Byron Leftwich No. 5
July 24th, 2019
Ranked.
Joe isn’t sure if this is a compliment or not.
Vinnie Iyer of The Sporting News has an interesting list of new playcallers for teams this fall. In his list is a top-10. And yes, new Bucs playcaller Bryon Leftwich is at No. 5.
Leftwich got his shot to call plays once Mike McCoy was fired in Arizona last season, but he was handcuffed with unready rookie quarterback Josh Rosen. Reunited with his mentor, Bruce Arians, Leftwich gets a worthy second shot.
The Bucs were a pass-heavy team with little rushing pop in ’18, and despite all the quarterback inconsistency, they finished No. 12 in scoring. Jameis Winston is a good fit for their downfield-focused scheme. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard will be used well together to create mismatches short and deep.
Now if the best thing you can say about a playcaller is that he is working with a head coach who was a great playcaller, what kind of compliment is that?
Sometimes Joe thinks he is the only guy not ignoring that under Leftwich’s watch in Arizona, a first-round pick of a quarterback spiraled into the abyss so badly, the team gave up on him, which is unprecedented in the Super Bowl era of the NFL.
If Leftwich isn’t at least partially responsible for Josh Rosen circling the drain as Rosen’s position coach and later his offensive coordinator, then who is? Bill Bidwill?
July 24th, 2019 at 4:34 pm
These guys don’t even know their guessing wildly
July 24th, 2019 at 4:36 pm
Leftwich is one of the biggest reasons why I believe Arians isn’t all in on being here.
Arians has been hugely successful everywhere he’s been calling plays and coaching QBs, yet he’s not doing that here? Something doesn’t add up.
Trusting an unproven coordinator with a inconsistent turnover prone qb is not a good combination for educated football fans
July 24th, 2019 at 4:58 pm
cant blame the rosen mess on BL…..that entire organization is a mess…..and the kid played like a rookie as the 10th pick in the draft…..cardinals jumped the gun and gave up too quickly on rosen and wilks….that team lacks serious talent along the oline….
imo, BL will be just fine….and if things arent going right, im sure BA will step in and take over…..
i know its hard for some(for whatever reason) but damn….give the man a chance…..
BL knows and has played in BA’s system……folks act like he’s mike bajakian calling plays…..lol….
GO BUCS!!!!!!
July 24th, 2019 at 4:59 pm
But they can relate to each other, ya dig
July 24th, 2019 at 5:04 pm
@813
You ok with paying for the QB Whisperer, yet you got his apprentice who has only called 7 games previously where his teams averaged less than 14 a game?
It’s like paying for a nice steak at Burns and getting a steak grilled at McDonalds
Just another kick in the nuts to Buc fans
July 24th, 2019 at 5:10 pm
That’s an unfair assessment of Rosen and Leftwich. Rosen would still be in Arizona if it weren’t for new head coach Kliff Kingsbury wanting his college QB instead. Yes Rosen struggled his first season but wouldn’t it be admirable of Joe to give him some slack and some time to get better? Isn’t that what you preach about Jameis?
July 24th, 2019 at 5:21 pm
When a guy considered to be one of the bests at a job picks a new guy to do that job, odds are they know something about that new guy. I trust Ariens judgment a lot more than I do anyone else in the organization when it comes to picking an offensive play caller because Ariens has earned that. How many n guys have gone from being nobodies that became offensive coordinators under Andy Reid to bring Head coaches in recent years. Maybe, Ariens knows more about the job and Leftwich than the media.
July 24th, 2019 at 5:27 pm
This insistence on blaming Leftwich for Josh Rosen is just another example of someone not “getting”it. That entire team a disaster, heck they were worse than us and that is saying alot. When you fire a coach and the new coach can handpick the guy he has coveted from the jump that is a simple reason why Rosen was let go, not because Leftwich or anyone broke him. This wreaks of this Negative Bucs.com fan mentality doing their as usual Eeyore rotuine.
July 24th, 2019 at 5:56 pm
Its going to be a good year for the Bucs. I can feel it.
