SR’s Fab 5: Inside The Bucs’ Change At Offensive Coordinator

SR’s Fab 5 is a collection of reporting and analysis on the Bucs from yours truly, Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds. Here are four things that caught my attention this week, plus some random tidbits in my Buc Shots section at the end. Enjoy!

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FAB 1. Inside The Bucs’ Change At Offensive Coordinator

The firing of Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was a long time coming. Doubts about Leftwich’s supposed brilliance as a play-caller had surfaced long before the season started.

The Bucs’ high-scoring offense during the 2020 and 2021 seasons was the perfect marriage between an incredibly talented roster and an old playbook that had a track record for big plays and producing touchdowns when executed properly.

Bucs HC Bruce Arians, OC Byron Leftwich, QB Tom Brady and ref – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Despite Tampa Bay winning Super Bowl LV in 2020 with the arrival of Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, and producing a franchise-best 13-4 record and an NFC South title in 2021, Leftwich hardly got any head coaching interviews. That irked former head coach Bruce Arians – the architect of the Bucs offense. Arians went so far as to publicly say that Brady got too much of the credit for the offense’s success, and that Leftwich had been slighted.

The rest of the league – except for Jacksonville, a perennial trainwreck of a franchise – disagreed with Arians. Leftwich didn’t get much interest except from the Jaguars, for whom Leftwich, a former NFL quarterback, was a first-round pick in 2003.

At one point, Jacksonville had made the Bucs’ play-caller their lead candidate to replace Urban Meyer last offseason. But Leftwich wanted a change at general manager and Jacksonville wouldn’t give in, so Leftwich withdrew his name, and the Jaguars went in a different direction, hiring Doug Pederson.

Needless to say, Duuuuuval made the right call.

Nearly 11 months later, the Pederson-led Jaguars were a surprise division winner and won their first playoff game since 2017. Meanwhile, Leftwich was fired in Tampa Bay after his offense underwhelmed all season and averaged just 18.4 points per game, which ranked 25th in the NFL.

That’s nearly two touchdowns less per game than the previous two seasons when the Bucs offense averaged 30 points each time it took the field.

Todd Bowles, who took over as the Bucs head coach on March 30 when Arians suddenly stepped down, was afraid the offense would lose some potency this year. Bowles is smart, and has gone up against the Arians offense in practice on a daily basis for years.

He had a front row seat to watch Brady, a future Hall of Fame quarterback, throw to future Hall of Fame wide receiver Mike Evans, future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski, a jackass receiver – yet one with Hall of Fame credentials – in Antonio Brown and a 1,000-yard receiver who just got paid $20 million per season in Chris Godwin.

Bucs QB Tom Brady, C Ryan Jensen and former LG Ali Marpet – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Not to mention that Brady was protected by three Pro Bowl offensive linemen in Ali Marpet, Ryan Jensen and Tristan Wirfs, a left tackle in Donovan Smith that was playing his best football in the 2020 playoffs and the entire 2021 season and a right guard in Alex Cappa, who got paid handsomely by the Bengals in free agency this year.

That’s a lot of talent.

No, it was an incredible amount of talent.

Bowles correctly surmised that the Bucs were simply out-talenting opposing defenses in lighting up the scoreboard from 2020-21. Brady was the best at the pre-snap read, finding the mismatch in coverage and knowing where he was going with the ball before it was even hiked.

As a top-notch defensive coordinator, Bowles knew that even the best defense didn’t have enough talent in the secondary to take away four elite weapons.

Take away two? Maybe bracket Godwin and Gronkowski down the seam? Fine, Brady would find Evans and Brown on the outside.

Double cover Evans and AB with Cover 2? Sure, Brady would light up the seam with passes to Godwin and Gronk.

Opposing defenses simply couldn’t stop three out of the Bucs’ big four weapons – and certainly not all four.

