When NFL teams change coaches, there tends to be a stark difference between the former coach and a new one.
One of the most common ways this presents itself is when so-called players coaches are replaced by sterner voices and vice versa. If that was part of the plan in Tampa this season, it seems to be working.
Linebacker Lavonte David said Tuesday that “there’s a real cool vibe” around the team under head coach Lovie Smith, something you never heard from a Buccaneers player when Greg Schiano was calling the shots. They’re only two days into offseason workouts, but David already feels like things are moving in a better direction for the team.
“It’s real different, there’s a different vibe from everyone,” David said, via Roy Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. “We feel like the situation here is a lot better.”
You wouldn’t expect a player to say anything much different publicly at this point in the process, but, as with the Redskins, the coaching change in Tampa appears to be a breath of fresh air for the players who were there for a rough 2013 season. If those players can perform better as a result, it should be more than two years before the Buccaneers decide to change directions on the sideline again.