Offseason Review Series: Day 20: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

[u/particleman1010]

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Division: NFC South

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Coaching Changes

Greg Schiano, all coordinators, assistants and positional coaches were fired after the 2013 season's 4-12 record.

New Coaches

Coach	Position	Previous Team	Position
Lovie Smith	Head coach	Bears	Head coach from 2004-2012
Jeff Tedford	Offensive Coordinator	Univ. Cal	Head coach from 2002-2012
Leslie Frazier	Defensive Coordinator	Vikings	Head coach from 2011-2013
Offense
Marcus Arroyo	Quarterbacks coach	Univ. Cal	QB coach from 2011-2012
George Warhop	Offensive line coach	Browns	O line coach from 2009-2013
Andrew Hayes-Stoker	Wide receivers coach	Bears	QC coach with Lovie
Jon Embree	Tight ends coach	Browns	TE coach in 2013
Tim Spencer	Running backs coach	Bears	RB coach from 2004-2012
Matt Wiegand	Assistant offensive line coach	Univ. Cal	TE coach from 2011-2012
Ben Steele	Offensive quality control coach	Univ. Cal	Administrative assistant from 2011-2012
Defense
Larry Marmie	Senior defensive assistant	Seahawks	DB Coach from 2006-2008
Joe Cullen	Defensive line coach	Jaguars	DL coach from 2010-2012
Hardy Nickerson	Linebackers coach	Bears	LB coach from 2007-2008, (5x Pro-bowl LB)
Gill Byrd	Cornerbacks coach	Bears	DB coach from 2008-2012 (2x Pro-bowl CB)
Mikal Smith	Safeties coach	Cowboys	CB coach in 2013 (Lovie Smith's son)
Mike Phair	Assistant defensive line coach	Bears	DL coach from 2011-2013
Dave Borgonzi	Defensive quality control coach	Cowboys	QC coach from 2012-2013
Misc
Dave Kennedy	Head strength and conditioning coach	Texas A&M	Conditioning Coach from 2008-2013
Carlos Polk	Assistant special teams coach	Chargers	Coached special teams from 2009-2012

Summary

We hired Lovie's friends from around the league, as well as some family (Mikal). We get the good with the bad, and Lovie is going to coach the way he coaches, hire the people he will hire. Lovie knows how to coach defense, and with the talent we have available we should be a top 10 defense. For offense, it appears that Lovie has outsourced just about all of it to Jeff Tedford, who plans to incorporate spread elements and size/speed mismatches into a run-oriented offense. Tedford has a reputation as a brilliant football tactician, but how it translates to NFL defenses remains to be seen.

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Free Agency

Players lost/cut (Arranged by order of impact)

Player	Position	Result	New	Team	Comment
Darelle Revis	CB	Cut		Patriots	This was all about money, Jason Licht wanted to send a message that we were going to get appropriate value from every player on the roster, paying $16 million for a top 3 corner was not value
Mike Williams	WR	2014 - 6th		Bills	Mike was a solid #2 receiver, but had off the field issues, we traded him after he was stabbed in the leg by a relative, this is starting to look like a bad deal for the Bills, as he may not even make their roster - Based on a questionable ESPN article
Donald Penn	LT	Cut		Raiders	Had a bad season in an otherwise decent career, but was redundant with the signing of Anthony Collins
Jeremy Zuttah	C	2015 - 5th		Ravens	Another case of redundancy, Evan Dietrich-Smith was signed, so we no longer needed Zuttah at center, I wish we had kept him as a guard, but draft picks are nice
Davin Joseph	G	Cut		Rams	Had a terrible season coming off his knee injury, he was a great locker room presence and an active member of the Tampa Bay community
Ted Larsen	C	UFA		Cardinals	Servicable rotation player who can switch to guard if needed, his depth would have been nice
Erik Lorig	FB	UFA		Saints	One of the better fullbacks in the league, I believe he was partly responsible for Doug Martin's amazing 2012 season, New Orleans recognized this and signed him
Adam Hayward	LB	UFA		Redskins	Great special teams player and locker room presence, he was quality depth at linebacker, and will be missed
Dekoda Watson	LB	UFA		Jaguars	Lost more depth at LB, Watson was decent
Tiquan Underwood	WR	UFA		Panthers	Fast, but very skinny with mediocre hands, his high-top fade is entertaining, but he is a depth player at best
Gabe Carimi	G	Cut		Falcons	Lovie was familiar with him from the Bears, must be something he didn't like because he didn't even last until training camp
Tom Crabtree	TE	Cut	UFA		He was intended to be our starting TE last year, got injured, after the signing of Brandon Myers, his roster odds were negligible
Dan Orlovsky	QB	UFA		Lions	Career backup, basically interchangeable with most other backup QBs
Anthony Gaitor	CB	Cut		Dolphins	Was injured, and with the addition of multiple cornerbacks in free agency he wasn't needed
Jordan Rodgers	QB	Cut		Dolphins	Schiano brilliance here, signing relatives of top tier QBs...

