Tampa Bay Buccaneers still searching for right culture

Dirk Koetter has made it a priority to improve the culture of his football team.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach believes good culture begets winning, though a lot of people would argue the reverse.

We would all agree the best way to improve the atmosphere around one Buc Place is to win.

And to win you need culture.

So how do you identify culture?

Its seeds are planted at the top of an organization, though you can find it in different pieces in different places.

Trust and discipline are the words most commonly used to describe a team with a good culture, but never forget about talent. It is the great equalizer.

A perfect example will be on display when the Bucs host the Denver Broncos on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.

These franchises are polar opposites. The defending Super Bowl champion Broncos are a model of consistency while the Bucs have been seeking that right culture for more than a decade.

“An old coach told me, ‘You’ve got to learn to stop losing before you can learn to win,’” Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith said. “There are lots of teams that have a problem with that. We’ve got to stop making the mistakes so we can start playing the type of football that we know we are capable of playing. It’s a fine line, this is a fine line business.”

What separates the Broncos and Bucs is how they acquire players and hire top level personnel, which brings us back to talent.

The best way to improve the culture of a football team is to improve the skill level.

Just look at Denver cornerback Aqib Talib. The former Buc has never been known as a character builder, but his skill set hides a lot of his personal deficiencies.

When he is not punching out cab drivers or involved in shoot-outs Talib is not a bad guy, we are told.

But the Broncos don’t have him on their roster because of his personality.

Lack of patience on the part of Bucs ownership has exacerbated the problem. They’ve shown little hesitation in firing head coaches and making rash decisions.

Think of all the time wasted when you hire a new head coach —who hires a new staff that essentially turns over a 53-man roster — only to do it again two years later.

Raheem Morris, Greg Schiano and Lovie Smith couldn’t find that winning culture, and now it’s Koetter’s turn. Though we are not sure how much time he gets — only that it won’t be much.

The Bucs believe they finally have their franchise quarterback in Jameis Winston, but they need more. One man cannot reverse the plague of errors that this organization has endured.

A winning culture is one that doesn’t leave players shaking their heads “here we go again” when things start to go bad.

A winning culture doesn’t turn nondescript quarterbacks into Sunday wonders when they visit Tampa.

Here is an example of bad culture: The Bucs defense has become the quarterback whisperer of the NFL. Any struggling quarterback looking for a cure wants to come to RJS.

The Bucs defense doesn’t care if you are young or old; they made Marcus Mariota’s NFL debut a memorable event, turned Carolina backup Derek Anderson into an ageless wonder and have kept Case Keenum’s career alive, not to mention Nick Foles and Teddy Bridgewater.

“Guys just really need to trust in each other,” says Bucs All-Pro defensive lineman Gerald McCoy. “It’s a new defense, you’re trying to get it down yourself, and you’re trying to learn the ins and outs of what you can and can’t do. I think guys got antsy last week trying to make a play instead of doing the things it takes to make a play, which is just do your job.”

Honesty is another ingredient that makes for a good culture; management shouldn’t make promises it can’t keep just to keep the fan base excited.

They hire Mike Smith as defensive coordinator, sign some mediocre help and tell us things are going to get significantly better.

The best way to improve the culture is to follow Denver’s lead, which is get higher caliber players. OK, there are not a lot of Von Miller’s or Chris Harris’ available, but that’s no excuse for signing aging Brent Grimes and selling him to the fan base as a cure-all for an ailing secondary.

McCoy says it’s about trusting in the system as well as each other.

“You know, I’ve got this, but I need to make sure he’s doing this, so just in case I’m going over here. No don’t do that. Trust him to do his job within the system,” he said.

This thing called culture can be tricky. Everybody wants it, but they don’t agree on how to identify it.

This story was originally published October 1, 2016 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Tampa Bay Buccaneers still searching for right culture."