Dirk Koetter has been fired in Tampa Bay, and the Buccaneers have a huge decision on the horizon regarding his replacement.
For the fifth time in a decade, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be looking for a new head coach. Hopefully, this time they can get it right.
Dirk Koetter was fired on Sunday night after turning in a 5-11 season and failing to do the one thing he was promoted to do. Koetter was promoted to head coach in 2016, replacing Lovie Smith, specifically to develop Jameis Winston into a franchise quarterback.
Winston has committed more turnovers than any quarterback in football over the last three years and the Buccaneers haven’t been to the playoffs since 2007. Things started bright this year and ended like they always do — with a Top 5 draft pick.
Now the search for the next Buccaneers coach begins, but it won’t be an easy one.
Why It Works: If a team is looking for the closest thing to the ‘Next McVay’, plucking someone from Andy Reid’s tree is the safest move. Matt Nagy is proving that there’s fruitfulness to be had by taking someone who had been with Reid, and Bieniemy has been ripening since 2013. After what he’s been able to do with Patrick Mahomes and with the creative playcalling Reid has crafted, it’s time to finally pluck Bieniemy and hope he can be what Nagy has been to Chicago. The NFL is moving towards offenses like the ones Sean McVay and Reid have created, and who better to implement that system in Tampa than a guy with inside information.
Why It Doesn’t: There’s actually little to hate about this move outside of a few pretty big red flags. The first of which is the fact that Bieniemy has been under Reid for years and hasn’t yet been plucked, which may be cause for concern. We also need to be careful of how much the Patrick Mahomes Factor will effect Bieniemy once he no longer has a generational quarterback at his disposal. The most attractive thing about him is his play calling creativity, which is something Mike McCoy didn’t have when he was given a job for coaching Peyton Manning, but the cautionary comparison still fits (and is mildly alarming).