A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough question. This week’s prompt: What is the No. 1 thing that must be fixed with the Bucs offense?

Scott Reynolds: Luke Goedeke’s Return Will Certainly Help

Bucs RT Luke Goedeke – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Unfortunately, this is one thing the coaches can’t fix and the players can’t correct, but the return of right tackle Luke Goedeke – when it happens – should really help Tampa Bay’s offense, which has struggled over the past two weeks and is on a downward trend. After putting up 392 yards and 37 points in the season-opening win, 37-20, against Washington, Tampa Bay scored just 20 points and compiled 216 yards in a 20-16 victory at Detroit. Then the wheels fell off the wagon in a stunning, 26-7 upset at the hands of Denver as Liam Coen’s unit only racked up 223 yards and scored one touchdown.

In the two games, Goedeke has missed since he suffered a concussion in Week 1, his replacement, Justin Skule, has allowed three sacks, two quarterback hits and a hurry. While it looked like Skule surrendered a sack against the Broncos, Pro Football Focus actually blamed Baker Mayfield for running into a sack on Skule’s side, which the film did show. As shaky as Skule has been in pass protection, he’s been even worse in the run game with back-to-back PFF grades of 59.7 and 48.4. Run blocking is one of Goedeke’s strengths.

Perhaps more important than better pass protection and better run blocking, Goedeke sets the tone for the offensive line up front. Whereas Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen used to be the fire-starter and tempo-setter for the offense, Goedeke has taken on that role on the offensive line. The Bucs could use a spark up front and Goedeke’s return should bring just that. With the Eagles coming to town for a big NFC showdown Tampa Bay would love to have him back and hopes he can clear concussion protocol and play. But his recovery is out of everyone’s hands right now. Only time will tell when Goedeke will be back in action.

Matt Matera: Start Bucky Irving At Running Back

Fixing the Bucs’ run game isn’t just a simple solution. But a simple adjustment that seems obvious to many would be to have rookie running back Bucky Irving start at the position, or at least get way more attempts in the ground game. At a minimum, he should be sharing more snaps with Rachaad White as it shouldn’t be a lopsided 42-18 snap difference like it was on Sunday.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

What more needs to be done for Irving to gain more handoffs? He’s provided the juice when running the football, which includes two 30-plus yard runs on the season. Irving is quicker to hit the hole and better at making players miss in condensed spaces. It makes even more reason to play Irving if there isn’t going to much room to run because Irving’s smaller nature means less of a hole needs to be open for him to get through it.

Irving has out-gained White in rushing through the first three games of the season. Sunday’s blowout loss was the most drastic as Irving rushed for 70 yards on nine attempts while White 17 on six. This isn’t to say White isn’t important to the Bucs or shouldn’t be utilized. He’s great in the passing game and has a big role in the offense. Irving just provides the spark that the Bucs need at the moment. The whole stadium has been chanting Bucky’s name when he’s in. Todd Bowles said that Irving has earned more reps for the next game. Hopefully, that’s true, because he can be the one to bring the success that Tampa Bay has looked for.

Bailey Adams: Create More Opportunities For The Depth Wide Receivers

Bucs WR Jalen McMillan – Photo by: USA Today

As important as it is for the Bucs to keep Chris Godwin going and get Mike Evans more involved in the offense, it’s been disappointing to see how little they’ve been able to create for their other receivers. Offensive coordinator Liam Coen and quarterback Baker Mayfield have obviously done a great job getting the most out of Godwin to start the year, and with Evans, you always know he’s going to come back around and put up some monster weeks. But the receivers not named Godwin and Evans? They’ve been nonexistent in these first three weeks.

