Will Raheem Morris be fired

Answer 1

Yes, highly likely, for these reasons:

- There are several other coaches who have already been fired on teams with worse records.

- Both Tony Dungy and John Gruden were fired by the Glazers with better career records, more playoff appearances, more playoff wins, and more wins in the season they were fired than Raheem has.

- Raheem Morris will be in the last year of his contract next year. This is a terrible position for a team and a coach, because players don't know if he's the future or not. They can't re-sign him now, he's too much of a liability.

- The Glazers will have $5 million per year free from not having to pay John Gruden. That money will be free for a big name coach, and to pay Raheem's remaining contract year.

- It's no secret that the team is ripped apart with internal strife based on reports that have leaked out. One report claims that Morris' support of Aqib Talib in spite of all his troubles has gotten teammates questioning how much character matters in a Morris-led team. (Talib's troubles include shooting at someone, assaulting a taxi driver, having to be restrained from attacking a ref, and reportedly getting into at least 4 fights with teammates.) It wouldn't surprise me if many people feel he plays favorites.

- Morris even recently said that he and Talib would go to war together again next year, despite other reports that the team is not at all interested in keeping Talib on the team, from the GM possibly to the owners themselves. And Morris fought to keep Talib on the team this year, he's essentially vouched for a guy no one else wants.

- His team looks terribly undisciplined in penalties and turnovers.

- He made costly mistakes in trying to decide on an offensive and defensive coordinator. He replaced his defensive coordinator with himself. That doesn't evoke much confidence he knows how to hire good staff.

- The defense, once the pride of the Buccaneers, is now near the bottom of the league, and he is the defensive coordinator, and the defensive coordinator needs to be fired.

- The team shows a noticeable lack of effort. Even Josh Freeman has admitted that at least some on the team do not play with "passion and pride". That's the sign of a team without a coach as a leader.

- Players feel they can call Morris by the nickname "Rah". That's fine in an office environment, but no head coach has had that kind of relationship with his players and been successful in the NFL.

- A team so undisciplined lacks veteran leadership, but one of the first things to happen under his watch was a purge of quality leadership like Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn, and later Cadillac Williams, and yet retaining bad eggs like Jeramy Stevens at first, continuing to have guys like Talib, and actively bringing in team-poison like Albert Haynesworth.

- Mike Williams was pulled over and charged with DUI at 3AM on a Thursday during a season. While the charge was dropped because he was not drunk, the point is that an NFL player should not be out partying at 3AM on a Thursday morning when he has a game day on Sunday, because he will not play as well. That's something no good coach would allow, and shows a serious lack of leadership, discipline, and respect for character at the head coach level.

- A nine, maybe ten game losing streak is enough to get most coaches fired, particularly into their third year. He is obviously not motivating the team.

- Rumors are that he would have been fired already this year, but they did not fire him because they simply didn't have enough warm bodies on staff to turn off the lights and lock up at night. A rumor sure, but probably true.

- His team is completely uncompetitive and has given up, based on the staggering blowouts to teams that are in the bottom half of the league like Carolina and Jacksonville. You have to make some kind of switch, and he's the obvious candidate, besides being the most responsible.

- The bottom line is he's had three years to make this team successful, and it's worse than when he took it over. NFL coaching is a performance business, and he hasn't performed. They'll try something new.