Buccaneers fire HC Lovie Smith (merge)

[southwest1]

12 minutes ago, Bogie said:

 

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. 

I'm just mad because I've always liked Lovie as a coach who got fired too early in Chicago & now Florida. I think the Glazer Family thinks they can find another HC like Gru-den who slid in & just won them a SB. Totally unrealistic. Your 5 steps backward comparison is perfect. 

 

Next thing you know they will hire Warren Sapp. You can pay him with ladies of the evening if ya know what I mean. Just Joking! 

 

You need a formidable  defense to make deep Playoff runs & Lovie can give you that. The Glazers are darn fools IMO. 

[southwest1]

“After careful consideration, we informed Lovie that we have decided to make a change. I want to thank Lovie for his hard work and dedication to the Buccaneers during his time here. This decision was difficult on a variety of levels." 

 

I really dislike dismissal statements like this one maybe because given what Mr. Smith meant to this organization as the LB Coach in Tampa from 1996-2000. It seems almost sterile, heartless, & cold like his history with that club is almost an afterthought. 

 

Like a funeral...Throw dirt on Lovie's grave...Next...What Coach are we interviewing now again? I forget. 

 

I actually started paying attention to the Bucs this year strictly due to how well they were clicking down the stretch gelling under Lovie & now I will ignore them for the next 4 years. 

 

What HC wants to work for an organization so fickle & easily worried about failure? I sure wouldn't want it. Lov-ie knows what he's doing. Just remain steadfast, true, & on course. 

 

Plus, when the owner knows they have the right franchise QB & you pair that up with a defense that vastly improves every year...within 2 more seasons max, the Bucs will be or would have been a force to be reckoned with like Bogie astutely implied or stated. 

[grmasterb]

2 hours ago, YourNextGM said:

Now that is what character looks like.  

 

If Jim Mora had fired Vic Fangio, as Polian wanted, Tony Dungy would probably never had been the Colts head coach.

[Indygal1218]

Dear god.

 

 

Somebody is certainly a grumpy cat. 

[RollerColt]

[Narcosys]

5 hours ago, YourNextGM said:

Now that is what character looks like.  

Link? 

[PeterBowman]

Here's implied Forrest Whitaker eye

[Valpo2004]

And Tampa Bay was on their way up.  They improved their win number by quite a bit and Winston looked like a legitimate QB towards the end of the season.

 

I think this goes to show everyone how important it is to have competent ownership.  The consistently bad teams are often bad because even when they do have the right winning formula in place they throw it out the window over something stupid.  

 

They also expect worst to first miracles on dumpster fire teams.  

[Valpo2004]

10 hours 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. 

 

If Chip had not touched personnel control then he wouldn't have been let go.  Chip was winning with the formula he had in place.  He took personnel control and then made a laundry list of at the very best questionable personnel decisions.  His team made all the news for the personnel decisions they made this year.  Most people thought they where downright stupid moves but a lot of people gave him the benefit of the doubt because for some reason he's built this aura about him that made people think he was a genius.  

 

And after all of that his team ended up doing pretty darn poorly.  Almost all of his moves turned out for the worst.  McCoy was being productive in Buffalo while Demarco Murray was the free agent bust of the year.  The injured linebacker that he traded McCoy for got hurt again.  The team had no good WR's because he didn't see fit to try and keep Maclin in town. . . meanwhile Maclin was a huge part of the reason why Kansas City did not suck this year even after losing Charles to injury.  Evan Mathis was outright released for no apparent reason and did well in Denver.  

 

Only Chip Kelly makes those personnel changes, no one else would have done that.  And nearly all of them where disasters.  He sent a lot of talent packing and got very little in return.

 

On top of that Chip Kelly lost the locker room.  In his last game a player took himself out of the game remarking that he wasn't gonna get himself injured for this. 

 

Lovie never took personnel control in Tampa.  Tampa sucked when he got there, he got a rookie QB, got him playing decent, the team was clearly more competitive and playing better.    

 

And most importantly, Lovie Smith has never lost the locker room anywhere that he's went.  His players have always gone out there and played hard for him.

[shakedownstreet]

well this is similar to the colts in a different way. after nearly winning the afc champioship game in 1995, the colts fired ted marchibroda in favor of offensive coordinator liny infante

 

 

[Cynjin]

ESPN reported that Smith was fired over the phone.