A quick look at the Bucs’ roster Bowles inherited from Arians two weeks after the start of free agency showed no AB, no Gronk and no Marpet, who had retired during the offseason. Plus, Brady was now 45 and was in a troubled marriage after un-retiring to rejoin the Bucs on March 13.

Bucs WR Russell Gage and OC Byron Leftwich – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Bowles had a hunch that the Bucs weren’t going to out-talent the league anymore on offense this season. He asked Leftwich and his offensive coaches – all of whom were Arians disciples and had tunnel vision on his playbook – to broaden their horizons during the offseason in the spring and summer. Watch some college football tape and get innovative. Bring some borrowed ideas, fresh concepts and new plays to supplement the aging Arians playbook.

That didn’t happen. And it was obvious by the plays that were being installed in the early days of training camp. Pretty much the same old plays from the same old playbook.

Throw in the fact that Jensen suffered a season-ending knee injury on the second day of training camp and Bowles and the Bucs brass grew even more concerned about the offense. Not because they didn’t believe that Robert Hainsey could step in and do a credible job at center – he did. But he wasn’t near Jensen’s level of experience, play or demeanor, and the Bucs offense lost yet another Pro Bowler before the season had begun.

New receiver Russell Gage, a $10 million per year investment, got hurt in OTAs and would have trouble staying healthy all season. He was nowhere close to replacing AB from a playmaking standpoint.

New receiver Julio Jones was a shell of his former self at age 33. He also had issues staying healthy and missed seven games due to injury. Jones didn’t replace Gronkowski’s red zone production as the team had hoped, and finished the regular season with just two touchdowns.

New tight end Kyle Rudolph was washed up. That was clear from the first day of training camp, and he wouldn’t be able to replace Gronkowski’s blocking in the run game. The Bucs – and Brady – would have to lean on the aging Cam Brate and a pair of rookies in Cade Otton and Ko Kieft instead at tight end.

Bowles knew that the Bucs couldn’t rely on their uber-talented downfield passing attack because two of the main weapons – AB and Gronk – were gone. And so were all three of Brady’s interior pass protectors – Marpet, Jensen and Cappa. Both Bowles and Brady wanted the Bucs to be more balanced on offense and run the ball better this year to take some of the pressure off the G.O.A.T.

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

The Bucs averaged 100.5 yards rushing per game in 2020, which ranked 25th in the league, and 96.3 rushing yards per game in 2021, which ranked 26th. The last thing Brady wanted to do at age 45 was lead the league in pass attempts (719) and completions (485) again.

As we now know, the Bucs running game would rank dead last in 2022, averaging a pathetic 75.6 yards per game – 20 fewer yards per game. And the offense wound up relying on old man Brady’s arm even more, as he once again led the league in pass attempts (733) and completions (490) – both single-season NFL records.

Those are not the kind of records Brady is interested in.

But for one game in Dallas in Week 1, nearly everything went according to script for the Bucs ground game. Tampa Bay started the season running the ball 33 times for 152 yards and a robust 4.6 average. Leonard Fournette ran for 127 yards and was the star in a 19-3 season-opening win.

But then it all started to unravel for Leftwich and the Bucs offense.

FAB 2. Bucs’ Ground Game Vanished Under Leftwich

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was furious after Week 4, and not just over his defense surrendering 41 points to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. The Bucs offense had finally hit 31 points in a 41-31 loss to Kansas City after two years of scoring 30 points on a regular basis.

The Bucs offense had underachieved the first three weeks of the season during a 2-1 start, scoring 19 points at Dallas, 13 points at New Orleans and 12 points at home in a loss to Green Bay. So, the 31 points was a welcome sign.

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

Except for the fact that 45-year old quarterback Tom Brady passed the ball 52 times. And that the Bucs ran the ball just six times for only three yards. It was one of the fewest rushing yards in an NFL game in the league’s history. Bowles wouldn’t have cared much if the Bucs had won. He’s all about winning.

