Bucs Outlook From Former NFL Suit
August 12th, 2025
Bucs OC Josh Grizzard.
Joe tends to give a lot of credibility to those who have been there, done that.
Joe never played or coached in the NFL. Never worked in an NFL team’s front office. So when folks who have done those things speak, Joe listens more carefully.
And one guy Joe always listens to is former NFL personnel executive Louis Riddick of ESPN. He seems to genuinely respect the Bucs and the team makeup. But Riddick wondered aloud when the Bucs’ luck is going to run out hiring inexperienced offensive coordinators.
Reason for concern: Baker Mayfield is coming off the best season of his career as measured by yards (4,500), completion percentage (71.4%) and TD passes (41). Heading into 2025, he is on his third different coordinator in as many seasons, as Ben Solak noted. Mayfield said the fact that new OC Josh Grizzard was on the staff in 2024 as pass game coordinator is a positive. But Grizzard has never been a coordinator on any level, and the constant revolving door in Tampa is a concern going forward.
It’s a fair point. The Bucs got somewhat lucky with Dave Canales, who had never called plays on the NFL level. And the Bucs hit the lottery with Liam Coen, who, while he did call plays in the SEC, did not call plays in the NFL until he came to the Bucs.
Josh Grizzard is in the same boat as Canales.
Yes, yes, yes. Grizzard was last year’s passing game coordinator. He was the third-down specialist. That’s not calling plays — for every down. That’s not crafting gameplans.
To be fair to Grizzard, he didn’t seem to have any issues in the Bucs’ first worthless preseason game.