Bucs HC Todd Bowles and OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to the Bucs Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: To keep Liam Coen do you think Todd Bowles agrees to coach one more year with the promise it’s Coen’s team afterwards? Bowles can’t want to be on his fourth OC and expect great results. Plus, he’d probably lose Kevin Carberry, too. Tampa Bay can’t afford to lose Coen when they have Baker Mayfield in his prime.

Bucs OC Liam Coen and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: There’s a lot to unpack here. If there is a way to keep head coach Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Liam Coen, that should certainly be explored. Bowles is on the verge of winning his third straight NFC South title as head coach. While his defense has been the culprit in most of the team’s losses, Bowles’ steady leadership cannot be ignored.

While the team would prefer more consistency than a pair of 3-1 starts dissolving into 4-6 records by midseason in each of the last two years, credit Bowles for being able to get his players to turn on the jets down the stretch of the 2023 and 2024 seasons and rocket towards the playoffs. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, and Bowles’ team has had some momentum heading into the postseason in each of the last two years.

At the same time, Coen has been a huge upgrade over Dave Canales. When Bowled fired Byron Leftwich after the offense slumped from 30 points per game in 2021 to just 18 points per game in 2022, he replaced him with Canales, who increased scoring to 21 points per game in 2023. But Coen has unlocked the potential of Tampa Bay’s offense, which is now fourth in the NFL in scoring at 29.7 points per game following Sunday’s 48-14 win over Canales and Carolina. That’s an eight-point per game increase, which is amazing progress in Coen’s first year as a play-caller.

The Bucs cannot afford to lose Coen, who could be the next Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan. And Bowles shouldn’t want to see Coen leave, either. Finding a fourth offensive coordinator in four years does not sound like a fun offseason assignment in late January or early February for Bowles. And he would be under immense pressure to find the next Coen-caliber coach rather than the next Canales, as Tampa Bay’s offense cannot afford to take a step back in 2025. Especially since that side of the ball is the team’s strength, as the defense will need to undergo some repairs in the offseason.

Because Bowles is 61 and Coen is just 39, the Glazers and general manager Jason Licht have to look out for the future of the franchise. It would certainly be great if a deal could be brokered where Coen becomes the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL and is named Bowles’ successor after the 2025 season. That way Coen could have one more year to refine his skills as a play-caller without the added pressure and responsibilities that come with being a head coach. And Bowles would have another year with a high-powered offense to try to win a Super Bowl – assuming Tampa Bay falls short of that goal this season.

QUESTION: Why does Todd Bowles always play teams better after adjustments, instead of having a good plan from the start? Also, Beau Allen mentioned that Liam Coen is a good coach, but could use another year to be a leader of men as a head guy. What say you?

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and ILB Lavonte David – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: It was a little unnerving to see Tampa Bay jump out to an early 7-0 lead against Carolina and then see the Panthers march right down the field and score a touchdown to tie it up in the first quarter. We all would like to see Todd Bowles’ defense come out and get an initial three-and-out or even a takeaway on the first drive, but that rarely happens.

Yet credit Bowles for making the necessary adjustments at halftime when the score was 27-14 and post a shutout in the second half as the Bucs added three more touchdowns to make the final score 48-14. That’s three second half shutouts for Bowles’ unit this season, as that’s also happened at New Orleans and at Los Angeles against the Chargers. The big difference is that the Bucs trailed at halftime in those games, but had the lead against the Panthers on Sunday.

There’s no doubt that Liam Coen is a good coach, and I would say based on his offensive success this year that he’s actually a great coach. While I think leadership is always something that can grow within people and that can be improved upon, leadership is also a trait that either people have or they don’t have. Everything I’ve heard about Coen is that he has good leadership qualities. He employs a collaborative process with the offensive assistants and gives them ownership in the weekly game plans and the on-field results. And Coen’s players certainly respond to his leadership given how explosive and productive the offense is.

But can Coen also lead the defense? Can he manage game situations in terms of when to punt and when to go for it, or when to kick the field goal that sends the game into overtime and when to go for the win with a two-point conversion? Can he use timeouts properly and manage the clock? How does he handle a lot more media opportunities outside of just one press conference each week?

There is a lot that goes into becoming a head coach, but the only way we’ll find out if Coen can handle of that is with an opportunity to do so. Does Coen have the chance to be a success the way Sean McVay is in Los Angeles or Kyle Shanahan is in San Francisco? Or will he be the next Dirk Koetter – an offensive coordinator who wasn’t as successful as a head coach? The only way to find out is to give him the chance to try it. I would bet that Coen can be an effective head coach.

