1983 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Season - Regular Season

Regular Season

The team opened the season with starting quarterback Jerry Golsteyn, who had thrown only one NFL pass since 1978, and who had joined the Buccaneers the previous year while playing semi-professional football and working in an Orlando health club. Golsteyn was named the surprise starter after a strong preseason, but was demoted in favor of Jack Thompson after committing key errors in the first two games. Constant injury problems prevented the Buccaneers from establishing any consistency on offense. In addition to all offensive linemen suffering injuries, the team was left with only three healthy receivers when Kevin House pulled a muscle in the same week that Gene Branton was placed on injured reserve. The team continued the previous year's trend of needing to come back from second-half deficits, with the difference being that the team no longer had big-play potential. Observers felt that the team performed as though they had lost the confidence that they could score points when they needed to. Despite the team's offensive woes, McKay refused to blame Thompson or any of the other quarterbacks, showing a patience similar to that which he showed with Doug Williams. He continued to state that Thompson was consistent and could become "a good solid quarterback", but acknowledged that he had not performed to expectations. He stated that the team would be looking to improve their quarterback situation the following year, but that the draft was expected to be short on quarterbacks, and that the team was not likely to be able to find a better player than Thompson through trades or free agency. A rumored trade for New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms never developed; Simms eventually broke his thumb and went on injured reserve. For the first three weeks of the season, the team ranked 2nd in the NFC in defense, but last in offense. The defense collapsed after the third game, allowing 55, 27, and 34 points in the next three losses. McKay said that defensive players were beginning to worry about covering for other players instead of focusing on their own position, and that the defense was breaking down as a result. He also noted that the increased booing was causing the players to tighten up and play what McKay called "scared football". After McKay threatened to punch Milwaukee Sentinel reporter Bud Lea following a 55-14 loss to the Packers, a newspaper poll showed that 92% of Florida residents felt that McKay should be fired.

Several injuries to the defensive backfield required that the team play more young players than they desired to, with the result that their pass defense fell among the league's worst after having led the NFC the previous season. Injuries later hit the linebacking corps. In a game against the Cardinals, the team had no experienced outside linebackers, and started two players who had both been with the team for less than two weeks and did not even know each other's names. Curiously, the team continued to bring in linebackers unfamiliar with their system, despite the presence of a healthy, experienced Richard Wood. Their battered secondary received a boost when former Cowboys and Giants safety Beasley Reece, disgruntled over having his roster spot taken over by Terry Kinard, demanded a release and was claimed off waivers. Reece wound up as a starter, and became one of the league interception leaders. Two Buccaneers signed with the Denver Gold of the USFL: Dave Stalls, who was waived immediately, and offensive lineman George Yarno, who was to leave after finishing the season. As the season went on, an offensive strategy emerged: get the ball as much as possible to James Wilder, an all-purpose back with skills comparable to those of the Cardinals' Ottis Anderson. This was effective in a near-victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, in which Wilder's 42 carries broke Franco Harris' NFL record (Wilder's record wound up being broken three weeks later by Butch Woolfolk of the Giants); and in their first win of the year, a victory over the Minnesota Vikings in which Wilder ran for 219 yards. However, broken ribs suffered the following week forced Wilder to miss the rest of the season, which in turn forced McKay to abandon efforts to fashion the Buccaneers as a running team. This roughly coincided with a general return to health along the offensive line, which resulted in a level of pass protection that allowed Thompson to break through with a run of seven touchdown passes in two games. Kicker Bill Capece wound up carrying much of the blame for the team's performance; one year after kicking several last-minute game-winning field goals that helped the team make the playoffs, he went 10-23 on field goal attempts. In the season finale, the team resorted to using George Yarno as the kicker on an extra-point attempt.