The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one of 32 NFL teams trying to set themselves up for a Super Bowl run in early 2019. One way to go about it is stealing ideas from those who’ve done it before you.
There’s something to be said about ingenuity and creativity, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers also need to keep an eye out for what works on other teams as well.
Simply put, if a team can beat the Saints with a play style your team can replicate, then you have to at least install bits of it into your own.
Well, we saw the beginnings of some of this type of thinking today as members of the media pointed out to head coach Dirk Koetter they noticed some run-pass-option (RPO) plays being worked on.
The team has done a lot of red zone work this week according to Koetter, with the defense apparently winning most of the battles. Of course, with very little physicality going on, this isn’t necessarily a surprise.
Once we get into full training camp, we’ll all get a better glimpse of what the 2018 Bucs bring to the table. Still, it’s fun to imagine what this could look like.
Specific to the RPO work seen recently, Koetter had this to say,
"“I think everybody in the league is probably going to do more of it this year. (With) the success that Philly had, it’s a copycat league.”"
Now, it’s not the RPO which really makes me happy with this development early in the training sessions. It’s the simple fact Dirk Koetter is trying new things.
It’s a little bit of hyperbole, but it really appeared at times last season the play-calling rotated through about ten or so plays, and just repeated depending on situations.
Predictable is a word thrown a lot about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2017. The Pewter Plank’s own twitter account had several successful attempts at calling out plays before they happened.
Ladies and gentlemen, we may be titled as experts by FanSided, but future NFL coaches we ain’t. So if we can see it, the guys paid to decode systems for a living surely can.
I’m sure we all remember Julio Jones adding his own ready-light log of tinder to the fan-fires in Tampa by saying the defense did little-to-nothing different in the second-half of one of their match-ups.
Koetter is responsible for both sides of the ball. Yes, even though Mike Smith is the defensive coordinator, the head coach gets the blame and credit for the whole enchilada.
If the head coach is boring and predictable, then the team will follow suit. If play calling is repetitive, then teams will key in on what they’re trying to do early and exploit it.
With the offense trying RPOs early here’s hoping it’s signs of Koetter tapping into his more creative side. Even if he’s coloring with someone else’s stencils.
What do you make of hearing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are running run-pass-option plays in this phase of the off-season program? And how well do you think Jameis Winston will or could do running it?
Let me know in the comments or find me on twitter. Go Bucs!