Strong Debut For Josh Grizzard
August 10th, 2025
The healthy Bucs rookies were on the field last night and that included the offensive coordinator.
It was Josh Grizzard’s first night calling plays in an NFL game. And Joe was very pleased to see everything looked rather smooth. Aside from the offense moving the ball, the Bucs didn’t have a standout number of penalties and it didn’t appear to be communication issues.
Prior to the preseason opener against the Titans, Grizzard was debating calling games from a coaching booth high above the field, where he spent games last season. But Grizzard when the on-field route (shown above) last night. It’s unclear what he’ll do Saturday night in Pittsburgh when the Bucs will play their starting offense.
Regardless, Joe’s been around long enough to remember how the Bucs hired an offensive coordinator in 2009, Jeff Jagodzinski, and he was fired in August because he literally didn’t have playcalling skills and needed too much help to call a preseason game properly.
Yeah, that happened. But it won’t this year.
August 10th, 2025 at 9:17 am
Scheme/play-calling looked good to me.
In Grizz We Trust
August 10th, 2025 at 9:27 am
Grizz was great , but the real diamond in the rough that just jumped off the screen was Garret Greene the converted QB from WV. Greene showed what a punt returner is supposed to look like-slippery and fearless. Greene also showed great hands as a receiver and a willingness to get the hard yards after the catch. Greene will be on a roster in the NFL, and I would sure like to see it be Tampa Bay.
August 10th, 2025 at 9:28 am
Joe ask Grizz if getting his feet wet calling plays for the first time last night was meaningless
August 10th, 2025 at 9:29 am
Can we get a laminator at OneBuc for Grizzard’s call sheet?
August 10th, 2025 at 9:37 am
Not bad for his first outing
August 10th, 2025 at 9:39 am
I can’t wait to listen to the next Ira podcast talking about this game
August 10th, 2025 at 9:41 am
Pretty good for the first time
Seemed very run heavy at times. There were definitely a few times when it got very conservative, but he didn’t open up that way
August 10th, 2025 at 9:42 am
Barber mentioned in his commentary that Grizz will also call plays from the booth and then make a decision on where to call the plays from but he thinks it will be the sidelines. I agree.
August 10th, 2025 at 10:09 am
It was conservative after the first two series.
August 10th, 2025 at 10:21 am
Meh. Maybe the first or second series we saw glimpses of Grizzard’s offense. All in all it looked boring and basic. And No, I’m not a play-calling expert.
Bucs had an agenda, which from the appearance was very run heavy. Additionally, I get not trying to give away too much of the scheme in preseason, but Grizz is rookie, hopefully we open it up a little to see what the guy has in play-calling. But I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say they ran on 1st and 2nd Down every damn time. On our lone first half TD, we ran it 3 times up the gut, its good thing we were “barely” able to punch it in. Imagine in the second half without the 2 LATE TDs, we would have had 1 field goal. Bazelak had all of 9 throwing attempts. What made us look better was by the end of the third and into the 4Q the run game had worn down the Titans def. Mission accomplished!
I’m simply saying it would have been fun to test the pass blocking a bit more, maybe see some first down throws…and yeah, it was a first preseason game, and maybe we will see a bit more come game 2 and 3.
August 10th, 2025 at 10:24 am
Most preseason play calling is pretty vanilla and conservative
August 10th, 2025 at 10:51 am
I listen to the games, not watch them. For Grizzard’s first preseason with all the newbies, the team sounded quite poised and under control. Man, 4 OCs in 5 seasons?? Sure hope THAT is coming to an end. The starters are playing next weekend. Hope Grizzard opens the O up a little then.
August 10th, 2025 at 10:53 am
It’s 1 preseason game, our players looked good with what they were asked to run, but it’s not the full spread.
If football were a dinner, the preseason is the pitcher of water & room temp rolls in a basket on the table while everybody is taking their coats off and I can’t tell you how the good the food was just yet.
Not in any detail, but I hear we might have some prime rib.
August 10th, 2025 at 10:59 am
grizz will be a head coach next year… love the calls get the lead and run it down their throats… stupid preseason but so fun to watch!! the deep ball’s to the wrs and then run
August 10th, 2025 at 11:04 am
Carberry it’s been good knowing you
August 10th, 2025 at 11:05 am
How about a huge Shout Out !! to Owen Wright……… Three TD runs ( two called back) and was smooth, great vision, good pad level , seemed to always go forward !! He Ran the ball really well !