[NFLfan]

19 minutes ago, shakedownstreet said:

well this is similar to the colts in a different way. after nearly winning the afc champioship game in 1995, the colts fired ted marchibroda in favor of offensive coordinator liny infante

 

 

 

How did that work out! 

 

10 minutes ago, Cynjin said:

ESPN reported that Smith was fired over the phone.

 

Another sign of a poorly run organization. 

[BrentMc11]

Two things only:

 

1.  Tampa Bay is a classless organization.

2.  YourNextGM is never going to be MY GM.....:) 

[wig]

39 minutes ago, Valpo2004 said:

 

If Chip had not touched personnel control then he wouldn't have been let go.  Chip was winning with the formula he had in place.  He took personnel control and then made a laundry list of at the very best questionable personnel decisions.  His team made all the news for the personnel decisions they made this year.  Most people thought they where downright stupid moves but a lot of people gave him the benefit of the doubt because for some reason he's built this aura about him that made people think he was a genius.  

 

And after all of that his team ended up doing pretty darn poorly.  Almost all of his moves turned out for the worst.  McCoy was being productive in Buffalo while Demarco Murray was the free agent bust of the year.  The injured linebacker that he traded McCoy for got hurt again.  The team had no good WR's because he didn't see fit to try and keep Maclin in town. . . meanwhile Maclin was a huge part of the reason why Kansas City did not suck this year even after losing Charles to injury.  Evan Mathis was outright released for no apparent reason and did well in Denver.  

 

Only Chip Kelly makes those personnel changes, no one else would have done that.  And nearly all of them where disasters.  He sent a lot of talent packing and got very little in return.

 

On top of that Chip Kelly lost the locker room.  In his last game a player took himself out of the game remarking that he wasn't gonna get himself injured for this. 

 

Lovie never took personnel control in Tampa.  Tampa sucked when he got there, he got a rookie QB, got him playing decent, the team was clearly more competitive and playing better.    

 

And most importantly, Lovie Smith has never lost the locker room anywhere that he's went.  His players have always gone out there and played hard for him.

 

So you allow someone to make changes and then give him less than a season to rebuild the team in his vision.  Lurie gave into the public, plain and simple, which a good owner would never do.  If he lost the locker room, how did they beat NE after 3 embarrassing losses?  This is, or should be a results driven business.  And the results were that Chip's worst season was > than Lovie's best.

[jet1968]

Teams like Pittsburgh, New England, Green Bay, NY Giants never have a high turnover rate of coaches. Most years they are all playoff contenders. Same with Indianapolis. 

[ColtsBlueFL]

10 hours ago, BloodyChamp said:

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

 

If true, why not do it (fire Lovie) Monday instead of Wednesday then?  The rational world sees it as opportunity to promote from within (Dirk Koetter).  Those who know the Bucs expect the unexpected, which would be to court Chip Kelly (as they did last year).  But we all know the Bucs will probably do something even more out of left field.  It is, after all,  the Bucs.

[chad72]

The problem was Dirk Koetter was getting interviewed for a head coach at a lot of places, that is the word. So, they did not want to set the franchise back by losing their OC and their franchise QB having to learn a new system. However, I am not so sure if making Koetter the highest paid OC in the league would have swayed him from taking a head coaching position elsewhere. They should have at least had a talk with him about it. If that could be done, they should have done it and retained Lovie Smith.

 

QB position rules the league nowadays, and this is a bad message to send, IMO. What will they do now if Dirk Koetter sees what is being done to Lovie and refuses their head coaching position anticipating it could be done to him later as well? If I am an OC, that is what I would be thinking myself, unless I am calling all the offensive plays as a head coach without a new OC, which we know does not work out easily while having head coaching responsibilities. 

[OffensivelyPC]

11 hours ago, NFLfan said:

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

Rumor is they really liked their OC and wanted to keep him so they made the conscious decision to sacrifice Lovie.

[Valpo2004]

53 minutes ago, wig said:

 

So you allow someone to make changes and then give him less than a season to rebuild the team in his vision.  Lurie gave into the public, plain and simple, which a good owner would never do.  If he lost the locker room, how did they beat NE after 3 embarrassing losses?  This is, or should be a results driven business.  And the results were that Chip's worst season was > than Lovie's best.

