Foxsports: Dungy stepping down

In 2004 we've established he had the best team and didn't win it -- I'd say that is trumped by the fact that the next year he won it when he had at least the third and maybe fourth best team in the AFC.

Please tell me what other three years he had the best team in the NFL and did not win the title.

 

It doesn't help his cause that it took Gruden one year to do what he couldn't in Tampa.

 

Gruden showed what a decent offensive game plan could do with a great defense, and slightly above average offense. His playcalling against the Eagles in the '02 championship game was amazing.

 

Gruden also added some very important offensive weapons, particularly Keenan McCardle and Joe Jurevicious -- who helped take pressure off Keyshawn Johnson.

But that doesn't tie in to the story that Gruden was a genius -- the same genius who in his second year had the Bucs back to being the Bucs......

 

Dungy would have had McCardell and Jurevicious blocking on running plays 90 percent of the time. The best thing that ever happened to Dungy was he went to a team with an established offense. He couldn't mess with Manning and Tom Moore.

 

Gruden mortgaged the future to win that Super Bowl. That's the biggest reason why the Bucs fell off the map for a couple years afterwards. Baltimore did something similar. Ask most owners if they'd sacrifice a couple seasons for a title and any good one would tell you yes.

 

I don't know that Gruden could have rescued that hopeless franchise and brought it to the point that it was a failure because it couldn't get past the NFC championship. Before Dungy, the Bucs most of the time looked like they couldn't tie their shoes, much less play football. The key to that season was that Brad Johnson threw only six picks that year, after years of Shaun King, Trent Dilfer and Johnson himself undermining Tampa's D by turning the ball over.

 

again, tony's by far the best person i've had the honor to get to know some in 26 years of covering the nfl. if he doesn't make the hall of fame, it's canton's loss.

but i don't think he really cares. it's far from what will define him.

 

So then what has been his excuse for the past five years?

That's a cop-out and bullshit.

Gruden's Bucs teams have been really good one year -- when it was still for the most part Dungy's team with a few additions.

Since then Gruden has steered the franchise into the crapper and there is no "big" seasons on the horizon.

I mean, you talk about Baltimore -- take a look at the revolving door of horse shit to mediocre quarterbacks this guy has brought in.

And my God -- all the guy had to do this year to make the playoffs was beat the freaking Oakland Raiders and he had them at home -- and he couldn't do it.

You ask any fan --- what is worse -- a run of five or six years of having a chance every year or the disaster that the Bucs have become -- in a crappy division no less.....

 

Apparently, it's a fact o' life: Gruden = genius; Dungy = overrated.

 

A lot of coaches with rings are going to be sitting on the couch next season. I hope he comes back after recharging the batteries.