Lovie Smith's teams don't drum up visions of an offensive juggernaut, but the Buccaneers coach hopes that will change with the hiring of play-caller Dirk Koetter.
"Whenever a guy is able to put 59 points on you, on the other side, you have to be pretty excited about bringing him on board," Smith said Wednesday at the Senior Bowl, per PewterReport.com. "I've known Dirk Koetter a long time. He's got a good offensive mind."
Over the past three seasons, Koetter oversaw an explosive pass-oriented offense in Atlanta with Matt Ryan at the helm. Tampa's scheme could use some of that firepower after leaning all autumn on the playbook of the departed Jeff Tedford, who was prevented from coaching in 2014 because of an illness.
"I can just talk on what I see us being going forward," Smith said. "I've talked about having a balanced attack, and I'll say the same thing right now. Dirk is running our offense, but what Dirk would say is that he's running our Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense that we're putting together and it hasn't been run before. We're going to put all of our ideas together with that."
Smith isn't giving us much to work with, but we expect the Bucs to lean heavily on their pass-catching duo of Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans. Austin Seferian-Jenkins also gives Koetter an intriguing young tight end to work with, but the situation under center is messy.
Veteran quarterback Josh McCown revealed himself to be no more than an underwhelming patch. Meanwhile, young Mike Glennon looms as a major question mark behind a shoddy offensive line that allowed an outrageous 52 sacks this season, tied for third most in the NFL.
We trust Koetter to improve this offense, but nothing good and pure will happen in Tampa until quarterbacks aren't running for their lives.
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