But the Bucs lost, and running for just three yards on six carries strayed from the direction that Bowles wanted the offense to go in during the 2022 season.

After running the ball extremely well in Week 1, the Bucs ran for 72 yards on 30 carries, but a woeful 2.4 average in Week 2 against the Saints. The next week against the Packers was even worse, as the team posted just 14 carries for 34 yards, and a similar 2.4 average.

Then came the Chiefs game, where the Bucs just didn’t even try to establish the run. Tampa Bay did trail 14-3 at the end of the first quarter, but there was still plenty of time left in the game to run the ball and to try to achieve some balance. And at halftime, the Bucs had pulled within 28-17.

Bowles wanted Leftwich to run the ball more and to be more creative and less predictable with those runs. Perhaps not run the ball so much on first down, as Leftwich was prone to do.

And maybe run the ball out of three receiver sets rather than predictable two- and three-tight end formations. When rookie fullback/tight end Ko Kieft was in the game, it became an easy tell that the Bucs were going to run the ball.

Play-action passes were nearly absent from the game plan early in the season, and motion, which helped Brady decipher whether a defense was in man coverage or zone, was nearly non-existent.

The Bucs offense bogged down late in the 2020 season after the team slipped to 7-5, losing three of four games heading into the bye week. Brady and the coaches made some adjustments and incorporated more play-action, more motion and put a greater emphasis on the running game.

Bucs RB Leonard Fournette – Photo by: USA Today

It took a few weeks for the ground game to improve, but Tampa Bay averaged 122.5 rushing yards in the 2020 postseason, including 145 yards on the ground in Super Bowl LV. That was an improvement of over 30 rushing yards per game from the regular season.

Tampa Bay only topped 100 yards rushing as a team twice after Week 1 – a 161-yard effort against Seattle and a 115-yard night on Christmas at Arizona. In the team’s 31-14 loss to Dallas, the Bucs ran for just 52 yards on 12 carries while Brady threw the ball an absurd 66 times.

Three of those carries for 24 yards – nearly half of Tampa Bay’s rushing output –came with under five minutes left in the game with the Bucs trailing 31-6. Before that, Leftwich called nine runs, which resulted in just 28 yards. The Bucs were shutout by the Cowboys, 18-0, and at one point in the third quarter trailed 24-0.

Bowles wanted the Bucs to run the ball at least 20 times per game. That directive was not followed about half the time during the season. Some within the team headquarters believed that Leftwich’s penchant for calling so many first down runs early in games was just to check the box and appease the head coach.

It’s one thing to play to a team’s strength, and for the Bucs it was Brady and the passing game. Continuing to run the ball and gaining little to nothing time after time doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But it’s an offensive coordinator’s job to figure out the rushing attack with run game coordinator Harold Goodwin and make it effective. Instead of figuring out a way to make the ground game more effective, Leftwich continued to have the Bucs run the ball in predictable down and distances with predictable personnel groupings with the same predictable running plays throughout much of the season.

Bucs RB Leonard Fournette – Photo by: USA Today

With the exception of Week 1, Leftwich’s continued usage of 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends), 13 personnel (one back, three tight ends) or 13 Jumbo personnel (one back, two tight ends and an extra offensive tackle) failed in short yardage. The reason? Tampa Bay’s offensive formation would get more compact with tighter splits and defenses would load the box and the line of scrimmage.

And this year, the Bucs didn’t have studs like Marpet, Jensen and Gronkowski up front to blast open holes.

Want to know why Brady got skittish this year, throwing the ball away quickly to avoid getting hit? He dropped back to pass an astounding 775 times, including called pass plays that resulted in sacks and scrambles.

Against Dallas in the playoff loss, Brady dropped back to throw a ridiculous 68 times, including the two sacks he took. The Bucs scored just 14 points against the Cowboys and everything that the Bucs had struggled with since the preseason – scoring, running the ball, red zone efficiency, third down efficiency and too many three-and-outs – surfaced once again for Leftwich’s offense.

