INTRO: SR’s Fab 5 is back this week now that Hurricane Milton is long gone. The Bucs face a big game on Monday Night Football and Tampa Bay will need to put points up against a stingy Baltimore defense to have a chance to upset the favored Ravens before a nationally televised audience. Liam Coen’s offense put up 44 out of the team’s 51 points last week in New Orleans. Do you want to know what the most impressive thing about Coen’s offense is? Well, I’ll tell you in this week’s SR’s Fab 5 column. Enjoy!

FAB 1. The Most Impressive Thing About Liam Coen’s Bucs Offense

Back in late July before training camp, I told you that Liam Coen’s offense was going to be good in a previous SR’s Fab 5. But I wasn’t expecting it to be this good this soon.

Due to his previous play-calling experience in the SEC, I expected Coen to hit the ground running as an offensive coordinator and have more success early on than Dave Canales had last year as a rookie play-caller. Just not this much success.

Bucs OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

I expected Coen’s offense to average 24 points per game this year – just over a field goal more than Tampa Bay’s offense averaged last year under Canales. But Coen’s offense is actually second in the NFL in scoring at 29.7 points per game.

The Bucs have scored 30 points or more in four of the team’s first six games this season and are coming off a season-high 51 points in Sunday’s win in New Orleans in which Tampa Bay’s offense set a franchise record with 594 total yards.

All of a sudden, the Bucs have a legit running game too, averaging 136.8 yards per game, which ranks eighth in the NFL.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield leads the NFL with 15 touchdown passes, and his 17 total TDs are the most in the league by any player.

All of this is incredibly impressive. Tampa Bay’s offensive production and scoring output are right up there with the legendary numbers from the 2020 and 2021 seasons when the legendary Tom Brady was under center.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But do you want to know the most impressive thing about what Coen is doing in his first year as an NFL play-caller?

Tampa Bay’s offense is putting up yards and points with far less talent this year than the Super Bowl LV champion Bucs had in 2020, or the 13-win team had in 2021.

That speaks to Coen’s high football I.Q., his creativity and adaptability, and how quickly he’s learning on the job this year and making key adjustments. It really is quite remarkable.

There is no doubt that Mayfield is having a Brady-esque start to the season that mirrors what the G.O.A.T. did in his first six games in 2020. And yes, Mayfield has a pair of 1,000-yard receivers to throw to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans – both of whom are tied for the league lead in touchdowns with five.

But Brady also had Evans and Godwin … and had a future Hall of Fame tight end to throw to in Rob Gronkowski, in addition to a wide receiver that put up Hall of Fame numbers in Antonio Brown at his disposal. Brady also had a former first-round running back that had put up 1,000-yard seasons before in Leonard Fournette.

Bucs QB Tom Brady and TE Rob Gronkowski – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Mayfield doesn’t have that type of supporting cast. Not even close.

And that makes what Coen is doing on offense this year even more impressive.

It’s Coen’s scheme that is clicking right now, and he is designing ways for Mayfield to get the most out the team’s young and inexperienced weapons.

Good defenses can take away a team’s two top targets in the passing game.

That’s why even Brady struggled in 2022 when Gronkowski retired and Brown quit on the Bucs at the end of the 2021 season. Former offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was exposed as a sub-par play-caller because when teams doubled Evans and Godwin, he couldn’t come up with any creative schemes to move the ball and put up points.

Leftwich had no answer, and that’s why he was fired at the end of the 2022 season and why he can’t get a job coaching anywhere right now.

Great defenses with elite secondaries can even take away three options in the passing game. But when an offense has four legit weapons like the Bucs did in 2020 and 2021 with Evans, Godwin, Gronkowski and Brown, it’s impossible to adequately cover them all.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and WR Chris Godwin – Photo by: USA Today

When Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, could spot the mismatch in coverage prior to the snap, and know exactly where he wanted to go with the football, opposing defenses had little chance at stopping the Bucs offense with that arsenal.

Coen is doing far more with far less in Tampa Bay, and that is quite eye-opening.

He’s got Mayfield playing the best football of his career right now, but the top two receivers at Coen’s disposal are a 31-year old version of Evans and a 28-year old version of Godwin.

