Top of the list

1. Jeff Fisher, former Titans coach

2. Mike Sherman, former Packers/Texas A&M coach

3. Mike Mularkey, offensive coordinator, Falcons

On the radar

1. Rob Chudzinski, offensive coordinator, Panthers

2. Jerry Gray, defensive coordinator, Titans

3. Tom Clements, quarterback coach, Packers

What’s new

• Bucs arranging interviews with Sherman and Gray (who would satisfy the NFL rule requiring teams to interview a minority candidate).

• NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora lists Sherman and Mularkey at the top of the Bucs’ list. Suggests Fisher ends up in St. Louis and Chudzinski might be leading candidate in Jacksonville.

• Fisher interviewed with Miami on Tuesday and might be leading candidate in St. Louis.

• Fox analyst and former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson predicts via Twitter that Fisher will wind up with the Rams.

Our take

While the Bucs are open to coordinators and college coaches, it looks like they will lean toward candidates with NFL head coaching experience.

Rick Stroud, Times staff writer

Hunt for a head coach: Day 1

Morris went 17-31, including a 10-6 mark in 2010, when the Bucs (4-12) narrowly missed the playoffs. His entire staff of assistants was dismissed, too.

“I have has a lot of respect and appreciation for the passion coach Morris gave to our football team, but this change is one we felt was necessary,” general manager Mark Dominik said in a brief statement released by the team, which is owned by the Glazer family.

“We want to thank coach Morris for all his hard work and dedication as head coach, “ team co-chairman Joel Glazer said.

The Bucs scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference to discuss the change.

The 35-year-old Morris was hired in January 2009, replacing Jon Gruden after Tampa Bay lost the final four games of 2008 to miss the playoffs following a 9-3 start.

This year’s collapse followed a 4-2 start that included wins over NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta, which are both headed to the playoffs.

Morris began his stint as the NFL’s youngest coach with a seven-game losing streak. It ended with a skid that rivaled some of the worst stretches in franchise history, in part because it came only a year after it looked like the Bucs might be headed in the right direction.

With young quarterback Josh Freeman showing great promise in his first full season as a starter, Tampa Bay won 10 games in 2010 to barely miss the playoffs. Morris entered training camp following the NFL lockout, declaring he had a “youngry” team that was confident it could compete with more experienced NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta for the division crown.

The team’s promising start included wins at home over the Falcons and Saints that lent credence to the coach’s assertion that a 48-3 road loss to San Francisco was simply a bad day at the office, not a sign that the Bucs were not nearly as good as their record suggested.

Injuries contributed to the season-ending slide, but so did inconsistent play starting with Freeman who threw for 16 touchdowns vs. 22 interceptions after tossing 25 TD passes and being intercepted just six times in 2010. The Bucs turned the ball over a league-leading 40 times compared to 19 last season.

The defense, once the proud stable of a perennial playoff contender, sank to unheard of lows in Tampa Bay. In addition to surrendering a franchise-record and league-high 494 points, the Bucs lost eight games by double-digit margins and allowed 31 of more seven times during the season-ending skid.

Making matters even worse for Morris, he served as his own defensive coordinator.

Still, last week the coach layed out his argument for keeping his job.

The Bucs had the youngest team in the NFL this season, with 30 players on the 53-man roster in the first, second or third years in the league.

In addition, there are 21 players on the roster, including leading rusher LeGarrette Blount and third-leading receiver Preston Parker, entered the NFL as undrafted free agents.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired Raheem Morris on Monday after his three seasons as Tampa Bay’s coach. The team announced the change one day after a 45-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons extended the franchise’s longest losing streak within the same season since 1977 to 10 games.

Morris went 17-31, including a 10-6 mark in 2010, when the Bucs (4-12) narrowly missed the playoffs.

“I have has a lot of respect and appreciation for the passion Coach Morris gave to our football team, but this change is one we felt was necessary,” General Manager Mark Dominik said in a brief statement released by the team, which is owned by the Glazer family.

“We want to thank Coach Morris for all his hard work and dedication as head coach, ” team co-chairman Joel Glazer said.

The Bucs scheduled an afternoon news conference to discuss the change.

The 35-year-old Morris was hired in January 2009, replacing Jon Gruden after Tampa Bay lost the final four games of 2008 to miss the playoffs following a 9-3 start.

This year’s collapse followed a promising 4-2 start that included wins over NFC South rivals New Orleans and Atlanta, which are both headed to the playoffs.

Morris began his stint as the NFL’s youngest coach with a seven-game losing streak. It ended with a skid that rivaled some of the worst stretches in franchise history, in part because it came only a year after it looked like the Bucs might be headed in the right direction.

Raheem Morris is ready to start the offseason and help the Tampa
Bay Buccaneers turn things around.

Whether he will get that chance remains to be seen.

Dropping their season finale 45-24 to the Atlanta Falcons on
Sunday, the Bucs closed the year with 10 straight losses _ the
franchise’s worst in-season stretch since the 1977 team lost its
first 12 games.

