Five former Buccaneers players who could pull a Jeff Saturday
In light of the shocking Jeff Saturday news, who are some former Tampa Bay Buccaneers players who could potentially be named interim head coach should such a situation arise? Here are five potential candidates of former Buccaneers players.
As you may have heard, the Indianapolis Colts shocked the NFL world by naming Jeff Saturday as their interim head coach after firing Frank Reich. Saturday was the Colts center from 1999 to 2011, whose only coaching experience comes at the high school level, albeit in Georgia, and has most recently been a talking head on ESPN. To put it lightly, this news has the fans of every team from sea to shining sea feeling rather flabbergasted. It got us thinking though, what if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were in such a position? What former Buccaneers players would coach in the interim, if not more?
Before we get into it we just have to stress that in no way is this advocating for the current staff or Todd Bowles to get fired, let alone for a former player with limited to no experience. However, there are some fans that do already want a regime change, so let’s not act like an interim coach isn’t outside the realm of possibility.
That said if heaven forbid the Bucs are in such a spot that they need to fire coaches halfway through the season and feel the need to replace them with former players, who are our top five picks for who would be the best, and most fun, choices.
Booger McFarland – DT (1999 – 2006)
Well, if being an analyst on ESPN is one of the key criteria for being hired by your former team during your playing days, then Booger McFarland checks that box. In fact, he was even a part of the Monday Night Football commentary team. Can Jeff Saturday say that? Afraid not.
McFarland actually played against Saturday during his Bucs days, where it’s easy to forget due to his familiar face on ESPN, that Booger was a very good defensive tackle. He may not have been criminally subbed from a Pro Bowl appearance in his career, but he was a key part of the legendary Bucs defense of the late 1990s and early 2000s that eventually won Super Bowl XXXVII at the end of the 2002 season. In fact, he was also teammates with Saturday for the 2006 Colts that won Super Bowl XLI to boot. So that’s pretty nifty.
It may not help the offense of the Buccaneers should this happen, but Booger would be pretty much the equivalent of Saturday to the Colts just for defense.
As for offense…