When Brady was throwing to Evans in 2020 and 2021, the future Hall of Fame receiver was 27 and 28 years old at the time. Godwin was 24 and 25 during those seasons and didn’t sustain his serious knee injury until the end of the 2021 season after he had already put up 98 catches for 1,123 yards and five touchdowns.

Instead of having a tight end of Gronkowski’s caliber or even Cam Brate – both of whom combined for 19 touchdowns during the 2020 and 2021 seasons – Coen has Cade Otton and Payne Durham at tight end. Otton had four scores last year and has just one TD this season. Durham has yet to score in his two-year NFL career.

The Bucs have had three players playing the WR3 role this season. Second-year receiver Trey Palmer, rookie Jalen McMillan and veteran Sterling Shepard. They each have one touchdown this year so far and their overall production has been minimal.

The duo of No. 3 receivers Brown and Scotty Miller combined for 11 touchdown catches on passes from Brady during the regular seasons of 2020 and 2021.

Bucs OC Liam Coen and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Yet Tampa Bay’s running back room of Bucky Irving, Sean Tucker and Rachaad White may actually prove to be better than the duo of Fournette and Ronald Jones II by the end of this season. Former Bucs run game coordinator Harold Goodwin struggled to get a consistently productive ground game going outside of the team’s eight-game winning streak in 2020 that ended with a Super Bowl championship.

When I asked Bucs head coach Todd Bowles what the most impressive thing about Coen was prior to the start of training camp, he told me it was how Coen marries the running game with the passing game. Coen’s run game scheme has certainly worked, evidenced by 277 yards on the ground last week at New Orleans.

I thought it was kind of crazy how Coen spent so much offseason time on the rushing attack during OTAs when there were no pads and the offensive line couldn’t really initiate any real contact or blocks. But it certainly paid dividends.

And finally, the Bucs offensive line during the 2020 and 2021 seasons had three Pro Bowlers up front in right tackle Tristan Wirfs, center Ryan Jensen and left guard Ali Marpet, in addition to left tackle Donovan Smith and right guard Alex Cappa, who were playing the best football of their careers at the time. The line that Coen has to work with is far younger and less experienced.

Wirfs, who moved to left tackle, is the lone Pro Bowler. Tampa Bay has a pair of second-round picks in right tackle Luke Goedeke and right guard Cody Mauch in addition to a first-round rookie in center Graham Barton and free agent addition Ben Bredeson. The line has talent, but nowhere near the experience that the O-line had back in 2020 and 2021.

There are still 11 more games left and this season is far from over. Tough defenses await Tampa Bay, including Baltimore this week followed by Atlanta, Kansas City and San Francisco before the bye week. We’ll see how those defenses adjust to what Coen is doing offensively and how he responds.

But so far so great for Liam Coen’s debut as a play-caller in Tampa Bay. To say Coen has been impressive so far might be an understatement.

FAB 2. Not All Bucs’ Scoring Seasons Are Created Equal

Bucs OC Byron Leftwich – Photo by: USA Today

I have been accused of being too hard on former Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich in the past because I’ve pointed out how Tampa Bay’s scoring output fell from 30.1 points per game in 2021 to just 18.4 points per game in 2022, which was his last season before getting fired.

Leftwich’s supporters suggest that the Bucs offense was just about as potent in 2019 when Tampa Bay averaged 28.6 points per game with Jameis Winston at quarterback as the offense became when Tom Brady took over in 2020 and the scoring average nudged up to 30.8 points per game.

But not all scoring seasons are created equal. Leftwich was only responsible for the points his offense scored. It should be noted that Todd Bowles’ defense scored six defensive touchdowns in 2019 and accounted for 42 of the 458 points the team scored that year.

Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and inside linebacker Devin White each scored two touchdowns on fumble recoveries, and Sean Murphy-Bunting and Vernon Hargreaves III each had pick-sixes in the 2019 season. So the Bucs offense only scored 416 points that year – actually an average of 24.5 points per game offensively.

