The Bucs have made significant changes over the past few days, announcing they will retain head coach Todd Bowles while shaking up the rest of the coaching staff. The most notable departure is OC Josh Grizzard, who served as the team’s offensive coordinator for just one year. While his performance didn’t meet expectations, opinions about his effectiveness may be more nuanced than they appear.
Comparing Grizzard to Previous Coordinators
When comparing Grizzard to the Bucs’ 2024 OC, Liam Coen, it’s clear there was a sharp drop-off. In 2024, the Bucs boasted the third-best total offense, averaging 399 yards per game. They also ranked third in passing yards, and fourth in both rushing offense and scoring offense. This success was largely attributed to Coen’s innovative offensive mind rather than just a few players exceeding their career averages.
However, when you stack Grizzard’s 2025 performance against Dave Canales’ 2023 offense, the narrative shifts. Many fans may forget that Canales didn’t exactly light up the scoreboard. While he outperformed his predecessor, Byron Leftwich, I’ve seen high school coaches who could’ve managed that offense more effectively than Leftwich. Here’s a look at the rankings.
Overall, Grizzard’s offense was better than Canales’, yet he was quickly shown the door. The key difference lies in Bowles’ defense in 2025, which was significantly weaker than in 2023. Thus, Grizzard faced more pressure to score, while Canales didn’t have to contend with the same expectations.
Recently, I heard Tom Brady articulate something I’ve believed for a long time: “A good offensive coordinator gives his quarterback easy layups and creates easy opportunities for the running game through scheme and matchups.” The best offensive coordinators make the game simpler, regardless of the players on the field.
Coen’s offense provided Baker Mayfield with those easy opportunities. He made the offensive line appear stronger than they ever were before or since he was here. He created space for Bucky Irving, allowing the running game to flow seamlessly with the game’s rhythm.
Given the decision to keep Bowles as head coach and defensive coordinator, the Bucs now must rely on an offense to shoulder the team’s burdens. Unfortunately, that’s not something we’ve seen from either Canales or Grizzard. If the team is settling for mediocrity on one side of the ball, they must compensate on the other.
I genuinely hope Grizzard finds an opportunity to thrive in the future, ideally in a setup where he can leverage a strong defense while imprinting his vision on a new offense. But those opportunities are hard to find in today’s NFL.
Yeah, as a first-time play caller, Grizzard wasn’t as bad as most here thought. Like, he was nowhere near as bad as the DC - and I’m pretty sure he’s still employed. But he wasn’t great either, so I’m fine with sending him packing. His biggest problem was having to follow Coen.
Grizzard got a bad draw, injuries ravaged the offensive line for most the year, a recovering Godwin, no Evans or Irving for half the year, no McMillian
but it was not so much their rankings which was disappointing as it was what he did with the offense when we had all the guys back. Sure not having your mediocre starting guards hurts, but shouldn't have made as big of a difference.
To me, it was not the 0-3 stretch with NE, BUF, and LAR that did the coaching staff in to fall from 6-2 to 6-5 as was it the cream puff part of their schedule going 2-4 with two non inspiring wins over Cardinals and Panthers.
We went from looking like a top 5 team to a bottom 5 team after that Rams ass kicking.
That being said, the Bucs need a change and they couldn't give Grizz the benefit of the doubt. There was way too many runs on 2nd and 10 that i'd care to see again. He had a bit of Dave Canales in him. He also followed up a prodigy in Coen so by comparison it was bleak.
and of course the defense was atrocious. It's why i was so hard on Baker this year because 1 mistake was critical and basically game over.
The defense has gotten progressively worse from being a top 10 unit in 2023 (7th in points allowed, 23rd in yards allowed) to a middling unit in 2024 (16th in points, 18th in yards) to even worse in 2025 (20th in pts allowed, 19thin yards allowed) and 2025 was even worse if you take the second half of the season, believe i saw a graphic where we were last or second to last in all categories
so Baker throwing his 1 TD, 1 INT Per game just wasn't cutting it and crippling INTs against ATL, CAR, and MIA just about signed, sealed, and delivered losses each week where as in 2023 we had a better chance to overcome those mistakes with a better defense
and if we are ranking Baker years
2024 clearly tops and we have ourselves a top 10 guy
2023 next best, a breath of fresh air and saw potential that we got a guy
2025 first 6 games looked good at 5-1 playing at MVP level but then somehow managed to look worse than in 2023.
We were one of the worst teams in the league from the Rams game on, like battling for #1 overall pick type performance bad...and that's nearly half a damn season at 7 games. We haven't looked good since the 49ers game which was early October
the right move was to clean house including head coach here. And even if you want to keep Bowles, the fact that you didnt "fire your DC" in insane. That defense was atrocious and he needs a coordinator.
