BREAKING: Bucs Expected To Fire OC Leftwich

Now that the Bucs’ 2022 season has come to a close following Tampa Bay’s 31-14 loss to Dallas in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, Pewter Report is reporting that the team is expected to fire offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.

This move has been anticipated by Pewter Report for some time. The Bucs offense generated 386 yards against Dallas, but only ran the ball for 52 yards as Tampa Bay fell behind early and trailed 18-0 at halftime. More importantly, the Bucs offense produced only 14 points after trailing Dallas, 24-0 in the third quarter.

Tampa Bay won the NFC South despite averaging just 18.4 points per game in the regular season, which was the lowest in the division.

Todd Bowles, who will return as the Bucs’ head coach in 2023, inherited Bruce Arians’ coaching staff when he stepped down on March 30 and named Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator as his replacement. Now, Bowles will have the chance to make a change at play-caller after the Bucs’ offense ranked 25th in the NFL in scoring this year.

Bucs’ Points Per Game Fell Mightily Under Leftwich

Leftwich has been the team’s play-caller since the 2019 season when he worked with quarterback Jameis Winston. Tom Brady replaced Winston at quarterback in 2020 and helped lead the Bucs to a victory in Super Bowl LV. The Bucs averaged 30.8 points per game in 2020, which ranked second in the league.

Bucs OC Byron Leftwich and QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Last year, Tampa Bay’s offense averaged 29.9 points per game, which also ranked second in the NFL, while the Bucs went 13-4 and won the NFC South. But the team’s scoring has fallen by nearly two touchdowns per game as the offense has seen a reduction in talent in 2022.

Pro Bowl left guard Ali Marpet and future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski retired, and Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen injured his knee on the second day of training camp. Wide receiver Antonio Brown, who has Hall of Fame credentials, quit on the team late in the 2021 season.

But despite less talent and several injuries at wide receiver and along the offensive line, Leftwich has not been able to show enough creativity or make the necessary adjustments to overcome the deficiencies.

Poor play-sequencing, predictability on offense and some questionable personnel usage all doomed Leftwich this season. Tampa Bay has struggled on third downs and in the red zone, as well as running the ball. The Bucs’ ground game ranked last in 2022, averaging a woeful 76.9 yards per game, which makes it one of the worst rushing attacks of all time.

Bowles wanted the Bucs to run the ball better and more often in 2022. Instead, Brady led the NFL in passing attempts (733) and completions (490) for a second straight season.

Bucs Contemplated Firing Leftwich During The Season

The Bucs okayed a plan to fire Leftwich at midseason – either after the Ravens game on Thursday Night Football or after the bye week. Instead, Bowles decided to trust his defense and Brady’s heroics and hoped that Leftwich and the offensive staff could make some improvements along the way, which didn’t happen. It’s likely that Bowles didn’t see a potential upgrade at play-caller on the current staff, which is why he stayed with Leftwich for the rest of the year.

Bucs OC Byron Leftwich and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Even if he wanted to make some changes at play-caller and to the offensive coaching staff, Bowles really couldn’t due to the timing of his promotion, which was two weeks after the start of free agency. All of the assistants that Bowles might have wanted to hire were either on existing NFL coaching staffs or committed to college coaching staffs.

Plus, Leftwich was coming off two seasons in which the Bucs went 24-9 in the regular season and 5-1 in the postseason. Bowles would have caught an incredible amount of flak for firing Leftwich – even if he saw the decline of the Bucs’ offense coming before anyone else did.

After two years of the Bucs scoring 30 points on the regular, Leftwich’s unit only scored 30 points or more twice in 2022. The first time was in Week 4 in a 41-31 loss to Kansas City, and the last time was in Week 17 when Tampa Bay beat Carolina, 30-24, to clinch the NFC South title.

Leftwich’s expected departure is not expected to have any bearing whatsoever on whether Brady returns to Tampa Bay in 2023.

There is a chance that Bowles will make additional changes to the offensive coaching staff in addition to letting Leftwich go.

Potential replacements for Leftwich at offensive coordinator include Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken, Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien (who used to be the Houston Texans head coach) and former Indianapolis Colts head coach Frank Reich.