Receivers, Timing And Losses
January 1st, 2026
Timing with Baker Mayfield good, Bucs say..
A lot of football folks smarter than Joe can’t figure this out.
Everybody and their brother thought if the Bucs could just keep their heads above water until the cavalry arrived in the form of players healed from major injuries, the Bucs would then throw the offense into overdrive and the rest of the league better buckle up.
The opposite happened!
The Bucs seemed poised to make a run at the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC playoffs with a foundation largely built without Mike Evans, mostly without Chris Godwin and fully without Jalen McMillan.
Since, Evans and McMillan made big impressions immediately when they returned from the injured reserve list against Atlanta. But Evans hasn’t matched what he did against the Dixie Chicks and McMillan has made modest impact.
Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard insisted yesterday that the lack of Baker Mayfield practice time this season with McMillan has not thrown off their chemistry.
“Not at all,” Grizzard said. “Mayfield’s “timing with ‘J-Mac’ (Jalen McMillan) is fantastic. He found J-Mac – and we’ve talked about pure progressions in here a little bit – to start the game.
“The one and two reads were not open on a couple of those concepts. J-Mac is really third and fourth in the progression, where he’s going right across the board and throwing it to J-Mac and had really two big-time conversions, whether it was second down or third down to continue those drives and get seven points.”
Grizzard said when Mayfield has thrown to McMillan — as McMillan is often down the totem pole of progressions — the timing is sharp.
What Joe found interesting is that Emeka Egbuka and McMillan had nearly the same number of snaps against Miami. Egbuka had 39 snaps. McMillan had 35. So are both splitting time?
Chris Godwin had 53 snaps and Evans had 50 snaps against Miami.
January 1st, 2026 at 12:07 pm
Grizzard turned the rookie of the year into Horace Copeland.
January 1st, 2026 at 12:12 pm
J Mac has made a nice recovery and is a nice shot of energy right now
January 1st, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Any quarterback worth his salt will say that most of the times they throw to an area. Timing is paramount.
January 1st, 2026 at 12:28 pm
We were doing good with the young hungry guys
If it ain’t broken —–don’t fix it
January 1st, 2026 at 12:32 pm
Bucs are just average. Just like their record. Nothing special.
January 1st, 2026 at 12:37 pm
You look at the all-22. they send 4 guys out doing whatever routes they’re supposed to do, MANY precious seconds go by before anyone’s remotely open. (Other team plays man)
Grizz’s schemes don’t seem to take this into account
January 1st, 2026 at 12:40 pm
I will go out on a limb and say, we possibly have the four best WR’s in the league, and the worst OC and QB in the league. Can’t forget the GM and HC as well…..
January 1st, 2026 at 12:55 pm
Love me some college playoffs. Miami and Texas Tech have some absolute dawgs on defense!
January 1st, 2026 at 1:04 pm
loving the jmac intensity he’s been bringing since his return
January 1st, 2026 at 1:05 pm
he’s like fugg that eggman…i’m number 3…gotta love it
January 1st, 2026 at 1:19 pm
This timing they speak of doesn’t pass the eyeball test
January 1st, 2026 at 1:21 pm
I think Shepherd has been lost in our offense. He was a security blanket for Mayfield and doing a damn good job. #15 from Oregon was doing a solid job as well. Should be phasing everyone in. Good problem to have, figuring out how to spread it around, but if you can solve it. We should be scoring 30+ a game, no problem.
January 1st, 2026 at 1:30 pm
IMO, from afar, it really appears that trying to incorporate Evans, Godwin and McMillian back into the OFF has been a complete failure on Grizzard’s part.
I do not put that heat on Baker. Baker is trying to execute Grizzard’s calls & offensive scheme…Which has been a little sketch from the start.
Baker has had to pull plays/games out his ass all year long…It’s why he was getting legit MVP talk early in the season…He’s still the same guy he was early on – but definitely forcing it a little bit more & not getting the ball to bounce the Bucs way at critical moments …But again, I can’t fault him…He’s had to “risk it for the biscuit” as EVERY GAME has been a all-in crapshoot with the DEF being as soft as Charmin TP since the bye week.
It hasn’t helped that Evans, Godwin and McMillian have been ineffective since their return…Frankly this OFF looked better without them. Again, IMO…EE, Tez & Shep looked better than as the top 3 WR’s than what the Bucs have looked since the the WR room has returned “healthy”.
