The season isn’t over just yet. The Bucs will be back in good standing with a win at home against the Browns. That would put us back at 3-3 and .500 for the season. How do the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fix a losing culture though? Should they hire from within? Should they hire big name players and coaches? What are things that will need to happen in the near future to guarantee future success?
I want to blame the Glaziers sometimes for the unfortunate events that happen within our franchise because I know their heart isn’t with football. I know their passion is soccer, which explains why they own the world’s wealthiest team Manchester United. Then on the other hand I have to give them credit for trying to bring players and coaches here in an attempt to bring this team back to greatness.
In any business you want to hire people that will represent your business in your image. When I saw John Lynch get hired as a GM in San Francisco I saw an opportunity slip away that could have placed this franchise in a better position for success. I’m not saying fire Jason Licht for John Lynch because I think Licht is a good GM, but we could of given him a role that he would have been happy with. Same goes with Rhonde Barber. As there are positions within this franchise that we can take advantage of by placing people in it that knows what it takes to win in the NFL.
The answer isn’t always bringing in big name people to satisfy the fans. The answer is establishing a culture here that the fans can understand and back you up on because they understand the direction this team is trying to reach. We haven’t had that kind of culture here since Tony Dungy. We all know that Dungy is a very religious man and very soft spoken, but the fans and the players knew what they were getting themselves into and followed him. When the Glaziers decided to fire Dungy and trade for Gruden it was night and day between the personalities. In the long run Gruden could only coach a team that was already prepared to win a Super Bowl rather than building one like Dungy.
For the Bucs to be successful in the future we must find an identity of what we are instead of changing market slogans like “siege the day” or “wreak havoc”. We won’t need those things when we are handling business on our home front by having well planned executive decisions about who we bring into our circle. When everyone understands the expectations and the accountability we expect from this team the players will follow, and if they do not, then we ship them out and replace them with someone who will.
