The Bar Is High
June 7th, 2025
Joe still thinks the man with the Bucs who may have the most pressure to succeed is a guy who has never and will never snap on a chin strap and take the field in an NFL game.
That’s new Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard.
Sure, Joe has heard everyone at One Bucs Palace rave about Grizzard, how he was the mastermind behind the third-down offense last year. This, those same folks will remind you, was why the Bucs led the NFL in third-down conversion rate at 51.1 percent in 2024.
OK, but what about first and second down?
Look, Joe is not knocking Grizzard at all here. Joe just thinks it’s fair to wonder how the Bucs could improve on a No. 3 overall offense with a first-year play-caller. Absolutely awesome if that happens, but is it realistic?
Follicly-challenged Billy Barnwell of BSPN also wonders if Grizzard can keep pace with his predecessor Liam Coen. Or yes, even improve.
… The coordinating duties now fall to 34-year-old Josh Grizzard, who has never called plays before and joined the Bucs only last spring. The bar is high for the first-time coordinator, but he certainly won’t lack for playmakers in his offense.
Yes, the bar is high and Joe isn’t sure if that’s fair to Grizzard to expect the same level of success Coen enjoyed.
Joe isn’t out of line typing that this team will likely go as far as the offense takes it. Could the defense jump from No. 15 to 5? That seems a stretch. Unlike the loaded offense, the Bucs aren’t fully stacked with top-shelf proven talent on defense.
Joe believes for the defense to be top-five, a whole lot right has to happen. The offense could wake up hungover on gamedays and still hang 24 points on people.
June 7th, 2025 at 8:12 am
On the list of variables facing the Bucs in ’25 I think Griz’s performance is waaay down the list of worries.
First worry – HEALTH! Second worry – HEALTH! Third worry – HEALTH!
Injuries will be the major wild card. On offense will Baker’s swashbuckling style cost him some games due to injury? Is Trask competent?
On defense the middle of the field is at stake. First will Winfield rebound and once again be one of the best safeties in the league capable of making game changing plays and erasing mistakes made by other DB’s.
Will SVD truly get healthy enough to play up to his potential. Will Kancey and Vea remain healthy?
Other concerns larger than Griz. Will the sack meister Reddick show up or will he be a shell of his former self? Are the draftees as good as advertised on D?
Will the Bucs be good on ST’s. Will the rule change bringing the ball out to the 35 change the equation. Perhaps no more simply kicking it into the end zone on kickoffs?
The Bucs have assembled some excellent talent. Now can it remain healthy especially on Defense in the middle…both in the back end with SVD and AW and on the interior of the D line with Vea and Kancey. Who is backing those four guys up?
Simple formula…stay healthy and the Bucs win!
June 7th, 2025 at 8:22 am
Have to disagree Joe. The man with the most pressure is Bowles, and I think he knows it. How much better could the offense be if the defense was able to get off the field on third down? How much better would it be if the defense could create more turnovers giving the offense shorter fields, and more scoring opportunities? How many games did we lose because the defense let teams make the final score to win the game? To Bowles, and Licht’s credit they drafted some ballhawks. Bowles has hinted at changes like playing his corners closer to the line of scrimmage. I have no doubt that if this defense can improve, the offense with Griz at the helm will do just fine.
June 7th, 2025 at 8:25 am
StPete … ‘Will the rule change bringing the ball out to the 35 change the equation.’
Wow St Pete, I’d totally missed that as a 2025 rule change. Might be wrong, but that could be HUGE. According to an article I just found on the rule changes, that was approved to promote MORE returns. Somewhat ironic because I thought the previous change (almost encouraging kicks into the end zone) served to promote FEWER returns, and thus FEWER injuries to return guys.
June 7th, 2025 at 8:31 am
I agree health is the key. The offense doesn’t need to improve except on turn overs, if they stay steady I agree with Joe that they could hang 24 on people every game, think that won’t worry coach’s on how to keep them to “only” 24? If the defense is consistent and get’s the turnovers and key stops this team can go all the way. At the end of the day all they have to do is score 1 more point than the opponent no matter how that’s done. Granted everyone would rather not have it come down to that, which is what Bowles said earlier this year.
June 7th, 2025 at 8:31 am
It’s the players more than the coaches.
And this Offense has “A” players at C, LT, RT, Evans, Godwin, Irving, Baker. “B” players at TE, LG. And a few other guys who are not good. Now they’ve added “A” WR.
A monkey could coach this team.
June 7th, 2025 at 8:58 am
This team could be as as good as the 20/21 teams.
