Lovie Smith fired

Per espn.

Just insane. Heard it from my NFL app.

I don't know why he was hired in the first place.

Link.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...neers-dismiss-coach-lovie-smith-second-season

I'm shocked. I figured he'd get at least one more season.

This is a head scratcher to me. They won 6 games in Winston's rookie year and showed big improvements from Smith's first year as HC to this year. They are not going to give Winston any time to build with some continuity.

No patience from the front office. I don't get it.

Imagine if Pete Carroll had been fired after two 7-9 seasons. Give a good coach some time to get his roster set before you judge the results.

Very surprising - mostly because everyone thought Smith would be given another year with Winston.

Only thought is that maybe they have someone specific available that they want to hire who would not be available at anytime later.....

C H I P K E L L Y

The first time Smith was fired, it was coming off a 10-6 season. Compared to that, this is nothing.

That's two franchises now that got rid of Smith very suddenly. I have no idea why they would, but for a guy you never hear rumors about, it's interesting.

They are going to promote Dirk Koetter to HC. He was getting attention for HC jobs and they didn't want to lose him. My guess is he told them he would take an HC job if it was offered so they made the move to keep him around. Id bet they didn't want to make the move this early.

My other bet is Koetter will be their 4th coach in a row fired after 3 or fewer seasons.

kearly":3ognb7le said:

The first time Smith was fired, it was coming off a 10-6 season. Compared to that, this is nothing.

That's two franchises now that got rid of Smith very suddenly. I have no idea why they would, but for a guy you never hear rumors about, it's interesting.

Click to expand...

At least in Chicago he had been there for 9 seasons and just couldn't get over the hump. In Tampa he was just turning around a bad franchise after only his 2nd season.

kearly":3f62375b said:

The first time Smith was fired, it was coming off a 10-6 season. Compared to that, this is nothing.

That's two franchises now that got rid of Smith very suddenly. I have no idea why they would, but for a guy you never hear rumors about, it's interesting.

Click to expand...

Chicago was totally understandable. This is just stupid. You don't fire your coach when your team was epically bad and he has his franchise quarterback who's a rookie. You give him another year if not two.

MizzouHawkGal":1j1m8cjp said:

kearly":1j1m8cjp said:

The first time Smith was fired, it was coming off a 10-6 season. Compared to that, this is nothing.

That's two franchises now that got rid of Smith very suddenly. I have no idea why they would, but for a guy you never hear rumors about, it's interesting.

Click to expand...

Chicago was totally understandable. This is just stupid. You don't fire your coach when your team was epically bad and he has his franchise quarterback who's a rookie. You give him another year if not two.

Click to expand...

They had a top 5 offense this year...up from 30th last year. Middling defense.

rideaducati":3vemuaud said:

MizzouHawkGal":3vemuaud said:

kearly":3vemuaud said:

The first time Smith was fired, it was coming off a 10-6 season. Compared to that, this is nothing.

That's two franchises now that got rid of Smith very suddenly. I have no idea why they would, but for a guy you never hear rumors about, it's interesting.

Click to expand...

Chicago was totally understandable. This is just stupid. You don't fire your coach when your team was epically bad and he has his franchise quarterback who's a rookie. You give him another year if not two.

Click to expand...

They had a top 5 offense this year...up from 30th last year. Middling defense.

Click to expand...

I meant what Lovie walked into last year. He only started getting the pieces to be good and those pieces are on offense which is his weakness. Another year and he would have had the base of his defense and he knows defense just like Pete. As I said it's pure stupid. Tampa was at the bottom far worse than Seattle was in 2010 and it took Pete three years and a miracle in the form of Russell Wilson dropping to a spot that he had no business being in.

Going by the numbers Wilson was a pure no question top 5 pick that likely should have been the number 2 pick in 2012.

MizzouHawkGal":2t40nybn said:

rideaducati":2t40nybn said:

MizzouHawkGal":2t40nybn said:

kearly":2t40nybn said:

The first time Smith was fired, it was coming off a 10-6 season. Compared to that, this is nothing.

That's two franchises now that got rid of Smith very suddenly. I have no idea why they would, but for a guy you never hear rumors about, it's interesting.

Click to expand...

Chicago was totally understandable. This is just stupid. You don't fire your coach when your team was epically bad and he has his franchise quarterback who's a rookie. You give him another year if not two.

Click to expand...

They had a top 5 offense this year...up from 30th last year. Middling defense.

Click to expand...

I meant what Lovie walked into last year. He only started getting the pieces to be good and those pieces are on offense which is his weakness. Another year and he would have had the base of his defense and he knows defense just like Pete. As I said it's pure stupid. Tampa was at the bottom far worse than Seattle was in 2010 and it took Pete three years and a miracle in the form of Russell Wilson dropping to a spot that he had no business being in.

Going by the numbers Wilson was a pure no question top 5 pick that likely should have been the number 2 pick in 2012.

Click to expand...

Too short
Career backup (Bill Polian said so)

Gotta join the chorus by calling this a bewildering move for me as well. Let's not forget that as little as one month ago, Lovie Smith with frankly inferior talent had his team on the verge of playoff contention. That's not bad at all given what he had to work with.

I actually get this firing.

I thought he was safe because 6 wins with a rookie QB, but the defense was not as good as some of the ingredients.

And historically, Lovie is a HC who kind of gets in the way of the offense. So if the D isn't good, what is Lovie doing as the HC?

Now, I happen to think Dirk Koetter is not an improvement, but if he is the guy they go to, that is a different subject.

I think its a good move actually, while Koetter makes sense I half wonder if they'd take a run at Jimbo Fisher.

I am shocked. I posted that he was closer to extension than getting fired.

Clearly I was wrong

Bad move. No consistency and had a rookie qb. I am not crazy about his style (think Chicago underperformed) but he had them on the right track

Think Tampa may have jumped the gun here if they really did this just to keep Koetter. One, I'm not convinced he would've been high on anyone's HC list. Sure, some teams would've done due diligence, but he did not strike me as a premium candidate for one of just six other openings. Two, I'm just skeptical about his chops as an HC.

They did something similar when they fired Gruden and bumped up Raheem Morris. That said, if they really thought Lovie wasn't taking them to the next level (understandable), then the firing makes sense. However, they may be missing an opportunity to make a splash by defaulting to Koetter. Seems like a half measure for a below average club with promising pieces.

There's also the fact that the pass D for Tampa was the worst in franchise history each of the last two years. They probably sought out Lovie because they hoped he could replicate the outstanding pass defenses he had in Chicago, but instead his results were abysmal in that area.

I wonder if Lovie ends up in SF? Not many coaches are going to say yes to being Baalke's underling, and Lovie has a history of being one of the lowest paid head coaches, which will appeal to an ownership that insists on a cheap coaching staff.