Bucs OC Josh Grizzard – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Why is this offense so off? Is it Josh Grizzard, the O-line, or Baker Mayfield? The Bucs beat the Bucs, and it was incredibly frustrating.

ANSWER: First let’s state the obvious. Offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard is dealing with more injuries to more starters than Dave Canales certainly did in 2023 – when the Bucs offense was extremely healthy – and than Liam Coen did last year.

LT Tristan Wirfs – 3 missed games
RG Cody Mauch – 7 missed games
RT Luke Goedeke – 6 missed games
WR Mike Evans – 5 missed games
WR Chris Godwin – 7 missed games
RB Bucky Irving – 5 missed games
WR Jalen McMillan – 9 missed games

That’s playing without the team’s All-Pro left tackle for three games, the team’s $22.5 million right tackle for most of the season, and a very promising, up-and-coming right guard for the rest of the season. Grizzard also didn’t have either of his 1,000-yard starting receivers for most of the season, nor his 1,000-yard starting running back, nor a No. 3 wide receiver who scored eight touchdowns last season.

To put things in perspective for this 6-3 team, the Bucs were 6-3 in 2020 when they had Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowksi along with much younger versions of Evans and Godwin – both of which were healthy. So the fact that Grizzard and head coach Todd Bowles have overcome a myriad of injuries with makeshift units to arrive at 6-3 with quality NFC wins at Atlanta and Seattle and versus San Francisco is actually impressive when you think about it.

Bucs OC Josh Grizzard – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Now left guard Ben Bredeson is going to miss some time with a severe hamstring injury, unfortunately. So it’s not going to get any easier for Grizzard or quarterback Baker Mayfield. On the surface on Sunday, Mayfield’s stat line looked decent. He threw for 273 yards, completed 65% of his passes and tossed three touchdowns with no interceptions.

But on his 10 drop-backs on third down, he only converted two third downs – one was the first touchdown to Tez Johnson and the other came on the final drive when he completed an 11-yard pass on third-and-10. Mayfield was sacked once on third down, but on the other seven third downs he was either incomplete or didn’t throw far enough to get the necessary yardage to convert the third down. Mayfield played okay on Sunday – except on third down where Tampa Bay was 5-of-13 (38.5%).

I liked a lot of what Grizzard called. I loved his mix of plays on the opening drive, and I loved the end-arounds, which gained 11 yards apiece. The Bucs ran the ball very effectively for 113 yards, averaging 5.4 yards per carry against the league’s top-ranked run defense. I didn’t like the play calls to throw the ball twice on third-and-3 and fourth-and-3, trailing 21-16 at the Patriots’ 27-yard line with two minutes left. I would’ve run the ball on third down to see what happens.

QUESTION: Can we ask Josh Grizzard this week why he thinks it is smart to call screen plays every single drive over and over? It is beyond predictable and killing drives, and putting the offense in holes with the loss of yardage it is causing.

ANSWER: The lack of success in the Bucs’ screen game was frustrating in Sunday’s 28-23 loss to the Patriots. That was one play that really didn’t work outside of one screen to wide receiver Sterling Shepard. I didn’t understand the idea of throwing screen passes to running back Rachaad White and tight end Cade Otton. Neither player has much acceleration and the blocking was poor on those plays.

Bucs TE Cade Otton and Patriots ILB Robert Spillane – Photo by: USA Today

Credit Mike Vrabel’s defense for being prepared and executing well against them on Sunday. The Patriots were in the right place at the right time, and Grizzard went to the well too often – really for the first time this season. If Grizzard is going to call screens the rest of the season, I’d rather see those go to Kameron Johnson or Tez Johnson – faster weapons with instant acceleration that have more wiggle to their games that can elude defenders and pick up yardage.

I did like Grizzard’s usage of end-arounds. He ran two with Shepard and Kameron Johnson and each picked up 11 yards. I would have gone back to that another play or two as the Patriots couldn’t stop them from picking up first downs on either time. It’s been a tough first year for Grizzard as he’s missed essentially half of the team’s starters on offense – and a lot of firepower. We’ll see how he finishes down the stretch.

QUESTION: If Baker Mayfield is that hurt he needs to sit and get healthy. Him playing like this isn’t going get us wins the next two weeks. He just doesn’t look comfortable and loose like he did earlier in the season. The passing and running from early in the year are nowhere to be found

ANSWER: The Bucs aren’t going to win without Baker Mayfield. He’s the engine of the offense and the heartbeat of this team. Mayfield is going to have to play through his knee and oblique injury, and it’s obvious that is effecting him. We saw accuracy issues against Detroit and New Orleans, likely as a result of his oblique injury. I believe that feels better now.

But Mayfield hasn’t scrambled much at all since rushing for 14 yards on three carries, including a 15-yard run, versus the 49ers in Week 6. He hasn’t logged a single rushing yard since over the last three games, and that has obviously hindered the team’s third down conversion rate. Is that the reason why the Bucs have lost two of their last three games? Maybe, maybe not.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and RB Rachaad White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But there is no doubt that when Mayfield is healthy and scrambles, the offense is better. He has rushed 22 times for 158 yards (7.2 avg.) this year. Part of the reason why he’s not been effective scrambling is because teams are spying him a bit more and doing a better job of not creating escape lanes with better pass rush discipline.

Yet it’s also clear that Mayfield isn’t as fast as he was prior to his knee injury. He was sacked from behind by K’Lavon Chaisson against the Patriots on Sunday in the first half where perhaps a healthy Mayfield earlier in the season could have escaped that sack. The Bucs aren’t going to sit Mayfield at all unless he really suffers a more impactful injury later this year. They simply can’t afford to.

QUESTION: What’s with Todd Bowles and these hockey shift substitutions?! First it was the D-line, now with his cornerbacks. They kept picking on the rookie and Bowles didn’t help him. Zyon McCollum stole the bag – we signed him too fast. Out-coached in all facets of the game.

ANSWER: I am not a fan of substituting Benjamin Morrison into the game at Jamel Dean’s expense. Credit Dean for playing his best football this season despite being forced to take a pay cut in the offseason. He’s playing at a Pro Bowl level with a team-leading three interceptions, two forced fumbles and a sack.

Meanwhile Zyon McCollum, who was given a three-year contract extension worth $16 million per year, has  zero interceptions, and has not had a hand in any takeaways this season so far. He’s been a disappointment for me so far. I love the kid, but I just don’t love his lack of production on the heels of that big extension.

Bucs CB Benjamin Morrison and Patriots WR Kyle Morrison – Photo by: USA Today

Yet to be fair, McCollum did have surgery on his thumb and only missed one game as a result. He played through the pain against Seattle and is still playing through the pain a few weeks later. McCollum has been playing well enough I suppose, despite being the league’s 25th-highest paid cornerback. I just think he’s capable of playing better. We’ll see how he finishes this season as his surgically-repaired thumb heals.

I know why the Bucs are doing what they are doing with Benjamin Morrison. They are trying to get him meaningful experience and playing time to prepare him to start in place of Dean next year when he leaves in free agency. The problem is that the development time he should have received in training camp and the preseason didn’t happen because of a hamstring injury. Morrison missed a month of camp and all three preseason games.

Now when he enters the game he’s always playing catch up to the experience he simply doesn’t have due to being sidelined in August. It’s a dangerous game Bowles is playing with an eye for next year. And when Morrison gave up a 72-yard touchdown to Kyle Williams and then had a bad pass interference call on third down on the next drive it proved to be costly.