“Naturally” & “Organically” Irony From Leftwich

October 10th, 2019

Bucs OC Byron Leftwich

Joe has to cue the long tuba note on this one.

Last Sunday, Bucs fans watched as rookie sixth-round-pick receiver Scotty Miller was targeted three times on the Bucs’ first two drives against the Saints. Watch Jameis Winston on film and it sure appears that America’s Quarterback is locked in on Miller as his first option on those plays. (The first throw to Miller went for an interception that was called back for a delay of game penalty).

Miller has zero career receptions and it was an interesting Miller-focused plan for offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.

Fast forward to today and Leftwich was asked about the scant use of manbeast tight end O.J. Howard, the Bucs’ 2017 first-round pick. Leftwich said he wants Howard’s use to come “naturally and organically.”

Joe heard that and immediately thought about those Miller targets. How natural were those?

Joe finds the whole “naturally and organically” take a bit goofy for a talent like Howard. For some guys, you must force their involvement in order to help the entire offense. (See Mike Evans with zero catches Sunday.) Howard should be one of those guys, just like Miller was early against the Saints.

37 Responses to ““Naturally” & “Organically” Irony From Leftwich”

  1. J Says:

    Gonna start calling him NO.J. Howard.

  2. Asdf Says:

    *face palm*

  3. down in the dirt doug Says:

    JOE–Leftwich sounds strange.Let’s hope that the job is not too much for him to handle.And get Howard involved in the game—Coach leftwich–its your job to help him succeed.

  4. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    On this I agree with Joe…and we also need to employ more simple passes to move the chains …

  5. DB55 Says:

    Man I wish Cam Brate still played for the Bucs bc he and JW has an awesome connection chemistry whatever you want to call it.

  6. Loyaltotheend Section 312 Says:

    Must be nice to be friends with Bruce and get a job you are not qualified for

    Evans, Godwin, Howard and Brate should be the most targeted players each week no excuses

  7. BlogTalkFootball.com Says:

    Please, Redskins! Hire him now!

  8. NPRSageBoy Says:

    The Bucs are naturally and organically screwed on Sunday.

  9. JimmyJack Says:

    I’m starting to get tired of hearing OJs name. If they decide to use him and he helps the passing game, cool. But I’m darn sure not expecting it.

    And if you think about it we all blame Leftwitch but is there a chance we should question the actual player here? Fair or not OJ was absolutely awful in game 1 and it darn sure looked like they were trying to get him involved in that game. He would up costing us a lot of points in that game and technically could blame him some for that loss.

    Maybe they just don’t trust the guy and maybe he hasn’t earned it back. Just a pure theory on my end but it is worth some consideration. Plenty of old school coaches have taken opportunities after players when they let the team down…….Just go see what a Bill Bellichick or a Tom Coughlin would do if their RBs fumbled the football.

  10. Etzel Says:

    What was that Kyle Shanahan said about Kittle again?? Scheming him open peharps?? Hmmmmmm

  11. Lamarcus Says:

    Oj is officially in the dog house.

  12. Mikadeemas Says:

    I’m wondering if there’s some, behind the scenes or off field stuff going on. Bad attitude? Not busting his butt enough? Something ain’t right. Go BUCS, baby!!!!…..and go O.J.!!!

  13. J Says:

    Apparently he was relevant in Koetters offense, just not this one.

  14. unbelievable Says:

    @JimmyJack

    You don’t abandon a huge weapon who is a mismatch against 99.9% of defenders, just because of 1 bad game (which was also week 1 of the nfl, when lots of guys are still shaking off the rust).

    That’s not accountability, it’s stupidity.

    And what about milk carton Brate? Is he in the dog house too? It’s not hard to scheme your tight ends open, maybe Leftwich needs to watch some tape from other teams and learn.

  15. Son of Kobe Faker Says:

    “SERIOUS QUESTION

    Have you ever heard of Hiring a Head Coach to develop the offensive Coordinator?

    We hired a self claimed QB whisperer and we have found he doesnt even go to game planning meetings. Our OC was a unpaid QB coach intern 2 years ago

    WE HAVE BEEN DUPED

    THE GREAT GOLFCART HEIST!!!!”

    Son of Kobe Faker

  16. Clean House Says:

    This Jackass Son of Kobe Faker is right

  17. JimmyJack Says:

    Unbelievable the point is OJ is not much of a weapon when he has a negative impact on the game like he did last time they schemed him open.

    They do preach all this trust and loyality stuff after all. I don’t think they care about his 40 time and bench presses and the big plays he made for Dirk if they don’t trust him…….Again it’s just a theory and I’m not saying it’s true…….But we fans are left scratching our heads about this guy and I’m guessing there is a reason. I don’t care if I’m right or wrong…..Something just seems a little off to me that we have probably over a centurys worth of offensive minds behind the scenes at One Buc Place and none of them have any ideas on how to use a pass catching TE.

    As far as Brate goes……I have no theory on that. But it is worth noting he hasn’t really been much of a weapon for 2 seasons now.

  18. JimmyJack Says:

    And I would doubt if they took OJ put of the game plan it would be about 1 game.

    Maybe you see the guy hit the jugs machine and go a little harder in practice and give him another chance.

    Maybe you see him follow up a bad game with lame practice habits and you lose a bit of trust. It’s my understanding that most of the work that these guys do is not seen on the 3 hours we see on Sunday.

    Again I have no idea why OJ is getting no looks and maybe the Bucs are reading this on their plane ride laughing how stupid I sound.

    But all’s we can do as fans from the outside is guess and speculate…..Forgive me for not calling Byron a idiot and moving to the next subject……..Then if OJ starts performing like we expect. Then what? Does that mean Byron suddenly understood that OJ is a good player? Or that he just now thought up a few concepts that would work to get him open? Or maybe y’all all right and Byron and Bruce and all of them are too stupid to figure out how to use a TE and OJ does nothing for the whole year.

