There won’t be much smooth sailing in the waters of Tampa Bay this season…at least not for the Buccaneers. After a complete offseason overhaul, this franchise will face a host of obstacles entering the upcoming season leaving many to question whether or not the new staff can right the ship and field a competitive team.
Dare I be so bold as to use the dreaded “R” word? Yes, I know it’s a painful word for loyal fans to hear, but let’s face the facts. “Rebuilding” is the only way to accurately describe a complete dismantling of the coaching staff, followed by a mass exodus of veteran players and the subsequent drafting of rookie prospects with distant futures.
My advice for Bucs fans is to start making necessary preparations for the coming season. That’s right. Just as you would prep your house for a newborn child, you may want to start prepping your living room for this "born again" NFL franchise.
Action items on your short list should include; affixing a plexiglass shield to your television set, fabricating a wrist strap to your remote control, replacing all fragile valuables with pliable stress balls, investing in a massaging recliner and keeping a small Detroit Lions keychain nearby to remind you that things could be worse.
On a serious note, my best advice for Bucs fans is to scale back their expectations for the upcoming season and try to make the most of the enjoyable moments. When times get tough (and they will), just take a step back and attempt to envision that “big picture” in your mind.
Don’t be so quick to rush to judgment or lose your temper with the new coaching staff. Rebuilding a franchise is never easy and it takes a little time and patience.
Coaching Staff Overhaul
The first wave of challenges ahead of the Buccaneers will be those associated with the complete overhaul of their coaching staff. While it’s expected that every franchise will experience some degree of coaching turnover during the offseason, Tampa Bay’s turnover of staff has been tremendous.
Monte Kiffin resigned, the Glazer’s pulled the plug on GM Bruce Allen and head coach Jon Gruden and Raheem Morris was promoted…twice.
In a controversial but trendy move, the Glazer’s promoted a young, inexperienced, defensive backs coach to succeed Gruden as head coach of the franchise. At the tender age of 32, Raheem Morris became the eighth head coach in Buccaneers history and the youngest head coach in the NFL.
In fact, at the time of his hire, Morris was younger than a handful of veterans on the Buccaneer’s roster. Of course, this was until Morris decided to clean house and cut almost every veteran from the roster.
One by one, veteran leaders such as Jeff Garcia, Derrick Brooks, Joey Galloway, Cato June and Warrick Dunn were forced to walk the plank and were cast back into the sea of free agency.
The extent of “rebuilding” differs from franchise to franchise based on the depth of changes involved in the turnover.
The Buccaneers are now seven years removed from their last Super Bowl victory, only one player from that Super Bowl team remains on the roster (Ronde Barber), almost every coach from last season has either been lost or fired and the current team roster does not showcase much Pro Bowl caliber talent.
This said, it’s only fair to expect the Buccaneers rebuilding process to be one of exponentially difficulty and length. Raheem Morris should struggle early and often as he looks to fill in the missing pieces in this puzzle.
Some may argue, “What about the Steelers? Didn’t they just recently hire a young defensive coordinator who led their team to a Super Bowl victory last year? What makes you think Raheem Morris can’t do the same in Tampa?”
In the case of the Steelers, Mike Tomlin didn’t have much to rebuild. The necessary pieces were already in place. Tomlin took over the reigns of a team that was only a year removed from a Super Bowl Championship.
More importantly, Tomlin retained most of the existing staff of assistants and core group of players in the talent laden roster. By keeping the core of the team intact, Tomlin was able to effectively maintain the positive team chemistry of the team and roll with the preexisting momentum.
Personnel Conflicts With New Systems
One of the largest challenges in store for the Buccaneers this offseason deals with finding the correct players to fit their newly implemented systems on both sides of the ball.
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