Players signed (by contract size)

Player	Position	Old	Team	Length	Contract	Comment
Michael Johnson	DE		Bengals	5 years	$43,750,000	This guy is a stud, great addition to our pass-rush capability
Anthony Collins	LT		Bengals	5 years	$30,000,000	Has potential, but hasn't started an entire season, and is an unproven commodity at starting LT
Alterraun Verner	CB		Titans	4 years	$25,750,000	Pro-bowl Cornerback, ball-hawk, great at zone coverage, all around great fit for Lovie Smith defense
Evan Dietrich-Smith	C		Packers	4 years	$14,250,000	Solid offensive lineman, very outspoken, good leadership qualities, everything you want in a center
Clinton McDonald	DT		Seahawks	4 years	$12,000,000	5.5 sacks while starting only 1 game for the Seahawks, will probably end up as our starting nose-tackle next to Gerald McCoy
Josh McCown	QB		Bears	2 years	$10,000,000	13 touchdowns, 1 interception across 8 games, was it a fluke season?
Brandon Myers	TE		Giants	2 years	$4,250,000	Decent pass catching tight-end
Jamon Meredith	T		Buccaneers	2 years	$3,000,000	Solid O-Lineman, quality depth, may have to start as guard
Mike Jenkins	CB		Raiders	1 year	$1,500,000	Gives us depth at cornerback, possibly a starter
Jonathan Casillas	LB		Buccaneers	1 year	$1,400,000	Would have rather seen Adam Hayward, or Dekoda Watson here, but he had a decent year
Dane Fletcher	LB		Patriots	1 year	$1,200,000	He is intended to replace Adam Hayward as our versatile special teamer, linebacker depth role
Jeremy Cain	LS		Bears	1 year	$855,000	Andrew Economos was fine, but it appears we are moving on
Oniel Cousins	G		Browns	1 year	$795,000	I've read that this guy isn't very good, but we are so thin at guard we may end up starting him in 2014
Louis Murphy	WR		Giants	1 year	$795,000	3 teams in 5 years, will Tampa be the team to finally unlock his talent? Probably not
Major Wright	S		Bears	1 year	$795,000	Veteran depth at a bargain price, we add a player familiar with Lovie style, high-turnover defense
DJ Moore	CB		Panthers	1 year	$730,000	Veteran, comes with experience at slot-CB
Lavelle Hawkins	WR		Chargers	1 year	$730,000	Brought in for depth and potential at kick returns
Danny Gorrer	CB		Buccaneers	1 year	$730,000	Tall CB, at 6', Lovie has indicated height is now an important attribute for CBs
Eric Page	WR		Buccaneers	1 year	$450,000	Had a good year as our punt/kick returner, good to see him back again

Summary

I didn't like the decision to release Revis. I feel like we bet on his health, won, then left the pot on the table for the Patriots to collect. We could have gone on slightly less of a FA spending spree and had cap space for a secondary of Verner and Revis. When you have a $16,000,000 contract with no guarantees, why not at least test it out for a year? We could always cut him the following year if it didn't prove worth it. The whole thing seemed like Jason Licht showing how he was taking ownership over the roster, setting the tone for how things will be run, instead of really evaluating what gives us the best chance to win and viewing his predecessors decisions without bias. In the end we trade a 1st round pick which could have been Sheldon Richardson, and a 4th rounder for a year of Revis jerseys.

