Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coaching Candidate: Jeff Fisher

by Sander on Jan 1, 2012 11:43 AM EST in Franchise Analysis

Earlier today, Rick Stroud reported that Jeff Fisher was spotted at the Bucs' team hotel in Atlanta. This seems to be a coincidence: Fisher was in town to watch his son play in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and Peter King reports he had no meeting with the Bucs. it fuels the rumors that the Bucs want to hire Fisher and gives us an excuse to take a look at the experienced head coach.

Today's Candidate: Jeff Fisher

Jeff Fisher is best known as the long-time coach of the Tennessee Titans - going all the way back to when they were still the Houston Oilers. He started as a cornerback for USC, was drafted in the seventh round by the Chicago Bears and played for them from 1981-1984. After that, he became a defensive assistant under Buddy Ryan and eventually followed Ryan to Philadelphia, becoming his defensive coordinator. After a few short stints around the league, he finally became the Houston Oilers' head coach and remained in that position until last year, when he was fired after a conflict with owner Bud Adams over quarterback Vince Young. Fisher has had success as a head coach, famously coming a yard short of a Super Bowl ring (or at least overtime) after the 1999 season.

Previous Experience

Cornerback, USC, 1977-1980
Cornerback, Chicago Bears - 1981-1984
Defensive Assistant, Chicago Bears - 1985
Defensive Backs Coach, Philadelphia Eagles, 1986-1987
Defensive Coordinator, Philadelphia Eagles, 1988=1990
Defensive Coordinator, Los Angeles Rams, 1991
Defensive Backs Coach, San Francisco 49ers, 1992-1993
Defensive Coordinator, Houston Oilers, 1994
Head Coach, Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, 1994-2010

Why he should be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach:

Is a very experienced, veteran head coach with a steady hand
Jeff Fisher was the head coach of the Tennessee Titans for 17 years, and was a very steady coach throughout. His teams were disciplined, played good, aggressive defense and won the occasional playoff game. He never had overwhelming success as a head coach, winning 5 playoff games and losing 6, but he was always respected and managed to produce winning teams pretty consistently.

The Bucs could do with a veteran coach who knows how to handle different personalities, who knows how to instill discipline. They could do with a coach who is a steady influence. Jeff Fisher is exactly that.
Has had a lot of success installing a defense, and runs a 4-3 defense
Jeff Fisher had a lot of success as a defensive coach before becoming a head coach, working as an assistant for the 1985 Chicago Bears and being the coordinator for Buddy Ryan's Philadelphia Eagles, an at times dominant force on defense. As a head coach his defenses have been up and down, however.

The fact that Jeff Fisher runs a 4-3 defense with an aggressive, up-the-field defensive line also helps. The Bucs seem to have the talent in place along their defensive line, and Fisher wouldn't feel the need to trash two years of high draft picks to install a new defensive front.
Has the name and experience to attract quality assistants
Jeff Fisher has had a lot of quality assistants throughout the years and he certainly has the pedigree to attract quality assistant coaches. Gregg Williams, Jim Schwartz and Mike Munchak moved on to head coaching jobs after serving as assistants under Fisher.

Why he should not be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' coach:

Super Bowl re-treads do not often succeed with new teams
Joe Gibbs, Bud Grant, Bill Parcells, Tom Flores, Jimmy Johnson, George Seifert, Mike Shanahan, Hank Stram, Dick Vermeil, Mike Ditka. That's the list of coaches who won or made it to a Super Bowl and later moved to a new head coaching position after taking at least a year off from football per The Big Lead. As that article notes, of those coaches, only two made it back to a Super Bowl - and only Dick Vermeil managed to win it with a new team. Those coaches had a collective win percentage of 44.4% and made it to the playoffs less than once every three years. Super Bowl re-treads don't have a track record of success in the NFL.
Is a defensive coach, when the Bucs should look for an offensive coach
I have explained before why I prefer offensive head coaches to defensive coaches: defensive head coaches are too conservative in building teams and managing games, while offensive head coaches have a much better track record of success.

There's another reason why the Bucs should go after an offensive head coach: they need to develop Josh Freeman. The third-year quarterback has had a rough year, but he still has all the tools he had one season ago. It's imperative that the Bucs pair him with the right coach and maximize his talent: if developed right, Josh Freeman could be a superstar. If the Bucs fail to develop him the right way, they're throwing many seasons down the drain. A good offensive head coach is key in that respect.
Wasn't all that successful to begin with
In his seventeen years with the Tennessee Titans/Houston Oilers Jeff Fisher won just over 50% of his regular season games - 54.2% to be precise. He made it to the Super Bowl once, but made it to the playoffs just six times. Fisher hasn't won a playoff game since 2003, and has seen his share of ugly seasons. While Fisher was employed for a long time and did a decent job, he was never a terribly successful head coach.

Previous Installments:

Rob Chudzinski

Poll

Would Jeff Fisher be a good head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Yes

326 votes

No

127 votes

I don't know

78 votes

531 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

He would be a great fit down here

Man I hate morris comments. “you don’t go from coach of the year candidate to being fired” hes still stuck in 2010 obviously. He needs to be fired this afternoon.

by Carlitin1988 on Jan 1, 2012 11:53 AM EST via Android app reply actions

Still can't believe he said that....

Regarding Fisher, the words, “I don’t know come to mind”…but I like the idea of him being our coach. I’d give him a shot over some up-incoming coordinator or college prospect.

by _Knives_ on Jan 1, 2012 12:13 PM EST up reply actions

Raheem at this point is delussional...

The time has come coach. Enjoy your last day as HC of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. As far as Fischer, we coukd do worse without s doubt. Is he our best option to lead our team? I dont know. I would rather have Cowher.

East Coast Fan

by Bucfan on Jan 1, 2012 12:47 PM EST via mobile up reply actions

I really hope they don't hire Fisher

He would be an improvement over Morris. I think he did well in Tennessee considering he had Peyton Manning to deal with in his division, but it took Fisher almost five seasons to put together a winning season in Houston/Tennessee. Bucs fans just aren’t that patient.

"Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example." ~ Mark Twain

by LeeCaz on Jan 1, 2012 12:51 PM EST reply actions

I like Fisher...I like defensive minded head coaches.

We had an “offensive guru” in John Gruden and we saw how that worked out. To Fishers defense he did alot with less in Tennessee; when he toke over in Houston the team wasnt very good. Ive watched alot of NFL football and in 17 years as Titans head coach the only players I can recall being decent was McNair, George, Wycheck, and most recently Chris Johnson; of course there are a few more guys but for the most part IMO he did pretty good. IMO he was to Loyal to McNair who was just an ok QB. He had to develope McNair which toke about 3 or 4 years and even then McNair was up and down his entire career. He wouldnt have that problem in Tampa with Freeman at QB who IMO has much more upside than McNair had and, is still very young. He would just need to improve our defense and get more consistancy out of our offense. I think he’d do a good job as coach

by ctd1977 on Jan 1, 2012 2:00 PM EST reply actions