Buccaneers fire HC Lovie Smith (merge)

[MTC]

 

WOW

[grmasterb]

Lovie for DC! 

 

I'm first! 

[MTC]

Just now, grmasterb said:

Lovie for DC! 

 

I'm first! 

 

I don't think he runs the 3-4 defense.

[RockThatBlue]

Wow.

[Derakynn]

Definitely wasn't expecting that. Really weird to fire someone after the team improves. 

[grmasterb]

2 minutes ago, MTC said:

 

I don't think he runs the 3-4 defense.

 

I was being sarcastic. 

 

I do think you're correct, though, given Lovie's relationship with Dungy.

[RockThatBlue]

2 minutes ago, MTC said:

 

I don't think he runs the 3-4 defense.

Someone will probably hire him for head coach anyway.

[NFLfan]

Wow. Every year there is a surprise firing. This one makes no sense.

[runthepost]

Why? Lol he made the team kinds decent 

[ReMeDy]

It'd be funny if it was for some stupid reason, like Lovie Smith flirting with someone's daughter. A stupid reason is the only reason I can see why this firing occurred. You don't fire a head coach who improved your team.

[MTC]

Welp.

 

 

 

[aReggie7]

I don't get this one.

 

He coached there under Dungy and is similar to Dungy. The Bucs had to know what they were getting.

 

Has this team really underperformed that much?

 

How in the world are guys like Jeff Fisher and Jason Garrett still head coaches but Lovie isn't?

[NewColtsFan]

 

Not only did the team improve,  but they did so with a rookie quarterback!   

 

There's a reason why this franchise is typically drafting toward the top of every round....   it's a badly owned, badly run organization.    

 

Lovie will likely emerge as a DC somewhere.....

 

 

[adubb84]

My mouth dropped when this announcement flashed on my phone. Pretty rough for Winston to have your first NFL coach fired after the  first year of being with him. Two years with marked improvement just to be shown the door? Makes me that much happier we kept pagano.           "Continuity "

[Derakynn]

Some stats:

Offense

PPG: 21st

YPG: 5th

Pass Yards/Game: 17th

Rush Yds/Game: 5th

 

Defense:

Pts Allowed/game: 26th

Yds Allowed/game: 10th

Pass Yards/Game: 16th

Rush Yards/game: 11th

 

Pretty solid for a 2nd year of rebuild. I just don't get it. Rebuilds require patience. 

[grmasterb]

15 minutes ago, NFLfan said:

Wow. Every year there is a surprise firing. This one makes no sense.

 

I thought that at first, then I remembered the Glaziers also own Manchester United. 

[snkdy]

Damn, I thought he did a good job this season. He deserved another year at least.

 

I remember when he was fired after winning 10 games in Chicago. Feel bad for the guy.

[Solon]

Lovie finally gets his quarterback and gets axed. How the hell does Jeff Fisher have a job?

[BloodyChamp]

Not even in the 5 most inexplicable firings in Buccs history, which is an inexplicable itself if you don't know they're history because it seems impossible to top this in the what the $!#* department. They're every bit as clueless up top as current day 49ers. 

[BloodyChamp]

Ugh you know what...they want Kelly. What *s.

[Jdubu]

Didn't see this one coming. Wow

[JlynRN]

Wow very surprising indeed !!  Never saw that one coming.

[wig]

So let me get this straight - this is a big surprise, but Chip deserved to go?  Both took over a 4-12 team and Chip averaged 8.5 wins a year while Lovie averaged 4.  

 

I'm surprised by this as well but if anyone has an explanation as to why one is ridiculous while the other is obvious then I'm all ears. 

[snkdy]

11 minutes ago, BloodyChamp said:

Ugh you know what...they want Kelly. What *s.

 

I think Dirk Koetter will be promoted. The Bucs offense had a great year, and I bet he had some interviews lined up. They probably didn't want to lose him and hurt Winston's development.

[BloodyChamp]

9 minutes ago, wig said:

So let me get this straight - this is a big surprise, but Chip deserved to go?  Both took over a 4-12 team and Chip averaged 8.5 wins a year while Lovie averaged 4.  

 

I'm surprised by this as well but if anyone has an explanation as to why one is ridiculous while the other is obvious then I'm all ears. 

It doesn't always take a genius to read between the lines in these cases. See Brad Childress in Minnesota. 

