Arians is pissed that his people including Leftwich were fired. Waaah.
Bowles was counting on a winning season to buy him a year of good will to retool. No such luck.
OCs candidates are being asked to have a Brady offense and a non-Brady offense. WTF.
Brady should retire, but can't decide. So he keeps everybody waiting. If he knew what he effing wanted to do he'd do it. That's great. Thanks a lot.
I'm sorry, Jason Licht, but this is all your responsibility. I didn't say it was all your fault, but you are the boss. Act like it. Here's what to do.
1) Ask Brady for a decision in one week. If he can't make one, say thanks for the memories but we are going to move on.
2) Define Arian's role. You don't have to send him packing. You want to stay in his good graces, because he knows how to win in the NFL. Let him help in the coach hiring or scouting or mentoring - whatever. So tell him your sorry his guys were let go, but we want you here - in a specific defined job. Keep him away from Bowles day-to-day activities. He may not want to stay, and that's fine. But we don't need a coach emeritus skulking around OneBuc looking over Bowles shoulder.
3) Tell Bowles the truth. He's got this year to turn it around and show progress, not regression, and it will be with limitations due to cap restrictions. He got himself in this mess because he was supposed to win this year. That was going to buy him enough good will to go through a transition this year. Well, that's out the window and he has to show progress and transition in the same year. That sucks. It's not fair. But it is a problem of his own making, so I don't feel sorry for him.
4) Stop telling OC candidates to have two plans, Brady and non-Brady. That's just going to piss of anybody with some self-respect. What if Brady doesn't come back? Then you used that as a hiring criteria for no reason and maybe you hired the wrong guy.
5) Don't push off the bulk of the cap consequences. Take the hit and get on with it. Sorry Bowles, that's the way it is.
Time to show that you have some stones, Jason. Time to show who's boss, and you may have to break some eggs to make the omelets. You may have to piss off a legend or two. But you have to bring the soap opera to an end. Clean up this mess!
Why push Brady?
We are going to be awful without him
business will be much worse as well so glaziers are involved in the approach
keep bending over for him. Smart business and better for the team relevancy
unless there is a can’t miss #1 QB coming out in 2024 then you maybe argue to tank but still it’s tank for that pic or Brady, not some shit mediocre QB to end up with 5 wins
Why push Brady?
We are going to be awful without him
That's not a given. The Bucs have an awful division and some decent players. They have a chance to be a good team, but they can't let Brady tie them in knots again this offseason. Or Arians as well. Don't let life just happen to you, Licht. Take charge of the situation. Brady's indecisiveness screwed with our team last offseason, and it could screw with our team again this offseason if he's allowed to. Brady needs to think about the impact he's having on others and make a decision. He's toying with the Bucs, and it's pissing me off.
The Bucs will wait. They want Brady to choose because some fans would revolt if he was pushed out, especially if he then went and played somewhere else
OCs candidates are being asked to have a Brady offense and a non-Brady offense. WTF.
Not really. I don't think we're talking about entirely different offenses. That wouldn't even make sense. More like "how would your offense best use Brady's strengths and hide his weaknesses." That part's not really rocket science.
Ask Brady for a decision in one week. If he can't make one, say thanks for the memories but we are going to move on.
Good luck with that. That's not happening. And they're not giving him any ultimatums. If they're smart they'll plan to move on without him, assuming he won't return. And if he wants to return, the door is still open. I don't think they have much to say about this until at least the beginning of free agency unless Brady decides to move up the decision timetable on his own, which seems unlikely.
Define Arian's role.
I don't think this is particularly important. He's got a front office job if he wants it. If not, he moves on into the sunset, or moves out to a front office gig in AZ.
Tell Bowles the truth.
I think he knows how the NFL works. No need to drop ultimatums on his head either. It's a win now league. He won't need to go to the Superbowl, but the offense needs to progress and the defense will have to round back into shape with a whole lot of new faces (probably), since we can't afford all our own free agents.
Stop telling OC candidates to have two plans,
See above.
Don't push off the bulk of the cap consequences.
Agree, although I'm a bit afraid that if Brady comes back they'll try to hold off the piper one more year and put us into even greater cap hell next year. No more aging inury-prone vets on one year deals! That shit sucks. I mean, a few is okay... but were Kyle Rudolph and Julio Jones worth it? Hicks played okay when he was healthy. Keanu Neal doesn't offer that much. They need to get younger, faster, and cheaper.
I doubt they are asking about different offenses based on the QB. I think it's more along the lines of if Brady is the QB, how does he fit your offense? If he's not here, how does Trask fit your offense? And getting a feel for if the OC can adapt as needed to fit the QB, instead of trying to force a square peg into a round hole. I do think they need to do what they can to take some of the cap hit this year, and maybe stretch some of the other cap hits over time so they don't have to go into full tank mode. They might actually get better by replacing certain aging veterans with younger talent. I think McCollum, for example, is likely to be much better next year as he has all the physical tools and is very fast. I remember both Barber and Kelly sucking their rookie years and I can see him progressing like they did.