QUESTION: Let’s say Liam Coen becomes a head coach next year. What teams would fit him best? If he were the Bucs’ head coach would he still call plays or who would he bring in as OC?

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

ANSWER: Whenever Liam Coen becomes a head coach – and wherever that is – he’ll be the offensive play-caller. That’s just what happens with offensive coordinators who become head coaches in the league. Dave Canales in Carolina is one of the latest examples of him going from the Bucs’ play-caller to the play-caller and head coach of the Panthers in 2024.

Coen would make one of his assistants the offensive coordinator in title – perhaps offensive line coach Kevin Carberry or passing game coordinator Josh Grizzard – but he would still call plays. There are only a few “walk around” coaches in the NFL who aren’t play-callers and most aren’t offensive-minded guys.

Baltimore’s John Harbaugh has a special teams background and doesn’t call plays for the Ravens on either side of the ball. Mike Tomlin and Raheem Morris are both defensive-minded head coaches, but neither call plays in Pittsburgh and Atlanta, respectively. The exception might be offensive-minded Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh, but offensive coordinator Greg Roman is the play-caller in Los Angeles.

As for Coen’s best fits, staying in Tampa Bay would be ideal because of the talent he has to work with and his system is already proven to work with the Bucs. But I also mentioned a couple of other teams that could be after Coen in Friday’s SR’s Fab 5 column. Coen grew up a Patriots fan in Rhode Island and was a Tom Brady fan. That could make New England a very attractive option if the Patriots fire Jerod Mayo. Las Vegas could also be in play if Brady, a Raiders minority owner, wanted to make a sales pitch to Coen. Both New England and Las Vegas have a ton of salary cap room in 2025.

QUESTION: What makes Baker Mayfield so much more effective in this offense vs. Dave Canales’ offense last season?

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

ANSWER: That’s a great question. I think Baker Mayfield has naturally grown as a quarterback in Tampa Bay because of his chemistry with the Bucs players he has around him. We would’ve seen some growth from Mayfield in 2024 even if Dave Canales had remained the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay.

But there’s no doubt that Liam Coen has unlocked Mayfield’s potential and helped take his game to the next level. Mayfield has a very strong arm, but is not the best deep ball thrower. Canales’ offense has more vertical routes than Coen’s system does. With Coen’s offense, it’s all about getting the ball out of Mayfield’s hand quickly and in rhythm. That’s why we’ve seen Mayfield’s completion percentage rise from 64.3% in 2023 to a career-best 71.7% this year.

Coen does a much better job of scheming receivers open, too. That’s resulted in a career-high 39 touchdowns from Mayfield this season, which ranks tied for second with Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson and behind only Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, who has 42. Mayfield, who is second in passing yards this year with 4,279, is four touchdown passes away from breaking Tom Brady’s single-season Bucs record of 43 TDs, which occurred in 2021.

The fact that Coen has also allowed Mayfield to have much greater ownership of the offense with more freedom to call audibles is also huge. Under Coen, the Bucs typically huddle with two plays called and Mayfield will go to the line, survey the defense and pick the best one based on the pre-snap look he’s getting. That didn’t happen with Canales, and as a result, there were times when the play call was dead on arrival because Mayfield didn’t have the liberty to call an audible.

QUESTION: Is Antoine Winfield Jr. going to be available in the playoffs?

ANSWER: The Bucs certainly hope so. Tampa Bay has missed Antoine Winfield Jr.’s leadership and playmaking ability in the secondary this year. He’s only played in nine games, missing four games due to a foot injury he suffered in the season opener, and then four more with a knee injury that occurred against the Raiders a month ago.

Winfield did not practice at all last week, and the guess here is that he misses the season finale against the Saints on Sunday. Had he participated even in a limited fashion in last week’s practices, I would feel better about his return. Perhaps that will occur in the first round of the playoffs.

It’s interesting to note that the Bucs put starting strong safety Jordan Whitehead and starting cornerback Jamel Dean on injured reserve this season, knowing that each would miss at least a month’s worth of action with their pectoral and hamstring injuries, respectively. And reserve defensive back Christian Izien just went on I.R. with his own pectoral injury last week.

Winfield didn’t go on injured reserve and yet he’s still missed the last four games. So perhaps the knee injury was more severe than originally thought, or Winfield’s recovery has been slower than anticipated.