New Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales will run the ball in Tampa Bay far more often than his predecessor, Byron Leftwich, did. But don’t expect Canales to want to establish the run in Tampa Bay.

The term “establishing the run” doesn’t sit well with him.

But given the fact that the Bucs will have a new quarterback in 2023– whether it’s Kyle Trask or a new veteran – Tampa Bay won’t be relying on whoever is under center to drop back and throw it an average of 43 times per game. That’s what happened last year with Tom Brady, who led the league with an NFL-record 733 pass attempts. Brady broke his own record, which he set in 2021 when he threw the ball 719 times.

“I heard Sean Payton say this the other day and I thought it was brilliant,” Canales said. “He said, ‘You’ve got to take the quarterback off the high dive.’ I thought that was a brilliant way to put it because you can’t be leaning on him to make every single play all of the time. The best way to do it is just to hand it off to your talent in the backfield.”

That’s music to head coach Todd Bowles’ ears.

And don’t think for a second that Canales will bring “Dungyball” back to Tampa Bay, as some might think.

Seattle’s running schemes and balanced offensive scheme don’t resemble the Bucs’ offensive approach back in the 1990s under Tony Dungy – at all.

But last year, the Bucs had the NFL’s worst running game, which averaged a paltry 75.6 yards per game. Tampa Bay only topped 100 yards rushing in three games in 2022 – at Dallas (152 yards), vs. Seattle (161 yards) and at Arizona (115 yards) – and the Bucs won all three. Conversely, the Bucs ran the ball for 70 yards or fewer nine times last year, including their playoff loss to the Cowboys (52 yards), and were 3-6 in those games.

Canales is charged with making the Bucs’ ground game more effective and efficient.

Dave Canales Explains How Bucs’ Identity Will Include Marrying The Run And The Pass

When Canales explained his offensive philosophy in his initial press conference on Wednesday, he addressed the “marriage between the run and the pass” and how the Bucs will be able to run or pass out of the same formation and same personnel groupings.

Bucs OC Dave Canales – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“That is our identity – things that start looking one way, but end up being different,” Canales said. “The thing that is going to help us, without getting into too much detail, is that we’re going to do things that are simple in concept but are complex in delivery. What do I mean by that? It’s not going to be a lot of plays. It’s going to be a few plays out of different personnels and different looks so that our execution stays at a high level there.”

From 2018-22, the Seahawks ranked second, third, 17th, 27th and 22nd in the league in rushing attempts. In those five years, they ranked first in rushing (2,560 yards in 2018), fourth in rushing (2,200 yards in 2019), 12th in rushing (1,971 yards in 2020), 11th in rushing (2,074 yards in 2021) and 18th in rushing (2,042 yards in 2022).

But Seattle always ranked in the Top 10 in yards per carry, regardless of how many attempts or how many yards the team rushed for. The Seahawks averaged 4.8 yards per carry in 2018 (fifth), 4.6 yards per carry in 2019 (10th), 4.8 yards per carry in 2020 (sixth), 5.0 yards per carry in 2021 (third) and 4.8 yards per carry in 2022 (seventh).

No matter how many times the Seahawks ran the ball over the past five years, they averaged a healthy 4.8 yards.

Dave Canales Will Be Dogged In His Commitment To Run The Ball

So, how can Canales replicate that in Tampa Bay?

“First of all, you’ve got to have great players, right?” Canales said. “So, I’ll rattle them off – Marshawn Lynch, Thomas Rawls, who was fantastic for a couple of years, Chris Carson came in out of nowhere as a seventh-round pick and just ran like a madman for a couple [of] years – here comes Rashaad Penny. Rashaad has been an explosive play waiting to happen, [and] adding Ken Walker. So, then what it comes down to is, you’ve got to have a great system, great coaching up front to just get the play started and a lot of what you do with having the play actions, the boots, the keepers [is] it just slows down the backside just enough to give a great player space and then ‘see you later.’

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: USA Today

“Some of those runs have come off of that, but it’s also about the attitude, right? Just knowing when to just pour it up in the dark crease and get that ugly two and three [yards] early on, and that becomes four and five, and then it becomes 12. Being dogged in your commitment to being able to run the ball in any given situation and any given personnel.”

Canales believes the Bucs’ ground game could have been better if the team had stuck with it last year. But Leftwich called too many runs in predictable situations like first down, and abandoned it far too often. Tampa Bay averaged just 22 runs per game, which was lowest in the league, and that includes QB kneel downs and scrambles on plays that were originally designed to be passes.

But while Canales wants the Bucs to be more balanced on offense, he understands there will be days when the ground game just doesn’t materialize.

“That being said, if the runs [are] not working, we’re going to throw it a little bit more, [and] if the pass isn’t working we’re going to run it a little bit more,” Canales said. “There will be days, [where] if they’re not fitting the runs right, we’ll run the ball 40 times and there will be days where you’ve got a matchup outside with Mike [Evans] or Chris Godwin and we’re blocking them pretty [well] and we can throw for 400-plus yards. That’s happened in our past in Seattle, as well.

“It’s just like, ‘Do whatever it takes to win and above all, take care of the ball.’ So, having that balance is critical and it’s not about establishing the run, it’s about establishing an attacking offense that makes you have to defend the run but also defend the pass. Then that’s when you become dangerous.”

Bucs Will Prioritize Ball Security

Ball security is huge with Canales, and he addressed that topic.

“Number one, it’s all about the ball,” Canales said. “Everything we do with all 11 guys on the offense, it’s going to be about protecting the football. Whether it’s in the run game, pass game or protection, we are going to be crazy about it. One thing that hits my brain really quick … Skip Peete is going to be our running backs coach – [Dallas] had zero fumbles lost last year from the running backs. He could have started that interview with that, dropped the mic and he would’ve been hired.”

The Bucs are expected to release veteran Leonard Fournette in a salary cap move and start Rachaad White, a second-year running back, in 2023. White had three fumbles last year, so Canales will have to drill ball security into his head, but he was impressed with what he saw from the Bucs’ third-round pick last year.

Dave Canales Is A Big Fan Of Rachaad White

White had his only 100-yard game of his rookie season against the Seahawks last year in a 21-16 win in Germany. He rushed for 105 yards on 22 carries (4.8 avg.) and threw a wicked stiff arm on a 29-yard run that earned him Kyle Brandt’s Angry Run scepter.

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: USA Today

“Oh yeah, what shocked me about that was the toughness in the style that he ran because I saw him as this versatile guy who you could run routes with him out of the backfield, split him out wide and do some things like that, plus the run game,” Canales said. “But then you see his attitude in person in Germany, just see the style that he ran downhill, he was aggressive, the violence that he played with and you go, ‘Wow, this guy could be special.’ He’s got some great skill set that really fits into our system.”

Canales’ system will feature plenty of wide zone runs that were a staple in Seattle, as well as some of the gap concepts that run game coordinator Harold Goodwin likes to call.

“OK, great, so let’s start up front,” Canales said. “First of all, ‘Goodie,’ Harold Goodwin, and Joe Gilbert are here – you talk about world champion offensive line right there. So, I can’t wait to get in there, sit with them and put a run game that’s really awesome together and build off of the things that they’ve been successful with. They’ve already been so supportive, just wanting to expand with some of the ways that we build formations so it’s not these single things that happen. We can move stuff that’s going to look really hard for the defense but going to be pretty simple for us.”

Simple schemes featuring runs and passes out of the same formation. A commitment to running the ball more. For the Bucs’ ground game, there is nowhere to go but up under Dave Canales.