June 7th, 2025 at 9:00 am
Not fumbling the football is a way to improve from last year and pick up a few more wins. Proper technique reducing holding penalties and Shepard’s stuff helps. Start with the things you can control. Teams will spy Bucky more and pressure Mayfield to make a rash decision take advantage of those opportunities.
June 7th, 2025 at 9:02 am
Just remember Grizz to NEVER call a jet sweep deep in your own territory in a playoff game.
June 7th, 2025 at 9:03 am
Bring on September! Seeing is believing!
June 7th, 2025 at 9:06 am
I said the same more than once, there is a lot of downside for Josh Grizzard, rightly or wrongly. He will get the goat horns, not Bowles, if something goes wrong.
There is not much room to improve from #3 but plenty of room below.
June 7th, 2025 at 9:16 am
Yeah D.R. It’s like the “Rules Committee” is schizoid!
Do they want the excitement of a kickoff return or not. If health is the primary concern why did they make a rule change that once again has bodies colliding at high speed in the open field.
I get that the positioning of the lineups helps somewhat, but high speed open field plays are just dangerous….BUT very exciting.
I do not wish injury on any player but I gotta confess I love watching kick returns they are one of the more exciting plays in the game.
June 7th, 2025 at 9:47 am
In a way I will feel bad for the guy if all he does is have an amazing offense this year but doesn’t get a head coaching job.
He’ll be wondering ‘What’s wrong with me?’
June 7th, 2025 at 10:20 am
Is it possible that the talent we have actually made Coen look better than he is?
June 7th, 2025 at 10:29 am
Based on Joe’s earlier observations we need a better QB2. If Trask is floating balls around in practice and is known for consistently being inconsistent we could find ourselves in the same situation that we did when Mike and Godwin were out. I’d feel better with a Flacco type player for a game or two if necessary. Such a period could also be challenging for Grizz’s play-calling
June 7th, 2025 at 10:45 am
@Mark
I for one was very impressed by the set of plays Coen had in his playbook.
I was often disappointed by the plays Coen called in games.
When the Bucs really needed to score, Coen sometimes seemed to abandon the variety and razzle dazzle and predictably call for deep pass plays that got Baker sacked.
June 7th, 2025 at 11:11 am
If the offense avoids serious injuries to key personnel, where we lack quality depth, it IS realistic for an improvement over last season. I say that because our o-line is all back together after spending some time doing strength training in the offseason, and the continuity will pay dividends. But if our center or LT goes down with an injury, I’m not confident how things will go after that.
In addition to improvement on our o-line, we’ve got another quality WR, maybe two of them. And some of our other young players should take a step forward as well, including McMillan and some of our TEs.
@stpetebucsfan, I agree that health is the key issue. I’m not at all concerned about our new playcaller. It may take him some games to get completely comfortable in that new role, but he will be fine by the playoffs. Bowles has good experience breaking in a new playcaller, as he did with Canales. And if he needs assistance, he can bring in Bruce Arians and/or Gruden. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Grizz is already in touch with one of those two.
June 7th, 2025 at 11:29 am
Don’t need to improve. I’ll take the same offensive results from last year. Let’s just tighten up the D and we’re far better. I see no less than NFC Championship potential with this team. Had we been able to get Jayden off of the field in January, then who knows…
June 7th, 2025 at 12:44 pm
Canales was a first time playcaller, Coen was a first time NFL playcaller.
And I’d argue neither is that great a bar to overcome as a playcaller. Coen’s playbook shined, no question.
But when it came down to those situational high pressure moments in games where you had to grab something out of a hat Coen made plenty of mistakes or sub-par decisions himself. Quite often if it was successful, it was quite often Baker improvising that rescued the moment, rather than the play called.
I fault neither btw. It’s what you’d expect out of first time play-callers. Grizz will have his stepping stones too in that regard, but he inherits a great offense and an excellent playbook which he can tweak for his liking.
June 7th, 2025 at 1:21 pm
YES, yes it is . Lol.
Grizz was in charge of 3rd downs. He was ALSO pass game coordinator.
June 7th, 2025 at 2:27 pm
It’s not as if Grizz will be on an island. I would image that his assistant coaches and Baker will have a huge amount of input into game planning. Plus, I’m sure Grizz is working overtime watching game tape and seeing what Coen did in certain situations. He’ll be just fine! It will be fun to watch. With our O-line, RB group, and WRs, I don’t think it will make much of a difference as to what plays are called. We’ve got a ton of offensive power to get the job done!