Bucs Young And Old Have Their Heads Spinning From New Offense

Going into OTAs and mini-camp, the Bucs knew they were going to need high I.Q. players to work in this new offense under Liam Coen. Hearing it is one thing, but going out and actually doing it and performing in the system is another. As everyone looks to get the understanding of the offense, the focus has had to be top level.

The Bucs have veterans that have been in the league for years and also young and up and coming players that are fresh into the league as well. Despite the varying degrees of NFL time across the roster, the players are at a similar pace in figuring out how this system can best work.

Liam Coen’s New Bucs Offense Is Presenting Challenges

Bucs RB Rachaad White and RBs coach Skip Peete – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Liam [Coen] came in and he did a great job,” running back Rachaad White said.  “He does a great job of just mixing up different looks. He does a great job of throwing the defense off a lot and [marrying] the run and the pass and play-actions, and stuff like that. This offense is hard, though. It isn’t easy.”

White is going to his third NFL season and has played in three different offenses. Bucky Irving on the other hand is getting his first crack at an NFL offense.

“I think it’s slowing down for me a lot,” Irving said. “When I first got out here, my mind was spinning because I didn’t know what was going on. But, [I’ve been] pretty much just locking in every night, going over my plays, having the voice audio and hearing the plays, talking through what I’ve got and being able to come out here and execute it. I feel like it’s slowing down a lot for me because I finally know what I’m doing, know the protections and things like that. If I just keep that up, I’ll be in great hands.”

Sterling Shepard has been in the NFL for eight seasons and has played in a handful of offenses system. He’s just learned the offense within days, but his reaction to it was similar to Irving’s.

“I’m just trying to get a grasp of the offense, trying to get out there and help the team in any way I can,” Shepard said this week. “It was a good first day, my head was spinning a little bit with all the new plays. It’s a lot different than a lot of the offenses that I’ve been in.”

Baker Mayfield Guiding The Bucs Through It

The only player coming into camp with prior knowledge of the offense is Baker Mayfield. If there’s any player that is going to best understand a new system, it might as well be the quarterback. Mayfield, who spent five weeks in Liam Coen’s offense during the last five weeks of the 2022 season in Los Angeles, stressed the importance of getting this work done now.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Eventually it will be muscle memory for everyone. Figuring things out by watching practice every day has played an important role in moving the progress along.

“That’s why we do this time right now,” Mayfield said. “It is hard, but that’s why you put stuff on tape, you learn from your mistakes and the good stuff. Like today and the last couple of days, being competitive with the defense. It’s a lot of learning tape to go from there, but you can tell our guys are starting to figure it out and that’s what you really want to have at this point of the offseason, to where you kind of master it a little bit. Then, you come back, start from scratch in training camp and re-install everything, to where guys have kind of a little knowledge of it and you go from there.”

Other players have bought in from how Mayfield is leading everyone.

“He does a great job, Baker, of staying the course and trying to get us in the right play, and leading all of us on offense,” Rachaad White said of Mayfield. “We follow his lead.”