Advice For Raheem

January 06, 2010 at 10:11am by Scott   •  3 Comments »

Pat Yasinskas has a lot of nerve writing an article that gives advice to Raheem Morris when he barely even acknowledged that the Bucs existed this year. All the superstars are gone and the team is losing and the Bucs just weren’t that sexy to cover, so Pat abandoned them like the prom night dumpster baby of the NFC South. But now the Saints lost three in a row, so of course Pat is all buddy-buddy with the Bucs again. I’m on to you, Pat.

Anyway, here’s his five pieces of advice for the Raheem Morris this offseason. Most of them suck.

1. Go out and hire a defensive coordinator.

Taking over as the defensive coordinator is one of the only moves Raheem made this year that worked. Why change that? The players respect him, they already know all his terminology, and they have been moderately successful in his system. Raheem is not one of those head coaches that has his hand in everything. I don’t think he does much with the offense, he’s not involved in any of the front office stuff. His plate is fine.

2. Find a stud defensive tackle.

I’m with him on the general premise of finding a stud defensive tackle, but I wouldn’t give up a premium pick to move up to get Suh. If Suh falls to them at #3, great. But there are going to be several worthwhile defensive tackles in this draft and trading up from #3 means giving up a potential contributor at another position. Unless Yasinskas means the team should trade Michael Clayton to move up. Then, by all means, trade away.

3. Continue building around Josh Freeman.

What he means here is to get more wide receivers. And of course they’re going to do that, just like they do with any other position. But part of Yasinskas’s suggestion is to let Antonio Bryant walk away, and I can’t imagine why. Because he bitches to the media about wanting more balls? Just about every worthwhile wide receiver does this. It’s lame, but it’s part of the package. Bryant is excellent, productive when healthy, a good teammate, and sells out for the ball. I can’t think of any good reason for letting him walk away.

4. Keep Greg Olson as your offensive coordinator.

This is the only one I agree with completely. Olson was hot and cold this year, but he was given a pretty odd and difficult set of circumstances. I’d like to see what he can do with a full offseason to prepare where he is certain of who his quarterback is going to be. Also, a second year with the same quarterback coach will only help Freeman.

5. Settle on a kicker and punter. You went through more kickers and punters in your first year than some coaches go through in a career. Kickers and punters actually are important and continuity means a lot. Get the guys you want in the offseason and stick with them.

I included his whole commentary here because I thought it was funny. The only reason the team switched punters twice is because of injuries. Josh Bidwell was put on IR before the season started and Dirk Johnson got hurt on a fake punt and went on IR several weeks ago. And why shouldn’t Raheem continue to flip through kickers until he finds a good one? It’s the one position where you can do that. Kickers don’t have to know the game plan and don’t have to get acclimated to a system or terminology. They are kickers, they kick ball. The only intangible factor is their relationship with their holder, but for the money they’re being paid for the job they do, they can struggle through it. Connor Barth was a 74% kicker — not great compared to the rest of the league, but that did include 3-4 from 50+, which is very good. But, hell, try out a couple dozen of them. They’re kickers, not people.

As long as I’m at it and nothing else is going on, here are my five pieces of advice for Raheem.

1. Get a new O-line coach. Pete Manguarian did nothing for you and made Bill Muir look smart. Get someone who can keep Jeremy Trueblood from flinching.

2. Re-sign Donald Penn. Build a fucking fortress around Freeman. When he has time, he is pretty good with the ball.

3. Get that stud defensive tackle. It really is good advice.

4. Find more creative ways to use Geno Hayes. He’s deadly as a blitzer and has incredible range. This guy could be the key to the whole defense if you use him the right way.

5. Be a fucking professional. Take a public speaking course, stop calling out your players publicly, and enough with the chest bumps. Position coaches can get away with being loose like that, but head coaches represent the entire team and right now you look like a juvenile. You can still be a player’s coach and energetic without looking low-rent. The players will pick up on the professionalism and act accordingly.

6. Always check under the hood before trying a new hooker. Take my word on this one.