Tampa Bay Buccaneers Make Huge Error In Firing Lovie Smith

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers elected to part ways with their head coach Lovie Smith after only two seasons on the job. Despite improving to 6-10 after a 2-14 season, and getting some major improvements out of the team, Smith will not be returning as the head coach. All I can say is, wow. Smith is one of the better veteran head coaches in the league, and the Buccaneers are making a big mistake by letting him walk away.

Though Smith didn’t have excellent results during two seasons in Tampa Bay, he had a proven track record of success. Smith spent nine seasons as the head coach of the Chicago Bears, posting a record of 89-87 during that time frame. Smith led the team to three 11-plus win seasons, made the playoffs three times, and made it to the Super Bowl in 2007. The most impressive part of that season? He got there with Rex Grossman as his quarterback.

During his time in Chicago, Smith never really had a terrific passer. Sure, Jay Cutler was good for some of his Chicago career, but he was also inconsistent and lethargic at times. What Smith was able to do was coach up the Bears’ defenses to be some of the best in the league. Of course, he did have some great players like Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs during his time, but Smith’s defensive scheme is part of what made the Bears winners. Without him, the team would have been significantly worse.

When he came to Tampa Bay, Smith had his work cut out for him. The Bucs had just come off of the disastrous Greg Schiano era, in which the team had gone 11-21 over two years, and ultimately had lost faith in their coach. While Smith fared worse in terms of record, he still did pretty well given the roster he was left with.

The Buccaneers had very little talent and depth when Smith came in to coach them, and rebuilding them was supposed to be a challenge. Smith surprisingly elected to build up the offense, despite being a defensive-minded head coach, and he was able to create a pretty strong unit. Jameis Winston played well as a rookie. Vincent Jackson and two of Smith’s draft choices, Mike Evans and Austin Seferian-Jenkins, started to become stars. Doug Martin looked revitalized while Charles Sims, another Smith selection, was a great change of pace back.

Though Smith didn’t do as well on defense, he had a couple of building blocks in place, including Gerald McCoy, Lavonte David, and rookie stud Kwon Alexander. Had Smith gotten another year to develop his defense and add some more talent to the unit, he would have made them significantly better. They weren’t too far off from being a playoff team.

The Buccaneers had no good reason to fire Smith. He looked to be ahead of schedule in the team’s massive rebuild, and it there are not too many coaches better than him on the market. The Bucs are going to have a tough time replacing Smith, and unless they can land a proven coach to replace him, things could go downhill fast for the young team.