Bruce Arians Makes Home Coaching Debut as Bucs Host Dolphins

It’s a preseason ‘battle of Florida’ on Friday night as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers welcome the Miami Dolphins to Raymond James Stadium. The Dolphins are coming off a 7-9 season but there have been plenty of changes in the makeup of both the roster and coaching staff since then. Tampa Bay went 5-11 last season and that cost head coach Dirk Koetter his job.

The Bucs have had a hard time settling on a coach since the six year run of Jon Gruden in the early 2000s. Raheem Morris was one of the most completely overmatched head coaches in NFL history and he lasted three seasons with a record of 17-31. He was followed by Greg Schiano who went 11-21 in two seasons. Lovie Smith was ‘next man up’ but he had the worst statistical performance of any of this group going 8-24 in two years for a pitiful .250 winning percentage. Koetter actually had the best winning percentage of this group going 19-29 for .396.

Tampa Bay is hoping that they’ve finally found the right guy in the person of former Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians. Arians is a well regarded coach but is particularly well known for getting the most out of quarterbacks and with Jameis Winston in the final year of his rookie contract that’s a big priority for the team. The jury remains out on Winston’s ability to be a legitimate NFL starting quarterback but if nothing else playing for Arians will give him the best chance to succeed.

The Bucs’ defense was still a mess in their preseason opener against Pittsburgh but there was some good work out of the offense who put up 479 yards and 31 first downs. Winston even threw a touchdown pass in the first half. The most impressive quarterback performance was third stringer Ryan Griffin who completed 26 of 43 passes for 330 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. From a preseason standpoint, the Bucs’ quarterback rotation is pretty good. Miami’s top two quarterbacks are serviceable at best–Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen. The bigger issue for the Dolphins QBs is a lack of skill position players around them.

Miami was a horrific road team during the regular season last year going 1-7 SU. We’re not expecting great things out of the Bucs once the games start to count but by preseason standards their offense looks very potent. This is Arians’ home coaching debut and betting a new head coach in his first preseason home game is a long running and very successful concept.

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