    All’s we can do is let the season play out and see what happens. We will likely have much better guesses after the season then we do right now.

  19. #1 BUCFAN Says:

    The Bucs should play every down the same as they played the Rams. Block and Blitz.

    That’s how they won Superbowel. Blitz, swarm the ball and Block.

  20. Defense Rules Says:

    “Naturally and organically?” That’s the biggest bunch of BS I’ve heard in a LOOONG time. Dear Byron … YOU are the OC. YOU design plays and game-plans to get your best weapons the ball so that they can SCORE POINTS. DO YOUR FRIGGIN JOB and stop with the BS.

  21. Pewter power Says:

    Oh I’m sorry I dont remember oh howard or anyone outside of chris godwin running wide open down the field. If the goal is to throw to the open guy maybe he needs to get open

    Oj Howard was dominant LAST YEAR, this year he looks slow and out of place. Get until I see him wide open and being ignored this is on him to take advantage of opportunities. No hes not getting a lot of targets but didnt get enough last year either in my opinion.

    Feature him in the game plan and see how it works is what I say

  22. Dapostman Says:

    Evans, Godwin, Howard, Brate and Jones. These 5 should be on the field the most and spelled by their backups. What I don’t understand is if this is a copy cat league why aren’t BA and BL copying what successful teams do with TE’s?

    It’s not that hard. Every successful play is on film somewhere. These are the best players and it seems like BA and BL are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Use your best players!

  23. Dapostman Says:

    Continued from above:

    And it’s almost like these guys are trying to tell the fans who are the best players. Perriman, Wilson, Miller, I mean really. We know Howard, Brate and Jones can run circles around those three. The first three need to prove it first before jumping the pecking order. This is so frustrating to watch.

  24. Isaac haggins Says:

    Joe you are spot on !!!

  25. Hodad Says:

    Who is Scotty Miller? Does he play for us?

  26. BringBucsBack Says:

    Forcing the ball to the 5th-string receiver over OJ, Brate & Evans came as “naturally” & “organically” as John Madden’s Thanksgiving day three-legged turkeys!?

    Get ready for LESS OJ this week, as he will remain at the LOS to assist the RT.

    G.M.O.J.= Goofy Modification of O.J.

    Perhaps they should throw a baseball to OJ?

  27. FanO’Bucs Says:

    Agreed DB55, sure was nice when Brate was around. He was very productive, reliable, great red zone threat.

    OJ who? (As a receiving te)

  28. FanO’Bucs Says:

    Dapostman Says:
    October 10th, 2019 at 5:35 pm
    Continued from above:

    “And it’s almost like these guys are trying to tell the fans who are the best players. Perriman, Wilson, Miller, I mean really. We know Howard, Brate and Jones can run circles around those three. The first three need to prove it first before jumping the pecking order. This is so frustrating to watch”

    Of all of the “jumping the pecking order” offenders, at least within the fan community, is OJ. He’s a lot more looks than substance at this point.

  29. TDTB Says:

    OJ is not in the dog house. Brate’s hasn’t been targeted either. Byron is merely running BA’s offense which doesn’t use TE’s often. It’s why Brate should have been traded before the season. We didn’t need two TE’s in this offense. As little as this offense uses TE’s, I would even consider trading both of them and relying on Auclair and Hudson to fill the minimal void created by their departure. DB and OL help would be much more valuable to the team than Brate and Howard.

  30. Ben real Says:

    Lol this Scotty Miller was the hyped up dude fans on this site was praising was better than desean lmao … with cute nicknames like millertime

  31. buc15 Says:

    With our weapons, it should be easy to game plan. We have too many threats for any defense to stop at the controls of a legit coordinator.

  32. dmatt Says:

    I’m sure OJ is one of the soft guys BA called out. On a pass play against the Saints, OJ was man handled by a rookie rb who he out weighs by 50 lbs. He’s too passive n does not play like a 1st round pick. If he continues to just take up space on this team, please, put in Hudson n use OJ for trade bait, get an OL n or cb. The Patriots r looking for another Gronk, OJ for cb Gilmore would be a good trade. Every team we played this year had a tightend that made a difference. Think positive, but what has OJ done for the Bucs lately? Question, yes or no, does or has OJ presence on the field made a difference? I rest my case.

  33. Bkyrdbob77 Says:

    He isnt getting targets this week. He is going to be on the right side helping the backups block.

  34. bucnole Says:

    Bfs player groupings and play calling are downright puzzling. You have some of the best targets in the league and yet you don’t find a way to use them??? Give mojo the starting job and find a way to create mismatches with OJ/Evans/Godwin/Brate. How offing hard can that be
    Can you imagine what S Payton would do with these weapons?????
    Beginning to have grave doubts about Bfs ability to be an OC – this no time for on the job training – This is the N MFeffin FL. His organic comments are laughable and embarrassing for this franchise. I just hope between BA and BL we can come up with the right scheme this is just hard to watch

  35. TOM Says:

    Have to agree with son of kobe faker on this one. I thought when Winston ate the W’s was bad. Ole Lefty may have outdid him The BS just keeps comin. Next thing you’ll hear is dumb ass Licht saying they don’t need Petersen. What a friggin circus.

  36. Sport Says:

    You guys hanging on every word and twisting it to fit your narrative is tiresome.

    BL calls the play.
    Jamies throws the ball.
    Receivers catch. – the requirements for a reciever are getting open, having your Qback trust you to throw it to you and catching it.

    Go Bucs!

    In BA I Trust!

  37. Eastsidebuc Says:

    Juice Man and Evans are suspect route runners tho. Joe right, why force the rock to Watson?