The Buccaneers have made a new hire at offensive coordinator for the third straight year. Two years ago, the team brought in Dave Canales after an exhausting search only for him to leave to become the Carolina Panthers head coach after the season. Fast forward to this year, and the Bucs have had the same thing happen this time with Liam Coen leaving for the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job.
It's safe to say the Bucs hope their latest hire Josh Grizzard sticks around longer than a year. After interviewing five external candidates, the team quickly zeroed in on their in-house option. With Grizzard, the Bucs and quarterback Baker Mayfield will have something that has eluded them in recent years — continuity.
With Grizzard at the helm, the Bucs will keep the offensive scheme mostly intact as it was last season. He will surely add his own wrinkles to it and make it his own, but the core principle of the offense — the plays, verbiage and concepts — will remain the same.
"The continuity of having the staff and the players together is the most important part because we can go from installing an offense to naming plays, route concepts and halfback footwork to just know now," Grizzard said. "Once we hit the field, that’s the base level. What we did on the fundamentals we can now evolve to the next level of the teaching of coverages, of D-line technique, [etc.] – that way we can now expand the scheme, continue to add from around the league, add from college [and] continue to put pressure on the defense [as we] try to score points.”
That should excite Bucs fans as they return a top-five offense in the NFL with very little changes to the offensive side of the ball personnel-wise, especially if Chris Godwin returns. Grizzard spoke several times on taking the offense to the next level, sending a message to the Bucs "Krewe" that his eyes are on the ultimate prize — the Super Bowl.
“I’m fired up," Grizzard said. "You guys know the foundation that’s in place. We didn’t come here to go to the playoffs and lose a home game, so we’re trying to take it to the next level [and] try to bring a championship back to Tampa, and I’m fired up to be here and try to lead this unit down the road.”
If Grizzard can keep the offense firing on all cylinders, and the front office brings in the needed reinforcements to the defensive side of the ball, the Bucs could very well be competing for not just the NFC South next season but for a championship.
