Tampa Bay Bucs preview
By Bruce Marshall
The Gold Sheet
Blame it on the Tennessee Volunteers. Or maybe Al Davis.
We're talking about the odd developments involving the Tampa Bay Bucs, which include a perplexing string of events that can be traced to last December 1, the day when UT hired Lane Kiffin to be its new head coach. Knoxville certainly hasn't been the same since, and neither, really, have the Bucs. Follow along.
Shortly after Kiffin took the UT job, he enlisted his dad, the sage and longtime Tampa Bay defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, to be his new d.c. with the Vols. The elder Kiffin still had at least a month of football to coach with the Bucs, who were cruising along with a 9-3 record atop the NFC South. At the time, it seemed as if Monte would be joining his son after the playoffs. But that's when things started to unravel for Tampa Bay....defensively, in particular. In Monte's 13 years as the team's d.c., his stop units never experienced a worse 4-game stretch than the one that closed the '08 campaign. The Bucs yielded a whopping 123 points and 1544 yards while losing to the Panthers, Falcons, Chargers, and, believe it or not, the lowly Raiders to blow what once seemed a surefire ticket to the postseason. The manner of the collapse prompted the Glazers to hit the eject button on not only HC Jon Gruden, but GM Bruce Allen as well.
The Al Davis connection? It was the old Raider himself who got the Lane Kiffin dominoes falling in the first place when firing him last September, and then his Oakland team applied the coup de grace to the Bucs' disappointing December. We're sure the old man didn't mind his role in Gruden's last act at Tampa Bay.
Still, many observers believe the Glazers panicked when jettisoning Gruden and Allen, moves that caught the inner circles of the NFL by surprise. And frankly, it was a departure from the norm by the Glazers, who have mostly stayed out of the way from the Bucs' on-field doings as they have famously done with the real jewel in their family sports empire, Manchester United, where legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson has had no interference whatsoever from the family since they bought the club (controversially so) in 2005.
The Glazers, however, might have raised fewer eyebrows had they hired Ferguson himself to succeed Gruden instead of assistant Raheem Morris, who at 32 is the youngest HC in the league (four months and a few days younger than Denver's Josh McDaniels). Morris had just been promoted from 2ndary coach to Monte Kiffin's successor as d.c. at the time he was named HC. His hiring was made more curious by the fact he was part of the staff that saw its troops so thoroughly fold in December. And unlike most HC hires, Morris's experience is mainly as a position coach, with only one year as a coordinator (Kansas State's d.c in 2006). The Glazers also filled Allen's role from within, promoting personnel director Mark Dominik to GM.
Morris inherits a team in transition, with upgrades necessary across a roster that was further depleted by several FA departures. The QB position is up for grabs; with Jeff Garcia (ironically now with the Raiders) and likely Brian Griese out of the picture, the battle is being waged between journeymen Luke McCown & Byron Leftwich, with the winner merely keeping the seat warm until 2010, when first-round draftee Josh Freeman (Kansas State) is expected to take over. New o.c. Jeff Jagodzinski, most recently Boston College's HC, plans to utilize a hybrid of the West Coast offense featuring zone-blocking schemes that will emphasize the run, which ought to be good news for ex-Giant FA Derrick Ward, who supplants the departed Warrick Dunn as the featured back. Re-signing WRs Antonio Bryant (right) and Michael Clayton and acquiring TE Kellen Winslow, Jr. from the Browns should provide ample targets that could be further augmented if the Bucs are really serious about signing Plaxico Burress, as rumored in late spring. Stay tuned for further developments.
Don't expect a lot of changes from Monte Kiffin's Tampa-2 defensive looks under vet d.c. Jim Bates, one of Morris' first additions to the staff. Since the Tampa-2 rarely shows a blitz, however, it's imperative for the DL to create pressure, something the Bucs didn't do with any consistency LY when recording only 29 sacks (ranking 20th). Perhaps USC rookie DE Kyle Moore can provide relief. Bates also must replace departed LBs Derrick Brooks & Cato June; Jermaine Phillips, who has previously only played at safety in the NFL, is penciled in at one OLB spot. Second-year Aqib Talib teams with vet Ronde Barber to form a nasty pair of CBs, although Talib has to be careful after some unwelcome run-ins with teammates (!) on the practice field.
Bottom line...We've seen some unlikely teams make playoff runs lately, and the NFC South is notorious for teams emerging from nowhere to contending status, but we're having a hard time envisioning the Bucs filling those roles. Too much roster upheaval, too many questions at QB, and, frankly, some uncertainties with the new staff make it more likely that Tampa Bay takes a step or two back this fall before challenging again.