“Bruce, your ways have left the building.”
Once upon a time in 2019, the Bucs had a rookie with a bad hamstring in preseason and another who had a rough preseason debut.
Sound familiar?
Arians blasted the bad inaugural game and went public saying the injured rookie needed to get his ass on the field.
After a poor performance in the 2019 preseason opener at Pittsburgh, then-Bucs cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting got roasted in public by Arians.
“Bunting didn’t show up tonight,” Arians said. “I would like to see him show up and get his hands on the ball.”
Arians later explained he gave the same message directly to Murphy-Bunting, asking him where he was during the game.
Then-rookie receiver Scotty Miller, a sixth-round pick, also had Arians firing August darts at him in the media, barking that the kid needs to show up and get on the field. Miller later acknowledged the pressure he was under and Arians explained how he needed to teach players a mentality of playing through issues when able.
A year later, Murphy-Bunting and Miller were key components to the Bucs’ Super Bowl run.
Enter Todd Bowles, a protégé of Arians.
Bowles takes a different approach.
Rookie receiver Tez Johnson had a costly muffed punt and a bad drop in his debut last night, and he’s finding love and tenderness from Bucs coaches. Second-round pick rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison will miss the entire preseason and weeks of practice with a bad hamstring, and Bowles was praising him this morning.
Bowles even said Morrison missing practice time is no big deal.
“I don’t think it’s a huge setback,” Bowles said. [Morrison] watches film all the time, comes in early, and puts the tape on. He wants to learn. It’s just about physically going through the reps. Mentally, he goes through them. He’s not a guy to just sit in the training room and be hurt. He’s trying to get better at all the little things, so when he comes back, he’s ready to go. We think he’ll be ready, and we won’t have any problem putting him in when we need to put him in.”
Wow, Joe can’t remember every hearing a coach say a rookie doesn’t need most of training camp and a preseason game to be “ready to go.”
That either says a ton about Morrison, or it’s evidence of how Bowles won’t say anything that might hurt the confidence in his rookies.
Arians and Bowles have very different approaches. Joe’s not calling out a right or wrong here, just the stark contrast.