The Bar Is High
June 7th, 2025
Joe still thinks the man with the Bucs who may have the most pressure to succeed is a guy who has never and will never snap on a chin strap and take the field in an NFL game.
That man would be new Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard.
Sure, Joe has heard everyone at One Bucs Palace rave about Grizzard. How he was the master behind the third-down offense last year. This, those same folks will remind you, was why the Bucs led the NFL in third-down conversion rate at 51.1 percent in 2024.
OK, but what about first and second down?
Look, Joe is not knocking Grizzard at all here. Joe just thinks it’s fair to wonder how the Bucs could improve on a No. 3 overall offense with a first-year play-caller. Absolutely awesome if that happens, but is it realistic?
Follicly-challenged Billy Barnwell of BSPN also wonders if Grizzard can keep pace with his predecessor Liam Coen. Or yes, even improve.
The one key person who isn’t coming back to Tampa offense’s is Liam Coen, who joined the Jaguars after serving as the Bucs’ offensive coordinator in 2024. Coach Todd Bowles & Co. were able to overcome the loss of Dave Canales to the Panthers in 2023 by making a successful hire in Coen, who wasn’t impressive in his lone season as the offensive coordinator with the Rams before doing much better in Tampa Bay. The coordinating duties now fall to 34-year-old Josh Grizzard, who has never called plays before and joined the Bucs only last spring. The bar is high for the first-time coordinator, but he certainly won’t lack for playmakers in his offense.
Yes, the bar is high and Joe isn’t sure if that’s fair to Grizzard to expect the same level of success as Coen enjoyed.
Joe doesn’t believe he’s out of line typing that this team will likely go as far as the offense takes them. Could the defense jump from No. 15 to top five? That seems a stretch. Unlike the loaded offense, the Bucs aren’t fully stacked with top-shelf proven talent on defense.
The way Joe looks at it, for the defense to be top-five in the league, a whole lot right has to happen. The offense could wake up hungover on gamedays and still hang 24 points on people.