Where Zac Robinson Failed Jalon Daniels
October 19th, 2026
Bucs OC Zac Robinson.
Joe was going over “The Book” of the Bucs’ loss to the Steelers yesterday, the official NFL game summary, and the following jumped out.
Bucs quarterback Jalon Daniels completed 22 passes for 164 yards. Huh? Just 164 yards? That’s rather paltry, isn’t it? Well, yeah. It seems 164 yards on 22 completions averages 7.4 yards per completion.
That’s pee wee football stuff there.
And it got Joe thinking that Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson has really let down Daniels. Why does Joe say that?
Every team in the NFL, including the Bucs, passed on Daniels in the draft multiple times. He was undrafted. And that showed yesterday.
Joe wondered, if Robinson is supposed to be this fine football mind, with the Bucs resting for nine days did Robinson ever think to take his extra time and study Daniels’ college tape at Kansas and maybe work in more running plays or some options? You know, have four or five plays that made Daniels comfortable using his legs? You know, plays Daniels excelled with at Kansas?
Yesterday, the Bucs offense looked just as anemic and the plays looked pretty much the same as when Baker Mayfield was behind center.
A really good and creative offensive coordinator would have lifted successful plays from Daniels’ Kansas playbook and melded them into the Bucs game plan yesterday to help Daniels feel more comfortable and help the rookie be a little more explosive.
So Joe will ask. Did you get the same impression as Joe — that Daniels was pretty much running the same offense as Mayfield had, albeit perhaps pared down a little?
October 19th, 2026 at 7:05 am
The coaching stinks on this team all the way around
October 19th, 2026 at 7:07 am
JD missed two critical RB dump off passes while the clock in his head should have said, take what the defense is giving you because YOUR FREAKING CLOCK done run out of time.
A 6 year starter should know better!
He is still thinking hero backyard football
He has in his brief history had accuracy issues going back to preseason, not coming to a conclusion on this yet because all QB’s miss passes but something to keep track of.
He certainly is a good backup quarterback.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:09 am
The passes were either 15 yds downfield or at the LOS. Daniels should have scrambled more. I’m not so sure about designed runs.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:10 am
they have one good drive per game. then they dont like to do the things from the good drive again for whatever reason.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:10 am
Joe, he’s an UDFA, he’s going to struggle. Perhaps Zac could’ve made it easier for him, but this is the NFL. Daniels is a paid professional expected to execute the play book. Can’t run the Kansas offense mid season, that’s ridiculous. Another bad decision by management not having an adequate backup QB. Heck not even sure that’s our 165 million dollar QBs Baker. This team isn’t fixable this season it’s over.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:13 am
Bucs game plan yesterday to help Daniels feel more comfortable and help the rookie be a little more explosive.
More Explosive?
Jalon Daniels was Explosive alright….. he was explosively inaccurate!!!
Although, he hit Jamel Dean between the numbers for an almost pick 6
I have to admit, I didn’t think Daniels made the right play by knocking Dean out of bounds…. I would have let him score and then used the extra time to try and march down the field and score a touchdown
Anyway…. the defense got tired too and that caused the Small Brush Buccaneer fire to turn into a Roaring Prairie Fire!!!!!!
I would fire everyone (Well the HC….The DC…. And the OC) and throw in the GM for good measure!!!!Time to start over!!! Make everyone walk home and take money out of their last paycheck in order to tow their car back to their house
This is awful and quite frankly, even if the Glazer’s keep everyone until the end of the season….. this situation is NOT going to get better….. the Bucs are beyond that!
October 19th, 2026 at 7:13 am
If Daniels has to start another game, maybe try the football equivalent of Dave Kingman with him. Make all passes 30+ yard bombs. Six interceptions, three touchdowns. If the defense holds the opposition to field goals, we win 21-18.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:20 am
Game planning is terrible and this guy’s offense reads like a Dr. Seuss book. Opposing D Coordinators have this offense figured out in no time. They put Daniels in a situation even Captain Kirk couldn’t get him out of. We did EXACTLY what the Steelers wanted us to do, make that kid win it from the pocket. They dictated the game to us. That’s bad coaching and scheme. Period.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:22 am
Ok we get why budding NFL MVP after one week post the Cowboys had a rough outing, it was the coaches fault. Combined with Mayfield sabotaging Daniels, he never had a chance to prove his greatness.
We should just let Melvin Jr. take over play calling and coaching so we can unlock Daniels greatness.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:22 am
“And it got Joe thinking that Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson has really let down Daniels. Why does Joe say that?”