Morris, though, isn’t planning for Monday to be any different
from the day that followed last year’s encouraging 10-6 finish that
left Tampa Bay barely out of the playoffs.

“If I was in the business of worrying about my future, I
wouldn’t be coaching,” the third-year coach said. “I’m going to go
to work tomorrow. It’s not the time to talk about that type of
stuff. That’s for mental midgets. For us, we’ve got to go out and
play football and do what we have to do.”

Center Jeff Faine indicated that Morris’ postgame speech made no
mention of the meltdown that began with the Bucs trailing 42-0 in
the second quarter. Instead, the focus of his talk was to encourage
players to dedicate themselves in the offseason.

As the NFL’s second-youngest team, the Bucs (4-12) might have
not handled last year’s NFL lockout as well as an experienced club,
but Tampa Bay still managed a 4-2 start that included an emotional
16-13 win over Atlanta. That Week 3 victory ended a five-game
series losing streak that gave quarterback Josh Freeman his first
win over the Falcons.

But this time, Freeman threw a first-quarter interception to
Dominique Franks that set up Julio Jones’ 48-yard touchdown catch
on the next play to put the Bucs in a 21-0 hole.

Tampa Bay ran four plays on the ensuing possession before
defensive end John Abraham sacked Freeman and stripped the ball
away for a fumble recovery. Michael Turner’s 1-yard run six snaps
later made it 28-0.

Freeman’s next drive ended with linebacker Curtis Lofton picking
him off and running the ball back for 35-0 lead.

“It’s always tough when you fall behind and fall behind early,”
Freeman said. “Today was no different. You have to, as an offense,
find a way to keep the game close. Early turnovers don’t allow you
to do that. They capitalized on every single turnover and with
that, you aren’t always going to win football games.”

When Tampa Bay struggled badly in Morris’ first season of 2009,
the Bucs still had a reputation for playing hard despite their 1-12
start.

But they won 16 of their next 25 and seemed ready to challenge
New Orleans and Atlanta for supremacy in the NFC South.

Everything began to unravel, however, after they beat the Saints
26-20 on Oct. 16. They lost their next 10 _ the franchise’s worst
stretch since the 2008-09 teams combined to drop 11 straight.

Sunday marked the seventh loss this season by 16 or more
points.

“The team was prepared to play today,” Morris said. “We got
outplayed by a better football team. They went out there and played
hard, got out of the box quickly and we couldn’t tackle them.
That’s an issue, and when that snowballed and got away from us and
went back and refocused and played a little bit better in the
second half, it wasn’t good enough.”

Tampa Bay’s defense struggled fundamentally and trailed 42-7 at
halftime after allowing 186 yards rushing and 133 passing.

“It boils down to guys not doing their jobs, and it all goes
from there,” linebacker Geno Hayes said. “If everyone isn’t doing
what they’re supposed to do, it doesn’t work. We get paid to a job,
and it hasn’t been working.”

Cornerback Elbert Mack returned an interception of Atlanta
backup quarterback Chris Redman for 40-yard touchdown to make it
42-18 late in the third quarter, and the Bucs went on to score 24
unanswered points against a Falcons team made up mostly of
reserves.

But the effort wasn’t nearly enough.

“You’ve got to start fast in this league,” Mack said. “We didn’t
execute what the coaches have been preaching all week.”

Morris hopes he gets a chance to keep coaching these players
next season.

“There will be a 10 a.m. meeting, there’ll be another one at 11
and there will be a noon press conference and I’ll see you there,”
Morris said. “I’ll go to the Outback Bowl in the afternoon. I’ll
come back and do a radio show and be ready to deal, ready for this
offseason and get back and attack it.”

Morris was then asked if he expects to coach the 2012 Bucs.

“That’s like asking you if you expect to be a work tomorrow,” he
said. “Correct.”

Even now, even with all of the losses and all of the interceptions and all of the chaos, it is about the quarterback.

Even now, when no one knows who will be his coach or which teammates will survive or whether next season will be any better than this one, it is about the quarterback.

Even now, with all of the doubts and all of the questions and all of the disappointment, it is about Josh Freeman.

Rescue him, and the Bucs franchise still has a chance. Fail, and the chaos is going to continue. Now, as much as ever, the futures of the Bucs and of Freeman are intertwined. They will succeed together, or they will continue to let each other down.

Soon, we will see what the Bucs plan to do about it.

In the marriage between the Bucs franchise and Freeman, this has been one of those “or worse” seasons. By any measure, he has had an alarmingly dreadful season. His regression has been historic. His interceptions have more than tripled (from 6 to 19). His touchdown passes have fallen by 11 (from 25 to 14). He has lost 21 points off of his QB ratings.

It has been a wobble wrapped in an overthrow inside of a cry of, “Where in the heck was he throwing that one?” There have been the times his release has been slow, times his footwork has been off and times his accuracy comes and goes. He has been hurt by slow starts, forgettable finishes and the regrettable decision to play with guns.

It is staggering when a quarterback has a breakdown season after a breakout. Of the NFL quarterbacks who have thrown at least 14 passes a game, there are 25 who have higher ratings. No one has more interceptions. No one else who has thrown 500 or more passes this year has fewer touchdowns. (For that matter, no one within 90 attempts of Freeman’s 506 has fewer).