Again, I put that on Griz…Evans can no longer create separation (32 YAC total in 2025) and everything is contested…He’s had drops a plenty & >50% completion rate for the season…Mike looks cooked. Love the guy, he’s a 1st ballet HOF’er…But he shouldn’t be on the field anymore. At least Godwin has looked somewhat respectable, but not close to the CG pre-injury.
January 1st, 2026 at 1:38 pm
Wow. That was REALLLLL ‘BALLSY’ Fake Punt there on 4th & 3 by Dan Lanning, backed up at the Texas Tech 30, up 3-0… WOW. Really looking forward to future UK HC Will Stein getting on campus. It was the hire I’ve WANTED for about 15-YEARS, but Mitch goes with friggin’ Coach STOOPID. College Football is soooo much BETTER than the NFL. Just everything about it! The ENERGY (though, not necessarily the playoffs, being played at ‘neutral’ sites). The whole campus environment. The stadiums. The environments. Atmosphere. Fans. Cheerleaders. The “Fight Songs” and Bands. The RIVALRIES. The Conferences. The HISTORY. The ‘uniforms’ and team colors. Just the game itself, overall. BIG-PLAYS. The MANY ‘different’ styles of play, the offensive ingenuity, ALL OF IT. And, I’m leaving out soooo many other ‘little’ things. I can sit for literally 12-HOURS+ for EVERY Saturday and do absolutely NOTHING BUT just watch FOOTBALL. And, I have for over 40+YEARS (I’m 49)… EVERY SATURDAY. I can’t do that with the NFL, unless I’m betting every game like I used to… It’s just way too buttoned up, too technical, AND BORING. It can’t hold a candle to COLLEGE FOOTBALL. It has NONE of the ‘things’ I mentioned above. ZERO. Like, THE SEC… It just means more. The HEART of the fans AND players! It’s at just another level. It cannot be duplicated or recreated. You just cannot beat-it!!!!
January 1st, 2026 at 1:50 pm
Another great thing about Ohio State losing last night, is that Hartline can get on campus at USF, and get ready for the portal opening!!!! He’s got some WORK to do.
January 1st, 2026 at 2:05 pm
@ catcard202 – I agree about Mike. I’ve been saying that you can just really tell that he has lost a step! Hell, he’s 32. What else would you expect. And, he’s banged up as hell. JMac though, has been REALLY GOOD. Especially, given what he’s had to come back from… Looks like he has lost NONE of his fearlessness. Hell, he’s about the ONLY ONE, who can even get open. He’s almost always open. He sure ain’t scurred.
January 1st, 2026 at 2:07 pm
Obviously on Television you can only see so much. Last week the announcers said that Evans was running a bunch of deep routes during the game. Evans who is a great route runner running deep the whole game doesn’t sound like very wise use of talent. Besides Evans is no spring chicken. Some of the offensive troubles are on Grizzard but getting back to the real problem is the ability to protect Baker and make him comfortable. Baker hasn’t looked comfortable since the very beginning of the season.
January 1st, 2026 at 2:24 pm
jmac is good. yo can see the chemistry between them. i really belive hes gonna be a chainmover soon. (3rd downs). avoiding injuries next year we should be aolid long as we can protect baker.
January 1st, 2026 at 2:31 pm
Rueben Bain looks like a more explosive and quicker Michael Bennett
January 1st, 2026 at 2:51 pm
Translation: Evans and Godwin can no longer get separation, but we still force them as the 1 and 2 read in the concept rather than design plays for the fresh legs in the room.
January 1st, 2026 at 3:01 pm
We really dropped the ball by not trading for Myles Garrett.
He would have changed our defense.
Instead we’ve lost the season.
We wasted Tom Brady’s last year with the worst O-line in history.
And we wasted Lavonte David’s last season with the worst D-line I’ve seen for the Bucs in years.
January 1st, 2026 at 3:49 pm
Bucs are broken.
January 1st, 2026 at 4:23 pm
easy: jmac is wide a** open and ee is not at all
January 1st, 2026 at 6:55 pm
Constant movement on the oline, constant movement movement at wr due
To all the injuries. Not a great receipt.
But can you look at Luke, Mike, CG and Jmac and be confident they’ll be consistently available next season? I can’t.
I guess for Grizzard it doesn’t matter. If Bowles stays he’s gone, if he gets fired he’s gone.
Run of bad luck this year in the injury department
January 1st, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Oline cant protect Baker. Baker also has not been seeing open receivers. Not that EE is getting open, but last week Jmac was open and Baker didn’t even see him on a few deep plays. BTW, Grizzard is just stupid. The guy cant call a decent game, can not adust, and can’t read defenses at all. At least he will hopefully be gone along with Bowles after tomorrow’s disaster. Hope Licht also gets the axe. Except for a few years with Brady and Arians the guy is a total loser. Total dumpster fire.
