The Bucs officially announced on Thursday that they have hired Dave Canales as their offensive coordinator. Canales gets his first opportunity to call plays on a coaching staff led by Todd Bowles after years of working for Pete Carroll and the Seahawks as a wide receivers coach, passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Canales should bring an exciting new outlook to a Tampa Bay offense that struggled last season. Although the team will have a new quarterback, the improved creativity and play calling will hopefully make up for it.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Todd Bowles Comments On The Hiring

Along with the Bucs making the announcement about Canales, Todd Bowles made a public statement as well.

“We are excited to announce Dave Canales as our new offensive coordinator,” Bowles said. “I want to thank the various candidates that we interviewed throughout this very thorough process. Dave has done a great job in a variety of roles with Seattle the past 13 years and he brings a passion for coaching and an energy level that players just seem to respond to.

“He has played a significant part in the development and growth of many Seahawks players who have contributed to their offensive success over the past decade, and I look forward to seeing what he will do with our players on offense. The more we talked, the more it became apparent that we are very similar in how we approach the game, and I am confident that he will find a way to maximize our strengths on offense.”

New Bucs OC Dave Canales – Photo by: Seahawks

The search for a new coordinator was a long one as the Bucs interviewed 10 candidates for the position. Part of the difficulty was that Tampa Bay doesn’t know who its starting quarterback is at the moment, with only Kyle Trask on the roster.

The other component of this is that Todd Bowles could be on the hot seat after going 8-9 in his initial season coaching the Bucs when there were Super Bowl expectations. There’s a thought that, if Tampa Bay has another down year, Bowles could be out and the next head coach who comes in may want to bring in his own guy as the play caller.

It’s a risk to move somewhere else with the chance that you’re only coaching thete for one season. What it would take is for an up-and-coming coach to believe in himself enough to get the job done, and that’s what Tampa Bay feels it has with Canales as its new coordinator.