Buccaneers: Grading Dirk Koetter Halfway Through Year One
He’s Learning: C
The Bucs are through eight games now and Dirk Koetter is halfway through his first season as a head coach. The Bucs have looked great in some games but horrible in others. The Bucs are 3-5 and are still technically in the hunt, even after the past two weeks where they’ve looked as bad as any other in the league.
Their defense is just as bad if not worse as last season and they are a quarter of what they were offensively due to a rash of injuries. Injuries happen but when four running backs and your number two wide receiver go down for an extended period of time the offense is going to be relatively bland.
The only good that has come out of past few weeks is the emergence of Mike Evans as elite and the lack of turnovers from Winston. The defense really isn’t Koetter’s doing as he hired his close friend Mike Smith to run that aspect of the team.
The offense and lack of game management is on him. The Bucs have not been aggressive ending halves, poor penalty accepts and declines, and committed penalties at the most inopportune times. That is on Koetter’s end. He’s learning and it will take time for him to develop but if he doesn’t get aggressive things will stay the same. Over a few more years this team can definitely develop into a contender but it’s a process. I give the Bucs head coach a C for his first eight games because that’s what this team is, pretty average.