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Buccaneers fire Lovie Smith

• Tale of tape: Smith lasted just two years in Tampa Bay, following up a dismal 2-14 season with a 6-10 mark in 2015. The Buccaneers were a surprise wild-card contender for much of the year, reaching 5-5 in late November and again in early December before fading with four straight losses.

• What went wrong: There always seems to be one firing that catches everyone off guard, and this certainly qualifies. A lot less went wrong in 2015 than in 2014, which is why this comes as such a surprise.

Smith seemed a much more likely candidate to get the boot following his first Bucs year, which produced just two wins and a handful of horrid losses—a 56-14 blowout in Atlanta; a 48-17 home loss to Baltimore. But Tampa Bay nabbed Jameis Winston with the No. 1 pick and made significant improvements this season, including in its record.

In fact, just Monday Smith said that the Buccaneers "should" make the postseason in 2016.

“We were 6-6. That was progress to get in position, and things looked pretty bright for us,” Smith said. “We weren't quite ready to take that next step then. But we’ll make the corrections, the moves that we have to make in order to finish the 2016 season.”

Much like was the case with Mike Pettine in Cleveland, the argument to remove Smith could have started on defense. That side of the ball was Smith’s expertise coming in, but Tampa Bay struggled to grasp his complex system last season and continued to go through the motions at times in Year 2. During the season-ending four-game skid, the Buccaneers surrendered 29.8 points per game, although the offense’s eight combined turnovers certainly contributed to the elevated number.

Speculation did immediately turn to the possibility that Tampa Bay removed Smith so it could promote offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, who reportedly was being eyed at least by the Eagles for their head coaching vacancy.

Former Bucs GM and current ESPN analyst Mark Domenik tweeted the following immediately after news of Smith's firing broke: “With Lovie Smith fired I would expect Dirk Koetter to be named head coach within the week. They still will interview a few other candidates.”

Still, the move comes across as hasty for a team clearly in a rebuild. Tampa Bay linebacker Lavonte David even expressed his frustration with the decision, also via Twitter: “This is stupid, we can't even have a consistent coach, 3 coaches in 5 yrs,” he wrote as part of an extended rant.

Also of note here: both Smith and Tennessee's Ken Whisenhunt failed to make it beyond the 2015 season, despite their respective teams taking high-profile QBs early in last year's draft. The general consensus headed into the pre-season, especially in Whisenhunt's case, was that a rookie franchise quarterback might help buy the coach some time.

Smith seemed to have survived where Whisenhunt did not. The Buccaneers changed all that in a heartbeat.

• Possible replacements: Adam Gase, Hue Jackson, Koetter, Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia

• Ideal hire: Breaking the rules here, but the ideal scenario was to keep Smith. Let's be honest here: Lavonte David isn't wrong. Raheem Morris flopped and Greg Schiano was an abject failure for the Bucs. Smith appeared to have this thing back on track again after an extended struggle, so the switch away from him must mean either a) the front office has unrealistic expectations for this season, or b) the Buccaneers are hellbent on keeping Koetter in the fold.

The former would signal an egregious miscalculation. The latter puts a lot of faith in a 56-year-old longtime offensive coordinator, whose last head coaching experience came at Arizona State (2001-06). Should the Buccaneers do move Koetter up the ladder, it’s a calculated gamble. If it doesn't work out, they’ll have tossed Smith aside for nothing and likely will be back in a similar spot two or three years from now.


Let me be the first to say, we gotta get this guy.

Dick Koetter, please stand up.

Is Tampa Bay trying to challenge the Browns for the dumbest team in the league?

We already had Pet here.

lmao.

Pretty surprising move, I think. Nfl these days lol.

Didn't Lovie and the Bears go 10 and 6 the last time he was fired?

Man, this guy has had some tough luck.

He got fired over the phone....

That sucks.

Were they speaking or did he get a text?

lol, i'd wonder what emoji they used if it was a text

So do you guys picture us reaching out to Lovie? Is he only going to get coordinator gigs from now on?

This seems nuts to me. O-Coordinator has at least one (only read about the Dolphins) team interested in him so the Bucs just promote him to head coach?? Weird.

they didn't like the HC, but liked the guy the HC hired.

on top of that, their defense just might lack more playmakers than we do, yet as a team, they won more games.

hell, they swept the falcons, with the god Shanny calling plays.

from what's being reported, they liked the way winston was developing and want to keep the OC....even though there's no guarantee that the OC even takes the job if offered.

i would hope we would, he has the credentials.

Raw deal for Lovie, but in today's NFL the QB rules the roost. Jameis and Dirk Koetter had a strong relationship and Winston really progressed. Then there were rumors of Koetter becoming a HC elsewhere and the Bucs had to do anything to keep him with their QB.

Thus, Lovie is gone.

What irks me is that guys like Stephen A. Smith, Mike Wilbon, Bomani Jones, etc will claim racism and "this is why black men won't make it in the NFL as coaches" .. but race had nothing to do with it IMO. It all came down to keeping the QB (who ironically happens to be black) happy and progressing.

Makes absolutely no sense.

The Bucs truly do rival us for ineptness with their hiring/firing of coaches.

This was a terrible firing that never should have happened.

i just remembered that this guy got that chicago team to the SB with rex grossman and kyle orton as starting Qb's.

I was as surprised as anyone else. I know that the wins weren't quite there, but he played a huge part on the process to develop Winston. The maturity Winston showed this year, reflects a lot on Smith..

I just know that in living in Chicago during his entire tenure with the Bears, the players were ready to run through a brick wall for him. Not in the same sense that players like Pet because of the days off and easy training camps. Bears were always worked pretty hard... He's great with people.

I was actually hoping he was available when the Buckeye job opened up after the Tressel stuff... He has ties to OSU and would have been a fantastic hire..

As far as the Browns goes. They should do their due dilligence. I don't think he'd be high on their list, but they should bring him in..

I'm not a huge fan of the defensive scheme he ran, but as far as a leader of men, you won't find anyone to say anything negative on that front.

There's gotta be more to this firing, no?

See?
This is what they look like. Not pretty, is it?



This is what we've always looked like.
Let that marinate for awhile.

Have they really been doing that?
I haven't watched espn in almost a decade...
I don't remember Wilbon being like that when PTI was fresh.
They really do that...?
Wow.

I may have to tune in some time.

The article says everything you need to know...

Quote:

Speculation did immediately turn to the possibility that Tampa Bay removed Smith so it could promote offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, who reportedly was being eyed at least by the Eagles for their head coaching vacancy.

Former Bucs GM and current ESPN analyst Mark Domenik tweeted the following immediately after news of Smith's firing broke: “With Lovie Smith fired I would expect Dirk Koetter to be named head coach within the week. They still will interview a few other candidates.”

They just don't want to lose the OC. Seems like a rough way to go about keeping the guy, but if he's the real secret to the Winston success, you have to do what's necessary for your QB.

As for the Bears and Smith, those teams were great to watch. Their Front-7 and special teams were amazing. They could get to the QB almost every passing down by just rushing 4 linemen. The NY Giants did the same thing for their two Super Bowls (Eli had a little bit to do with it too).

I almost felt bad for Grossman. A terrible QB that got to a Super Bowl by riding a great defense. He is "Trent Delfer without the ring" though.

I'd take a hard look at Lovie before these idiots we're looking at now..I can tell you if we end up with Marrone, it will be a mass exodus by players. Which wouldn't be bad but it will be the ones we actually want to stay like Thomas, mack and schwartz

Mack is gone no matter who we bring in.

Did you know that there was a Rex Grossman who played in the NFL in the 50s? He was a LB/FB/PK for the Colts and Lions.