August 10th, 2025 at 11:09 am
So far so good!
August 10th, 2025 at 11:10 am
In Josh we trust.
The runs up the middle —- uggggg —— but I think the run heavy play calling was more to evaluate the O-line guys so let’s home coaches see some good things.
August 10th, 2025 at 11:20 am
Man, 4 OCs in 5 seasons?? Sure hope THAT is coming to an end.
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The only way that comes to an end is if he’s bad at his job.
August 10th, 2025 at 11:44 am
Dont think for a minute that other teams don’t watch each other’s preseason snaps extensively. Our offense looked very very basic and then we ran a lot of plays on the ground to burn the clock it felt like.
August 10th, 2025 at 11:50 am
Don’t forget the one season of Marcus Arroyo. Bucs fans have seen bottom of the barrel. Griz the wiz will cook this season!! Go Bucs!!
August 10th, 2025 at 12:21 pm
Of course the playcalling was basic, why would you tip your hand to other teams in preseason? That would be idiotic.
We actually got to see what we wanted to see, Grizz having a good grasp of the process. The calls will change when we get to the regular season but at least we now know he is up to the task
August 10th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
umm excuse me waitress……
i’ll take a vanilla shake…can you throw in some extra vanilla…
and make sure that steak has some grizzle please…
thanks…
oh yeah, and can you send some some complimentary chopped liver to the fellas on the other side of the room…yeah those fellas in blue and white…
thanks
August 10th, 2025 at 12:53 pm
please keep in mind, we played a really bad team…
they’re in rebuild, and a lot of those players might not even be invited to many team’s camps in the nfl…it is what it is…
the titans are pretty much guaranteed to have double digit losses this year…and a 7-10 finish imho, would be a pretty successful season for them…
like 7-10 would be their absolute “stellar season ceiling” this year, imho
August 10th, 2025 at 1:38 pm
Well he won going away….
August 10th, 2025 at 1:40 pm
Wright looked good. A keeper?
August 10th, 2025 at 1:59 pm
With artificial intelligence belligerent jeff jagodzinky would have been fine. Gone are tge days when a play caller lije spurrier could just outshine all the less brilliant competitors.
Griz has to focus on techniques and preparation to ve successful.
Kevin Cash in baseball proves the new approach.steve kerr in basketball same way.
Griz sb fine, if defenses start blitzing players will figure out how to taje advantage immediately instead of a rookie coach panicking lije raheem did
August 10th, 2025 at 2:31 pm
This comment section never disappoints. Week 1 of preseason and the “don’t be too excited’ crowd is already in mid season form.
August 10th, 2025 at 3:46 pm
He needs to be on the sideline so he can chew aSS when needed.
August 10th, 2025 at 4:01 pm
Hope he stays on the sideline. I thought he called a pretty good game for preseason & his 1st try. I did like the fact that the Bucs did not run it off the guard/ tackles on 1st down every series. Griz actually appears to be pretty imaginative with his play calling. This should be a fun TEAM this year . GOOOO BUCS!!!!
August 10th, 2025 at 4:39 pm
Does this pic not remind you of Gruden?
August 10th, 2025 at 5:23 pm
Outside of the offense line looking awful the first few plays, the night went quite smoothly, and the line, once it got a few snaps under its belt, seemed to get better – and that was still against the Titans starters. It’s hard to take much from the play calling as it was super generic – as you expect in the preseason – but considering these were a bunch of backups, things went very smoothly.
August 10th, 2025 at 11:00 pm
I thought he did well in the first half but in the second half I had to check and see if Byron Leftwhich was calling plays again. It seemed like we got in the habit of running on 1’st and 2’nd down and throwing on 3’rd down. Maybe they were just being more conservative with a bunch guys who will be asking you if you want fries with your burger in a few weeks and not trying to show too much.
August 11th, 2025 at 7:20 am
Fully agree, Grizz did well. Not worried at all.
Eckwood Says: “How about a huge Shout Out !! to Owen Wright.” Yes, and Roman Parodie too!