Glazer: Bucs need to show improvement

   

    Bucs vice president Joel Glazer called the 2006 season 'very disappointing.' And after three losing seasons in the past four years, he indicated that coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen have been put on notice that the team "needs to start improving.' 

   Taking a break from the NFL owners' meetings Tuesday at the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa in Phoenix, Glazer spoke for the first time in nearly a year about the Bucs' past, present and future in an interview with the Times.

   He would not address questions about his father, Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer, who is recovering from two strokes he suffered last April. And he would not discuss the Manchester United soccer team, the family's most lucrative sports holding.

   But Glazer did tackle most of the issues facing the Bucs and declared that the salary cap problems and lack of draft picks that contributed to the declining performance were behind them.

   ""Last year I would say was very disappointing,'' Glazer said. ""I know it was disappointing for us, I know it was disappointing for people in our organization and our fans. It's just disappointing to go 4-12 in the National Football League and coming from where we've been in the previous years was just not a good feeling. We didn't enjoy it and I know nobody in our organization enjoyed it.''

   Glazer also said that Gruden and Allen have not been given any specific goals for 2007 beyond showing rapid improvement and a solid foundation for championships in the future.

   ""There's no magic number. We never sit there and say, "It's this or else,''' Glazer said. ""Like I said, 4-12 is very disappointing. By the same token, as an organization we have to be realistic where we've been at the last couple of years, the circumstances that have brought us to where we are and first recognize that. It's so easy to just look at the record and in this league, ultimately, you're accountable to your record. But when you're judging people, you've got to look at the circumstances that led you there. That's not to place blame on any one area or thing. It's a few things brought together that contributed to it.

   ""All that being said, some of the problems that contributed to it - not having all our draft picks, salary cap issues - are in the past. We're at a point now where this organization and this team needs to start improving. I know that's our expectations, I know that's Jon's expectations, I know that's Bruce's expectation. But we don't go into the season with a magic number or a magic formula.''

               

Comments

[charles w. magee]

as a charter ticket holder (1976) i was not fooled by gruden & company from the get go! give me oakland's playbook and maybe i could beat them, especially with tony dungey's talented players. let's move on to a coach without a wise assed attitude and rebuild our bucs!!!

[Paul Allen]

Charles, I have to disagree. I get tired of the media and some Bucs fans going around saying that Gruden won the Superbowl with Dungy's team. Joe Jerevicius, Ken Dilger, and Mike Pittman just to name a few, were brought in by Gruden. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Dungy fan too, but Tony Dungy had 6 seasons to win a Superbowl with the Bucs, and had plenty of talent to bring home the trophy but the Bucs underachieved year after year with Dungy. If you really want to get technical, it was Sam Wyche who drafted John Lynch, Derrick Brooks, and Warren Sapp; so you can make the same argument that Dungy made the Bucs a playoff team with Wyche's team. Oh well, you must be a liberal!

[Alan B]

The problem IS Gruden. Simply put, nobody enjoys enjoys playing for him. Not the players, and more importantly, not the coaches. Dungy had a great talent at identifying assistant coaches who were talented and wanted to coach for him. Gruden has such a strong bully personality that he can't attract talented assistants. And without good assistants, no football can succeed. Those guys are as important, if not more so, than the head coach.

[Sid]

Gruden took over an old team, with it's future mortgaged. This is why Parcells backed out to begin with, he saw the writing on the wall. Allen just paid off the large high interest credit card bill McKay created. We will see significant improvement over the next couple of seasons, and quite a few so called "fans, and some in the media as well will have quite a bit of egg on their face.

[joe smith]

to Paul Allen:

Can you give us all a break? "Oh well, you must be a liberal!"

C'MON!!!!! Why is it if someone says something, we get to hear Liberal as if its a bad term. Where is the political discussion forums? I thought this was sports? Drop the ignorance and talk sports, not politics. We get enough all day long.

[Rick]

Gruden's problem is he is inflexible. A successful head coach adjusts to the strengths of his best players. For example, Chris Simms is great at throwing the long ball such as deep crosses, outs, and posts. He doesn't dink and dunk very well. Then there is Alstott who needs to be running vertically when he catches a pass, not parallel to the line of scrimmage. How many times did we watch him get hit behind the line of scrimmage before he could turn up field? Then there is the shotgun formation, which now in his hour of desperation is going to be something he will try. Another thing is this beating up on Rich McKay. I don't get it. He is the only common thread from nothing to Super Bowl winner. He and Gruden never got along because Gruden has no self-control. Remember Charlie Garner, Tim Brown, Daryl Russell, and so many more that got paid and never contributed. He picked up a few contributors like Pittman and McCardell, but the truth is he has not maintained a competitive roster. And now we have arrived at the desperate lame duck head coach stage. I have to quote River Tam and say, "Things are going to get much, much worse"!

[ryan]

what Paul Allen said!

[Carl]

Gruden-hating Liberals suck.

[Rebates Online]

Go Bucs!

[Joe]

Look, if you take Gruden out of the picture and bring in any other coach during the 2002 do you actually think we would have one a SB? Get real, he got us to the promiseland and got the trophy! Look at Bill Parcells, never did anything with the Cowboys and walked away............again! How about the Redskins? Daniel Synder has bought more players then USC and they can't win a SB.........please respond with something a little better......

[midge trubey]

it is about time that joel glazer spoke up for his family and for us poor fans that have to watch gruden make the sme mistakes week after week, the horrible coaching calls on the field that he makes and his terrible behavior towards mike alstott. when the entire stadium is screaming for him to put alstott in, gruden just does his horrible snarl and makes another lousy call. there is no excuse for the bucs to be playing so poorly except that the players cannot stand their coach and do not respect him as he does not respect his team. the glazers have opened up their wallets and he does snarls at the side lines for the cameras. i am a huge foot ball fan and i am sick to death of jon gruden. hey, jon, havce you ever heard of the shot gun? your play book needs a total overhaul. my husband, watching the game, can precall every play that you make. if he can do it, no wonder the entire football league on game day knows what you are going to do, play after play. boy, do i feel better getting this off my chest!!!!!!! fire gruden and let's play ball!!!!!

[midge trubey]

it is about time that joel glazer spoke up for his family and for us poor fans that have to watch gruden make the same mistakes week after week, the horrible coaching calls on the field that he makes and his terrible behavior towards mike alstott. when the entire stadium is screaming for him to put alstott in, gruden just does his horrible snarl and makes another lousy call. there is no excuse for the bucs to be playing so poorly except that the players cannot stand their coach and do not respect him as he does not respect his team. the glazers have opened up their wallets and all he does is snarl at the side lines for the cameras. his players are executing his terrible plays and then he does not like the results. i am a huge foot ball fan and i am sick to death of jon gruden. hey, jon, have you ever heard of the shot gun? your play book needs a total overhaul. my husband, watching the game, can precall every play that you make. if he can do it, no wonder the entire football league on game day knows what you are going to do, play after play. boy, do i feel better getting this off my chest!!!!!!! fire gruden and let's play ball!!!!!

[Keith Austin]

Midge, SHUT UP and GO make your husband a sandwich.

[Sam Owen]

Fire the soccer-luvin' Glazers.

[Al Trinkits]

sheesh......Somebody needs a hug

[BOOKER]

John Gruden is league wide respected offensive specialist. That might be his biggest flaw though. Because he's been so good with the way he's coached and play calling in the past, he's reluctant to change anything until now. If u look at the most successful coaches in the league, they adjust the scheme to fit the players they have, (see NE Pariots). Gruden just has to find the players that fit into what he's trying to do, but in the meantime, he's got to adjust to the players he has now and to what they do best.