Changes came swiftly at season’s end with Dirk Koetter getting the boot in Tampa Bay and former Cardinals head coach, Bruce Arians, being wooed out of retirement to take command of the Buccaneers. Arians wasted little time assembling his coterie of coaches naming Byron Leftwich as his offensive coordinator and Todd Bowles, barely removed from cleaning out his office in New York, as his defensive coordinator.
Eleven of the 18 coaches already named to his staff have previously worked with Arians on an NFL level and the Bucs’ new head coach believed it was in the team’s best interest that he acted fast to acquire the best available coaching talent before they were scooped up by other teams. Arians had this to say at a recent presser.
“When this opportunity came…I just like to say the stars aligned,” Arians said. “Because we have those three things (ownership, general manager, and head coach) and then the staff that I wanted and always wanted, is available. It’s going to be a staff of fantastic teachers.”
For those fans who invest not only emotionally but financially on the Bucs, it will be interesting to see how top-notch online sportsbooks like Sportsbetting.ag will view Tampa Bay once the odds for next season become available. But what we do know is that one of the attractions of hiring a grizzled and wizened head coach like Arians is his ability to connect with, and mentor, his quarterbacks.
Unlike recently hired Matt LaFleur, now the head coach of the Green Bay Packers, Arians is not a young, charming guy looking for a bromance with his superstar signal caller. On the contrary, Arians is much more of a paternal figure and exactly what Jameis Winston needs if he is ever to fulfill the vast potential that we’ve seen glimpses of since he was drafted first overall in 2015. Winston doesn’t need another yes-man providing a soft landing spot every time he makes a head-scratching decision, either on or off the field.
The interesting aspect of Arians working directly with Winston is that these two go back over 10 years. That seems a bit odd considering the 40-year age gap between them but Winston attended an Arians football camp in Alabama when he was only 15 years old.
“I had a little quarterback challenge – a couple kids from Kentucky, Tennessee, around the South,” Arians told ESPN. “They were all seniors being recruited, and I think [Winston] was in ninth or 10th grade. He blew them all away, and I was like, ‘Woah!’ … He definitely made an impression on me in that football camp, that’s for sure.”
Arians kept in touch with Winston and kept track of his progress throughout his college career at Florida State and into the pros. There is mutual respect between the two and it’s obvious that the Bucs’ brass is counting on their new head coach to strengthen that bond and elevate Winston from a mercurial player, with an embarrassment of God-given ability, to a bona fide superstar. That transformation will not be easy because Winston has often talked the talk about being a leader, a role model, and a more reliable teammate but aside from his Pro Bowl rookie season, there have been far too many hiccups along the way.
At the very least, Winston curried enough favor with the Bucs to get his fifth-year team option triggered which gives him nearly 21 million reasons to maintain his cool both on and off the field. If Arians can be that paternal figure that Winston not only needs but genuinely seems to want, then this could be the start of something special in Tampa Bay – again.
