The Tampa Bay Buccaneers season may be over, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to discuss. Just a few weeks following the Bucs getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Washington Commanders, the franchise lost its offensive coordinator for the second time in as many seasons as Liam Coen decided to leave Tampa to become a head coach for its East Coast counterpart in the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Coen helped turn around a Buccaneers offense that had some mediocre success under Dave Canales, who left for the Panthers the year before. While quarterback Baker Mayfield enjoyed a career year this past season under Coen, it was the explosion of the running game that helped elevate the offense as it went from one of the worst in the league to one of the best.
One of the reasons for that was Coen being able to identify what running scheme fit best for his backs and in turn, what he needed to get his offensive line to understand the proper blocking patterns to make it so successful. With Coen now out of Tampa Bay, the Bucs went on the search for their offensive coordinator ultimately deciding to stay in-house by hiring pass game coordinator Josh Grizzard for the opening.
Grizzard will have his work cut out for him as he tries to live up to what Coen did this season, but the pieces are there for him to make the transition as seamless as possible. One of the key cogs of the Bucs’ success has been their offensive line and the man leading that, All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs, spoke to the media during Pro Bowl media availability about how excited he is for the future of the team with Grizzard now leading the offense.
“[Grizzard] is a wizard,” Wirfs said. “It makes sense. It’s perfect. We’re all excited about it.”
That’s some high praise there from one of the best in the game when speaking about Grizzard. It seems as if most of the Buccaneers like the hire and Grizzard himself, so the meshing shouldn’t take too long since everyone will seemingly be on the same page once offseason workouts and installs start to be put together.
The Buccaneers’ offensive line unit was one of the best in the league this past season. While Wirfs always holds it down individually, the line as a whole is what makes offenses go and the Bucs seemed to have found some great continuity with the unity they currently have as they claimed the lowest pressure rate allowed during the regular in the NFL at just 24.4%.
Tampa Bay still has plenty of work to do, but things are finally starting to come together when examining the coaching staff. Once all the details there are hashed out, the Bucs can then start to focus on how to build out their roster to fill holes that were problem areas this season.
