Following Tampa Bay’s 30-27 loss to the Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional round of the playoffs, Bucs head coach Bruce Arians suggested he would take over as the team’s play-caller if offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich moves on to become an NFL head coach this offseason.

“It would be a really good chance, yes,” Arians said.

Arians called plays as the head coach in Arizona from 2013-17 until he retired for the 2018 season. Before that, the 69-year old Arians called plays as the offensive coordinator in Cleveland (2001-03), Pittsburgh (2007-11) and in Indianapolis (2012). He has 14 years of play-calling experience at the NFL level.

Arians came out of retirement to coach the Bucs in 2019. He turned the play-calling duties over to new offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Arians had hired Leftwich to be the Cardinals quarterbacks coach in 2017. When new coach Steve Wilks replaced Arians in 2018, Leftwich was retained. Leftwich became the play-caller halfway through the season when offensive coordinator Mike McCoy was fired.

Bucs QB Tom Brady, WRs coach Kevin Garver and OC Byron Leftwich – Photo by: USA Today

Arians was asked if he’s given much thought on who would replace Leftwich as the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, who has also been a candidate for multiple head coaching jobs.

“I’ve gone through a number of different scenarios in the last few weeks just in case,” Arians said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”

Pewter Report has learned that wide receivers coach Kevin Garver would be the first in line to replace Leftwich as the offensive coordinator. But apparently Arians would return to calling the plays, based on his comments on Monday.

Assistant wide receivers coach Thaddeus Lewis would assume the role of wide receivers coach in that instance. Assistant head coach Harold Goodwin would likely remain the run game coordinator.

“It would be a number of different things,” Arians said. “Who is on this staff, and what we’re doing it? And compiling it and doing the meeting each day and all of those type of things that go with it. I wouldn’t be doing all of that. It’s just a matter of who and what happens in the next few weeks and how we put that staff together.”

Arians is entering the fourth year of a five-year contract with the Bucs. He may be taking on the play-calling role as an effort to lure Tom Brady back for another season in case Leftwich departs. The 44-year old Brady is deciding whether or not he wants to play one more season. And he may not have much rapport with Garver. If Leftwich leaves Brady may not want to start over with an unproven play-caller.