Where Does Bucs’ Coaching Staff Rank Among Best In NFL?

When it comes to NFL coaching staffs, how do the Bucs rank?

This question is a hard one, but one that ESPN’s Ben Solak has attempted to recently answer by going over all 32 teams in the league. With head coach Todd Bowles coming off his most successful season leading a team, there is reason for optimism. With Liam Coen hired as offensive coordinator, there is also some level of uncertainty about what to expect on that side of the ball.

Did both of these factor in and affect the team’s overall rankings? Let’s check in.

Bucs Coaching Staff Ranks 22nd In NFL, 2nd In NFC South

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs coaching staff checked in at No. 22 in Ben Solak’s rankings.

In terms of where that ranks in the NFC South, the Saints come in at No. 29, the Panthers at No. 27, and the Falcons, with a new head coach and two new coordinators, place just ahead of them at No. 21. This is the beginning of Solak’s reasoning, with one knock in particular bumping Bowles back a bit.

Can someone get Bowles a game management assistant so I can bump the Buccaneers further up this list? He ended the Bucs’ season with a timeout in his pocket, forgoing the chance for a Hail Mary or similar miracle in the divisional round of the playoffs? This is another in a long line of maddening clock management decisions from Bowles, who has actually gotten wiser to the fourth-down gag but still regularly mishandles end-of-half scoring situations to the detriment of his team.

Bowles has coordinated some great defenses in his day, but he has always underwhelmed as a head coach. The 2023 Buccaneers are certainly his biggest success story to date, and if he can weather the departure of Dave Canales (and a few offensive assistants Canales poached) to Carolina, then I’m willing to entertain the chance he has come around the corner as a head guy. But this is always the worry with a defensive head coach: Too much of his success relies on finding a good offensive coordinator, and when he does, that guy is whisked away after just one season.

After Dave Canales was “whisked away” by the Panthers this offseason to be their head coach, Liam Coen was hired away from Kentucky to take his place. After working under Sean McVay with the Rams and being their offensive coordinator in 2021, Coen had two stints with Kentucky (2021 and 2023) to gain further playcalling experience. As a young offensive mind, he does bring a different level of knowledge that can upgrade the offense.

Then again, Solak raises the question of how his previous experience will translate.

Bucs OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

An interesting candidate here in Coen, who used his Sean McVay connection to get an offensive coordinator job at Kentucky in 2021 (went great, ask Will Levis). In 2022, he took the coordinator job under Sean McVay in Los Angeles (the worst offense of McVay’s entire Rams tenure, though they were super injured). Then, in 2023, he went back to Kentucky as the offensive coordinator again (not nearly as good), and now he’s Tampa Bay’s coordinator.

I don’t really know what to do with this information. Coen’s most impressive work was adapting the Jared Goff-McVay offense to the college ranks, which is a tricky thing to pull off. But I’m not sure how well his success there predicts his success running an NFL offense for Baker Mayfield, who needs more than just Goff’s greatest hits to be successful in Tampa Bay. The real thing that needs fixing in Tampa? The running game. Coen has been a passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach his whole life.

Solak brings up sound points, but ones that can be unraveled a bit. Coen did bring in Kevin Carberry as his offensive line coach, and already the offensive line and running backs look to be more in sync if the preseason is to be believed. He did not rank each position coach, but Carberry – along with wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon – could be crucial in realizing the offense’s success this season. If Todd Bowles shows further improvement in game management, he along with the coaching staff could be in the top half of the NFL this time next year.

Bucs fans, do you think the coaching staff was ranked properly? Leave your comments down below.

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