TAMPA — After a yearaway, Mike Smith badly wanted to get back into the head coaching ranks of the NFL this offseason. It wasn’t head coach or bust, though.
The winningest coach in Atlanta Falcons history did have a Plan B in mind. Or maybe it was Plan D? No matter, it was a conditional plan with one very important string attached.
A seven-year NFL head-coaching veteran, Smith was willing to take a career step backward and accept a defensive coordinator job again, but only to work for new Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter.
“This really was the only one I would’ve considered,” said Smith, who worked with Koetter in Jacksonville in 2007, when both were coordinators, and Atlanta from 2012-14, when Koetter was Smith’s offensive coordinator.