OC is the spotter & the QB is holding the rifle. Idk how else to explain it, but they failed each other. Bad coaching yes, but the play is the easier of the two to see looking from the outside in and neither of them have bailed the other out.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:23 am
With the number one, two or three pick in the 2027 draft the Tampa Bay Bucs select__________?
October 19th, 2026 at 7:26 am
Posted this before the game. The only chance we had was scripted runs specifically for Daniels. The Steelers sold out to stop Irving so misdirection might have worked enough to open both the rushing and passing lanes. Tez may have been another option. I know hindsight, but is there anyone here who didn’t think the Steelers would stop Bucky? Also, what’s up with that out patter that resulted in several picks and a missed pick 6 last week?
October 19th, 2026 at 7:34 am
FortMyersDave Says:
October 19th, 2026 at 7:23 am
With the number one, two or three pick in the 2027 draft the Tampa Bay Bucs select__________?
Arch Manning. He is a perfect fit as he throws lots of interceptions and costs his team wins.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:36 am
Lets talk about the REAL PROBLEM
Todd Bowles is a Horrible Head Coach PERIOD!
The Bucs Changed coaching staffs TWICE BUT kept BOWLES
BUCS still losing BUCS look worse this year than last
GET RID OF BOWLES
October 19th, 2026 at 7:40 am
Afraid Jalon will never be a disciplined quarterback, even if he improves his accuracy. He will be a streaky wildcard like Jameis.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:47 am
“A really good and creative offensive coordinator would have lifted successful plays from…”
Grizz would have lifted plays from Coen, bc Baker was so hugely successful in ’24.
Zac would also have lifted plays from Coen the beginning of the season so Baker could continue to shine.
Why do they not just friggin copy proven success?! One of two things. Either their ego is too big and they want to show the world how smart they are, OR they were told not to have that kind of aggressive offense. Its one of the two, and either is plausible.
Maybe they were told to “…just get us to a manageable 3rd down…”
October 19th, 2026 at 7:52 am
“Bad coaching yes, but the play is the easier of the two to see looking from the outside in and neither of them have bailed the other out.”
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
I get your point WBL, it takes a good QB to let the world see the good coaching. Kind of like Baker with both Canales and Coen – they made each other shine. Or as they say, the coaching is only as good as the talent.
But expecting a UDFA rookie QB to bail out the coach is a big ask.
October 19th, 2026 at 7:55 am
And more poor clock management from our non coach Bowles calling that last time out!! Gave Steelers time to regroup. How many frigging times has he done that, and no repercussions from mighty Team Glazer. I’m done
October 19th, 2026 at 8:00 am
Didn’t you mean how our GM failed the OC? Looks at the backup QB he has in place. Why did he not wait out the Bake contract until the end of the year? Now we are stuck with the “Anchor Bar Mascot” (nearly daily patron) as our QB for the net three years. Tua 2.0…although TUA is not the village drunk
October 19th, 2026 at 8:01 am
Joe, Zac Robinson failed Daniels by letting Byron Leftwhich call the plays yesterday. I don’t think it is illegal to throw on first down. You can’t let him start 2nd and long.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:09 am
There’s a galling lack of creativity and ingenuity coming from our OC. Everything is predictable- the formations, runs and routes all have tells. No one is fooled and nearly everything happens well in front of the sticks. And on the off chance someone gets open down field, we never seem to get back to that play. It’s a one and done.
But beyond the Xs and Os is the fall off of our OL and skill guys. Everyone looks worse in this scheme. Egbuka’s fall off is especially alarming. His routes are sloppy, hands suspect and there’s barely a hint of the guy who torched Seattle last season. When asked yesterday our HC could name a #1 WR. He’s right! We don’t have one. We don’t have an identity on O. That’s bad coaching.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:10 am
Forget the undrafted part,hes still a rookie! period.. He won 1 out of 2 ,Looking like , well a rookie, to be honest He was playing to somehow ” save” the season..Kudos to him, Huntley lossed in Cleveland..As far as ” backyard football” thats the Lamars,the Allen’s Mahomes ,hes not there yet . He threw the 2 picks ,that just doesn’t work,Rogers threw 1 when he lost the 1st half ..The defense ran out of gass on to wk 7
October 19th, 2026 at 8:11 am
Growing up with football in the late 60’s and early 70’s, there wasn’t all of this micro-analysis of every play, of every coordinator, of every decision. When your team was 1-5, they just “stunk.” I prefer to think of the Bucs as just stinky.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:11 am
Zac Robinson did not fail anyone. He had the perfect game plan and had an UDFA rookie in a position to win. Guess what happened? All 32 teams that did not draft Failen Damuels were right. He imploded in the fourth-quarter just like in college. The blame should go to the owners for over paying Baker and not having enough cap left to sign Garrapolo or another veteran.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:12 am
@Steve ~ did you mean 1 out of 3?
