Liam Coen And Pushing Preseason Change
May 19th, 2024
New Bucs playcaller Liam Coen.
Much has been trumpeted out of One Buc Palace about how new offensive coordinator Liam Coen is a blossoming branch from the tree of Sean McVay, the superstar 38-year-old Rams head coach.
It’s stunning to think McVay is entering his eighth season with the Rams and already has a 7-4 postseason record with two different quarterbacks.
Tony Dungy is in the Hall of Fame with a 9-10 record in the postseason. Sean Payton has been a head coach for 17 years and has 9 postseason wins. Mike Tomlin also has 17 years in the head coaching books and he’s got a eight playoff wins.
And there sits McVay with seven postseason wins and decades of coaching left ahead of him. Incredible.
Coen, 38, spent four seasons alongside his mentor and friend in Los Angeles and Joe is wondering if Coen wants to bring a glorious McVay staple to Tampa. That would be resting starters and key backups in preseason.
In nearly every season coaching the Rams, McVay has rested all his starters in August. He believes the value of preseason work does not outweigh the risk of injury. Amen, brother!
Joe doesn’t know where Coen stands on the issue, but Joe sure hopes Coen pushes Todd Bowles to sit all his key offensive starters.
Sorry, but Tristan Wirfs, Luke Goedeke, Mike Evans, Cade Otton and Chris Godwin don’t need to run on turf in Cincinnati to open the preseason. And Joe has other names to throw in that mix, too, including keeping the starting QB off the field all summer.
The Rams were known for ramped up practices and taking advantage of joint practices to get in their work. (Yes, Joe watched the Rams on the 2020 Hard Knocks and recommends it.)
The Bucs have up to four controlled scrimmages/joint practices this season with the Jaguars and Dolphins. That should be more than enough work for Mayfield and friends without exposing them to a knee-hunting future Amazon driver looking to be seen on SportsCenter.
May 19th, 2024 at 8:58 pm
I mostly agree. Trask needs all the snaps he can get, anyway.
May 19th, 2024 at 9:11 pm
New OC, potentially 3 new interior linemen, very likely a new center. Might be good to get at least a little live action in those “meaningless” preseason games.
May 19th, 2024 at 9:22 pm
Given that we have a new o-line, a new offense, and a new playcaller the starters may need some reps during the preseason games. But it should be kept to a minimum.
If Coen & Bowles feel it’s unnecessary for them to play I’m fine with it.
Any benefits the players get from playing are outweighed IMO by the risks. I bet Ryan Jensen would agree with me.
May 19th, 2024 at 9:44 pm
1st half of the last preseason game 3 or 4 series and that’s it. Get the rest of your reps in practices like Joe said. This season is immediately derailed if Wirfs, Evans, David, Winfield or Baker go down. I think the team would be ok throwing the ball wise without Baker but it would be super deflating for the team to lose his fire and leadership, Wolford and Trask can’t replace his intangibles.
May 19th, 2024 at 9:49 pm
Jensen went down in practice.
May 19th, 2024 at 9:58 pm
Didn’t Jensen get injured at an OTA?
Last time Coen coached Rams’ 2022 season was a complete disaster is the number of injuries they suffered. Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald all got hurt, as did many of their offensive linemen. Last year was much better. Figuring out what they did differently would be interesting.
May 19th, 2024 at 10:14 pm
Agree Irishmist, I want to see Trask all pre-season
May 19th, 2024 at 10:20 pm
I’m with you, Bucs Fan, but I SURE want to win at least one preseason game. I also would like to minimally see some starters in them, too. Preseason games have always given me a huge insight as to what may go on in the season.
May 19th, 2024 at 10:45 pm
I agree Trask needs as many snaps as he can get cuz who knows what’s going to happen not trying to put any bad vibes but we need him to get as many snaps as possible
May 19th, 2024 at 10:55 pm
The starters should only play in the scrimmages with some rookies getting reps against the other teams starters. Bowles is so conservative he will probably kickoff into the end zone every time.