[krunk]

I honestly think they felt Winston is on the same level as Andrew Luck.  I believe they feel they have better pieces on their team than what the Colts had when Luck was drafted.  I'm assuming they were expecting an improvement this year on the level of Luck and RG3s rookie seasons.  Instead they got 6-10, which I can sort of see the angle they may be using, however everything doesn't always work like that.  I thought Lovie had them trending in the right direction.  They just need to add some more pieces to the D and they would have been pretty good.  Everybody knows Lovie would have gotten that D together and the offense would have continued to improve under Koetter.  I think the Bucs are making a sizeable mistake here and they'll end up with some egg on their faces most likely.  Their rebuild is probably going to take longer than they expected. Lovie is kind of like Pagano, people love playing for him.  I don't know who is out there that will be a better candidate than Lovie.  Maybe Hue Jackson I suppose

[21isSuperman]

My guess is they want to bring in an offensive-minded guy (McDaniels, Gase, Jackson) and really develop Jameis to make him elite.  Like Pagano here, I think Lovie is a good candidate for a rebuilding team with a lot of young players, especially a QB like Jameis.  He can show them how to be pros without being super hard on them.  With that said, they've only given him 2 years and his first year wasn't really a rebuilding year, in my opinion.  This is the first year of their rebuild in my eyes, so it's odd to see them go away from him so soon.  But again, I think they were impressed with the promise Jameis showed and want to bring in an offensive-minded head coach to really develop him.

[NFLfan]

34 minutes ago, snkdy said:

 

I think Dirk Koetter will be promoted. The Bucs offense had a great year, and I bet he had some interviews lined up. They probably didn't want to lose him and hurt Winston's development.

 

I can see that. Still, if I were Koetter I would not take the job. He will be fired within 3 years. They will have their 5th coach within a 9-10 year period. That's a sign of a dysfunctional organization. 

 

I wonder if the Bucs may be interested in hiring Tom Coughlin. He still has a home in Florida and he expressed that he was not ready to leave coaching. 

[BloodyChamp]

Coughlin is Lovie + a couple breaks. Nothing much would change if they hired him but I could see them trying it yes. 

[Qwiz]

Dubba u tee f. I don't get this firing either. Patience is becoming more and more rare in the NFL it seems.

[Superman]

Lavonte David must have deleted his tweet, but according to ESPN, he tweeted this: 

 

 

This is stupid, we can't even have a consistent coach, 3 coaches in 5 yrs

  

[Solon]

7 minutes ago, Superman said:

Lavonte David must have deleted his tweet, but according to ESPN, he tweeted this: 

 

 

This is stupid, we can't even have a consistent coach, 3 coaches in 5 yrs

  

Yeah, he deleted it. I actually saw it on his twitter feed.

[YourNextGM]

Now that is what character looks like.  

[Goatface Killah]

So quitting on the players in favor of your staff is loyalty? Who knew?

 

Get over it.

[Bluefire4]

If you're trying to compare this to the Colts.. this is not Chuck's staff. And if you're going to post several negative threads a day, go to a team you won't whine about.

[Synthetic]

 

Tampa Bay is a dumpster fire. They have been a mess since Dungy was kicked out the door, and they've slowly gotten worse and worse every few years. Lovie was not the problem. You don't give a guy this horrible team and in two years, expect him to some how magically change them. He needed more time, as they could have really improved down the line. 

 

 

[Synthetic]

4 hours ago, Derakynn said:

Some stats:

Offense

PPG: 21st

YPG: 5th

Pass Yards/Game: 17th

Rush Yds/Game: 5th

 

Defense:

Pts Allowed/game: 26th

Yds Allowed/game: 10th

Pass Yards/Game: 16th

Rush Yards/game: 11th

 

Pretty solid for a 2nd year of rebuild. I just don't get it. Rebuilds require patience. 

 

 

Tampa Bay is a very impatient team, run with horrible management. Been that way since 2001. I thought they canned Morris too quick, but getting rid of Lovie like this, is horrible. He needed a few more years to really turn them around. They were already on the road to becoming an average to good team again. 

[NewColtsFan]

57 minutes ago, YourNextGM said:

Now that is what character looks like.  

 

You seem to be under the impression that Pagano didn't want to do this?

 

How do you know that?

 

[southwest1]

37 minutes ago, Bogie said:

 

 

Tampa Bay is a very impatient team, run with horrible management. Been that way since 2001. I thought they canned Morris too quick, but getting rid of Lovie like this, is horrible. He needed a few more years to really turn them around. They were already on the road to becoming an average to good team again. 

I thought Lovie was doing a nice job of methodically getting that defense better & as the season progressed Jame-is Winston started to take some solid strides forward. Yes, I agree Bogie. Smith should have been given a few more years to right the ship. 

[Synthetic]

3 minutes ago, southwest1 said:

I thought Lovie was doing a nice job of methodically getting that defense better & as the season progressed Jame-is Winston started to take some solid strides forward. Yes, I agree Bogie. Smith should have been given a few more years to right the ship. 

 

It's not his fault at all. Tampa Bay has been a horribly managed team since the minute they kicked Dungy out the door. Under Gruden they managed to get both; the best and worst things possible to ever happen to them. It will probably be another 20 years before they get it together again. They take one step forward, then 5 steps backwards. 

 

I've seen the Bucs make some really crazy moves and I'm still in shock over this one. Granted, they had losing seasons the past two years but last year, at least 7 of those games they lost were all by a touchdown or less. They had that problem again this year with a number of close loses.