October 19th, 2026 at 8:12 am
If Bowles isn’t gone by noon,he isn’t going ,so just shut up!
October 19th, 2026 at 8:18 am
He failed the entire franchise
October 19th, 2026 at 8:24 am
Joe I had like that question on Sunday. The Bucs offense looked much the same as was with Mayfield, so is Robinson adjusting to his players as far as play calling to put them in a situation to succeed?
October 19th, 2026 at 8:31 am
So the service academies run the option because you cant fit 300 pound linemen in tanks, jets, submarines jets, helicopters, and fox holes. Air force learned this in the 80s and all three have been specializing in it since. It us very complicated and requires lots if practice. You start in spring training and all 11 have to learn it. It is unrealistic to learn it in a week. The answer was for Daniels to not throw those interceptions and to tuck and run free Lance like action Jackson…..and get hurt. Enter Huntley.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:32 am
What about where the glazers failed the fans they kept Todd after a total collapse all the fans knew the outcome after that decision.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:34 am
“But expecting a UDFA rookie QB to bail out the coach is a big ask.”
So is expecting an OC who’s best quality is who he’s worked for a few years ago. Maybe Robinson is the bitterest fruit from the McVay tree and expecting 2024 results without the 2024 ingredients was a bit naive on the franchises part.
We should look toward the collegiate ranks for our next OC, should’ve been something we did(again) once Coen left.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:52 am
Yes and also, it was an 0-3 offense to add insult to injury.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:58 am
I wonder if there’s a reason that Daniels was undrafted? What could it be? I’m wondering if any of the out of work coaches and GMs who comment here regularly were calling for the Bucs to draft JD to make sure he didn’t go anywhere else. Had any of us even heard of Daniels before the end of April?
I think he will get better but he’s just a rookie and this is about as much as we hope to get right now.
October 19th, 2026 at 8:59 am
Fish! Yes my bad
October 19th, 2026 at 9:03 am
I’m tired of hearing Daniels looks/ looked like an UDFA. He looks like any other rookie QB in my opinion. How much worse than Baker has he looked, you know a Heisman trophy winner and number one overall draft pick? I would suggest that Baker played just as bad if not worse. The entire coaching staff is terrible aside from a few. Bowles has been a sub .500 coach his entire career! Stop blaming these players, it’s the coaches job to put them in positions to succeed! Every single player we draft seems to regress! The O-line, Diaby, Winfield, Godwin, Mayfield, Kancey and the list goes on. Evans left for a reason! It doesn’t take a genius to develop pattern recognition. The same issues plague this team year after year.
October 19th, 2026 at 9:05 am
You guys got your sacks by the way! Now think before you open pie hole
October 19th, 2026 at 9:05 am
Speaking of failure; has anyone mentioned Bowles is 0-8 against the AFC North? The success or failure of a team starts at the top. He hired Robinson and approved of the gameplan. It’s not like oh I had no idea of what the offense was doing out there! I’m still scratching my head as to why they didn’t have Daniels running the football in a must win game.
October 19th, 2026 at 9:15 am
Remember when the media was hyping this guy up in the pre season as Liam Coen 2.0…
LOL the pre season hype just shows how bad our local media is at assessing this team
October 19th, 2026 at 9:18 am
turns out baker wasn’t as big of a problem as what people on here lead me to believe. also turns out that jalon isn’t the franchise not savior i was also lead to believe
October 19th, 2026 at 9:21 am
The cowboys weren’t clever .
Never occurred to them that Rookie QB would be forced to rely on the run.
McCarthy knew That an undrafted rookie isn’t capable of beating the Steelers with his arm. Not even with Rodgers tiptoeing- afraid of The Evil, possessed Tampa Turf.
So they loaded the box. Shut down Bucky Irving, and Dared Jaylon Daniels to throw in to single, vanilla coverage.
He did. We lost. Expect the exact same thing next week, if Daniels plays.
And He should.
The line will only keep getting Mayfield hurt.
If He’s our QB of the Future, then we don’t wanna get him crippled.
Smart move is to find a BS reason to keep him on ice until next season.
Or
If we are going complete rebuild- then Mayfield has great trade value.
Unless we keep crippling him.
October 19th, 2026 at 9:22 am
Joe… watching college tape on Daniels does not pass the smell test. This is the NFL and what you can do against college kids and the Higher Quality Athletes are worlds apart.
