It’s been an offseason that has seen many important figures on the Bucs coaching staff and in the front office leave Tampa Bay. There was the Liam Coen saga, which was well documented about how he ghosted Tampa Bay after telling them he’d return only to take the Jaguars head coaching job.

Bucs co-defensive coordinator and ILBs coach Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There was defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers, who’s been with the Bucs for six years and with Todd Bowles for even longer than that, taking the defensive line coaching position with the Lions. And then there’s John Spytek, a mainstay with the Bucs for nine years, departing for the Raiders to be there general manager.

The Bucs almost lost another one with defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Larry Foote, who had interviewed with the Lions as well for their coordinator position. While it was thought that he may potentially be on the move, it appears that Foote is going to stay on, giving the Bucs some solidity on the coaching staff when they need it.

Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reported that Foote has confirmed that he’s staying with the team for this upcoming season.

Foote was in Orlando for the Pro Bowl Games as an assistant coach calling plays for the defense as the NFC won, 76-63. Vita Vea, Tristan Wirfs, Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans represented Tampa Bay as players while Foote and quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis were there as coaches.

Larry Foote Entering Seventh Year With Bucs

Bucs co-DC Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Tampa Bay still needs to find a new defensive line coach with Kacy Rodgers heading to Detroit, but at least keeping Foote around gives them some peace of mind. The Bucs just went through an arduous process in finding their next offensive coordinator going in-house with Josh Grizzard, but search process takes a toll.

Tampa Bay has had to do it for offensive coordinator over the last three offseasons. They’ll have to do so again for the defensive line, though that shouldn’t take as long and surely plenty of coaches will want to work with Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey.

Since Rodgers and Foote were co-defensive coordinators, the thought is that Foote could just become the main defensive coordinator. It’s a promotion, but with Todd Bowles still calling the plays defensively, it ends up being a similar role. The only time Foote has called plays has been in the preseason.

Where it will help is during the draft process with the Bucs needing some inside linebackers this year. Every coach has their style of player that they want. With Foote being in Tampa for a while, it helps the continuity of finding a player he likes that also fits with Tampa Bay’s defense instead of working with a coach that just joined the group.

Bucs DC Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

When Foote became a coach he started out as an assistant linebackers coach in 2015 on the Cardinals working under Bucs Ring of Honor member Bruce Arians. He then was promoted to linebackers coach from 2016-2018, even for that one season when Arians retired. Foote followed Arians to Tampa when he became the Bucs head coach, moving to the role of outside linebackers coach and winning a Super Bowl together in 2020.

The 2022 season saw a big change for the Bucs as Arians stepped down to take a senior consulting position, making Todd Bowles the head coach. Larry Foote was moved to inside linebackers coach, which was his natural position given his NFL career as a linebacker, and was also promoted to passing game coordinator. This meant he was a co-defensive coordinator along with Rodgers, who was the run game coordinator.

In his coach career, Foote was at the helm of getting to coach the likes of Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett when he was an outside linebackers coach along with Lavonte David, Kevin Minter, Devin White, SirVocea Dennis and others when he was coach of the inside linebackers.

This 2024 season wasn’t ideal for really any aspect of the Bucs defense outside of the defensive tackle position. The inside linebacker unit got good play from David and Dennis, but Dennis was injured early into the season, putting K.J. Britt as an every down starter and eventually the likes of J.J. Russell getting in the mix, which led to some sub-par performances from the unit. The linebacker room needs to be revamped heading into the 2025 season, giving Foote a clean slate to mold a fresh group to bigger and better things for the defense.