Leftwich’s firing, which happened on Thursday, had been inevitable for much of the season.

FAB 3. A Critical, 3-Game Stretch Ultimately Sealed Leftwich’s Fate

Much was made of the Bucs’ daunting start to the season when the 2022 schedule came out. Starting out with games Dallas and at New Orleans, and then two tough home games against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, followed by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on Monday Night Football.

The Bucs had to begin the season at least 2-2 to really have a chance at the playoffs, and did – thanks to two big road wins over the Cowboys and the Saints. Todd Bowles’ defense led the way, holding Dallas and New Orleans to a combined 13 points, while safety Mike Edwards’ pick-six against the Saints helped Byron Leftwich’s struggling offense put points on the board in Week 2.

Wide receiver Mike Evans was suspended in Week 3 for fighting with Saints defensive back Marshon Lattimore, and the Bucs missed him mightily in a 14-12 loss to the Packers. A failed two-point conversion let a winnable game slip away, but the Bucs were indeed 2-2 after the first month of the season.

A 21-15 win over Atlanta helped Tampa Bay improve to 3-2 and up next were a pair of one-win teams in Pittsburgh and Carolina. As fate would have it, the Steelers were starting rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett and had a rash of injuries on defense. All-pro pass rusher T.J. Watt was out, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was out, as was much of the Steelers secondary. The Bucs were heavily favored as a result.

The only game-wrecker left on defense was aging defensive tackle Cameron Heyward. The coaches met and decided that even though rookie left guard Luke Goedeke was struggling, he would have to face Heyward. But that he might need some help. The last thing the Bucs could afford was to let the lone game-wrecker in Pittsburgh wreck the game.

Bucs LG Luke Goedeke and Steelers DT Cameron Heyward – Photo by: USA Today

But that’s exactly what happened.

Too many times Goedeke was left to face Heyward one-on-one without center Robert Hainsey’s help with a double-team block. Too many times the Bucs ran the ball to Goedeke’s side of the line without any positive results. Too many times the Bucs tried to pick up third-and-short situations behind the struggling Goedeke and left tackle Donovan Smith rather than behind the more talented side of the offensive line with right guard Shaq Mason and All-Pro right tackle Tristan Wirfs.

Leftwich had one mission – and he failed, as the Bucs lost, 20-18.

Not to mention, Evans was targeted just four times, catching four passes for 42 yards against a secondary full of backups.

So, how in the world was a crippled Steelers defense able to hold the Bucs to just 18 points? Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin had seen this Bruce Arians offense for years when Arians was his offensive coordinator, and not much had changed. It was the same plays that Leftwich ran when he was a backup quarterback in Pittsburgh under Tomlin and Arians. The play-calling was predictable, and the Steelers defense was ready and well prepared.

Leftwich was grilled hard by the media about Evans’ lack of targets, and for letting Goedeke get killed repeatedly by Heyward, who finished with three tackles, a sack and two quarterback hits.

After that embarrassing loss that nobody saw coming, the Bucs traveled to Carolina to take on the one-win Panthers. Matt Rhule had recently been fired and replaced by interim head coach Steve Wilks. The Panthers were down to fourth-string quarterback P.J. Walker, and had just traded wide receiver Robbie Anderson and star running back Christian McCaffrey. Again, the Bucs were heavy favorites to win.

The game didn’t start well, as a wide-open Evans dropped a wide-open touchdown bomb from Brady in the first quarter. Nothing worked for the Bucs offense in the first half as the Panthers took a 7-0 lead into halftime in a game Carolina would win, 21-3.

After catching flak from the media and from Bowles about Evans not being targeted enough in Pittsburgh, Leftwich made sure he got Evans the ball. Evans wound up with nine catches for 96 yards. But Brady dropped back to pass 49 times, and the Bucs’ ground game ground to a halt. Despite only trailing 14-3 in the fourth quarter, Tampa Bay only ran the ball 16 times for 46 yards and a wimpy 2.9 average.

