Buccaneers Coach Jon Gruden Knows He’s Gone

By mhblatt • July 27, 2007

Jon Gruden knows he’s done. If he doesn’t make the playoffs AND win a game, he’ll have a hard time keeping his job. With his current team, he’ll have a hard time making the playoffs. So, now he’s panicking. ESPN reported today that the Buccaneers are looking at Daunte Culpepper because Jake Plummer isn’t showing up.
After winning the Super Bowl his first year in Tampa, Gruden was hailed a genius because he built a legendary offense in Oakland before getting traded to the Buccaneers for two first round picks. The trade terms themselves made him seem great. In retrospect, he was simply above average. The Raiders only had two winning seasons out of four under him. Then he won a Super Bowl with a team that Tony Dungy built by beating a team that he built. The Raiders new coach, Bill Callahan, didn’t even both changing the playbook much, so it wasn’t much of a game.

Since then, he has gone 27-38 with just one winning season, one that resulted in a first-round playoff loss. That was 2005 when Cadillac Williams was a rookie sensation at running back. Chris Simms showed promise in his first year starting at quarterback, largely because of Williams’ success.

However, Williams and Simms both struggled through injuries last year. Simms went down after three games, and his replacements, Bruce Gradkowski and Tim Rattay struggled (13-11 combined TD-INT ratio.) Williams missed a few games early on and rumor, coming from a friend of Buccaneers team doctor Joe Diaco straight to this website, has it that he continued to suffer herniated disks all season. They finished 4-12, including 0-6 in division games. A 39-42 coach with just two winning seasons in five years isn’t going to last much longer.

So now, he’s panicked, going after every Pro Bowl quarterback from the past ten years. Jeff Garcia. Jake Plummer. Daunte Culpepper. (Plummer said he retired after they traded for him.)

When coaches start panicking for their job, they always fall for veteran quarterbacks. Garcia played well for Philly last year, completing 116-of-188 for 10 TDs and 2 INTs, while winning the last 5 games to get the Eagles into the playoffs. He is a good fit in the Buccaneers offense.

Culpepper, however, fits in like a jolly San Franciscan on the Love Boat. (Considering who else the Buccaneers have at quarterback, their off-the-land activities should be interesting…) While he very may still have his abilities, they aren’t for the offense. In Minnesota, he threw a lot and to many receivers. The Buccaneers run more often and don’t use as many receivers. His last year in Minnesota, the Vikings used three-receiver sets 62% of the time. The Buccaneers only did 37%.

Even with all the hype over the new quarterbacks, the Buccaneers success is going to come down to Cadillac Williams. He’s still a good running back, but if he continues to have injury problems like he did in his first two years, the Buccaneers could be derailed.