May 19th, 2024 at 11:54 pm
He’s the new scapegoat for the bucs offense lol 🤣 🤣🤣!! I’m getting ready to hear Baker is playing in a new offense. I’m ready to hear he has no blocking and no running game. Watch and see lol 🤣 u
May 20th, 2024 at 1:07 am
THE BEDT ABILITY IS …
Availability
Don’t get guys hurt pointlessly
May 20th, 2024 at 1:56 am
With our schedule and new pieces, zero preseason games for the starters means a very slow and ugly start for the Bucs. Guys can get hurt at any point in the season, you don’t play scared. Let them have just enough reps to get the offense down otherwise it’s going to be a long and ugly season before they click.
May 20th, 2024 at 4:22 am
I worry about everything preseason, so I agree. Russell Gage, Burrows, and others got hurt during scrimmages with different teams, trainings, and some from off the field activities. Didn’t Brad Johnson get hurt moving furniture during preseason? Unsure if it’s all about preseason, but conditioning and guidelines for everything else too.
May 20th, 2024 at 6:51 am
Never mind resting guys for the preseson games Joe. Its all about the money
They continue to add games to the NFL schedule so I can see lots of guys resting in hospital beds soon. NFLPA is not focusing on the right kind of player safety. Can you say more money? The goof ball helmets are not fooling anyone. Nor is the don”t tackle me Bro rules changes.
Go Bucs
May 20th, 2024 at 7:08 am
BTW every year we see some very sloppy football early in the season.
My theory is with the current practice rules everyone has to knock the rust off of basic things like blocking and tackling. They really don’t do much of that old fashioned stuff in camp anymore.
Then our guys blow out a hammy etc. because they are not quite in real football shape.
Sure… give them the entire preseason off…just report to RAYAY on September the 8th guys, it will be fine.
Go Bucs!
May 20th, 2024 at 7:30 am
@garro, while there is some truth to what you wrote, if all the starters play real football in the preseason meaningless games and practice harder, they might get into better shape but even more of them will have serious injuries.
There’s no way to completely stop serious injuries from happening. But isn’t it better to minimize them in the previous?
May 20th, 2024 at 7:33 am
A thing to remember is that what happens with these joint practices is fights happen, the practice gets halted, shortened, or outright canceled. This happened last year, and in other years before that. Gonna need SOME actual combat experience before the regular season starts, but I agree that all the starters including the Center should stay on sideline in Cincy with that fake-@ss turf.
May 20th, 2024 at 7:47 am
Just no reason to have ANY artificial turf fields period when it has been proven by the data to have a much higher incidence of injury compared to natural grass. The NFLPA should demand change.
May 20th, 2024 at 8:36 am
Surprise, there’s O’whine with his perpetual negative spin on our QB’s.
May 20th, 2024 at 9:01 am
OL and the D needs the work.
May 20th, 2024 at 9:03 am
In what other way can teams get ready to play games at a high coordinated level than preseason? What are they going to do, give every team a W for the first three ‘real’ games of the season? Come on, how is getting your team ready, from coaching to players, for actual games a waste? If a team doesn’t use preseason to dial in, then it puts them at a disadvantage at the start of the season unless your the team with the most players and same coaching staff from last year.
You guys are so worried about injuries, which are just a part of the game, that you’d really bubble wrap them and stick em in a tornado shelter just so they can start game 1 of the regular season not ready to play.
Preseason matters if games 1 and 2 matter. And by the end of the year, they could. Matter a whole lot depending on standings. Y’all need. To get right with the football gods.
May 20th, 2024 at 9:30 am
Agree with you, Cobraboy. I also have to recognize that Goodell has indicated that he would rather have more regular season games and less preseason so count on that reality in the next year or two.
May 20th, 2024 at 10:39 am
McVay is a damn good coach.
I believe that up until last season, he was undefeated when his team was winning by halftime. That’s pretty incredible.
May 20th, 2024 at 11:24 am
O’Neill
Why are you waiting for failure? Seriously? Optimism is far more fun!
BTW your posts will look really stupid if the Bucs win a 4th title. You’ll be here I’m sure to say how lucky it was, crappy division, yadda yadda. At least you’re consistent.
May 20th, 2024 at 11:26 am
Coen will spend one week of practice under Dr Complexity and wish he was back with the Rams.
May 21st, 2024 at 9:20 am
The preseason games are for the backups and scrubs only..and why does everyone keep wanting Trask..get over it..as long as Baker is standing upright..Trask will NEVER see the field..mop up duty only. That’s it..forget it..he is never going to start over Baker..Period..