Bucs QB Tom Brady and OC Byron Leftwich – Photo by: USA Today

Pewter Report was the first and only media outlet to publicly call for Leftwich to be fired after the loss at Carolina dropped the Bucs to 3-4 on the season. It’s clear that the offensive coordinator didn’t understand analytics and their proper place in the game because he would laugh off meaningful data and statistics when presented to him in press conferences as “fantasy football stuff.”

The next week against Baltimore on Thursday night, Tampa Bay’s defense played well for the first half in back-to-back games. The Bucs had a 10-3 lead at halftime, but wound up losing 27-22. Brady threw the ball 44 times and the Bucs only ran the ball 15 times for 44 yards and another disappointing 2.9 average.

Things were coming to a head behind the scenes as the offense’s slow starts and lack of points were directly contributing to losing winnable games. The organization had given Bowles the green light to fire Leftwich if he wanted to, and after the Ravens game on Thursday night seemed like an opportune time with the weekend off.

But Bowles didn’t pull the trigger at that time, and late-game heroics from Brady and Cade Otton helped the Bucs come back to beat the Rams to end a three-game losing streak. Maybe Bowles would consider firing Leftwich after the bye week?

All season long, Bowles had implored Leftwich to fix the running game and stick with it, and to tweak the play-calling. In a 21-16 win over the Seahawks in Germany, nearly everything that had gone wrong with the Bucs offense all season long was suddenly right.

Tampa Bay scored touchdowns instead of field goals. The Bucs converted third downs, especially third-and-short. And they ran the ball to the tune of 161 yards, a season high – led by rookie Rachaad White’s 105 yards.

Maybe Leftwich was listening and saw how an effective running game could take some of the pass protection pressure off the offensive line and off Brady. Maybe the Bucs offense could turn it around after beating a good, playoff-bound Seahawks team.

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: USA Today

Leftwich would not be fired during the bye week. Those back-to-back wins improved the Bucs to 5-5 and saved Leftwich – for the time being.

The Bucs ended the season averaging just 18 points per game over the last eight games – which would be their season average. Tampa Bay struggled to a 3-5 finish, including the playoff loss to the Cowboys. Leftwich’s offense would score more than 21 points just four times out of 17 games in 2022, and even that wasn’t enough. The Bucs were just 1-3 in those games.

Without the talent that Leftwich had to work with on the offensive line and a full arsenal of weapons he had in the passing game during the 2020-21 seasons, the Bucs offense sputtered and stalled. Good coaches adjust and adapt. Great coaches overcome talent deficiencies with scheme and creative play-calls.

Too many predictable first down runs. Too many predictable wide receiver screen passes. Too many unsuccessful third-and-1 downs. Too many three-and-outs. Too many field goal attempts. Too many passes by an aging Brady.

Not enough creativity. Not enough innovation. Not enough clever, timely play calls. Not enough answers. Not enough evolution of Arians’ offense. Not enough points.

As Pewter Report forecasted on Monday night after the loss to Dallas, Leftwich and several of Arians’ offensive assistants were let go on Thursday. Bowles is wisely moving on from an offense that has proven it can excel with immense talent and high-level execution, but is otherwise predictable and ineffective without it.

All good things must come to end. There was a time when Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense ruled the NFL and Monte Kiffin’s Tampa 2 defense was the league’s mightiest defense. The same can be said for Arians’ offense too, and it has passed its prime.

The Bucs will have a new offense and a new play-caller in 2023, as Bowles is under the gun to get this hire right and nail it. Despite winning the NFC South in his first year as a head coach, Tampa Bay only won eight games and lost 10, including the playoff defeat at the hands of Dallas.

After inheriting Arians’ staff on March 30 and not being able to make any changes initially, Bowles will now get one shot to remake the coaching staff in his image and pick his own play-caller and assistants.