They should of kept the veteran and let this guy learn the from the sidelines. Another BIG MISTAKE made by Licht and Bowles.
October 19th, 2026 at 9:38 am
I know that the network cameras don’t catch everything but anytime Daniels was shown sitting after a series, there were no coaches with him going over things, no tablet where he could look at coverages. He was shown either sitting alone or standing behind Todd Bowles while the defense was on the field. It just seemed that the coaching staff wasn’t helping this kid through the hard stuff. The first half vs the second half looked different because GB made adjustments we (as usual) did not. They left the kid out to dry. He should be coached on the protections when off the field. This is why Jalen Ramsey sacked him 3 times. The offensive scheme is predictable and anemic and dead in the water.
October 19th, 2026 at 9:41 am
Great OC’s in the NFL will design plays that center on the strengths of the QB but great OC’s are few and far between! The Bucs let two good OCs leave to be head coaches, but that is water down the creek! The win against the Cowboys was super, but it was a team effort and the loss against the Steelers was the same. JD has potential, but needs better coaching and more exposure to the speed of the game! he really needs to start against the Panthers!!
October 19th, 2026 at 9:48 am
It was a mistake not to carry a veteran backup QB on the roster; someone who had prior NFL experience and could fill in while Baker was injured. Daniels is a talented young man who could benefit from watching others, for now. Unfortunately, there are no others to watch.
October 19th, 2026 at 9:59 am
I think you’re on to something here Joe, I really do.
October 19th, 2026 at 10:03 am
quote from Bowles from your own article:
“Zac is one of the bright offensive minds in our game, and during the interview process, I was very impressed with his plan for getting the most out of the talent we have on that side of the ball. He has a very good understanding of the strengths of our top offensive players from his time in the division the past two years and I am very confident in his ability to teach and develop our young players.”
cue the laugh track
October 19th, 2026 at 10:04 am
Fully agreed even said the same words before halftime wondering why they haven’t drawn up a few plays to keep the defense on their heels by letting this kid use his feet that he’s very capable of using. And the passes were very vanilla and nothing very much past 10 yards bad play calling
October 19th, 2026 at 10:04 am
Fully agreed even said the same words before halftime wondering why they haven’t drawn up a few plays to keep the defense on their heels by letting this kid use his feet that he’s very capable of using. And the passes were very vanilla and nothing very much past 10 yards bad play calling very very little play action as well
October 19th, 2026 at 10:10 am
It’s so infuriating watching anyone say “Why didn’t Zac Robinson do X from X playbook?”
Jalon Daniels, along with nearly every college QB nowadays, ran a majority RPO offense at Kansas. Why doesn’t the NFL do that? Because the rules are different! In CFB an offensive lineman can be THREE yards downfield on a pass play and not get called for illegal man downfield, which encourages the use of RPOs. In the NFL it’s ONE yard. If the Bucs run Jalon Daniels Kansas RPO offense they’re getting flagged for illegal man downfield Every. Single. Play.
October 19th, 2026 at 10:37 am
Zac has no football imagination. Coen was always implementing plays to confuse the defense. Zac is a turd, the defense always knows what the play is going to be. Fire this clown now and bring Gruden in as OC. The season is already in the can and at least Gruden would be entertaining. Licht also needs to go after this season, not to have found a decent vet backup QB when he had several months to do so is insane. In this case Licht actually believed his own hype about his undrafted Rookie QB. Hope he is keeping the receipts.
October 19th, 2026 at 10:42 am
If Egbuka could catch the football, Jalon’s numbers would look better.
Egbuka could’ve tried to use 2 hands to catch that deep ball, but he tried to hotdog it and use 1 hand. That ball wasn’t out of his reach, he didn’t even have his arm fully extended.
Why have Egbuka and Mayfield both sucked since the bye week last year??? Wth happened
October 19th, 2026 at 10:48 am
Nope. That makes tooo much sense. We are going to do it our way whether you like it or not. It will work eventually. Right? Right? It’s a 3-28 Bucs life.
October 19th, 2026 at 10:50 am
The problem – a 9-second drive toward the end of the first half. Giving Rogers time to drive into FG range. Ebuka runs out of bounds to stop the clock – is that coaching or player? The difference in the game
October 19th, 2026 at 11:06 am
Number one, Joe you are the best. The Bucs should give you 100k a year to keep you motivated. We had a bye and Baker available for the next game in a must win game. Daniels should have had 5 to 7 designed runs. Daniels has shown he cannot effectively throw the long NFL out pass. Let’s the corner either sit on it or jam the middle. The Glazers have to fix the opposing team fans overwhelming our home games. Bowles unwillingness to give up the long pass on outside is well known and every team takes advantage of his philosophy. Effort has been better than last year but results are consistent. Going to get ugly. Feels like the 1991 season. Injuries are getting ready to pile up, mark my words.