Consider this: According to NFL stats, 76 quarterbacks have thrown passes this year. No one else has five more interceptions than touchdown passes. If he had fallen any further, for crying out loud, Freeman would have landed on Rex Grossman.

Then there are the increased number of checkdown passes. Last year, Freeman’s average completion gained 11.9 yards. This year, it’s down to 10.5. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider this. If Freeman was still at 11.9, his yardage total would be 430 yards higher.

Despite it all, the Bucs still need Freeman. Because, really, who else is there to build around? Because starting over with another quarterback takes so long.

As the Bucs contemplate their future after today’s final attempt at football, Freeman should be the utmost concern. If the Bucs hire a new coach, they need to do it with the saving of Freeman in mind. If they ponder possible free agents — as good an idea as ever — they should do so with helping Freeman in mind. As they prepare for the NFL draft, they should do so with Freeman in mind.

After all, a team can’t replace everyone. As bad as he has been, Freeman has still outperformed most of the Bucs players. As bad as he has been, you can at least see the possibility of highlights in his future.

Once, the Bucs had another quarterback stand in the middle of the chaos. Back in 1995, Trent Dilfer struggled along with his franchise through a tumultuous season like this one. In 1998, he was blamed heavily as his team regressed from a playoff season.

“I’m a Josh apologist, and I have no problem with it,” Dilfer, an ESPN analyst, said. “He has the potential, the mind and the will. It’s easy to say, ‘The team stinks, so he stinks.’ Some analysts go whatever way the wind blows. I’m probably overly sympathetic because I’ve been where he is. My toughest year was 1998. We just played (very poorly), and I got blamed for it.

“He’s regressed a little bit. He’s made a ton of mistakes. But I’ll put my stamp on him right now. This is one of the jewels of the league.”

If he had to bet his house, Dilfer said, he would wager that Freeman will be a success. Not only that, but he says Greg Olson is one of his favorite offensive coordinators in the league.

So what has gone wrong? Dilfer says the wide receivers on the perimeter haven’t been as good as everyone expected them to be. He also says the Bucs could use more multiple tight end formations because it gives the quarterback his easiest reads of defense. As much as anything, Dilfer said, the Bucs need to be better defensively.

“You can’t be a good quarterback when you’re two scores behind,” Dilfer said. “And you can’t play when you’re overly conservative. You can’t play from the position of fear.”

For whatever reason, Freeman has struggled. For the year, Freeman’s quarterback rating is 74.9. Remember Vinny Testaverde’s final year with the Bucs? His rating was 74.2. Remember the disappointment in Jack “The Throwin’ Samoan” Thompson? He was at 73.3 in his full year as a starter.

In Dilfer’s final year, he was at 75.8. In Shaun King’s full season as a starter, he was at 75.8. The Bucs have replaced a lot of quarterbacks who played at the same level Freeman has this year.

You probably remember the closest fall to Freeman’s. It was Brad Johnson, another Buc quarterback. In 2002, the Super Bowl season, Johnson threw only six interceptions. In 2003, when the team fell to 7-9, he threw 21. Still, Johnson threw for more touchdowns and more yardage that year, so his overall rating didn’t plummet as sharply. In 2006, Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had a similar drop, his interceptions climbing from nine to 23 and his rating falling by 23 points. Still, his touchdown passes didn’t fall off in the same way.

Yes, there are factors. Freeman hasn’t had a lot of help. The offense lacks speed. It lacks playmakers. It lacks consistency. It lacks points (14 offensive touchdowns in the past 10 defeats).

This season, it has also lacked the promising quarterback it saw the year before. Remember him?

“Here’s what the tape says,” Dilfer said. “Josh hasn’t played with the same energy, the same kind of life to his game. You can see some quarterbacks’ body language and energy and tempo, and you feel like they’re always climbing the hill. That jumps out of the tapes.

“The biggest thing he’ll learn for this year is that he didn’t change the environment. He wasn’t a thermostat player. There are thermometer players who just react, and there are thermostat players who change the environment. It’s hard. You get beat down. You feel like it’s too steep a hill to climb. It sucks the life out of you. You’re watching quarterbacks who are successful, and you know that they don’t have half of your talent.”

If that’s true, then Freeman needs saving. The Bucs should not make a decision this offseason without considering the impact on Freeman. A new coach? How does it affect Freeman? A new quarterback coach? Can he make Freeman better? A new offense? Does it fit Freeman? A speed wide receiver? Shouldn’t that help Freeman? A complete back? An offensive lineman? A better defense? All roads lead back to the quarterback.

Freeman is 24, after all. He has time to smooth out the edges. On the other hand, he is three seasons into his career. It is not too soon to expect more. It is not too much to expect it soon.

Put it this way: One of the last two seasons was a fluke, and the other was the truth. Freeman is either the leader we saw in 2010 or he is the scattergun we saw in 2011. From here on, the goal is to turn things around. The goal is to avoid this kind of misery.

That’s true of the franchise, and that’s true of Freeman.