For all the good that 2024 third-round pick Jalen McMillan did in the offseason and all of the (warranted) hype he generated, he has just six targets through three games. He has three catches for 59 yards (19.7 avg.) and a touchdown, while Trey Palmer has just three targets with one catch for 19 yards. Especially in games (like this past Sunday’s loss) where Evans is taken away, the offense needs more from the likes of McMillan and Palmer. With all due respect to Cade Otton, he’s not going to scare opposing defenses with any game-breaking ability. Denver was happy to let Otton catch a ton of short passes on Sunday because those aren’t going to beat anyone.

Who’s to blame? It can go around. Coen needs to do a better job of scheming McMillan (or whoever he wants as his WR3) open, while Mayfield has to find him. And some of it is on McMillan and Palmer themselves to get more separation and take more advantage of the opportunities that are there. Building up more trust with Mayfield and getting things rolling when Godwin and Evans are covered would be a significant help, as it would make Tampa Bay’s passing attack more versatile. Not to mention, the more that defenses have to worry about with other receivers, the more things will open up for the top two receiving options. It would benefit the offense all around.

Josh Queipo: Lean Into The Running Schemes That Work

I wrote about it after the Bucs week one win over the Washington Commanders. It remains true today. The Bucs struggled to run their staple mid-zone scheme. Rarely can the blocking scheme gain the edge on the front side of the concept. And almost like clockwork someone (but not always the same player) loses on the backside killing any hope for a cutback. It is almost comical at this point.

Run game continues to be an issue as it’s always one thing that blows it up. Runs are there, just not executed. Bredeson can’t get the reach block, Might just need to utilize more counters and power runs. Zone is just a plain struggle overall. pic.twitter.com/SupIL7BUw5

— RealBucsTalk (@RealBucsTalk) September 23, 2024

But there is a sliver of hope for Tampa Bay. They are decent-to-good at running gap concepts like counter, power and duo. When the offensive line is asked to double, displace and climb vertically they fire off the ball and create room for the backs to work. Pullers get downhill and target accurately. Things just work better.

Bucs most successful running concept last year was counter. Super creative way to get to it out of 21p. Love this design by Coen.

OL blocks it up well and Bucky does a great job downfield feeling the best path forward. pic.twitter.com/UNh4Mq5OJ2

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) September 23, 2024

With the offensive philosophy still seemingly one that is run-heavy on first down, the Bucs can ill-afford to light first down on fire with ineffective runs that set up second and long and third and medium. If this team is serious about being better on the offensive side of the ball, they must lean more into power football until they can improve their zone running game.

Adam Slivon: Mike Evans Needs To Be The Bucs Offense’s Focal Point

Where’s Mike Evans? He has gone missing. After a big Week 1 showing against the Commanders – a game where Evans had five catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns – he has been quiet. Too quiet.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

After back-to-back unmemorable, disappointing games, offensive coordinator Liam Coen needs to gameplan to get his star wide receiver the ball more. The offense needs Evans to be heavily involved if they want to improve upon their seven-point outing against the Broncos and to be more high-scoring than last year.

Getting Evans the ball against one of the NFL’s worst secondaries in Week 1 was not a problem, but it has been over the last two weeks. He was still targeted six times against the Lions, hauling in all three passes on former teammate Carlton Davis III. With Chris Godwin being the bigger focus and with the Bucs coming out of Detroit with a win, that was not an issue. What is a bigger issue, though, is the fact that Tampa Bay’s offense failed to get going this past Sunday and did not even try to get their best weapon involved, and that must change.

“We’ve got to get him involved more,” head coach Todd Bowles said at his Monday press conference. Quarterback Baker Mayfield stated after Sunday’s game that they need to get M1K3 involved, no matter who is covering him as he will be facing No. 1 cornerbacks every week. “He’s a good player but there’s good corners every week,” Mayfield said.

“We have to get him involved early. We have to have a better plan for him, and we have to get him the ball.” That needs to start this Sunday at Raymond James Stadium against the Eagles. Yes, Mike Evans will be covered by Darius Slay and Quinyon Mitchell, and the Bucs are facing a still-talented Philadelphia defense, but that cannot become a weekly excuse.