As expected, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced that coach Raheem Morris will be back in 2010.
“We are committed to the plan that we began 12 months ago with Coach Morris, and we look forward to building on the pieces that were put in place this season,” Buccaneers co-chair Joel Glazer said in a statement released Monday night, via PewterReport.com.
Morris wasn’t as committed to the plan to let Jeff Jagodzinski run the offense and Jim Bates run the defense. Both were fired during Year One of the Morris era, with Jagodzinski not even making it to the start of the regular season.
Still, amid the disarray the Bucs had some bright moments. Their first win of the year came in a thrilling game against the Packers, and in Week 16 the Buccaneers shattered the aura of invincibility that the Saints had created at the Superdome.
The fact that Morris will stay on the job doesn’t mean he wasn’t in danger. As initially reported by Jason La Canfora of NFL Network, the Bucs were willing to dump Morris only if they could get an “A” list candidate -- it’s entirely possible that in the past week they’ve made enough calls to cause them to conclude that they wouldn’t be able to make a huge upgrade over Morris.