“Logical” Offense

June 17th, 2023

Tight end Cade Otton speaks.

Joe has heard many insider descriptions of the new Buccaneers offense since playcaller Dave Canales took over.

A new one has emerged.

It came from the mouth of Buccaneers No. 1 tight end Cade Otton. He joined SiriusXM NFL Radio this week and was pressed to talk about the offense.

“Logical” was one of the adjectives Otton used. He said the offense has been easy to learn for the team because of how well it fits together conceptually.

Joe was very glad to hear that. Every team that has a new offense always talks about a signficant learning curve. Joe expects the Bucs to have one, but it seems that learning curve might be less challenging than expected.

Someone of importance at One Buc Palace recently described the offense to Joe as “well thought out and well coached.”

Next up, hopefully, is “well executed.”

32 Responses to ““Logical” Offense”

  1. HC Grover Says:

    This will not fly with the Bowles game plans.

  2. AtlBuc Says:

    I think our defense will carry the team this year. We will win a lot of games if the offense doesn’t turn the ball over frequently. We’re going to surprise a lot of people. I think the players have quite a chip on their shoulders because of the predictions that say we are going to finish last in the division. In effect, the predictions are saying that the ONLY talent on the team the last 3 years was Tom Brady.

  3. shankasorous Says:

    Sandlot football anyone?

  4. K2 Says:

    The Bucs need to score points. Yes, the defense can keep them in games…but you need to score to win. I think the expectations are very low. Bucs should score 27 points per game …if the offense is not broken (like last year).

  5. Infomeplease Says:

    Great point Joe, execution is the difference between a first down and a 3 and out!! Let’s hope for more first downs thus season!!

  6. PSL Bob Says:

    To win, you need to score more than your opponent. Thank you Captain Obvious!

  7. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    I mean, I get it…but wouldn’t that translate to a ‘predictable’ offense?

  8. Kgh4life Says:

    Anyone who watched the Bucs offense last season could tell that they were no rhyme or reason for many of plays. It seems BL was just throwing crap at a wall and seeing what sticks.

  9. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    K2 Says
    “The Bucs need to score points. Yes, the defense can keep them in games…but you need to score to win. I think the expectations are very low. Bucs should score 27 points per game …if the offense is not broken (like last year).”

    I agree 100%. I don’t know if that is possible this year though. Untried OL. Untried OC. A failed QB or an unknown QB. And of course, Bowles limiting the offense.

  10. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    Kgh4life Says:
    “It seems BL was just throwing crap at a wall and seeing what sticks.”

    Most likely…but the injured OL played a huge role as well.

    I would imagine with a starting OL and a head-healthy Tom Brady, we would have done much, much better. Not really fair to fore BL and not Bowles, but what’s done is done. With our cap issues this year, replacing Bowles would have probably resulted in a bad hire.

  11. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    I have to be honest…rather than keep Bowles, I would have hired some completely unknown guy on a one year prove it deal. You never know, could have struck gold in a cap-crippled year.

  12. Cobraboy Says:

    @Bonzai: a happily married Beady would have fewer distractions. IMO, that was also an issue in 2022.

  13. Iamabuc Says:

    Yeah. I believe that last year, Giselle took away Brady’s balls….🤭

  14. Rod Munch Says:

    I think by week 4 the fans will be describing the offense as ‘boring’ and ‘dull’ and ‘uninteresting’.

    I truly hope I’m wrong and they surprize me, but Bowles hired this guy for a reason. Well, to be clear, Bowles tried to hire 11 other OC’s first, this was just the only guy that would take the job. But who knows, perhaps the Bucs lucked themselves into a gem, because no one else was going to give a middling coach that was just demoted last year their OC gig. Stranger things have happened.

  15. JeffreyLane77 Says:

    It’s nice to see the positive comments from players about the new offense. Canales is going to do everything he can to tailor this offense to the players strengths. Total opposite of last year. I’m sure he will be able to adjust to opposing defenses on the fly. He’s an inspirational type coach who will get the most out of his players. While putting them in position to male plays. Who knows if this offense will be successful at executing? The qb situation has a lot of questions. Could be good or could be terrible. Either way it’s going to be fresh to have an offensive coordinator game plan and scheme guys into a position of advantage. Rather than just ha e a beat your man mentality.

  16. G-Buc Says:

    Offensive success will line Canales up to be our next head coach!

    I don’t think that is a far leap in an offensive league.

    I wish Bowles well but he can’t get out of his own way. (Ex. Taking ball out of Brady’s hands!)

  17. TonySoprano Says:

    All these comments in the new offense sound like thinly-veiled insults aimed at Leftboob. Joe – we all know Byron was a terrible scheme designer, play caller and always came across as arrogant, dismissive and dense in his media interviews. But what was he like on the practice field last year? What did his approach to coaching look like from your experience?

  18. JD Still Says:

    To Buccaneer Banzai, That’s an interesting point about a logical offense being a predictable offense , I think that’s what we had last year, it seems the goal of the new offense is to give the quarterback multiple options to find the weakness in the defense or the unexpected misdirection , I hope our QB’s have played a lot of chess!

  19. Fred McNeil Says:

    Logical doesn’t have to mean predictable. The plays themselves may be simple and logical, but if the defence can’t guess which simple, but logical play your going to run they won’t be sure what to do to counter it

  20. geno711 Says:

    I have no clue how good Canales is going to be.

