Do Goldilock Glazers and a Bear Have a Perfect Fit?

The end of the 2013 NFL season is over.  And yet with another losing season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' future is just beginning.  Vanquished are what some called insane tactics.  Begone is the headmaster in charge of funneling gladiators into the edifice named Raymond James Stadium.  Just as soon as the door closed to usher away the past those same doors opened to reign in a hopeful opportunity.

As a four win team, one would presume the stat sheets would be filled with names that nobody has heard.  That notion is far from the truth.  The following players have been to the Pro Bowl on last year's roster:  RB Doug Martin, WR Vincent Jackson, LT Donald Penn, OG Carl Nicks, OG Davin Joseph, DT Gerald McCoy, S Dashon Goldson, and CB Darrelle Revis.  There is also this little known defensive All Pro who does not get the love of the Pro Bowl in LB Levonte David.  With such a talented roster, the debacle of last season may induce one's mind to become perplexed.

The Glazers, the family who owns the Tampa Bay organization is the only consistent factor between three head coaches and two general managers within three years.  They have had their growing pains, especially after winning a Super Bowl in 2002.  After letting go their Super Bowl winning coach, Jon Gruden and GM Bruce Allen, the Glazers went in house by promoting defensive backs coach for a year in Tampa Raheem Morris to be the head coach and Director of Pro Personnel Mark Dominik to become the new general manager.  The organization decided to go "Youngry" during the Raheem Morris coaching era.  Unfortunately, that youthfulness helped make the team and its players give up more often than not in the third year of Morris' tenure as they combusted to a 4 - 12 season.  It did not help Morris' cause to not have strong veterans brought in as the Bucs' were gun shy in spending money since the Gruden era.  In Morris' stead, the Bucs quickly snatched up offensive guru from the college ranks in Oregon University's Chip Kelly.  That was short lived as Kelly spurned the Bucs' by reneging to return to Oregon.  (Mind you, Oregon had already made moves to announce their new head coach after Kelly left.)

Since Kelly reneged, it did not leave plenty of time for the Bucs' organization to find an alternative for the head coaching position as well as finding new assistant coaches.  One predominant factor was definitive, Tampa does not want to repeat players giving up.  Enter hard nose college coach Greg Schiano.  Also, the Glazers gave a green light to spend on free agents correspondingly with the hire.  WR Vincent Jackson, G Carl Nicks and CB Eric Wright was a huge splash as well as step to a winning program to come to fruition sooner than later.  Dominik hit on three draft picks who are entrenched to be part of the core group for the future in safety Mark Barron, RB Doug Martin and LB Levonte David in the 2012 draft.  After a 7 - 9 season, acquiring CB Darrelle Revis along with safety Dashon Goldson sent the expectations higher.  Sadly, though, the disciplinary era of Schiano was short lived after two seasons.  And with Schiano, Dominik.

We fans have seen promoted new coaches, two rookie coaches and are now coming back to conservative approach with the hiring of established coach Lovie Smith.  And with Lovie Smith, the Glazers have moved back to a conservative approach with hiring an established known quantity.  The Glazers are always in a perpetual building process and the goal is respective to recent history.  The Youngry era was hope that Morris could be like former coach Tony Dungy, but it was also penny pinching.  Ushering in a disciplinarian era and with Schiano, big time spending as the Glazers wanted to bring in more fans.  For two years, the organization has invested a superfluous amount of finances to bring in top talent.  Vincent Jackson, Carl Nicks, Darrelle Revis, and Dashon Goldson total for $240.31 million dollars.  Coming into 2014, the organization now will go with value signings by bringing in new general manager Jason Licht.  The hopes are that Goldilocks, err, the Glazers, have found the correct combination.

Although potentially the Buccaneers may have found the correct combination for the next couple of seasons, expectations may rise and once again the Glazers may not be complacent.  Recall that Tony Dungy had a streak of five consecutive non-losing seasons, but was still fired.  Also recall that Lovie Smith was fired after winning 10 games, not by the Buccaneers organization, but by the Chicago Bears.  Hope is ever eternal as we are assured there will always be a next season.  Yet we must be cognizant that our organization will be like that of ever other organization such that we are forever in a building process.  There are exceptions, but those are definitely rare.

With that stated, do you think the Glazers have found the combination to be one of those rare exceptions like the New England Patriots' organization?  Please give support for your stance below in comments.