Are the Bucs Tanking?

It’s a question that, at this point, has to be asked. I know, I know; we all fell for the whole schtick about the team being, “ready to win now,” and other hilarious lines such as, “the secondary is fixed.”

*Opinion Editorial*

This team isn’t even trying anymore, it seems, and that goes from the players to the coaches. Unless Head Coach Arians wants to look like Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud, then many players need to be cut. If Vernon Hargreaves III can be cut for showing a “lack of hustle,” then others should follow him out the door.

But that’s the truly embarrassing thing for Bruce Arians. It was a move to show bluster, and he has failed spectacularly. It seems that the players have tuned him out, and that is worryingly suggestive that he may have lost the locker room, after just ten games. By making an example of VH3, he made the cardinal error of putting a display over the welfare of the team and made a weak area weaker.

Whatever the coaching team is doing, it is clear that the players are not responding. The defense that was bad is now terrible. Shockingly, the offense that was an occasional bright spark has closed for the winter.

Maybe at this point, Arians needs to offer up Todd Bowles as a sacrifice. Maybe everything is going to plan, and the Bucs are getting a high draft pick. Was that always the design?