I'm going to revive an old argument. Koetter as a player caller is part of the problem (don't tell Nobody).
Koetter should not be fired. He's done a better job as HC than anyone since Gruden. He's a good OC. He's not top 3 on the list of "Problems with the Buccaneers". And I like Koetter.
But I'm back on the Koetter is failing this team as OC. Here are the thoughts:
1) Nobody did a great job breaking down Koetter's play calling and it came out looking very positive for Koetter. The one issue is that on almost every team, players are going to be consistently open. That's the reality of playing defense in today's NFL - you're not stopping EVERYTHING that the offense does. You're trying to confuse the QB, limit easy reads and prevent big plays.
So the fact that players are getting open isn't enough to tell me that Koetter is doing a great job. I mean, clearly he's a good OC. But that's not enough.
2) What's going on with the reads? I don't know, and its really hard to tell from the All-22 (plus we can't get it here in Canada so...) Winston is a bigger problem then Koetter, but there's a point where Koetter can design the offense to limit Winston's desire to chuck it deep. It's not like Winston was a major deep ball thrower at FSU. What changed? I'm guessing part of the reason is that Koetter has Winston reading deep to short (pretty normal). But whatever it is, he needs to change it (and maybe he did vs. BUF).
3) There are too many bizarre playcalls and personnel packages. The best example is Sims. He's a blinking, glaring, neon yellow sign that says "PASS! PASS! PASS!". Plus, he's a bad player. For every nice play he fumbles or tips an INT or does something else dumb. Or another example brought up by Trevor's C3: what are the Bucs doing on third down?
4) The offense can be too predictable. To be fair, all offences are - you can't have "tendency breakers" if you don't have tendencies. But it's frustrating to see what teams are taking away and not see the offence adapt. It's obvious what teams like the Pats, Vikings, and Cardinals are doing. And I get that Koetter probably sees it all and that "adjusting" is really complicated and difficult. But the results speak for themselves. The Bucs are one of the worst 1st half offences in the NFL.
5) It's really, really hard to be both OC and HC. Very few can do it. And the best ones don't.