January 1st, 2026 at 9:02 pm
What Joe found interesting is that Emeka Egbuka and McMillan had nearly the same number of snaps against Miami. Egbuka had 39 snaps. McMillan had 35. So are both splitting time? Chris Godwin had 53 snaps and Evans had 50 snaps against Miami.
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There’s only so many snaps to go around, and that sounds like a good split.
Also I’ve been extremely impressed with how good McMillan has looked since he’s been back. He has looked really quick and showed great hands, really no rust. The Bucs HAVE to bring back Evans next year – and if they do, and Godwin is back and healthy, and e2 and McMillan are healthy – that is just a stacked room, best in the NFL. Now all they need is a QB who can get them ball.
January 1st, 2026 at 10:18 pm
Rod, I wholly disagree on bringing back Evans…He’s washed. He’s lost more than a step and is not the dependable hands outlet of yesteryear. He’s a shell of his former self… It’s sad to say but it’s time for him to sail into the sunset. He’s definitely not worth another $20M/yr deal…Not worth a fraction of that… It’s time to just take the $13M 2026 dead money hit & let someone else squeeze the last drop out of his career, if he wants to keep playing.
The Bucs FO really should not have resigned Godwin after last years injury either…He’s also not near the player he was prior & likely will never be…The team should have known that he’d be no where near the guy he was 2yrs ago. It was beyond stupid/desperate to pile a $33.6M Cap # on the 2026 salary cap…& another $16M dead money hit for 2027 once the club (under hopefully new FO leadership) refuses the 2027 club option…& I for one don’t want to hear 1 woah-is-me word from the organization talking heads about not having money to fix the roster in 2026/2027 when they allowed this FO to make the stupid deals like they have done the last several years!!
And that’s really the biggest problem I see with this FO / Licht…He overvalues his players & doesn’t know when to let them walk away.
January 2nd, 2026 at 6:25 pm
catcard202 Says:
January 1st, 2026 at 10:18 pm
Rod, I wholly disagree on bringing back Evans…He’s washed.
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That’s ridiculous. Evans has looked fantastic – when Baker gets it in his area code he catches the ball, but he don’t do miracles. Evans has years left of being a top WR.
January 3rd, 2026 at 2:07 am
It is hard to have chemistry when the qb (any qb, not just Baker) is worried about the 2 revolving doors at guard and also LT when Wirfs is out. On top of that it is likely that Baker is hurt far more than what is being said publicly which means he is playing at 25% tops. It is too bad that the Bucs do not have a sold back up to spell Baker, that could have helped after the bye but the Bucs are stuck with Teddy which is why Baker has not been benched to rest. Traskaholics need to be reminded that their Gator QB would not have been a savior either. He was unemployed for most of the season until he was signed to the ATL practice squad and is currently their #3 (actually #4 if you count Penix).
I blame Licht for the lack of depth across the board on this team but in particular QB, he wasted a second rounder on Trask and besides that he has done zilch to help in that area. The OL also has holes but we are talking about 3rd and 4th string guards; the blame on those injuries might be on the training and conditioning staff. Lots of people could be looking for work in a few days, not just Bowles…..
January 3rd, 2026 at 2:24 am
Blaming the OC and everything else, because it’s never Baker’s fault. Sure, I believe it’s some of everything, including the OC, but to a lot of you it’s never Baker. Always claiming that Baker “makes the OCs (into head coaches)” every season, then place all the blame on them when he doesn’t play well. If he makes them, how can they break him? He should still be playing well, no matter what, since HE’S the reason why they’re always coveted.
Maybe the truth is, they are part of the blame and part of the good, just as Baker is! He doesn’t make them, and they don’t make him, it’s collaboration! The mix we have now just isn’t working, TBH it really hasn’t a whole season, but this definitely has gotten worse! A lot of of our wins early came because the defense was much better in the offense would wake up on the last drive and eat out a victory.
The offense has had very few games where they have really lit it up. The defense has been trash since the bye week, so it’s been harder for the offense to get the wins on last minute drives. We have had a couple opportunities though.
Later today, we need both of them to step up, or one of them to play out of their minds! We need this win!! Enough of the excuses, go out and lay it all there!
January 3rd, 2026 at 2:27 am
Few typos, but you get the drift.