As SR said in his Fab 5, Canales parlayed his modestly successful OC work into a HC gig. Grizz out performs Canales, lose his job. Timing is everything. Grizz followed Coen
As SR said in his Fab 5, Canales parlayed his modestly successful OC work into a HC gig. Grizz out performs Canales, lose his job. Timing is everything. Grizz followed Coen
Canales came off Lefty.
Grizz came off Coen.
Pretty big difference to inherit
Griz was a young inexperience guy, but he had Baker Mayfield to make decisions on the field. Having a veteran like Baker should have made his job easier.As SR said in his Fab 5, Canales parlayed his modestly successful OC work into a HC gig. Grizz out performs Canales, lose his job. Timing is everything. Grizz followed Coen
Canales came off Lefty.
Grizz came off Coen.
Pretty big difference to inherit Griz
Sure, somebody had to take the fall for this season, but I still don't think he would have been sacrificed just to appease the fans. Licht knows what's going behind the scenes, in practice, in the meeting rooms. If Griz was up to the job they wouldn't have fired him.
And last time I'll bring this up (probably). Perhaps he would have done better calling the plays from upstairs where he can focus and see the field.
Perhaps he would have done better calling the plays from upstairs where he can focus and see the field
you'd like Monken if he came here lol
SR reported in the Fab 5 that the 30 runs game was Bowles
@bucsbits - there’s no doubt about it. Bowles causes scheme issues on every phase of the team. You can read issues I wrote about with Bowles defense as far back as the Super Bowl season. Those defensive scheme issues haven’t changed. I’ve written him getting his hands in on the defense since 2022. His special teams coaches are always horrified choices. It’s frustrating as hell.
@bucsbits - UPDATED: there’s no doubt about it. Bowles causes scheme issues on every phase of the team. You can read issues I wrote about with Bowles defense as far back as the Super Bowl season. Those defensive scheme issues haven’t changed. I’ve written about him getting his hands in on the offense since 2022. His special teams coaches are always horrified choices. It’s frustrating as hell.
Blame it on injuries or even Bowles interfering with the offense, but its hard to understate how poorly the offense performed in 2025 when comapred to the year prior
So, if you believe, for example, that Coen's offense covered for a bad Bowles defense in 2024 then the 2025 defense had absolutely ZERO cover from the offense, especially at the end of games (Mayfield had how many 4th qtr picks?).
The typical thing that might jump off the page to you when you compare 2024 (Coen) offense to 2025 (Grizzard) offense is the fast starts under Coen disappeared under Grizz. In 2024 the Bucs were the #1 team in the entire league in 1st quarter scoring team at 6.7 point per game. That dropped to to 23rd in 2025 at 4.2 points per game.
The 2025 offense fell further back in the 2nd quarter - 7.8 for Coen to 7.2 for Grizz. They did arguably adjust better under Grizz, out performing Coen 6.2 to 5.7 in the 3rd quarter, but the really stark contrast is the 4th quarter.
In 2024 the Bucs offense was #2 in 4th quarter scoring in the entire league with an average of 8.7 points. In 2025, they drop all the way to almost worst in the league at 4.7 points.
So, whatever one thinks of Bowles defense or the cause of the offensive woes, simple math says if the Bucs have even an average offensive output, particularly in the 4th quarter, they are in the playoffs this season again. (How many 4th quarter picks by Mayfield?) Before the bye the Bucs offense only scores more than 6 points in the 4th quarter ONE TIME, so even the Mayfield magic wins early were really the offense holding on.
@bucsbits - You’re not wrong. It’s exactly what I've been emphasizing all season. If you check out my initial “Bucs Win If” articles this year, I repeat the same thing. Coen was willing to take risks with the passing game right from the start, adapting to what the defense offered.
What I'm driving at is that the Bucs have much higher expectations for their offense compared to their defense. This isn’t a question to anyone; it’s a statement backed by the decisions made by the Glazers and Licht over the last few years. Our defense continues to underperform, yet there’s little change. Conversely, we expect, no we need, the offense to excel and carry the team’s success.
I think Grizzard tried to do too much downfield with the passing game and Mayfield could do only so much. Even when the receivers returned you have to factor in the type of QB Mayfield is as well as he isn't super tall and big to stand in the pocket and deliver from seven step drops. I think Mayfield thrives from play action and even if Bowles interfered or had his fingerprints you can still use play action like Canales did. Grizzard's inexperience to push back against Bowles like Canales and Coen were able to do was his own undoing. So the moral of the story is if you see something wrong or feel something is wrong you need to speak out.
Play action is very important for shorter QB's to create passing lanes and to protect them. Canales understood this and why he emphasizes play action, big bodied interior OL and a stable of RBs.