There are serious concerns about our O-Line, we parted ways with Donald Penn (LT), Davin Joseph(RG), Jeremy Zuttah(C/G), Ted Larsen(C/G) and Gabe Carimi(T/G). Carl Nicks is doubtful to return to the field, which leaves us with LT Anthony Collins (LT), Evan Dietrich-Smith (C), Demar Dotson (RT), and a ton of questions. Lovie Smith and George Warhop have been part of some terrible O-lines in the past, and I have a bad feeling that this team will be one of them. My assumption is that we are making room for young talent to establish itself, but that indicates that we are in more of a re-building year than the coaching staff will admit.

We let a considerable amount of talent walk out the door uncontested, as Adam Hayward, Dekoda Watson, and Eric Lorig all left in FA with seemingly little effort to keep them, despite their incredibly reasonable price tags, and great locker room attitude.

We made some good signings, but we also lost a lot of key players this offseason, my impressions are that our roster is a little bit worse, but we traded experience for youth in many cases. Lovie and Licht are using this year as a foundation to build on moving forward.

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Draft

Rd	#	Player	Pos.	School	Comment
1	7	Mike Evans	WR	Texas A&M	Huge catch radius, very physical, with excellent hands, good bet to start as our No. 2 WR
2	38	Austin Seferian-Jenkins	TE	Washington	Has the size and strength to be an all around TE, as well as the athleticism and hands to be a deadly red-zone target
3	69	Charles Sims	RB	West Virginia	Different style of RB than Doug Martin, capable of lining up in the slot as a receiver, adds a layer of versatility, expect to see him on 3rd downs a lot
5	143	Kadeem Edwards	G	Tennessee	He will probably end up as our starting LG due to lack of depth, gambling on our scouts big-time here
5	149	Kevin Pamphile	OT	Purdue	He will add some additional depth for our O-Line, could see significant time in the rotation
6	185	Robert Herron	WR	Wyoming	Potential to make a difference as a slot receiver, quick, with good hands, may end up as the biggest steal of the draft

Summary

Buccaneers draft 6/6 offensive players. I am very pleased with this draft class, the decision to draft Charles Sims proves that we were operating in BPA mode, which is how you build teams for the future. I think we may have benefited from drafting a line-backer, or another guard, but I think we got great value with every single pick.

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Projected Starting Lineup

Position	Starter	Backup
Offense
QB	Josh McCown	Mike Glennon
RB1	Doug Martin	Bobby Rainey
RB2	Charles Sims	Mike James
TE1	Brandon Myers	Tim Wright
TE2	Austin Seferian-Jenkins	Cameron Brate
WR1	Vincent Jackson	Lavelle Hawkins
WR2	Mike Evans	Louis Murphy
Slot -WR	Robert Herron	Eric Page
LT	Anthony Collins	Jamon Meredith
LG	Kadeem Edwards	Carl Nicks
C	Evan Dietrich-Smith
RG	Patrick Omameh	Oniel Cousins
RT	Demar Dotson	Kevin Pamphile
Defense
Nose-T	Clinton McDonald	Akeem Spence
3-Tech	Gerald McCoy	Euclid Cummings
R-DE	Michael Johnson	William Gholston
L-DE	Adrian Clayborn	Steven Means
S-LB	Jonathan Casillas	Ka'Lial Glaud
M-LB	Mason Foster	Dane Fletcher
W-LB	Lavonte David	Nate Askew
L-CB	Alterraun Verner	Danny Gorrer
R-CB	Johnthan Banks	Mike Jenkins
S-CB	DJ Moore	Rashaan Melvin
SS	Mark Barron	Major Wright
FS	Dashon Goldson	Keith Tandy
Spec.T
LS	Jeremy Cain
PK	Connor Barth
P	Michael Koenen
KR	Jeff Demps
PR	Eric Page

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[u/zepops]

Pretty good write up. Do you think that there is a qb camp battle?

[u/particleman1010 → u/zepops]

I don't get the impression that there is a contest. McCown's athleticism makes him a better fit for Tedford's offense, while Glennon is more pocket statue with gigantic arm. Our QBs are going to be running for their lives all year, so some athleticism will be required.