The Glazers have given every head coach they’ve hired and fired at least two years, including the recent, failed tenures of Raheem Morris (three), Greg Schiano (two), Lovie Smith (two) and Dirk Koetter (three).

Year two begins for Bowles now.

FAB 4. The Bucs Questions That Need To Be Answered

As I wrap up this special edition of SR’s Fab 5, which focuses solely on the firing of Byron Leftwich and the coaching staff shake-up, I want to take the time to address some obvious questions that have popped up on the Pewter Report Twitter feed and in the Pewter Report Podcast chat room. I’ll do my best to answer them based on what I know or my best, educated guess.

Why Didn’t Todd Bowles Fire Byron Leftwich During The Season?

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

I don’t have a solid answer for this other than to believe that Bowles didn’t think there was an actual upgrade over Leftwich on the existing staff. The fact that wide receivers coach Kevin Garver and running backs coach Todd McNair were fired, and that quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen was going to be fired if he didn’t retire, leads me to that conclusion.

Christensen had the most play-calling experience in his background, and the fact that Bowles didn’t fire Leftwich and replace him with Christensen tells me all I need to know. Bowles didn’t feel like anyone on the staff he inherited could do a better job than the guy who was failing as a play-caller.

Even though Bowles knew the offense was in trouble – possibly as early as training camp – he made a calculated gamble and bet on the play of his defense and the heroics of Tom Brady. And it paid off – barely. The combination of Bowles’ typically stout defense and Brady was enough to win the NFC South title in a down year in the division and make the playoffs.

But it won’t be enough to win moving forward in 2023, especially if Brady doesn’t return to Tampa Bay.

Why Didn’t Bowles Make Any Changes To The Coaching Staff Before The Season?

Bowles inherited Bruce Arians’ coaching staff on March 30, which was two weeks after the start of free agency. Arians tabbed Bowles to lead the Bucs on the condition that he keep Arians’ staff intact.

And initially, why would Bowles want to make any changes to the staff? That same staff won the Super Bowl in 2020 and finished 13-4 the previous season. Even if Bowles wanted to make some staff changes, which he did, he knew that he couldn’t for three reasons.

First, the organization wouldn’t let him. That was part of the deal with him being Arians’ successor.

Second, Bowles would be lambasted by fans and the media if he fired Leftwich or any offensive assistants after the team just got through scoring an average of 30 points per game before the season started. Even if Bowles had suspicions about Leftwich or other coaches, he would have to let the 2022 season play out and for their incompetence or poor performance to be exposed for all to see as the offense had less available talent than in previous years.

And finally, any assistants who Bowles might have wanted to add to Tampa Bay’s staff would have either been committed to a college staff or under contract with another NFL team on March 30. While every other new head coaching hire gets to assemble his own staff, Bowles would have to wait until the 2023 offseason to make his first coaching hire.

Why Didn’t Brady Just Take Over And Call Plays On The Field?

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As it has been explained to me, Brady does not want control over the offense. He is not like Peyton Manning, who liked to call his own plays and direct the offense from the field. Brady wants to focus on executing the play that is called and making it work. He does not want to call plays and have to worry about what play would work best on a certain down and distance based on a certain defensive personnel package.

There is no doubt that Brady collaborated with Leftwich during the week and helped pick the plays that were called on game days based on what worked in practice. But like it or not, Brady is subservient as a quarterback. He is a soldier – not a field general – when it comes to the plays that are called.

Where Brady did feel comfortable taking over and calling plays was when the team went no-huddle and executed the two-minute offense. That happened to be where the Bucs offense had its most success, evidenced by late, come-from-behind wins over the Rams, Saints, Cardinals and Panthers. Unfortunately, the Bucs didn’t do more of that.

Why Didn’t Bowles Help Fix The Offense?

While Bowles is the head coach, he is also the defensive play-caller. He’s adept at stopping offenses – not helping them or fixing them. Bowles would provide some direction and some tips from his defensive point of view, but he largely let Leftwich and the offensive coaches do what they hired to do and paid to do – fix and run the offense.

