FAB 4. SMITH BELIEVED IN WINSTON MORE THAN BORTLES
Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith signed a contract extension with Tampa Bay, and that’s great news for the organization. Terms of the deal weren’t available, but it is believed that Smith received a raise and had an extra year added on to his contract. As most NFL assistants sign two-year deals, the guess here is that his contract will now run through the 2018 season – although he could leave at any time to pursue a head coaching vacancy.

Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Smith’s defense improved in the second half of the season and the continuity should help the Bucs make a stronger playoff push in 2017 after missing out on the postseason by one game this past year. Tampa Bay’s defense ranked 23rd, but went from 30th in the league in third down defense in 2015 to first in the NFL last season. The Bucs’ interception total rose from 11 in 2015 to 17 in 2016, and Tampa Bay scored one more touchdown on defense than it did a year ago, in addition to registering a safety.

Smith interviewed for vacant head coaching jobs in Jacksonville and San Diego this offseason, but the Jaguars decided to hire interim head coach Doug Marrone and San Diego went with Anthony Lynn, who was Buffalo’s offensive coordinator and interim head coach after Rex Ryan was fired. Smith pulled his name out of the running just a day before the Chargers moved to Los Angeles and hired Lynn.

It was reported that Smith was a “close second” in Jacksonville where he was the team’s defensive coordinator from 2003-07 before leaving to become Atlanta’s head coach from 2008-14. Sources in Jacksonville tell me that the reason Marrone got the job over Smith was because Marrone told Jaguars ownership that he believed in Blake Bortles, the team’s first-round pick in 2014 and the third overall pick that year – and he was the only candidate to do so outside of Tom Coughlin, who was hired to serve in an executive role above Marrone and general manager David Caldwell.

Smith was viewed as a strong candidate to coach the Jaguars, but his hesitancy in buying into Bortles was the deciding factor working against him. Jacksonville signed Bortles to a four-year, $20,654,810 contract and that’s a big investment. The Jaguars organization believe he’s a franchise quarterback and wanted their head coach to believe that, too. Marrone did, and Smith ultimately opted to believe in Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston instead, and that’s good news for the Buccaneers.

“This is a quarterback-driven league and Jameis, he is the leader of the team, one of the leaders of the team,” Smith said in a December press conference. “We’ve got other guys in the locker room as well, but we all feel it. You feel his passion for the game and I think it’s contagious and it’s contagious in a very good way because there’s nobody that works harder than Jameis on this football team. It’s amazing his work ethic.”

Former NFL quarterback and current ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer called Bortles “the worst quarterback in the NFL” on the “Dale and Holley Show” on WEEI in Boston on December 29 despite Bortles entering the season finale against Indianapolis with 22 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

Bucs DE Howard Johnson sacks Jags QB Blake Bortles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I like Blake as a person and I think he showed some grit [and] some determination early on,” Dilfer said. “At the end of the day, you have to know how to spin it. … You have to be able to control the ball, you have to be able to look in a very small area ahead of where the receiver is and throw it right there the majority of the time. And Blake has a really hard time with that.

“He’s just not a great passer. I think he’s a great athlete, I think he’s a tough kid, but I think he makes panic decisions and is a terrible passer.”

Dilfer went on to trash the Jaguars team and the city of Jacksonville.

“I don’t think it’s a good job and I think Jacksonville is a terrible city for an NFL franchise,” Dilfer told the “Dale and Holley Show” on WEEI in Boston. “I feel strongly about that. I would not want to coach Blake Bortles and I would not want to coach in Jacksonville.”

Smith felt the same way about Bortles. While it may have cost him a chance to be the Jaguars’ head coach, having a quarterback forced upon you is no recipe for success in the NFL, and Smith knows it.