Raheem Morris Fired As Head Coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs

In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, there are reports that Raheem Morris was fired this morning as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You don’t have to look too far to see why Morris was ousted, as the Bucs started the season 4-2 and then went on a 10-game losing streak to finish the year at 4-12.

Early on in the season, this looked like a team that would build off of their encouraging season a year ago.

Things quickly went downhill though and culminated in a thrashing at Atlanta yesterday, in which they trailed 42-0 with a little less than seven minutes left in the second quarter.

For a coach fighting for his job, that was the worst possible start Morris could have asked for.

As for who the next coach will be, it’s all pure speculation at this point. The Bucs can build around quarterback Josh Freeman, and there are other pieces that they can win with.

The problem is the competition in the NFC South. The Saints and Falcons don’t seem to be falling off anytime soon, and even though the Panthers didn’t win a lot of games this season, Cam Newton exceeded expectations even as the first overall pick in the draft. The first two should once again be playoff teams next year, and the third should make the move into a fight for a wild card spot.

Where does that leave Tampa Bay? Unfortunately for them, there are more questions than answers right now. It won’t be a quick fix any way you look at it.

The Morris firing had to happen to start the rebuilding. We’ll see where they go next.

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