No Schiano fan, Winslow says Bucs 'fired the wrong dude'

Kellen Winslow is no fan of new Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano's no-nonsense approach to offseason workouts and practice.

He made that clear on a video recently posted on "The Real Robinson Report," a blog by Seattle Seahawks running back Michael Robinson (www.realrobreport.com). Winslow, who was traded to Seattle in May, seems to prefer having some fun during offseason workouts to Schiano's detail-oriented and disciplined style.

"Real s--t, real s--t, Schiano came over there (yelling) 'Toes on the line! toes on the line!' Blowin' the whistle," Winslow said. "You can't laugh, you can't joke around, so I decided not to go to OTAs. And they got my man 'Rah' up and out of there, and I was loyal to him. I would've taken a bullet for that dude, so I had to roll, man."

Winslow also said he thought the Bucs made a mistake when they fired Raheem Morris after Tampa Bay went 4-12 last season and lost its last 10 games. Robinson asked him what it was about Morris that was so cool.

"Man, the cool thing about Rah is, Rah could be right here talking with us right now, and he wasn't a company coach, he was a players' coach," Winslow said. "I mean, just everything about him, man. He was real. You could talk to him face to face, real man to man. They fired the wrong dude up there."

Winslow was traded to the Seahawks for a sixth- or seventh-round pick in the 2013 draft on May 21, after he missed Tampa Bay's first week of organized team activies, or OTAs.

Winslow was the Bucs' leading receiver in 2011 with 75 catches for 763 yards and two touchdowns, but rarely practiced because of chronic trouble with his surgically repaired knees.

Winslow skipped the first week of OTAs and said he was working out at home in California. He said he was planning to join the team the following Monday, but got a call from Schiano that Saturday telling him the team was working on a trade.

"He was kind of upset that I wasn't there working out with the team in the offseason and for the first week of OTAs," Winslow said during an interview with SiriusXM at the time. "That's kind of shocking, but that's what it is. You don't just get rid of one of your best players because of that."

An eight-year veteran, Winslow has 437 catches for 4,836 yards and 23 touchdowns in his career, including 258 catches for 2,377 yards and 12 scores in three seasons with the Bucs.

Winslow started his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns. The Bucs acquired him in a trade for a second- and a fifth-round draft pick in 2009 and signed him to a six-year, $36.1 million contract in April 2009 that was the biggest contract ever given to a tight end at the time.


(tbo.com)