A recent report from NFL Media indicated that tension exists between Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter and Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston. Buccaneers offensive coordinator Todd Monken has now both attacked, and confirmed, the report.
“I want to talk a little bit about what we have had to deal with in terms of talking about relationships, OK?” Monken said at his weekly press conference, via JoeBucsFan.com. “I have been here almost two years. From a coach-player relationship, I have never seen anything close to what is being talked about between our head coach and our quarterback. Not one thing.”
So, report refuted. Unless it isn’t.
“What I want people to understand is this,” Monken added. “The majority of players I have ever coached in my life, at some point in our relationship it has been strained. Fact. If you ask any player I have coached, ‘Have you had a strained relationship?’ You bet. Best man in my wedding was my roommate in college. You don’t think we have had strains in our relationship at times? My wife of 26 years, that I wouldn’t be who I am today without her, that we haven’t had times in our life where we’ve had strains in our relationships? And all of a sudden it becomes news? That all of a sudden that there is a strain? You know what the strain is? The frustration of being 4-9. That’s a frustration — when you put everything into it.”
So, report confirmed?
“What you’ve got is a quarterback that is very competitive,” Monken said. “A guy that wants to be great and has had a frustrating year. Probably some things on and off the field. And a head coach that does an unbelievable job coaching our players and our quarterback. And that becomes news? Holy cow. News flash. We’ve got a strain in our relationship. There is not one person that can’t say that that’s ever happened before. [The report] is a flat-out joke that that even becomes news.”
While tension may not be abnormal, it becomes noteworthy given that ownership has a proven track record of dumping coaches. So if the relationship between Koetter and Winston has any signs of dysfunction, that could prompt the team to swap out Koetter for a coach who will be in better position to work with Winston.
A separate question becomes how the report of tension came to be? If leaked by the team, maybe the foundation is being laid to make a change. If leaked by Winston’s camp, maybe the quarterback wants that to happen.