“This Is The Time To Trim The Fat” – JoeBucsFan.com – Tampa Bay Bucs Blog, Buccaneers News

“Bruce, I’m not sure this job is as great as you said it was 10 months ago.”

A seasoned and reasoned three-time Super Bowl winner says there’s a definite wrestling match happening behind the scenes at One Buc Palace.

Per the words of retired receiver Ed McCaffrey, Christian’s dad who is a regular co-host on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht knows this is the time to rebuild the franchise.

Licht is aware he’s in a salary cap crunch with an aging and talented roster, per McCaffrey, “so this is the time to trim the fat.” That’s the smart play, he added.

But that approach crosses a line in the sand surely drawn by head coach Todd Bowles, per McCaffery. No head coach who knows the NFL game wants to be part of a rebuild because that’s an excuse to lose games and a second-year coach needs to win.

McCaffrey laid out what he considers the Bowles “pep talk” to Licht and Team Glazer.

“I’m sure that Coach Bowles is talking about, ‘Hey look, we lost a great player but we got a lot of great players on this football team. And look at our division. Our division was down last year; I mean, we made the playoffs with a losing record. And we know how many of [our] guys were injured. We were decimated on the offensive line and lost so many guys. That wasn’t our best season and we won our division. Our expectation is to win the division and make a run at a Super Bowl, and we’re going to do it with the guys in this room.’”

Joe agrees with McCaffrey, who also says Licht won’t be in Bowles’ camp.

“But if you’re a general manager behind closed doors, ‘We’re rebuilding! We’re rebuilding!’” McCaffrey explained. “You’re laying the ground work for, ‘You gotta give me a year or two here in case we don’t win ball games I don’t want to get fired. We just lost Tom Brady; it’s gonna take a minute to kind of retool/rebuild.’”

Joe couldn’t have said it much better than McCaffrey.

What makes this all so interesting is that the Bucs will be able to retain enough talent next season to win the weak NFC South, Joe believes, if they land a veteran quarterback. And if you can do that, should you really be in tear-down mode?

In yesterday’s Ira Kaufman Podcast, Ira laid out that Team Glazer ultimately will chart the Bucs’ course. Yes, he went there and explained.

Ira Kaufman Debates Many Angles Of The Post-Brady Era, And More