What if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers DON’T Turn Around in 2014 or beyond?

There was a time when everything looked great for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They went to the playoffs regularly, had a proven coach, strong running back, and a number one defense. Most important, they had a great owner , revered by the community and his fellow ownership group.

Surely I’m speaking of Malcolm Glazer right? Why No, It would be Hugh Culverhouse!

That’s right, there was a time Mr. €ulverhouse was a local hero to the NFL community. He brought football to Tampa Bay, had the courage to bring a 4 time national championship winning John McKay to coach, and the Bucs in two years went from 0-26 to the NFC championship game.

But Then in 1982, it started to fall apart. A contract dispute with the only QB the Bucs ever won with, Doug Williams, was allowed to leave over money. By 1984 The

team had to invest several high draft picks  to replace the QB in an era without free agency, instead of investing in an aging defense first assembled in 1977.

Everyone is so sure the Bucs are about to turn back the clock to the glory days of Tony Dungy, and they probably are, but what if we are just in the middle of another 14 year losing streak like 1983-1996 ?

Lovie Smith is a proven head coach who has had success with the Bears, but Ray Perkins (Bucs Head Coach 1987-1990 week 13) and his defensive Units were responsible for turning around and coaching the NY Giants when they became winners in the early 80s before DC Bill Parcells. Leeman Bennett (HC 1985-1986) was the only winning head coach the Atlanta Falcons ever had when the Bucs chose him to succeed McKay. Sam Wyche (HC 1992-1995)                                                                                                                                                          coached a well oiled offensive machine in the Cincinnati Bengals  all the way to a close Super Bowl Loss, just like Lovie Smith experienced with the Chicago Bears!

What does that guarantee? The Bucs were terrible on offense under Wyche, Horrible on defense under Perkins, and Bennett has the worst W/L record of any Bucs coach eversd (4-28) . So what do we have that tells us this will work?

1.  A GM is making player decisions. Both Bennett and Perkins took over all duties, when it was GM George Young that built the Giants of the 80s, not Perkins. Wyche too, although Rich McKay started to take over player personnel decisions bringing in Hardy Nicherson, Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks, and more. He is the only GM to spin his 1st and 2nd picks of his career on Hall of Famers! The final year under Wyche the Bucs were 5-2 and 7-7 at one point, and Bucs ended a streak of 12 straight double digit losing seasons.
2. There is free agency and a salary cap. Culverhouse would have just loved the idea of being told his team HAD to spend a certain amount of money. During the 14 year losing streak, Culverhouse was beyond frugal, secretly raking in record profits while crying poor and claiming a need to play half of Bucs games in Orlando to offset attendance issues at Tampa Stadium which held 72,000. Instead NFL teams have to spend a minimum which insures every team has its share of super stars to some extent. Old Bucs drafted good players then let them leave when contracts became to big for Culverhouse.

Of course, its possible all Free Agency can be used for is another way to bring on a bad fit for your the team! Is Josh McCown another Jack Thompson? Only time will tell.

Time to return to the days of opening seasons with expectations of playoff dreams, or finishing them with draft pick countdowns. Images of QBs cannoning Td passes, or Draft failures followed by rifling through coaching candidates.