Bucs Offensive Scoring/Point Totals Year-By-Year

2019: 28.6 avg. (6 TDs on defense) 458 total points – 416 offensive points (24.5 avg.)
2020 30.8 avg. (1 TD on defense, 1 safety) 492 total points – 483 offensive points (28.4 avg.)
2021 30.1 avg. (2 TDs on defense) 511 total points – 497 offensive points (29.2 avg.)
2022 18.4 avg. (1 TD on defense) 313 total points – 306 offensive points (18 avg.)
2023 20.5 avg. (1 TD on defense, 1 safety) 348 total points – 339 offensive points (19.9 avg.)
2024 29.7 avg. (1 TD on defense) 178 total points – 171 offensive points (28.5 avg.)

Bucs OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

When factoring out Antoine Winfield Jr.’s scoop-and-score in last week’s 51-27 win at New Orleans, Liam Coen’s Bucs offense is currently averaging 28.5 points per game. That’s not only superior to Leftwich’s season calling plays in 2019, but it’s actually slightly higher than the vaunted 2020 offense that helped Tampa Bay win Super Bowl LV.

Right now, Coen’s offense ranks second all-time in average points scored, which is amazing considering his relative newness as a play-caller and the fact that the Bucs offense doesn’t have the same caliber of weapons as it did during Brady’s best years in 2020 and 2021, as mentioned in Fab 1.

If Coen’s offense continues to light up the scoreboard the way it has at the start of the 2024 season, Bucs fans’ worst nightmares may come true. Coen may be one-and-done in Tampa Bay and Todd Bowles may have to find his fourth offensive coordinator in four years.

FAB 3. Lack Of A Legit, Starting-Caliber Tight End Is Holding Bucs Offense Back

As amazing as Liam Coen’s scheme and play-calling have been at the start of the season, the one position that is really holding the offense back is tight end. And help is not on the way. Not this season.

Bucs TEs Rob Gronkowski and Cam Brate – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR

Thankfully, the team is stocked at wide receiver, and Coen uses a lot of 11 personnel – three-receiver sets – because the Bucs’ tight end room is rather pedestrian. Cade Otton, a three-year starter, has either hit or is near his ceiling as a player. He’s ideally a No. 2 tight end in the NFL, but not as good of a blocker or as dynamic as a weapon as Cam Brate was when he was the No. 2 tight end in Tampa Bay behind Rob Gronkowski.

Payne Durham, a fifth-round draft pick in 2023, is even less dynamic than Otton is. He doesn’t have the speed to separate and is an average blocker at best. Ko Kieft is a one-dimensional blocking tight end, who is only average in that department. His calling card is that he is one of the team’s better special teams coverage players.

Seventh-round pick Devin Culp has the potential to be a receiving threat, but will need more time to learn the offense and develop. Culp was a part-time starter at Washington, but is inactive because he needs to pick up his special teams play.

The Bucs are scoring just under 30 points per game without much contribution from the tight ends. But imagine if Coen had a tight end like Brate in his prime, let alone a stud like Gronkowski at his disposal. Then, the middle of the field becomes even more dangerous for defenses to contend with.

In 2019, the tandem of O.J. Howard (34-459-1) and Brate (36-311-4) combined for 70 catches for 770 and five touchdowns. But the next year, in 2020, the Bucs traded for Gronkowski (45-623-7) and he and Brate (28-282-2) and Howard (11-146-2) totaled 84 catches for 1,051 yards and 11 TDs.

The next year, in 2021, Gronkowski (55-802-6), Brate (30-245-4) and Howard (14-135-1) combined for 99 receptions for 1,182 yards and 11 TDs. Since then, the production at tight end has just plummeted in Tampa Bay.

Bucs TEs Payne Durham and Cade Otton – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

In 2022, the Bucs drafted Otton in the fourth round and he posted 42 catches for 391 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Brate ended his Tampa Bay career with 20 catches for 174 yards. Kieft had seven receptions for 80 yards and a TD, while Kyle Rudolph posted three catches for 28 yards and a score.

Tampa Bay’s tight end production fell to just 673 yards and four touchdowns on 72 receptions in 2022. Last year, the Bucs tight ends totaled just 55 catches for 505 yards and 5 TDs. Otton logged over 90% of the production with 57 receptions for 455 yards and five scores. Durham had five catches for 58 yards, David Wells had two catches for minus-10 yards and Ko Kieft had one catch for a 2-yard touchdown.

