Bucs part ways with Koetter following 3 seasons
TAMPA, Fla. — After three trying seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have relieved coach Dirk Koetter of his duties, the team announced Sunday.
Koetter finished his stint with Tampa Bay with a 19-29 record, including going 5-11 this season.
“We sincerely appreciate the hard work and commitment shown by Dirk over the past several years,” Buccaneers owner/co-chairman Joel Glazer said in a statement. “Working with Dirk has been a pleasure and we wish him and his family all the best in the future. Our search for a new head coach will begin immediately and will be conducted by General Manager Jason Licht.”
Franchise QB is of primary concern for Tampa Bay’s next coach who will be tasked with nurturing the 2015 No. 1 pick and getting to the playoffs.
Lack of continuity at quarterback and issues with defense and kicking bogged down a team that hasn’t seen the playoffs in more than a decade.
The Buccaneers started 2-0 this season with backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick leading them to wins over the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles. But the Bucs would endure three stretches with at least three straight losses as the team bounced back and forth between Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston as the starting quarterback.
“There’s no ‘deserve’; there’s no such thing as ‘deserve’ in the NFL,” Koetter said Sunday before news of his dismissal. “Numbers are nice, but this is a winning league. I’ve been fired before and I’ve been hired before and I know this: if you look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and know you did everything you could, then I’ve got no problem holding my head up.”
In 2016, Koetter’s first year, he led the Bucs to a 9-7 record — their first winning season since 2010 — which included a five-game win streak and the team narrowly missing the playoffs.
The Bucs went 5-11 in 2017, but ownership felt that Winston’s shoulder injury and players showing resolve through several one-score games were enough to warrant Koetter’s return.
In his first season with the Bucs as offensive coordinator under Lovie Smith in 2015, Koetter helped Tampa Bay to a top-five offensive ranking. At the time, the organization had concerns that Koetter, who had drawn interest as a head-coaching candidate, would be lured away.
They had been pleased with his development of Winston, the first overall draft pick in 2015. That ultimately earned Koetter a promotion to head coach when Smith was fired, despite Smith’s defense earning a top-10 ranking in several statistical categories and improving from 2-14 to 6-10.
Despite the franchise’s well-documented history of losing (the Bucs are 260-415-1 all-time), the Glazer family has shown little patience for it. The previous two head coaches — Smith and Greg Schiano — were both fired after two seasons, with Raheem Morris out after three.
Jon Gruden, who went 7-9 and 5-11 in 2003 and 2004 — just after the Bucs’ only Super Bowl win in 2002 — is the only coach to have been retained by the Glazers despite back-to-back losing seasons.
Earlier this season, the Bucs fired defensive coordinator Mike Smith after the defense surrendered more than 400 yards for the 20th time in 37 games.