Midway through the 2016 regular season, the NFL’s biggest coach-hiring blunder reflects not on the coach hired, but on the team that hired him … and not because of whom they hired, but whom they fired in order to hire him.

Yes, Tampa Bay, this is all about you.

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The Bucs look decent entering Week 9. Nothing more, nothing less. They’re 3-4, on the fringe of contention, but largely running in place with an obvious shakeup in the coaching staff and on the roster, but no marked improvement in any particular area.

That includes at quarterback, where Jameis Winston is still loaded with potential — and shows it off enough to keep everybody tantalized — but also shows flaws that need lots of smoothing out.

They’ve blown games they should have won and eked out wins they should feel lucky they got. Last week at home against Oakland was their season in a nutshell.

So with all that … why exactly did they have to fire Lovie Smith, particularly when and how they did? And when does the Dirk Koetter promotion pay off, since it hasn’t so far?

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Just like the Bucs' 2016 season, Koetter hasn’t been everything he was touted to be. He’s been in over his head a few times, particularly with clock management in a loss to the Rams and decision-making in a win over the Panthers that Carolina practically gifted them.

His calling card was that he'd develop Winston, but there’s still a lot of feast-or-famine in his game — although, maybe that’s just who he is. Yes, he’s in his second season, but he would have been in his second season under Smith, too, and that didn’t buy him any extra time.

The Bucs are essentially the same team as last year, just with different faces. The sudden urgency of shoving Smith overboard would have been justified had Koetter been the key to a big leap in the standings, especially in a vulnerable NFC South. The Bucs haven’t leaped anywhere so far.

A win Thursday night over division leader Atlanta could change that … or not, if their inconsistency continues afterward.

Was Smith really dragging the franchise down? Because without him, they haven’t gone up yet. Koetter had better hope the Glazers have the patience with him they didn’t show the three coaches before him … none of whom lasted more than three years.

FANTASY: Week 9 QB rankings | Injury updates

The rest of the worst, or the worst of the rest:

Jeff Fisher, Rams: So much talk about a contract extension floating about since opening week, yet so many examples of how this is the quintessential Jeff Fisher season: just under .500, a winning streak just long enough to tease everybody, a quarterback mess, a nationally-televised embarrassment that makes everybody scream, “Twenty years! He got to coach 20 years!” Season: 3-4; career, 172-160-1.

Gus Bradley, Jaguars: His 2-5 team stands accused of felony underachieving, expected to contend in the weak AFC South thanks to smart recent drafting. Instead, they’ve stunk, getting humiliated last Thursday in Tennessee. The offense and Blake Bortles are going backwards. Bradley fired the offensive coordinator instead.

Ben McAdoo, Giants: McAdoo has left his mark largely from vigorously scolding Odell Beckham Jr. for being too emotional during games, for scoffing at Colin Kaepernick’s pre-game protests and for sternly defending Josh Brown after his domestic violence incidents were exposed. On the field, even though they're 4-3, it’s not clear what he does better than Tom Coughlin ... except he hasn’t done it as long.

Chip Kelly, 49ers: Kelly had a tendency to make things worse for himself in Philadelphia, but that hasn’t been the problem in San Francisco. He was just handed a team of chicken (feet) and told to turn it into chicken salad by the management team that brought together the chicken (feet). No coach could win with this bunch, not even the coach whose shadow still casts a pall over the franchise, the hated Jim Harbaugh. That 1-6 record, worst in the NFC, has many fathers, and Kelly's at the back of that line.