Its always been the coaching. One of the reasons why Grimes was a disgruntled employee. Hes position coach and Grimes disagreed on multiple things. What about the rest of the team. I bet atleast half the team new Koeter and most of his coaches where full of it. This team will be well coached and ready to bang heads game one. We havent even seen any practice film yet and fans have jumed ship. Right right your in show me mode. I am giving the two time coach of the year the benefit of the dought untill he shows me otherwise. In BA we trust.
July 24th, 2019 at 6:12 pm
Why were they a disaster ? Did BA leave the Cardinals roster in better shape then when he got there ? If not , was it because his health was in decline ? Are these valid questions ?
July 24th, 2019 at 6:29 pm
i guess based on Joe’s assessment, Chucky is responsible for the Bruce Gradkowski and the Phil Simms failures.
July 24th, 2019 at 6:37 pm
It is fair the question Leftwitch about Rosen but when you look at the situation you see a team that couldn’t get their offense going………..The Cardinals seemed to blame McCoy in this situation because he was fired midseason. My guess would be he wasn’t fired for nothing and they then choose to promote Byron so they must have liked something about what he was doing there.
So to answer your question Joe, no, not Bill Bidwell. Mike McCoy.
July 24th, 2019 at 6:55 pm
Danger, Will Robinson! Football artist BA (dabbling a little with new thinking like female coaches, coaching from his golf cart, bringing along a new OC, etc) will hopefully not give Byron so much rope to run and let him learn form his mistakes, you know, to get his feet under him, that the season goes south faster than it normally would. This isn’t OJT for anyone–and those of us paying full price for our tickets don’t want to see amateur hour. Good god, we’ve been through enough already!
July 24th, 2019 at 7:34 pm
I liked Coach Monken and wish they would have retained him. I also like Paul Spicer and would have kept him as well.
July 24th, 2019 at 9:22 pm
“I guess based on Joe’s assessment, Chucky is responsible for the Bruce Gradkowski and the Phil Simms failures.”
Bruce Gradkowski, meh!
Phil Simms was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of Super Bowl XXI, after he led the Giants to a 39–20 victory over the Denver Broncos and set the record for highest completion percentage in a Super Bowl, completing 22 of 25 passes (88%), a record which still stands. He also was named to the Pro Bowl for his performances in the 1985 and 1993 seasons.
Hardly a failure!
July 24th, 2019 at 9:24 pm
My guess is that Arians is doing what is deemed necessary for him to minimize stress on himself as the head coach. His health problems are related to his age. This was a precondition for him to have a chance of coming out of retirement and succeeding. Several things he has done suggest this to me. He had to re-evaluate how he went about things and came up with some compromises.
He looked around and chose Byron to be his OC. He has to have a tremendous amount of faith in Leftwich to hand him the job. It would be foolish in his part to give him the responsibility just because he was his mentor previously and merely wants him to succeed. To much depends upon the decision. If Leftwich fails and Bruce takes the reins back it may be too late to salvage the season by then.
_____________
Go Bucs!!!
July 24th, 2019 at 11:45 pm
You act like you know why Rosen was let go, but you obviously clicked the publish button a little too soon. Or maybe you meant it? Did you forget all about the new coach out there and his pre-determined QB preference? Or did you just ignore it for the sake of churning the waters yet again?
I am no Cardinals fan, but clearly their issues included far more than just a rookie QB thrown into the fire. Even a casual NFL fan could see that. So either this is sloppy reporting or just another negatively biased take designed to yank fans’ cranks. And what good does that do for the fan base?? Seriously, what good comes from this trolling that pretends to be “news” and “analysis”? Good for your clicks? Is that all you’re after?
Go ahead and call your site joebucsfan, but more and more I struggle to find evidence of an actual fan in anyone writing here besides the Sage.
July 24th, 2019 at 11:51 pm
Not once since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 has an NFL team given up on a quarterback drafted in the first round after just one season. That is, until the Cardinals gave up on Josh Rosen.
