I think this is a really interesting discussion.To set it up: I argued for his firing. I thought he'd turned the Bucs into a joke and had bungled several off-field issues. As well, I thought his "stop the run" approach was dated, the defence too often giving up huge point totals, and the offence was just tepid.I also though Lovie was a very good hire. In 2012 he had the best defence of this decade so far(IMO). His special teams were elite. If his year off allowed him to fix his game management and offensive issues (he said it did) I thought he could turn this into a perennial playoff contender. As we know, he stunk.But it also puts Schiano's last year in perspective - Schiano's team was much, much better than Lovie's. Per Football Outsiders, in 2013 the Bucs offense was an abysmal 24th. The defense was a much better 8th. Lovie turned that unit into the 32nd and 18th ranked units, respectively. A year removed from the 2013 debacle, with a 2nd year QB, could this team have made a signficant jump? The NFC South has certainly been for the taking. In hindsight, was he fired a year too early?