October 19th, 2026 at 11:10 am
“Why have Egbuka and Mayfield both sucked since the bye week last year??? Wth happened”
It was week 7 and the answer is in SF making his QB look like an MVP candidate. That’s what happened, mixed in with giving too much credit to players who were not and continue to not be bigger than the program in terms of their on-field presence or performance
October 19th, 2026 at 11:12 am
2 major mistakes Zac made.
1. Was the swing pass to Egbuka with less than 2 minutes in the half. Egbuka should have not gone out of bounds but the play should have been called to get the clock to run and not risk the out of bounds to stop the clock. That gave PIT time to kick the FG and get some life after being shutout the entire 1st half.
2. After running how many runs up the middle on 1st down for minimal, no or negative yardage, do you not do play action in the 4th quarter. Everyone knew it was going to be a run up the middle.
And yes Joe is right. Remember how Denver had to play Tebow. They change the offense to suit Tebow’s limited skills. Result – made the playoffs, won a playoff game. Run plays for Daniels strengths.
October 19th, 2026 at 11:14 am
They both hold the ball forever waiting for a guy to get open. The difference is Jalen can rifle the ball downfield. It was frustrating to see the long holds and the behind the receiver passes.
October 19th, 2026 at 11:23 am
Capt.Tim..Great post!
October 19th, 2026 at 11:34 am
One of the biggest mistakes was not resigning Shep. EE and Hurst are total waste cases. Hurst dropped the ball in the fourth that would have been a first down and the Bucs could have run out the clock. Both these guys are not who you want on the field in critical situations. Bucs need to play Johnson and Tez more, at least these guys give 100%.
October 19th, 2026 at 11:45 am
Ok Colts fired GM and hopefully Steichen will follow in a few weeks ,, that guy can coach, Uncle Rico almost took them to the playoffs a few years back,, so Shane would be on my radar if I was the Bucs ,,, LaFluer not looking like he will get fired anytime soon (since we let GB off the hook)
October 19th, 2026 at 12:07 pm
Steichen👍
October 19th, 2026 at 12:10 pm
tick tock — painful end ahead — we still have 11 more games to rip our hearts out before we get to have hope again as a fan
October 19th, 2026 at 12:17 pm
Robinson had this kid in a position to win and Failen Damuels threw it all away in the fourth quarter with two atrocious picks and numerous other off target passes. Plus the special teams played a perfect game and defense played very well. The kid nobody wanted played like all 32 teams were right. Garopolo still available.
October 19th, 2026 at 12:36 pm
I thought Logan Ryan did really well yesterday. He made a few comments that taught me something about the Bucs. One of them was Robinson’s call to have all 3 WRs running deep go routes that led to Daniels getting sacked in the last drive of regulation. That was plain dumb.
October 19th, 2026 at 1:11 pm
The play calling was pathetic and the offensive line was pathetic. Where was the imaginative play calling we saw in Dallas? Where was the jet sweep we saw against the cowboys. At least where was the fake jet sweep because you know Pittsburgh had prepared for it. We did nothing to keep their defense off balance.
October 19th, 2026 at 1:13 pm
Deff worst OC in Bucs history. No creativity and predictable. What’s impressive tho is how the defense handled it for most of the game. Think about all the 3 and outs some really quick so your defense doesn’t get any rest and the turnovers. Defense melted in OT cause they had no gas left. Hate on the defense all you want but the defense has bin playing lights out.
October 19th, 2026 at 3:30 pm
TDawg makes a good point above about Daniels sitting by himself on the sidelines. Observed same thing along with awful body language by our young QB. It was clear he was having crisis of confidence. Coaches should be more than just X’s and O’s. Why was no one in his corner?
October 19th, 2026 at 3:43 pm
Give me a break Daniels missed a mess of easy throws and the receivers dropped some. That’s not coaching. If he had completed all those Joe would have had him on the first ballot for HOF
October 19th, 2026 at 4:16 pm
Jaylon Daniels will have a future in the NFL with another, QB needy team next year. He is young and he will flower with another team. It’s our offensive line that couldn’t defend him, nor our receivers who kept dropping passes and there was almost no running game. Zac Robinson is doing meth on the sidelines. Hopefully, he will follow Bowles out the exit door when the Glazers finally wake up to reality. Go Bucs. Go Canes. Cheers.