Why Did Run Game Coordinator Harold Goodwin And Offensive Line Coach Joe Gilbert Avoid Getting Fired?

I don’t have a good answer other than I heard that Goodwin was just as frustrated with the lack of run calls during the game as Bowles was. Now, I didn’t hear that from either Goodwin or Bowles, so I may be wrong about this premise. But if I’m right, then Bowles didn’t think the failures of the running game fell on those offensive line coaches – despite the poor performance of the line itself.

Goodwin did speak to Tampa Bay Times beat writer Rick Stroud and expressed his frustration with the lack of run calls in some games. The Bucs’ run game coordinator said that 22 or 23 Double is a staple run play in the Bucs’ duo run scheme, yet it wasn’t called as often in 2022 as it was in previous years.

“It’s in there. I can’t control what the play-caller calls,” Goodwin told Stroud. “But it’s in there every week. It’s basically our base play. You start with that to create everything you do in the run game, from play-action passes to what we’re doing running-wise.

“We have it in there. We have a lot of runs. It’s just whether we get to them or not. It’s how the play-caller is feeling. It’s my favorite play by far because we’ve have a lot of success with it. It just depends on whether Byron is feeling like calling it that day or not. I can’t control that.”

Now, I have seen offensive coordinators wanting to have some say-so in who the offensive line coach is because it all starts up front. Out of the 11 starters on offense, the most come from one position, and that’s the five offensive linemen. So Bowles may wait to see what his new hire at offensive coordinator thinks of Goodwin and Gilbert first. But that’s just a guess on my part.

Does The Firing Of Leftwich And Christensen’s Departure Affect The Chances Of Brady’s Return To Tampa Bay?

Bucs QB Tom Brady and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

If anything, I think Leftwich’s firing and the changes on the coaching staff would increase the chances of Brady’s return. He’s no dummy. Brady saw all the warts on offense just like Bucs fans did. My guess is that he would welcome the opportunity to work with a new offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay.

Wherever he goes, Brady will be learning a new offense and working with new coaches, whether he stays with the Bucs or plays elsewhere. I don’t want to suggest that Brady didn’t like working with Leftwich, but I don’t think the fact that Leftwich was fired would deter Brady from coming back to the Bucs at all.

Bowles and general manager Jason Licht, both of whom have a good relationship with Brady, will keep the 45-year old QB abreast of whom they interview and may even ask for Brady’s input. But the Bucs won’t make this hire just based on trying to keep Brady, who will likely only play one more year in Tampa Bay if he does return. The Bucs have to make the right hire for Bowles going forward for many years to come.

Brady won’t commit to return to Tampa Bay – or commit to leaving – until he knows who the new play-caller is. And he might want to have a conversation with that new offensive coordinator when the time comes before the start of free agency.

Was Leftwich Just The Scapegoat For Bowles’ 8-9 Season As Head Coach?

No, but some of the national media who don’t follow the team closely at all will suggest that. They’ll look at the surface and see a string of seasons where the Bucs offense was in the Top 5 in scoring. And they’ll look at last year when injuries and departures hit and the offense fell to 25th in scoring after Arians left and use the excuse that Leftwich was the scapegoat.

That was not the case. Yes, Brady, who went through a very public, painful divorce, did not have a great season. Yes, the offensive line had injuries. Yes, Tampa Bay’s offense lost some firepower from a year ago.

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

But Leftwich was not creative enough and didn’t scheme well enough to help the offense out. That was plain and simple to anyone who watched each game and saw the nauseating amount of first down runs, unsuccessful third-and-1 conversions and a slew of ineffective wide receiver screens.

A successful offensive coordinator shouldn’t have to be told to run the ball more after a six-carry game against the Chiefs.