Short of Rosen committing a felony that was covered up by Arizona authorities (hey, Michael Bidwill is a former federal prosecutor so he has connections) or maybe Rosen getting caught in bed with Bidwill’s wife, that’s an extraordinary failure to develop a valuable player the team had a significant investment in.
And Leftwich should be totally absolved of any and all responsibility for Rosen’s failure? In what world?
July 25th, 2019 at 12:23 am
Joe, your stubborn crystallized ways truly shine brilliantly ignorant at times.
This is one of them.
Manziel was another.
Pull all the history you want. A personal decision like a first rounder can only go through the top. So as stated numerous times, the new coach gets to pick the important player on the field. His dream quarterback. Yet you, a true Prince of Blogging (Not journalism, which is largely dead, and will possibly contribute to destruction of our society, because there is no unbiased-integrity reporting to be found anywhere.)
You are opinion writer. Therefore I respectfully disagree.
Go Bucs!
In BA I Trust!
July 25th, 2019 at 6:34 am
@Ghost
I think you’ve mistaken what was probably rrsrq’s typo.
Being a Buc’s fan when he said Simms I immediately thought Chris…Phil’s son. I don’t so much blame the coaches for his struggle…he literally almost gave his life for football with that spleen. He’s just another sad story like Cadillac Williams.
We’ll never really know about Chris Simms…the one year he really got to start for us…ten games..he completed 61% 10TDS 3ints…not lighting it up but not a horrid start to his career either.
I never felt he was the same after the spleen.
July 25th, 2019 at 6:43 am
Joe
You just made a very valid point but then stretched for you conclusion.
Totally agree that dumping a first round QB is unheard…and IMHO could still bite the Cards in the butt.
But if your point is that the new coach..or Cardinal management saw some fatal flaw in Rosen not simply the new guy grabbing his boy…that means Rosen is the problem and not Leftwich.
I would agree that based on this one sample that Leftwich is not a miracle worker…he was the second guy to fail with Rosen last year…so I’m not going to bust his chops for it.
Besides…JW and Rosen are two dramatically different situations. One a raw meat rookie…verdict out on his talent…the other a now seasoned vet who certainly has the talent from the neck down…if Leftwich gets in JW’s head he might work a miracle with our reclamation project.
July 25th, 2019 at 6:53 am
Ghost , not sure where PHil Simms and Chucky crossed paths. Chucky had Chris Simms his son here in Tampa.
I will say I was pissed when the Giants let PHil go because they didn’t want to pay him a million dollars. given his previous success.
July 25th, 2019 at 8:42 am
loyal
yeah im cool with that because we need someone to fix the team not just JW….
if anything, that should prove the problem is more of the team and not the QB position…..
GO BUCS!!!!
July 25th, 2019 at 10:47 am
“Handcuffed with UNREADY rookie QB Josh Rosen”
Give it up Joe Leftwich had NOTHING to do w an organization drafting some one so trash. You keep trying to slant this and its pathetic. Cardinals realized this and corrected their mistake.
You need to let this and your upsetness lol w Devin White pick go
Go Bucs!!
July 25th, 2019 at 1:59 pm
I hate that Joe managed to turn a #5 listing into a negative… and that I do worry about Leftwich. BUT, if Bruce chose to ride with him as OC then I am assuming he’s much better positioned than I to judge. Besides, he’s got a bevy of talent surrounding him including Goodwin and Christensen.
July 25th, 2019 at 2:18 pm
Was wondering where the reference to Phil Simms came from, at least it was corrected. If my memory serves me, Gruden did not want Chris Simms and was the start of the power struggle leading to McKay going to Atlanta
July 25th, 2019 at 4:29 pm
Does Joe prefer Marcus Arroyo over Leftwich? Former Bucs QB coach who became the head coach when Jeff Tedford had a change of heart. Now is the QB whisperer to Justin Herbert with the Oregon Ducks.
July 25th, 2019 at 4:29 pm
Sorry meant to say Arroyo became the OC when Tedford took a hike.
July 25th, 2019 at 4:50 pm
Spot-On “since the beginning” and “sport”!!
More trolling tripe on jbf