TAMPA
Mike Edwards Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jersey , Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay is counting on Bruce Arians to help Jameis Winston realize his potential, however the young
quarterback isn’t the only component the two-time NFL Coach of the Year has to
fix if the Buccaneers are going to end a long postseason drought.A porous
defense has been a problem for much of the team’s decade-plus absence from the
playoffs and needs immediate attention, too.So does an inconsistent running
attack which ranked among the worst in the league this season, when Tampa Bay
lost 11 of 14 following a 2-0 start to finish last in the NFC South for the
seventh time in eight years.Arians came out of retirement Tuesday to replace
Dirk Koetter, who made significant strides with the Bucs offense but wasn’t able
to develop Winston into a top-tier quarterback while going 19-29 over the past
three years.The 66-year-old Arians will be introduced during a news conference
Thursday. One of his first orders of business was hiring former New York Jets
head coach Todd Bowles as his defensive coordinator.Arians is the sixth coach
Tampa Bay has had since 2008 — following Jon Gruden, Raheem Morris, Greg
Schiano, Lovie Smith and Koetter — and is working on assembling a staff to help
him transform a roster featuring some good young talent into consistent
winners.Arians led the Arizona Cardinals to a 49-30-1 regular-season record from
2013-2017, a five-year stretch that included three 10-win seasons, two playoff
berths, one division title and an appearance in the NFC championship game in the
2015 season.In addition to Bowles, who was fired by the Jets last month,
potential staff Arians is interested in bringing to Tampa Bay include one-time
Arizona assistant Harold Goodwin as run game coordinator and former Bucs
quarterback Byron Leftwich as offensive coordinator.All worked for Arians for at
least a portion of the time he coached the Cardinals, with Bowles’ success as
Arizona’s defensive coordinator leading to him landing the head coaching
position he held with the Jets the past four seasons.Bowles, whose hiring was
announced Wednesday night, takes over a defense that ranked 27th in total
defense and 31st in points allowed in 2018.The connection to Arians’ days in
Arizona doesn’t end with potential staff additions. Former Cardinals defensive
line coach Brentson Buckner is already under contract with the Bucs after
joining them in the same position before last season.And, Bucs general manager
Jason Licht, who led the coaching search, was vice president of player personnel
for two seasons in Arizona before moving to Tampa Bay in 2014.The day after
Koetter was fired, Licht said familiarity with a candidate wouldn’t necessarily
be a factor in the hiring of a successor.“Just because I know somebody doesn’t
necessarily mean that’s the right fit for the organization,” The GM said on Dec.
31. “Throw the ego aside, it’s what is best for this organization, best for
ownership, best for these players
M.J. Stewart Jersey , best for the staff. Just the best fit, period.”Offensively, the Bucs are counting on Arians to spur Winston to greater
heights.The No. 1 overall pick from the 2015 draft is entering the final year of
his rookie contract, which pays him $20.92 million next season.Arians has worked
with Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer and Andrew Luck during a
long NFL coaching career.The coach has known Winston, who turned 25 on Jan. 6,
since the Bucs quarterback was in high school and attended one of Arians’
football camps in Birmingham, Alabama. The Buccaneers accomplished an intriguing
swap this week, trading in defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and his $13 million
salary for defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and a $9.25 million salary with
another $750,000 in potential incentives. They did it even though they know
McCoy extremely well, but they don’t really know Suh very well at all.Indeed,
Suh (who signed the one-year deal while vacationing in France) didn’t visit
Tampa or work out for the team. Remember the Brock Osweiler debacle in Houston?
The Texans signed the quarterback sight-unseen on the first day of free agency
in 2016, and it would be been far more beneficial for both sides (specifically
Osweiler and coach Bill O’Brien) to have spent some time together in order to
get a feel for whether they ultimately might, you know, hate each other.With
Suh, the Buccaneers had some prior knowledge, beyond the fact that offensive
lineman Evan Smith was once on the receiving end of a Suh stomp. G.M. Jason
Licht went to college at Nebraska, so he has followed the career of the former
Cornhusker closely. Also, Buccaneers assistant strength and conditioning coach
Chad Wade worked at Nebraska throughout Suh’s career there, and Bucs
quarterbacks coach Clyde Christenen worked in Miami for two of Suh’s three
seasons with the Dolphins.Throw in the fact that defensive coordinator Todd
Bowles became familiar with Suh when the Jets considered signing him in 2018 and
the reality (per a source with knowledge of the situation) that the Buccaneers
had done research on Suh in the past, the team felt comfortable making the
commitment without an in-person visit or workout.The move nevertheless remains
curious. Suh actually had fewer sacks than McCoy in 2018 (four vs. 6.5), and Suh
played with double-team magnet Aaron Donald in L.A.. Of course, Suh also spent
plenty of time rushing the passer from the edge of the line
Jameis Winston Jersey , which isn’t his natural position and which could make it harder to fault Suh for the perception that he didn’t have a great year.Still,
it seemed that Suh saved his maximum effort for big moments last year, not
standing out during much of the regular season and finding the gas pedal in the
playoffs. The Rams traded for Dante Fowler Jr. (they initially wanted Jerry
Hughes) due largely to their disappointment with Suh’s performance as a pass
rusher.Consider these March comments from coach Bruce Arians, made specifically
regarding McCoy: “I mean, guys when they age, it’s different. Usually they’re at
the age when they get paid the most and the production doesn’t match. It’s a
what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. It’s hard. It’s cold. That’s it.”That
same thought process applies to Suh, who at 32 is more than a year older than
McCoy. Even though the Bucs have some institutional knowledge regarding what Suh
has done in the past, they don’t really have a good feel for what he’s done
lately — and more importantly for what he’ll do during his one-year stint in
Tampa.In fairness to the Buccaneers, plenty of teams roll the dice without much
advance work. The Raiders traded for Antonio Brown and the Browns traded for
Odell Beckham Jr. essentially on a whim, with no visit or workout or anything to
ensure that the moves will work. Like deals done at the start of free agency,
however, the circumstances of the Brown and Beckham trades required the
prospective teams to do a bit of prospecting. Suh has been available for more
than two months, and the Bucs had as much time as they needed to bring him in
for a visit (no one else was clamoring to sign him), to give him a full physical
before making the kind of splash that will be very hard to undo if his eventual
physical causes some concern, and to maybe put him through a drill or two to
ensure that, at his age, the production will match the price.Frankly, there
would have been no harm whatsoever in getting Suh in the same room with Arians;
within five minutes, Arians would know whether Suh is fully committed to doing
everything in his power to help the Bucs end an extended postseason drought.
(And if Suh’s position was “sign me without a visit,” maybe that was all the
Bucs needed to know.)Basically, the Bucs made a calculated risk that didn’t have
to be calculated. They could have gotten more information before making a major
investment, and it’s fair to wonder why they didn’t.
