First the Bucs - locked into a top 2 pick - clearly tank in their final game against New Orleans in an attempt to secure the top overall pick. At the time, the consensus top pick was Mariota. Once they secured that pick, they now knew that they could begin hiring offensive coaches that would best suit the style of their planned offense. And if you think the Bucs did not have their top pick in mind when selecting these coaches, you are crazy. Rarely does a team have the luxury of the number one overall pick and the knowledge that they plan on investing the next 3-4 years at least in a particular QB. These offensive coaches were selected with the top pick in mind. The selection of Koetter, at first, had people jumping to the conclusion that Winston had to be the pick. But then the close connections to Helfrich from Oregon became more clear. Would the thought of working with Mariota, a player he was extremely familiar with due to his close ties, be very attractive to Koetter? Most definitely. Then there is the style.of offense Koetter professes. He clearly leans towards an up tempo, no huddle approach. Now...that's not to say he will not run a different, slower style. But he clearly prefers the no huddle style, and running plays quickly. Which QB has more experience there?And then the Bucs just made a hire that basically screams Mariota. Bajakian.Think about this. You are about to draft a QB with the number one overall pick in the draft for the first time since 1987. Your scouts have been studying the top 2 QBs - Mariota and Winston - for months, heck - for years. So now you are going to go out and hire the guy who is going to work the closest with this guy for the next several years. His QB coach. And you want a guy who is familiar with the style of offense you plan to run with your new franchise QB. Do they hire a QB coach from the NFL who has coached the so-called "Pro Style Offense" that Jameis Winston ran in college. An offense that was almost entirely drop back, throw out of the pocket, never having the QB run? (Winston rushed for 65 yards in 2014 for a whopping 1.1 yards per carry). Would make sense to hire a QB coach who has worked with QBs like this - classic drop back QBs who work exclusively out of the pocket. No. Instead, the Bucs curiously turn to the college ranks for this important position. They hire Mike Bajakian. While at Cincinnati, The Master Professor (as Bajakian is known) helped produce the first 200 passing yard/100 rushing yard quarterback game in the school’s history. Bajakian has said that the base of his offense was playing with “great effort and great tempo.”At Central Michigan, Bajakian’s quarterback (Dan LeFevour) became the first player in NCAA history to pass for 12,000 yards and rush for 2,500.Bajakian comes from the Butch Jones school of offense. What kind of offense is that, you ask? I will let Butch Jones answer that: “Offensively, we are going to be a team that takes care of the football. We are going to run a no-huddle offense. I don’t like to use the term “spread,” because I think that the word “finesse” is associated with that."So...you tell me. Given they have now hired these two guys. Are they going with the classic pocket passer who runs the classic NFL passing offense, and who has rushed for 284 yards in 2 years?Or are they going with the QB who mastered the fast paced, up tempo, protect the ball, spread style offense in college like no player has in the history of college football. Who got his teams to the line of scrimmage faster than any QB in college, and who rushed for 2,237 yards and 29 TDs in college?I think it is pretty obvious.
