The Bucs passing game led to most of their offensive success in 2023. Former offensive coordinator Dave Canales was able to implement well-designed passing concepts that catered to quarterback Baker Mayfield’s strengths as the team had a Top 10 passing game (by expected points added per play) down the stretch of the second half of the season.

Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo looked at all 37 of the Bucs 2023 explosives passing plays – that is plays that gained 20 or more yards – to find some commonalities that the team should look to continue in 2024 under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen.

Bucs’ Success On Two Dimensional Routes

Many of the Bucs’ biggest plays came on dig and out routes. That is routes that attacked the opposing defense across two planes one after the other (as opposed to one over the other like crossing routes or slants). Baker Mayfield was most comfortable throwing to well-defined depths after a horizontal break that usually coincided with his receiver creating more separation and created more leverage in the route. And as opposed to one over one multi-dimensional routes where the pass usually wants to lead over the top of the receiver, one after one multi-dimensional routes require throwing underneath the receiver with less loft/touch and more power behind the throw. This also works to Mayfield’s strengths.

Weaponizing Trey Palmer’s Speed

Bucs WR Trey Palmer – Photo by: USA Today

One of the hallmarks of these concepts is running the dig/out routes underneath a go, fade, or clear route. These deep-attacking roles were often run by Bucs receiver Trey Palmer, whose elite speed allowed him to be most effective at forcing defenses to commit multiple players to covering him.

This also helped open up the intermediate and middle of the field for route technicians like Chris Godwin to thrive with head fakes and plus stems to create additional separation.

Three Basic Concepts

The Bucs were able to win multiple times on three basic concepts that all implemented the above strategies – Flood, Dagger and Ohio.

Flood

Flood attacks a single outside third of the field at three levels by with a go route attacking deep, an intermediate out route 10-15 yards down field and a shallow cross from the opposite side of the field to the flat. The quarterback reads the progression high-to-low (go, out, cross). It is especially effective against cover three where it creates a 3-on-2 matchup for the quarterback.

Dagger

Dagger is a two-route concept that runs an in-breaking “dig” route from the outside receiver underneath a “clear” (deep) route designed to attack a safety from a slot receiver. Against two-high the clear route will run fairly perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, whereas against a single-high defensive structure the slot receiver will often run right at the deep safety. The goal is to get the deep defenders to commit to keeping on top of the play to allow the dig to develop underneath.

Ohio

Ohio has a lot of the same structure of Flood without the opposite field shallow to the flat. This gives a simple high-low read for the quarterback and can work well against man coverage if the receivers can time their stems properly.

You can check out the video highlighting the three concepts that the Bucs were able to create multiple explosives off of here or by visiting our YouTube channel.