Buccaneers plan to keep Dirk Koetter at head coach in 2018

After looking at yet another disappointing year for the franchise, the Buccaners surveyed their coaching staff and front office and have...decided to largely keep the gang together. Okay, then!

Tampa Bay’s decision to keep Dirk Koetter comes as a mild surprise, given how this team has been overmatched much of the year. It would be fair to argue that his front office has done a spectacularly poor job of equipping him with top-shelf talent outside of a handful of positions, but it’s not like Koetter’s crew has coaxed big improvements out of them, either. The Buccaneers continue to be a preseason darling that doesn’t do much in regular season action, and they’ll need a big offseason or a lot of growth if they don’t want that to be their fate in 2018.

That said, I don’t hate keeping Koetter. Continuity continues to be underrated in the NFL, the Bucs have a lot of young players who would benefit from a steady hand, and none of the options out there on the coaching marketing this offseason seem particularly inspiring. It also means I don’t have to deal with the frankly unlikely notion that the Falcons would re-hire Dirk Koetter for offensive coordinator if he were canned, clearing out Steve Sarkisian in the process. That’s a pipe dream for fans who dislike Sark, of which there are many.

We’ll hope as Falcons fans, though, that this move does not work out well for Tampa, and they continue to be hover around the third or fourth position in the NFC South. I’m sure Dirk Koetter will understand.