Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ GM Jason Licht: We can compete this year
It’s always good to have a general manager that exudes faith in his or her team, and that would be a good way to describe new Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht, who believes the Bucs can compete for the NFC South title as soon as this upcoming season.
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This is not the same Bucs team as last year.
The franchise quarterback that never amounted to being a franchise player, Josh Freeman, was waived. Greg Schiano was fired after he lost the players, the front office and a huge amount of the Bucs’ fan base with an arrogance that rubbed seemingly everybody the wrong way.
They also fired general manger Mark Dominik, who went through three coaches during his tenure with the organization.
The low point was the horribly mismanged MRSA outbreak they suffered last season.
However, the team went out and got some viable replacements.
For the quarterback position, the Bucs went out and signed free-agent Josh McCown to a two-year deal, who more than proved his worth with the Chicago Bears last season while Jay Cutler was on the shelf.
As for replacing Schiano, well, they went about as far away from hiring anyone like him as they were able to bring in former Bears head coach Lovie Smith, whose defensive genius already has a proven track record of being able to get a team to the Super Bowl.
With these changes, it’s no surprise that Licht has all the confidence in the world in this team.
“I think we’re going to compete,” Licht says, walking off the field after the team’s final practice before summer break. “No, I know we’re going to compete, for the division this year.”