1978 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season
NFL team season
The 1978 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season was the franchise's third season in the National Football League, the third playing their home games at Tampa Stadium, and the third under head coach John McKay. As their two 1977 victories had been in the last two games of the season, they entered the 1978 season with the longest active winning streak in the NFC Central.
The Buccaneers entered the season with new offensive talent, having selected Doug Williams with the 17th overall pick of the draft. This choice was questioned by many, as there was still an element of society who claimed that a black quarterback was not mentally capable of winning in the NFL, and prejudice is believed to have been a factor in Williams having been drafted as low as seventeenth. According to Buccaneer coach John McKay, "All things being equal, Williams would have gone higher in the draft". Second-year tight end Jimmie Giles, part of the trade that landed Williams, emerged as the Buccaneers’ first receiving threat and still holds several of their scoring records.
Offseason
Offseason coaching changes led to continued accusations of disorganization, as vice-president of operations Ron Wolf resigned, citing only "personal matters". This renewed speculation that head coach John McKay, who replaced Wolf with two of his own longtime assistants, was trying to consolidate front-office power. The coaching staff was reshuffled, with Tom Bass being named defensive coordinator, and offensive coordinator Joe Gibbs hired away from the St. Louis Cardinals.
The public source identifies “1978 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season” as nFL team season. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tampa, Buccaneers and season.
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This entry incorporates text from “1978 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.