As Garv Types It 3/28/2015Been awhile. Going to throw this out on the Red Board for fun. And curiosity.Buccaneer football!1) Since the pathetic 2014 season that included a 0-8 record at home for the first time since the inaugural season in 1976 our GM has declared our Buccaneers much improved. Well, that’s true. We have an offensive coordinator for the first time since Schiano got fired well over a year ago. Sorry, but given what happened Jeff Tedford was never a Buccaneer and achieved absolutely nothing. Doesn’t matter why, just that it happened that way. Dirk Koetter is a solid upgrade albeit the only upgrade this offseason so far on offense. The defense has switched MLB’s and gotten a solid DT for the rotation and probably has gotten better just by having a year of Lovie’s defense under their belt. I HOPE it’s true it takes time to learn to play the Tampa Two as Derrick Brooks has pointed out. Now there has been some time. The Buccaneers should be much improved. Trouble is they could TRIPLE their win total and still be 6-10 in 2015. Ouch.2) The relatively quiet FA period so far does not have me concerned. In my opinion we cannot afford another abysmal, extremely expensive and desperate failure as was last year’s FA period. And the “experts” at the time saw the Bucs as one of the winners of FA? LOL Not. But to their credit, Lovie and Licht have admitted their mistakes and moved on rather quickly. The eyesore tests of Collins and Johnson are gone and hopefully soon forgotten. The guys signed so far are good values and should help immediately in my opinion. I certainly hope so.3) Greg Hardy. In the minority here I’m sure but I am pleased he did not come here. He is a very bad and in my opinion dangerous man and cheering a sack from him would be more than negated by the embarrassment and shame of helping to pay for someone with so little regard for women. We all have wives, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, girlfriends, women friends in our live who should mean a hell of a lot more to us than a sack on Sunday. Thank you Dallas.4) Franchise QB anyone? EVER? How do the Buccaneers get one? By trade? Err…no. By the draft? We’ve tried before and fail every single time. But is it worth the risk to try again……. YOU THINK? Of course it is because with a franchise QB a team has a real chance at the playoffs almost every year. That kind of QB makes the entire offense better, gets players to play better just by his presence. When a team like the Buccaneers ends up at 2-14 and with the first pick in the draft only has a QB on the roster who only started 5 games the previous season and lost most of them…… MAYBE it needs to draft the top QB in the draft! Well, I have no doubt we will and that it will be Jameis Winston. A risk? It always is but in this case I think it’s a damn good risk.5) The OL and the lack of help so far. So far. In my opinion help WILL come in the form of a drafted starter and another FA or two when the cuts come after the draft from teams in CAP trouble. That and better coaching will improve the offensive line. I think Dirk Koetter knows this and I KNOW he knows a hell of a lot more than I do about it. A lot more than Lovie Smith as well. ;)6) The edge rusher. Wow. Do we EVER need one! Not a question. Hope we get one in the draft. Hope, hope, hope. And we are hearing there should be good ones in the second round. HOPE!7) To the anti Jameis Winston crowd. What will you do? What WILL you do? It’s going to happen, watch and see. Nothing else makes sense. Those that think his immaturity will have fans refusing to buy tickets are probably right. Some will refuse to on the unsubstantiated rape charges alone. A few probably demanded refunds when Jeremy Stevens was signed some years ago to. HE was a bad guy but I digress. For every fan who decides he will not buy a ticket solely because Jameis is on the team there will be three or four who decide TO buy a ticket for the same reason. Season ticket holders are expecting it and the base will be back as it always is. But wait, just WAIT, until faith in the Buccaneers is restored by actually winning some games! THAT will sell tickets enough to where even the morally outraged protesters will be back claiming they never left. SO predictable. 8) Love Smith. St. Lovie Smith of Tampa….. Please, PLEASE stop treating fans like idiots. Every time he gets in front of a microphone we are forced to eat more baloney than a porn star! Babbling on like one of Tennyson’s brooks he makes statements only Larry Stooge after the lobotomy would buy. STOP! Either give us something an intelligent and loyal fan can appreciate or go Belichick and say nothing. Better yet WIN and say nothing!9) Having typed that burst of criticism it’s time for this fan to feel optimistic again. Yes, it’s true. This IS a better team than it was in 2014 and I believe it will be a much better team after the draft and by the start of the season. Lovie Smith gets his chance to show us some improvement. Enough improvement to field a team that CAN win on any given Sunday and does so enough to rally the fans behind this team as it has before. So come on Lovie…show us the money! I’m pulling for you and all Buccaneer fans who want a return to the good years are too.10) 2015 season. I CAN’T WAIT!!
