FAB 2. The Bucs’ Next Offensive And Defensive Coordinators

The strength of any good coordinator is his position coaches. Tampa Bay’s legendary defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin will tell you that.

Kiffin replaced defensive backs coach Herman Edwards with Mike Tomlin and then replaced Tomlin with Raheem Morris after a brief one-year stint with Greg Burns. He replaced linebackers coach Lovie Smith with Joe Barry and then replaced Barry with Gus Bradley. Kiffin replaced defensive line coach Rod Marinelli with Jethro Franklin and replaced Franklin with Todd Wash.

Bucs HC Bruce Arians, run game coordinator Harold Goodwin and OC Byron Leftwich – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

It’s no surprise that the year the Bucs had Burns and Franklin on the coaching staff that the team went 4-12 during the 2006 season because they were bad hires. Kiffin recognized that and he and Jon Gruden fired them after one season and replaced them with Morris and Wash and went 9-7 in 2007 en route to a division title.

Really good assistant coaches matter, and Bruce Arians’ staff is full of them.

So let’s suppose offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles depart in 2021. What do Arians and general manager Jason Licht do to fill those voids?

On offense, offensive line coach and run game coordinator Harold Goodwin could become the play-caller and Leftwich’s successor. Goodwin was Arians’ offensive coordinator in Arizona from 2013-17, although Arians was the play-caller. That arrangement was similar to Jon Gruden having offensive line coach Bill Muir as the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay while Gruden called the plays on game day.

Arians would let Goodwin call plays during the preseason in Arizona on occasion to help grow him as a coordinator, and Goodwin works well with Leftwich in installing the running game into the game day play sheet.

“When it came down to Byron and myself and the whole coordinator thing I called Byron weeks ago before B.A. had even decided to get back in, and I said, ‘Hey bro, you can have it,’” Goodwin said at his initial press conference in Tampa Bay back in January 2019. “I don’t coach quarterbacks. I’m not a quarterback whisperer. Can I coach football? Yes, I can – very damn well in my opinion. But there is a different dynamic between a quarterback talking to a quarterback. I love Bryon to death. He’s a brother of mine, so I’m happy for him.”

Goodwin has been interviewed for head coaching positions in Jacksonville and Buffalo, and also in Tampa Bay under Licht who spoke with him about replacing Lovie Smith before Licht promoted offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter in 2016.

Bucs’ assistant head coach Harold Goodwin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Here’s my deal, I had that [offensive coordinator] title for five years. Where did it get me?” Goodwin said. “Every time I went on an interview they said I didn’t call plays. I did call plays. B.A. let me call plays in the preseason. He wasn’t going to give it up. I called plays in the preseason, but are we looking for play-callers or are we looking for leaders? If we are looking for leaders of men, leaders that can help build an organization from the ground up on the football season I did that. The next excuse I was told was, ‘Well, we don’t like your staff.’ Well, a lot of my staff is still coaching, and some guys are coordinators in the NFL that are having a lot of success that were on my list.

Not only would Goodwin make an ideal successor to Leftwich, he would also be a fantastic successor to Arians as the Bucs’ head coach if Bowles were to leave Tampa Bay before Arians retired. Goodwin is a passionate leader of men that could be head coach without calling plays, similar to what Tomlin is in Pittsburgh.

“It’s hard for line background coaches to make it,” Goodwin said. “Doug Marrone is an exception. Mike Tice was, and coach [Tom] Cable. I know Mike Tice called plays. I don’t know about the other ones. It’s hard. I’m a realist. I don’t have an ego. I’m about ‘team.’

“Obviously defense helps win championships, but to me offense is the key, and the offensive line is the backbone of the whole team in my opinion.”

As an offensive line coach in Pittsburgh under Arians and Tomlin, the Steelers head coach, Goodwin won a Super Bowl and has 16 years worth of coaching experience at the NFL level.

Bucs quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen might also get some consideration to replace Leftwich. The 64-year old Christensen coached 17 years in college before making the leap to the NFL in 1996 as Tony Dungy’s tight ends coach in Tampa Bay. Christensen coached the Bucs quarterbacks from 1999-2000 and became the offensive coordinator in 2001 before Dungy and his offensive staff was fired.

Christensen was reunited with Arians, whom he coached with at Temple in the 1980s, in Indianapolis where he served as the offensive coordinator from 2009-11 and the quarterbacks coach from 2012-15. Christensen also served as Miami’s offensive coordinator from 2016-17 before joining Arians’ staff in Tampa Bay in 2019.

Bucs OLBs coach Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On the defensive side of the ball, the Bucs have a few candidates that could replace Bowles as the coordinator if he were to become Tampa Bay’s head coach or become a head coach elsewhere. Outside linebackers coach Larry Foote had a 13-year career in the NFL playing mostly for Pittsburgh (2002-08, 2010-13) and also in Arizona (2014) where he played for Arians and Bowles.

Foote joined Arians’ staff in 2015 and became the Cardinals linebackers coach from 2016-18 before reuniting with Arians in Tampa Bay as the outside linebackers coach last season. In 2019, Foote helped Shaquil Barrett lead the league in sacks with a career-high and franchise-record 19.5

Foote, a two-time Super Bowl champion, coaches with the same edge that he played with, and is regarded as real up-and-comer in the coaching ranks. It’s only a matter of time before he’s a defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay or elsewhere.

Inside linebackers coach Mike Caldwell had an 11-year career as a linebacker in the league, and began his coaching career in Philadelphia in 2008 as a quality control coach. He was promoted to linebackers coach in 2011 and joined Arians’ staff in Arizona in 2013. In 2015, Caldwell left the Cardinals to join Bowles’ staff in New York where he was the assistant head coach and inside linebackers coach for four years. When Bowles got fired following the 2018 season, Caldwell followed him to Tampa Bay in 2019. Caldwell was also the head coach of the East squad in this past year’s East-West Shrine Game and gained some valuable experience with that assignment.

Another Bowles protégé is defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers, who coached with Bowles in Dallas and Miami before becoming Bowles’ defensive coordinator with the Jets from 2015-18. Rodgers’ defense didn’t exactly excel in New York, so it’s not automatic that Bowles would choose to elevate him to the role of defensive coordinator again. He may choose to give Caldwell or Foote an opportunity to call the defense.

Bucs ILBs coach Mike Caldwell – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

If Bowles left the Buccaneers he could take Rodgers, Caldwell or Foote with him to serve as his defensive coordinator with another team, which would be an unfortunate double whammy for Tampa Bay. But thanks to Arians, the Bucs have more than enough qualified coaching candidates on the Bucs’ current staff to fill the potential voids created by the departures of Bowles, Leftwich or even Arians himself.