NEWSLETTER
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offense was terrible this season and putrid in their romping on Monday night at the hands of the Cowboys. Not surprisingly, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich is being shown the door for his unit’s failures.
But according to Bucs beat reporter Rick Stroud, Leftwich isn’t the only coach fired in Tampa Bay. Stroud reports that Leftwich is among five offensive assistants expected to be let go, with two more coming on the defensive side of the ball.
It appears that Tampa Bay will allow head coach Todd Bowles to assemble the offensive coaching staff of his choice. Remember, Bowles inherited Leftwich and his assistants when he took over for Bruce Arians.
Here’s how the Buccaneers’ offense ranked this season:
The story is pretty simple. Tom Brady throwing the ball an average of 43.1 times per game was pretty good. Good enough to drag this Bucs team to an 8-9 record.
But the offense was terrible outside of Brady heaving it 40-plus times a game and accounting for 77.8 percent of Tampa’s total offense every week.
Leftwich, 43, had been Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator since 2019. Leftwich went to the Bucs after spending the 2018 season as the Cardinals’ OC. While the offense was bad in 2022, it was much better under Leftwich in 2020 and 2021. Leftwich was even a hot name in the head coaching hiring cycle in back-to-back seasons.
The Buccaneers now become the seventh team searching for a new offensive coordinator this offseason. The Rams, Chargers, Commanders, Titans, Jets, and Patriots are the others.