A successful offensive coordinator shouldn’t have to be told to get Mike Evans, the Bucs’ star receiver, the ball more after just four targets versus the Steelers.

A successful offensive coordinator shouldn’t have to be told to maybe try getting a defense in nickel and spreading it out with a three-receiver set when trying to run the ball on third-and-1 instead of going with a heavy-jumbo package that rarely seemed to work.

And a successful offensive coordinator shouldn’t have to rely on Brady taking over in two-minute drills to provide the necessary points to win and beat bad teams like the Rams, Saints and Cardinals in the last second of the game.

Was Leftwich Ever Considered To Be A Head-Coaching Candidate In Tampa Bay?

No. Even when Arians was hired in 2019 after retiring in 2018 due to health concerns, Leftwich was not going to be the successor. If anything were to happen to Arians and he had to retire suddenly in-season during his time as head coach, Bowles was always going to be the successor.

Despite Arians campaigning for Leftwich to get a head coaching job after the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Bucs were never going to hire Leftwich – even if Bowles had left for another head coaching job elsewhere prior to the 2022 season. That was an organizational decision. Even if Arians had wanted Leftwich to be his successor had Bowles departed, I don’t think the Bucs would have allowed that.

FAB 5. SR’s Buc Shots

• ORLOVSKY IS SPOT ON: Like him or not, ESPN NFL analyst and former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky is spot on with his analysis.

Here is a transcript of what Orlovsky said, and he’s exactly right:

“This is one of the least creative offenses in the NFL. I remember even in 2020 when they won the Super Bowl I said they are so dependent on high level execution. They do very little to help their players. Now they adjusted into the season and into that playoff run – and they were super talented. That’s why they got it done. But this offense is so behind in so many different ways when it comes to new-age football. It’s in many ways archaic. It’s very little motion. They don’t do anything that they’re good at. I feel like they major in things that they are bad at. … How disconnected the run game is from the pass game. It’s almost like the coaches don’t even talk in their building.”

• SAYS SHARPE – BLAME BRADY, NOT BYRON: Fox Sports’ Shannon Sharpe wants to blame Tom Brady rather than Byron Leftwich for the Bucs’ awful season on offense.

• GREAT ARTICLE BY GREG: Fox Sports NFC South writer Greg Auman details the struggles of the Bucs’ downfield passing game in 2022. Yet another reason why Byron Leftwich was fired.

THIS WEEK’S PEWTER REPORT PODCASTS

• BUCS COACHING STAFF SHAKE-UP ANALYSIS ON THE PEWTER REPORT PODCAST: The Pewter Report Podcast is energized by CELSIUS and broadcasts four live episodes each week. We’re in the offseason now, so PR Podcasts will be featured on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – either at 4:00 p.m. ET or in prime time at 7:00 p.m. ET. Subscribe to PewterReportTV on YouTube and click on notifications and you’ll be informed about when the next podcast will be broadcast.

Matt Matera and Scott Reynolds discussed the expected firings on the Bucs coaching staff on Tuesday’s podcast.

On Wednesday, Matera and Josh Queipo looked ahead at what’s next for the Bucs as they begin the 2023 offseason.

Matera, Reynolds and Adam Slivon discuss the firing of offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and several assistant coaches on Thursday’s podcast.

Watch the Pewter Report Podcasts live on our PewterReportTV channel on YouTube.com and please subscribe (it’s free) and add your comments. We archive all Pewter Report Podcasts. So, you can watch the recorded episodes if you missed them live.

There is no better time to listen to or watch a new Pewter Report Podcast – energized by CELSIUS – than Friday afternoon on the way home from work. Or early Saturday morning during your workout or while running errands.

The popularity of the Pewter Report Podcast continues to grow. In addition to listening to the Pewter Report Podcasts on PewterReport.com, you can also subscribe to the free podcasts at PodBean by clicking here and on SoundCloud by clicking here. And of course, the Pewter Report Podcast is also available on iTunes and YouTube. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode.