The 2024 Bucs offense was a revelation. Ranking in the Top 5 in almost every major statistical category, including the most important – points per game – it drove the team’s success as Tampa Bay won its fourth consecutive NFC South division title. Pro Football Focus recently looked at some overarching schematic trends sweeping across the NFL and it’s no surprise that the Bucs were at the forefront of almost every one of those trends.

Bucs’ Increased Emphasis And Success In The Run Game

The PFF article cites that seven of the Top 10 offenses in overall EPA/play were also in the Top 10 in rushing EPA/play. One of those seven was the Bucs, ranking sixth in EPA/rush and fifth in EPA/play. Tampa Bay’s 46.2% success rate when running the ball was also fifth in the league.

Former offensive coordinator Liam Coen placed an emphasis on running early, and certainly not to the same extent as his predecessors Dave Canales and Byron Leftwich did. The 2024 version of the team ran on first down 56% of the time, ranking 12th in the NFL. But where Canales and Leftwich struggled to find a successful scheme, Coen adapted to his personnel with counters, traps, whams to great success. The Bucs ranked first in the NFL in rushing yards, yards per carry and EPA/rush when running counter last year.

Rookie running back Bucky Irving ranked sixth in the league in PFF rushing grade, leading to him ranking the same for the website heading into the 2025 season.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: USA Today

Heavier Reliance On Screens

Under Liam Coen’s guidance, the Bucs had a creative and diverse screen game that was extremely successful. Per NFL Pro, quarterback Baker Mayfield was fourth in attempts behind the line of scrimmage. Beyond the volume, Mayfield ranked second in yards, tied for first in touchdowns, third in quarterback rating, fourth in yards per attempt and sixth in EPA/dropback on those attempts.

Bucs screen game was lethal last year. pic.twitter.com/nsBv0c52hy

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) May 30, 2025

Mayfield was PFF’s highest graded quarterback on screen passes last year.

Reduced Reliance On Go Balls

From the PFF article: “In tandem with the elevated run rates, it might not come as a complete surprise to learn that teams are taking fewer shots downfield, particularly using the go ball. Last season, go routes had only a 12.6% target rate, which was the lowest since PFF began tracking route data. Additionally, the 865 passes thrown to go routes were the fewest since 2018.”

Per SIS, Baker Mayfield only attempted six passes last year targeting go routes. That was just 1% of his total attempts. That’s down from 15 targets, comprising 2.7% of his total attempts in 2023. The four years prior Mayfield averaged 18 go route targets, making up 3.8% of his target share.

Beyond that specific route type, Mayfield has reduced his reliance on the deep ball in general since coming to Tampa Bay. Mayfield only targeted the deep part of the field – 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage or more – 8.8% of the time. That was a career low. It also helped develop a whole new way for Mike Evans to win, which featured him in the slot with more opportunities for yards after the catch.

Former Bucs OC Liam Coen, RB Bucky Irving and Bucs OC Josh Grizzard – Photo by: Corey Perrine/USA Today

From 2016 to 2020 the NFL was washed with wide zone run schemes and play-action passes. The teams that were on the vanguard of those trends drove offense for the league. As defenses have caught up to defending those systems, offenses have changed. New trends have emerged, and last year the Bucs were at the forefront of those trends last year. And it was much to their success.

We’ll see how adaptive new play-caller Josh Grizzard is this year and if he can keep Tampa Bay ahead of the curve offensively.