Bruce Arians has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers flirting with .500 (or better) despite myriad injuries and a rollercoaster of a quarterback.
One year ago, head coach Dirk Koetter and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were putting the final flourishes on a 5-11record that sunk them all the way to the basement of the NFC South.
That team lost their final four games, ensuring it would identically match the same record and division standing from the previous year.
To the outsider, there’s little difference between the 2017 and 2018 versions of the Buccaneers. Both were pitiful losers.
Then again, that’s been par for the course far longer than just the last two years in Tampa Bay. Save for a second-place finish in the division at 9-7 in ’16, the Bucs have never finished out of fourth place since 2010. Koetter tried to correct course and failed. So did Lovie Smith. The same can be said of Greg Schiano and even Raheem Morris. The Bucs haven’t consecutive winning seasons since Jon Gruden was head coach (and even those years were back-to-back 9-7 seasons).
Few teams are as good as losing as the Buccaneers.
Enter Bruce Arians.
Arians learned on the sidelines of the Pittsburgh Steelers as the team’s offensive coordinator for one of their most dominant stretches from 2007-11. In ’12, after taking the Indianapolis Colts’ offensive coordinator gig under Chuck Pagano, Arians got the chance to serve as interim head coach while Pagano battled cancer. The result was an incredible 9-3 run in the NFL’s first glimpse at Arians as the team’s overall leader.
From there, Arians was given the head job with the Arizona Cardinals. During his five-year stint, the Cardinals won 62 percent of their games. They were 5-11 when he arrived, situated in last place in the NFC West. Since he left, the Cardinals have occupied last place again for each of the last two seasons.
Only three active head coaches have a better career win percentage than Bruce Arians: Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin, and Sean Payton. That’s it. Not Andy Reid or John Harbaugh or Pete Carroll have won at the rate that Arians has.
And he’s up to his old tricks again.
If you beyond the typical NFL headlines, you’ll see the Buccaneers steamrolled the Detroit Lions on Sunday to raise their record to 7-7. While they’re far behind the New Orleans Saints, they’re well ahead of the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers, giving them a very real chance to finish in second place, a true achievement in the face of so many last-place finishes in the past decade.
It’s not as if Arians cleaned house coming into this season with a new quarterback in charge. In fact, he’s taken the familiar rollercoaster known as Jameis Winston under his wing and tried to encourage. While the startling amount of turnovers are still there for Winston (more than ever, in fact), Arians is giving Winston the green light to throw more and farther than ever in his NFL career.
Winston gave a perfect example of the aforementioned amusement park ride on Sunday. On the Bucs’ opening drive against the Lions, he threw his NFL-leading 24th interception of the season. Still, he finished with 458 passing yards and four touchdowns after his initial mistake. That brought his touchdown season total to 30, a new career high with two games remaining (did we mention Winston is playing with a broken thumb?)
Even more amazing is the Buccaneers offensive line hasn’t been impressive this season, especially at the tackle positions. The run game still hasn’t yielded a dependable back despite recent investments like Ronald Jones. All-Pro wide receiver Mike Evans has been sidelined and now Chris Godwin is hurt as well.
Defensively, the Bucs look like they’ve got a couple rising stars with rookie linebacker Devin White and cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting. Shaq Barrett has been a revelation as a pass rusher who bet on himself with a one-year deal. Even with Beau Allen and Anthony Nelson out, the Buccaneers defense is coming together around a nice young nucleus.
Coming out of Week 15, the Buccaneers have won four straight games and have a real chance to get above. 500 if they can halt the Houston Texans on Saturday. As a real playoff contender in the AFC, the Texans are trying to stave off the competition in a close AFC South race. The Bucs, meanwhile, are wanting to believe again.
Even if Arians and Co. come up short in their hopes to best the .500 mark at season’s end, they’ve laid the foundation.
It’s been a long, long time since anybody’s been able to claim that much.