    Shane Waldon was the OC.
    In the first half of the year both Seattles running and passing seemed effective.

    But then the wheels came off. Waldron (Seattles actual OC) was considered very basic and ran the ball on over 60% of their plays in the second half of the season.

    That would be cool if they scored points, they did not. Last 5 regular season games the points were: 24, 13, 10, 23, and 19.

    By the way, 24 of those points in the last 5 regular season games were garbage time TDs on games already lost by them. Ouch!

  21. Craig Says:

    It is still underwear football, so I would expect Canales still has a lot up his sleeve.

    It could be east because Canales is intelligent enough to know to start slowly, build it up so everyone can stay on the same page.

    That will make execution easier.

  22. kgh4life Says:

    @Buccaneer Bonzai

    I would say 60 percent of the problems on offense was because of BL. He tried to run the same offense with lesser talent. Godwin was coming of the acl, Julio Jones was past his prime, the online was in shambles. A competent OC would’ve done a better job of scheming around those weaknesses.

  23. garro Says:

    Otten needs to be at One Buc working on his Blocking not on SiriusXM. You are right Joe execution is key…It is a new offense for all of our guys.

    And as John McKay once said…”I’m in favor of it”

    Go Bucs!

  24. Crickett Baker Says:

    I sure hope he surprises us, Rod. I laughed out loud at your comments on his hiring because I thought the exact same things. 😀

  25. lambchop Says:

    Hopefully, Baby Gronk will be a big part of this offense and have a breakout season.

  26. Defense Rules Says:

    Rod Munch … ‘Well, to be clear, Bowles tried to hire 11 other OC’s first, this was just the only guy that would take the job.’

    And you KNOW that how Rod? Bowles interviewed a lot of guys, but I never read a single thing that he’d tried to hire them but they turned him down. I haven’t seen anything indicating that he offered the job to anyone except Dave Canales. It’s unbecoming to just make sh1t up to prove your point.

    I for one will readily admit I don’t have a clue how well Canales’ offense will perform this year, or how many points that it’ll score. However, based on past 2020-2022 PERFORMANCE, I’ll ‘guess’ that Bowles’ DEFENSE will surrender someplace in the neighborhood of 350-360 points in 17 games (history – 2020: 353 points; 2021: 355 points; 2022: 358 points). That’s just about 21 PPG average. Sorta kinda indicates that to have a respectable season (something better than break-even) our OFFENSE will have to average more than that.

    CAN they do that? Probably, although it may have a somewhat rough start. WILL they do that? That depends on many different factors (injuries being one) that we have no control over. I guess that’s where the word HOPEFUL comes in.

  27. Defense Rules Says:

    geno711 … Excellent analysis; thanks. Looks like their loss to the Bucs in Germany started a freefall. Seahawks were 6-3 when they played us, but went 3-5 starting with their loss to us. Just looking at the boxscores, it looks like Turnovers & TOP were the primary culprits. They had 17 Takeaways in the 1st 9 games (2 per game average), but only 8 Takeaways in the last 8 games (1 per game average). Not only that, but most of those were very ‘untimely’ takeaways (some hurt more than others?).

    I suspect that we’ll see a similar offense-defense relationship this year. Turnover Differential is critical in today’s NFL IMO, but especially so for offenses like what we’re trying to build. As is TOP to allow us to keep the game somewhat under control.

  28. DJB Says:

    But does Trask understand this “Logical” offense. . .

  29. Destinjohnny Says:

    So he is our number one tight end?

  30. Just Leave Trask Alone Says:

    DBJ Mullen ran a complex offense at Florida that had spread formations. Lots of clear out routes, RPO, wheel, back shoulder, etc… Trask’s strength was command of the playbook. All of a sudden that’s an alleged concern? I don’t think so. He looks off defenders like a veteran.

    Trask’s weakness has been getting too cute with touch and not driving the ball at times. Improved mechanics has helped him out. His release has quickened too.

  31. Just Leave Trask Alone Says:

    Not sold on Otton. He’s not a baby Gronk. He’s a baby Brate if anything. Brate made his living being the forgotten man – defenses didn’t key on him and he was a sneaky good route runner with decent hands – not a prolific blocker.

    Payne seems the more physical TE – his hands in college were exceptional. Unfortunately he’s not blessed with speed or shiftiness. Has potential to be a goal lone weapon.

    Neither player is Gronk. Gronk was the jolly green giant abusing defenders with regularity and he had speed and hands.

    It’s not a knock on a TE if they aren’t Gronk. There was only one Gronk.

  32. 1#bucsfan Says:

    Most people want Bowles gone. I’m 50/50.I don’t like him as a HC but I like him as a DC. Say what you want but that defense pathed the way to the Super Bowl and that was all bowels. They played above average in 21 and 22 kept games close enough for Brady to make some comeback. I agree with some on here that defense will once again keep games close we just need to score points and keep from turning the ball over. Idk what to expect from canals. No one does. He’s never bin a OC before but honestly he should be able to do better than BL did last year. Let’s all pipe down a little bit and see if our defense with a new look offense can get the job done if not the good thing is there is a lot of good pieces in place for someone new lol