Early on in training camp it’s been the Bucs’ defense who’s had the upper hand early on in practice. But for those who might be concerned about that, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich is not one of them. In fact, Leftwich has been giving Jameis Winston and company all that trouble by design for better preparation in the future.

“A lot of the times we’re trying to put these guys in the worst situation, to be honest with you,” Leftwich said. “Especially early in camp so they know how to respond. Once they know how to respond to the danger of what can happen to protection, to a passing route, once they know how to handle that, they’ll be fine going against any regular old coverage. We’re putting them in tough situations especially early on, these guys will be fine, they’re responding well to it.”

Leftwich has particularly challenged the mind of quarterback Jameis Winston with all the different blitz schemes and looks that have been thrown at him. Winston’s start to this camp has been run of the mill so far without a ton of explosive plays, but Leftwich’s focus right now is currently on quality of the decision rather than the outcome of the play.

“Every play I’m trying to make as hard for them as possible,” Leftwich said. “I don’t want them to have reps where there’s easy things where he can think he knows exactly where he’s going with the ball and he can make that throw. I’m always trying to put him in a position where he has to do something, he has to see this before he’s able to make the play.

It ain’t always a money throw for me, it’s a money decision. That’s what that position is all about. Everybody wants to see the big 40-yard post, and that’s coming, trust me, that’s there. That’s not what we’re going to ask Jameis to do every snap, we’re going to ask him to put us in the right position to make the right decision more than that. Put us in the right position to be successful this play more than that, that’s what we’re trying to get to him. It’s about decision making So now we just trying to get him to make better decisions as a whole, especially through a 60, 65 play game.”

Overall Leftwich has been happy with the output he’s getting from the offense. They’re still in the process of installing the offense, but he’s seen enough to know that the team is on track.

“I think we responded well after the first day,” Leftwich said. “A lot of good stuff that we’re doing, though. We’ve got some things that we got to do but it’s a lot of good things we’re doing on both sides of the ball. Great competition every day, it should be ebb and flow of this whole thing, you don’t ever want it to be one sided, so it’s a good flow, everything is going just as planned.”

That sentiment goes just as much for the offensive line, who have been tasked with taking the brunt of Todd Bowles’ exotic blitz design. They haven’t been able to fully play together with Donovan missing practice on Sunday and Demar Dotson missing the following day, but Leftwich pointed out that it takes more time than just two days of pads to build this unit.

“We’re just getting to real football,” Leftwich said. “Let’s just be honest, the way that this thing is structured in the summer, them the guys that’s really getting screwed. You can’t block in the summer. This is the first work that we’re getting with real pads, so it takes a while in training camp to get everything going the way you want it. It’s been two days where they’ve really been able to block. There’s some mistakes here and there, but they’re mistakes, not guys just really getting their tail whipped. It’s just mistakes of not getting a hat on a hat, and that happens sometimes especially early in every training camp I’ve been at.”

In his first year as the Bucs offensive coordinator, Leftwich feels as confident as ever. Joining Bruce Arians’ coaching staff, he’s relaying an offense to the players that he’s been around to for years, as opposed to learning former Cardinals coach Steve Wilk’s offense from a year ago. Now he’s able to give more detail to improve the Bucs based on personal experience, which he discussed here.