Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians to his receivers: 'Catch the damn thing'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians wasn’t subtle at all about his concerns with his receivers. The team had a joint practice with the Titans on Wednesday, and Arians opened up about the main problem in his estimation.

“I know one thing – we dropped way too many damn passes,” he said. “We have to stop that.”

The coach continued to lay into his players, clearly wanting to send a message to his team.

“They dropped it,” Arians said. “Catch it. Shit, [there] ain’t no excuse. They’re perfectly thrown balls — you catch the damn thing.”

The straightforward approach to coaching has clearly worked for Bruce Arians. Tampa Bay defeated Kansas City in the Super Bowl this past season and enters this year with a good chance to repeat. The coach went on to say the dropped passes weren’t concerning for already established players. It’s the young guys he’s worried about.

“If it’s Mike [Evans] or Chris [Godwin] or Gronk, no,” Arians said. “But if it’s young players, yes. Maybe the lights are too big. We’ll go back and evaluate it but way too many drops.”

In any case, the Buccaneers receivers shouldn’t take this too personally if they know Bruce Arians. No player can escape his criticism. Even quarterback Tom Brady, who tossed for 40 touchdowns a season ago, had things to work on in the coach’s eyes.

“I didn’t think he was very sharp,” Arians said. “Our third-down percentage I think was really poor in that one. We took some shots downfield on first down [and] guys were open. He made some really good throws that were dropped, too. We’ll grade the tape, but I didn’t come off the field saying he wowed everybody.”

The Buccaneers take on Tennessee on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. EST. They open the season on Sept. 9 with a game against the Dallas Cowboys.