(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
By: David C. Jeffrey
After spending the past five seasons with a veteran laden team, the Tampa Bay Bucs hit the reset button. The Glazer family finally decided to let Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen go as well as seemingly every veteran player on the team.
Gone are the days of praying that Joey Galloway will be healthy. Gone are the days of debating whether or not Jeff Garcia can connect on a deep route. Gone are the days of Monte Kiffin coordinating the Tampa 2 defense.
Now the Buccaneers will have to rely on either Luke McCown or Byron Leftwich to lead them under center. Now the Buccaneers have to hope some how Michael Clayton can become the wide receiver that merited a first round selection. Now the Buccaneers fate is in the hands of young, eager and green coaches.
Trying to predict the outcome of the 2009 season for the Buccaneers is like trying to predict the weather in Florida. Everyone knows there’s going to be storms; you just hope it’s a shower and not a hurricane.
The 2009 Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have a completely different foundation. Instead of going for a retread coach the Buccaneers promoted defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to head coach. Having a rookie head coach use to be the first inclination that your franchise would be in for a long season.
In their first season the production out of the current crop of veteran coaches was average at best. In premier season at the helm the average rookie head coach would win around seven games (7.6 is the average).
The trend is starting to change. After the success stories of Baltimore, Atlanta and Miami, it’s no longer far fetched to believe a rookie head coach can take over a desolate team and have immediate success. Baltimore Atlanta and Miami all had 11 win seasons and made the playoffs. The NFL proved it truly is a copy cat league when nine other teams made head coaching changes to first year coaches.
On paper it looks like it could be an entertaining year when the Buccaneers have the ball. When you add one of the most talented tight ends in the NFL onto the their roster the offense looks a lot better. When you add Derrick Ward to complete Tampa’s own version of Earth, Wind and Fire their ground attack should be better.
The biggest question is at wide receiver. The loss of Joey Galloway hurts but he’s been injured so much the loss seems palatable. However when there is chatter about seventh round pick Sammie Stroughter contributing it’s no wonder they are contacting Plaxico Burress.
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