So far through six weeks, Otton has 19 catches for 163 yards and one touchdown while averaging a sub-par 8.6 yards per catch. Durham has one catch for eight yards. That’s it for tight end production in Tampa Bay.

Coen is finding ways to get by without much production from the tight end position. Just imagine if he had any kind of real weapon in that room to work with. Maybe Culp will continue to ascend behind the scenes and be active for game days and provide a boost later this season.

FAB 4. What’s Holding Rookie Tight End Devin Culp Back?

Despite the fact that the Bucs had spent three draft picks on the tight end position over the previous two years, Tampa Bay drafted another tight end this year in Washington’s Devin Culp in the seventh round. Culp was a part-time starter as a receiving tight end for the Huskies, a program that the Bucs are certainly fond of with five Washington alums now on the roster.

Bucs TE Devin Culp – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

More importantly, Culp’s 4.47 time in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine, which was the fastest time for a tight end this year, would add some speed to what is a slow tight end room. Cade Otton and backup Payne Durham have combined for just 32 catches for 171 yards and one touchdown this year. That’s a collective – and sub-par – 8.6 yards per catch from the tight end position this year.

Certainly the Bucs could use Culp’s speed and ability to make plays down the field to help open up the passing game even more, right?

So why has Culp been inactive for all six games? What’s holding him back from suiting up on game days?

Two things. First, Culp is not the special teams player that third-string tight end Ko Kieft is. If Culp is going to be active on game days as a reserve, he’s got to be a factor in all four phases of special teams – kickoff coverage, kick return, punt coverage and punt return.

“There are definitely a lot of special teams phases I’m getting used to – the coverage units on punt and kickoff,” Culp said. “I did play on punt returns and kickoff returns in college. I feel like those are more my strength and play to my skillset and what I’m used to doing as a blocker. Learning kickoff and punt has been a lot of fun and I know it’s another gateway for me to have an opportunity to get out on the field and have some fun. I’m still trying to grow and learn there in all four phases of special teams.”

The second area that is holding Culp back from being active is his overall knowledge and understanding of the playbook. Durham, the team’s backup tight end, has an additional year’s worth of experience in the NFL as a fifth-round pick in 2023. That has given him the edge over Culp in terms of playing time so far.

“The biggest improvement for me is learning how to play like a pro,” Culp said. “Trying to learn this system, be assignment-sound, lock in on the details because that’s the biggest step from college to pros – it’s the ins and outs of every down. It’s knowing what you need to do offensively. It’s all the little details. I’m still a work in progress.”

Bucs TE Devin Culp – Photo by: USA Today

Culp came from a Washington offense that used hand signals from the sidelines and went up-tempo rather than huddling. Tampa Bay huddles after almost every snap and offensive coordinator Liam Coen will send two plays to quarterback Baker Mayfield in the huddle to call. Then at the line of scrimmage, Mayfield will determine if the Bucs will use the first play called, or if they will can that call and switch it to the backup play-call.

That’s taken some getting used to for the rookie tight end so far.

“We used signals at Washington,” Culp said. “If you don’t come from a pro-style offense it’s going to be a bit of a learning curve because sometimes with the signals that you get so locked into a game plan that two things get signaled up and you just know what to do. It’s different when you come in and huddle up and hear everything clearly and know what you have to do then, but then at any given momentum – which is pretty much every play in the NFL – there’s an audible or an option to ‘can’ (switching the play at the line of scrimmage).

“That’s been a big adjustment for me and a learning curve for me. It definitely tests your focus because as the practice or game goes on and you get tired it becomes harder and harder to focus.”

The Bucs are still high on Culp, but he’s not really ready yet to help out on offense. And until he masters all four phases of special teams, he won’t be able to suit up on game days just yet. Sometimes it just takes time for players to develop. Not every rookie is a Tristan Wirfs, Antoine Winfield Jr. or Tykee Smith out of the gate.

As running back Sean Tucker showed last week in New Orleans after spending much of his rookie season inactive, sometimes it just takes time for players to develop behind the scenes before they burst onto the scene. Culp might be one of those players for Tampa Bay.

FAB 5. Is Tight End Help On The Way For Tampa Bay?

Bucs TE Payne Durham and GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs have spent four draft picks over the past three years on the tight end position. But all four picks have been Day 3 selections, and sometimes a team gets what its pays for when bargain shopping – not much value.

