organizations in the NFL since 2004. After the lockout and the ratification of the new CBA, every team in the NFL had to spend a certain amount of money to get to the salary cap floor. Isn't it surprising that the Bucs have brought in four of the highest paid available players (Nicks, Jackson, Goldson, and Revis) over the past two years, yet still had a nice cushion under the cap?
The Bucs, as an organization, have focused on improving everything except the two most important positions in the organization that lead to winning consistently. A team can have as much talent as they want on both sides of the ball, but if they don't have a good coach and a very good quarterback, they have little chance of winning consistently in this NFL. The combination of Schiano and Glennon proves my point.
It will cost some money, but to bring respect back to the Bucs, the Glazers need new people running their organization...especially at head coach. If the Glazers were willing to pay Josh Freeman $6 million to go away, why wouldn't they pay Greg Schiano $9 million to do the same? If it is what is best for the organization, and it is, then it shouldn't matter how much it would cost if your prime objective is to build a winner!
So, to the Glazers, please show us, the Buccaneer fans and season ticket holders, that you indeed want to see your organization as a respectable organization that can compete for championships. Do what needs to be done and bring us fans back. If nothing is done and no one is held accountable, then beware of how your fans will react because it won't be pretty.
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