The Bucs have hired Chandler Whitmer to be their next quarterbacks coach.  Whitmer is a young coach at 34 years old who spent last season in college football winning a national championship with the Indiana Hoosiers as their co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Tampa Bay had interviewed him a week prior and decided on Tuesday to add him to the coaching staff for the 2026 season.

Chandler Whitmer Has Ties To Bucs OC Zac Robinson

Although he’s on the younger side, Whitmer already has NFL experience and a connection to Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson. He was the passing game specialist for the Falcons in 2024 while Robinson was the offensive coordinator.

Whitmer helped the Hoosiers to a perfect 16-0 season in 2025 and the program’s first-ever national championship. That means he spent plenty of time working with Heisman Trophy winner and potential No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza, who finished the Hoosiers’ perfect season having completed 72% of his passes for 3,535 yards and 41 touchdowns to six interceptions.

Bucs QB Coach Chandler Whitmer – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Mark J. Rebilas

Mendoza recently spoke very highly of Whitmer saying “He is the best (QB) position coach that I’ve been around.”

Prior to his time in Indiana, Whitmer bounced around different stops in his coaching career. He was a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 2019 and then worked as one again at Georgia in 2020 before making the leap to the NFL in 2021.

He served as the Chargers’ offensive quality control coach from 2021-2023, then became the pass game specialist for the Falcons in 2024. Of course, that’s significant given that Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson was the Falcons’ coordinator in both 2024 and 2025, and Whitmer worked on his staff for one season, giving them a connection.

Bucs QB Coach Chandler Whitmer – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Tommy Gilligan

Before his coaching career, Whitmer was a quarterback himself. After transferring out of Illinois, he was the quarterback at Butler Community College, where he threw for 3,022 yards and 25 touchdowns to 14 interceptions. He then transferred to UConn, where he appeared in 28 games and completed 56.5% of his passes for 5,082 yards and 25 touchdowns to 30 interceptions over three seasons.

Tampa Bay’s addition of a quarterbacks coach means they are likely done adding to the offensive coaching staff. Robinson and the Bucs filled some of those openings last week with  T.J. Yates and Ken Zampese are joining Robinson in Tampa. Yates, who served as Robinson’s pass game coordinator in Atlanta, will assume the same role with the Bucs. Zampese was a senior offensive assistant with the Falcons, and he’s reportedly retaining that title, too. They also brought in Andrew Mitchell as an assistant offensive line coach, who was teammates with Robinson at Oklahoma State,

Bucs OC Zac Robinson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs still need to find more coaches for the defensive side. They do have a new defensive line coach in Marcus West, but have to hire coaches in the secondary. Its been a big season of change for the Bucs and it’s gone on in all three phases of the game.