If I were the Glazers I wouldn't base Bowles job strictly on wins and losses next year. I'd be looking to see if the team is gelling into a winning team that can eventually compete for Super Bowls once the roster is reloaded with talent. To be honest, we really only need another corner (assuming they fail to sign Dean - and please, for the love of God, let SMB go; everyone targets him when he's out there), somebody that can get consistent pressure and sacks on the DL, a resolution to poor play at LT, and a talented receiver that has excellent speed to open things on the outside, opposite Evans. I think they have solid talent throughout and should be able to address those 4 areas in the draft (doubt FA can be used due to the cap situation). They will need to draft David's replacement this year or next as well, because he's probably only got a year or two left before he's no longer making the plays.
Horrible take. Bucs would have been a 2 win team with an average QB.
4) Stop telling OC candidates to have two plans, Brady and non-Brady. That's just going to piss of anybody with some self-respect. What if Brady doesn't come back? Then you used that as a hiring criteria for no reason and maybe you hired the wrong guy.
A good OC plays to the strength of his personnel. When Sean McVay had a stud RB in Todd Gurley, they slammed the ball down people's throats. When he got Stafford and had trash RB's, they threw the ball all over the yard. McDaniels did the same thing in New England.
I don't want an OC that can only do one thing or the other. I want a guy that highlights the strength of his players and lights the scoreboard up.
OCs candidates are being asked to have a Brady offense and a non-Brady offense. WTF.
Not really. I don't think we're talking about entirely different offenses. That wouldn't even make sense. More like "how would your offense best use Brady's strengths and hide his weaknesses." That part's not really rocket science.
Ask Brady for a decision in one week. If he can't make one, say thanks for the memories but we are going to move on.
Good luck with that. That's not happening. And they're not giving him any ultimatums. If they're smart they'll plan to move on without him, assuming he won't return. And if he wants to return, the door is still open. I don't think they have much to say about this until at least the beginning of free agency unless Brady decides to move up the decision timetable on his own, which seems unlikely.
Planning to move on without Brady means exploring other options at QB. When Brady senses that the Bucs are moving on, that will only give him the impetus to move on if he isn't already planning that. If you want to keep Brady, you have to tell him "Look we really want you back! But we need to have some certainty.
There needs to be some decisiveness on everybody's part! Brady is the GOAT, but it's the tail wagging the dog and if you don't have decisiveness this wishy washiness is going to bleed into everything you do. This is what happened last year, and we just can't do this again. There needs to be a change in the mentality of this team, and Jason Licht has to be the one to get the ball rolling on that.
If you want to keep Brady, you have to tell him "Look we really want you back! But we need to have some certainty.
I'd be shocked if they haven't already told him this. I think the whole world knows they want him back. Whatever demands the Bucs make, I don't really think he's going to be ready to commit to an answer until free agency time. The Bucs have a lot of cap maneuvering to do between now and then, regardless. So starting in free agency, they'll either re-sign Brady or pursue someone else. The amount of work they have to do with the roster and contract restructures in order to get under cap before then is about the same either way.
Well, last year they just went with the flow and whatever Brady did was OK. We just wanted him back. The end result was a fiasco and a lousy season. This year Brady came out and said in no uncertain terms "if I knew what I was gonna f---ing do, I’d already [have] f---ing done it". I have no reason to believe that Brady has made any decision whatsoever about his future, and no reason to believe he'll provide any more clarity this year than he did last year.
So if you are the Bucs, do you just wait and wait and then finally say enough is enough? Or do you give him a timeline for deciding? That takes cohunes to give Tom Brady a timeline, but it's better to do that than just waiting and waiting until Brady makes a decision or you finally just run out of patience. The Bucs have a team to run and they can't be hijacked by the Brady Show IMO or we're just going to see more of the same this year.
I do not feel bad for Arians. This business always goes back to “What have you done for me lately?” If he wanted to give those assistants a better chance of sticking around he should have coached last year. If you are a coach and your team doesn’t meet expectations then there will be repercussions. There is too much money involved in this league to just let guys get another try when they didn’t do the job the first time around. Quite frankly Arians is lucky his hand-picked replacement wasn’t also given his notice.
There should a 0% chance that you see the Bucs announce "we are tired of waiting for Tom and want some certainty now, so we are moving on."
anything can happen though
There should a 0% chance that you see the Bucs announce "we are tired of waiting for Tom and want some certainty now, so we are moving on."
anything can happen though
"and by moving on we mean we are going trade Evans for picks and . . ."
:-)
So if you are the Bucs, do you just wait and wait and then finally say enough is enough?
Well, if they want him, they can afford to wait until the beginning of the league year, which is when trades are likely to start happening and free agency starts. There's the timeline. At that point, they will put their offer on the table, and if Brady doesn't want it, then they'll have to move on. This is the way I think it will go. They lose nothing by waiting until the beginning of the league year. I imagine the Bucs will probably be floating some ideas to Brady's agent between now and then to begin getting a feel for things.
In the meantime, they move full-steam ahead to unload some cap space.
The ultimatum doesn't need to be stated. It's free agency. The Bucs know they have to make a move with Brady or for another QB, or stand pat and go with Trask.