Cade Otton was a fourth-round pick in 2022 and the team also drafted Ko Kieft in the sixth round that year. Payne Durham was a fifth-round selection last year and Tampa Bay used its last pick on Devin Culp in the seventh round this past April.

Otton is clearly the best of the bunch, but is ideally a No. 2 tight end. Culp is the unknown commodity, and the team could use an upgrade over Durham and Kieft, as both have shown that they are replaceable.

The free agency class at tight end in 2025 is underwhelming and full of aging talent over the age of 30 or close to it, and it’s more likely that the Bucs would spend a more premium draft pick on another tight end than it would be to sign a veteran – unless it was a cheap, one-year prove-it deal. The last tight end Jason Licht signed, veteran Kyle Rudolph in 2022, didn’t pan out.

The class of tight ends in the 2025 NFL Draft looks to be average at best, but there are some intriguing players, especially from a receiving standpoint. It’s doubtful that this group has a first-round-caliber tight end. But Bowling Green’s Harold Fannin Jr., Penn State’s Tyler Warren or Michigan’s Colston Loveland might come close.

Bowling Green TE Harold Fannin Jr. – 6-4, 230 – Junior

Fannin is in the Devin Culp-mold as an undersized tight end who is more receiver than blocker. He’s the best weapon at Bowling Green and one of the top receivers in the nation at any position with 50 receptions for 702 yards (14 avg.) and five touchdowns. Fannin is tied for fifth in the nation in receptions and can stretch the field vertically, evidenced by a 65-yard touchdown. He has five career 100-yard games, including four this season.

Penn State TE Tyler Warren – 6-6, 261 – Senior

After catching 34 passes for 422 yards (12.4 avg.) and seven touchdowns last year, Warren is being featured in Penn State’s offense this season already has 40 receptions for 513 yards (12.8 avg.) and four receiving touchdowns through six games. He’s coming off a monster game in a 33-30 overtime win at USC where he tied the NCAA record for catches by a tight end with 17 for 224 yards (13.2 avg.) and one TD. Warren also has a rushing touchdown and a receiving TD this year.

Michigan TE Colston Loveland – 6-5, 245 – Junior

Loveland has 29 catches for 261 yards (9.0 avg.) and two touchdowns this year and has been far less dynamic than he was last year when J.J. McCarthy was throwing him the football. Loveland had 45 receptions for 649 yards (14.4 avg.) and four TDs in helping the Wolverines win a national championship.

Syracuse TE Oronde Gadsden II – 6-5, 235 – Junior

Gadsden, the son of former Dolphins wide receiver Oronde Gadsden, is more like a big wide receiver than a tight end. He’s a very fluid route runner who put up huge numbers in 2022 with 61 catches for 966 yards (15.8 avg.) and six TDs before a Lisfranc foot injury sidelined him for all but two games. Gadsden has made a triumphant return to the field with 32 catches for 433 yards (13.5 avg.) and three TDs so far in 2024.

Utah TE Brant Kuithe – 6-2, 230 – Redshirt Senior

Kuithe is in his seventh year at Utah after missing most of the 2022 season with a torn ACL and sitting out the 2023 campaign with a medical redshirt. Although he’s undersized and will turn 25 in December, Kuithe might carry a Day 3 draft grade due to his aggressive playing style and ability to put points on the board. Kuithe has scored 20 receiving touchdowns and ran for five more on end arounds. This year, he has 20 catches for 313 yards (15.7 avg.) and four TDs.

Other names to know during the second half of the college football season include Texas’ Gunnar Helm (21-311-14.8-2), Oregon’s Terrance Ferguson (20-321-16.0-0), North Carolina’s Bryson Nesbit (24-264-11.0-3), Ball State’s Tanner Koziol (46-434-9.4-3), Clemson’s Jake Briningstool (24-289-12.0-4) and Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers (25-333-13.3-1). Tampa Bay is not satisfied with its roster at the tight end position and we’ve seen that Licht isn’t afraid to give up on players he’s drafted if there are upgrades to be found elsewhere.

Expect the Bucs to keep drafting tight ends until they finally find a playmaker that can add some more pop to the passing game.