 

Chip lost the locker room at the very end of the season.  His players quit playing hard for him.

 

As for the personnel control issue, the team didn't need to be re-built, they where winning with what they had.  You don't rebuild winning teams. . . you tweek them and try to improve them but you don't rebuild them.

 

 

[Cynjin]

54 minutes ago, NFLfan said:

 

How did that work out! 

 

 

Another sign of a poorly run organization. 

That's the truth.  Three head coaches in five years, firing Smith after two years and showing progress in order to retain the offensive coordinator, not good signs.

[21isSuperman]

7 hours ago, Bogie said:

 

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 know a lot of Bucs fans really don't like the Glazers.  From what I've heard, they generally don't like to spend a lot of money to bring in good free agents and don't manage the team well

[jvan1973]

2 hours ago, Cynjin said:

ESPN reported that Smith was fired over the phone.

Very classy

[pacolts56]

9 hours ago, YourNextGM said:

Now that is what character looks like.  

So you consider firing a man over the phone "character"?

 

Most people would consider that as the Glazer's having ZERO ing balls.

[chad72]

2 hours ago, jvan1973 said:

Very classy

 

Here is the true account of events.

 

The GM was told by the owners they were thinking of moving on from Lovie Smith. The GM had source of that information and wanted to let Lovie know in person. Since Lovie and the GM exchange phone calls constantly, Lovie calls the GM. Since he knew about the owners' plans, out of respect for Lovie, the GM had to tell Lovie what the owners were thinking of doing and was going to meet with Lovie today regardless. I heard it from the GM's mouth in a press conference on NFL Network a few minutes ago in my workplace break room. There you go.

 

The media spins it as "he was fired over the phone". But the truth is Lovie called the GM and the GM conveyed the owners' intentions to Lovie over the phone since he could not , out of respect for Lovie, beat around the bush on what was to come and lie to him about what the owners were thinking of doing.

 

It totally changes how you view things, doesn't it? Unless the GM is lying to the entire world, I have to believe someone who is going to put himself out there and bring up the sequence of events in detail to clarify things up.

 

We, as Colts fans, have been fooled by the media enough on the Pagano Grigson saga, we should know better to wait on the details :).

[shakedownstreet]

7 hours ago, NFLfan said:

 

 

7 hours ago, NFLfan said:

 

 

7 hours ago, NFLfan said:

 

 

 

7 hours ago, NFLfan said:

How did that work out!

 

Well two years of Lindy Infante netted us Peyton Manning

[BOTT]

11 hours ago, jet1968 said:

Teams like Pittsburgh, New England, Green Bay, NY Giants never have a high turnover rate of coaches. Most years they are all playoff contenders. Same with Indianapolis. 

One of those doesn't belong.

[BOTT]

11 hours ago, jet1968 said:

Teams like Pittsburgh, New England, Green Bay, NY Giants never have a high turnover rate of coaches. Most years they are all playoff contenders. Same with Indianapolis. 

One of those doesn't belong.

[oldunclemark]

Team was on the rise...I'm very surprised here

There will be some hangover with those defensive players that Lovie had been starting.

 

Odd move.....anybody know exactly why ownership didn't want the guy they hired 2 years ago

[oldunclemark]

Team was on the rise...I'm very surprised here

There will be some hangover with those defensive players that Lovie had been starting.

 

Odd move.....anybody know exactly why ownership didn't want the guy they hired 2 years ago

[MTC]

I guess if you don't make the playoffs after two seasons, you're automatically "fired".

 

It's a new era in the NFL. All teams want instant-gratification by making the playoffs. 

[MTC]

I guess if you don't make the playoffs after two seasons, you're automatically "fired".

 

It's a new era in the NFL. All teams want instant-gratification by making the playoffs. 

[BOTT]

personally, I think he is overrated and wouldn't have hired him, but you would think they would have more confidence in the man they just hired two years ago.  It's not like he was a coordinator without a HCing track record.

[BOTT]

personally, I think he is overrated and wouldn't have hired him.  but you would think they would have more confidence in the man they just hired two years ago.  It's not like he was a coordinator without a HCing track record.

[Jules]

Stupid move, he deserved more time. 

[Jules]

double double