The Buccaneers were one of the fastest moving teams when it came to hiring a new head coach and they’ve been almost as quick about filling out Lovie Smith’s first staff in Tampa.
Leslie Frazier and Jeff Tedford were installed as defensive and offensive coordinator shortly after Smith agreed to take the Tampa job and they added a slew of other position coaches in short order. On Friday, they announced that they have hired two more coaches and declared that Smith’s staff is now complete.
Mike Phair will be an assistant defensive line coach working with Joe Cullen, who was previously added to the Tampa staff. Phair was the defensive line coach in Chicago for the last three seasons, bridging the transition from Smith to Marc Trestman and Phair’s old boss was obviously happy enough with his work in that position to bring him to Florida.
Carlos Polk has been hired as an assistant special teams coach, which means he’ll be assisting Kevin O’Dea. Polk was in the same job with the Chargers from 2010-2012 and began his coaching career after an eight-year NFL career, most of which was spent as a special teamer with San Diego.