Zac Robinson Drags Down His Quarterbacks
November 11th, 2026
Ugly stats.
Until Monday afternoon, Joe believed that Todd Bowles, overall this year, had performed his best coaching job since he took over the Bucs in 2022.
Bowles fixed the defense. Joe’s biggest issue with Bowles in the past is that every talking head in #NFLMedia read from the same script that Bowles was a mastermind of blitzes that would leave even Josh Allen dizzy from confusion. The opposite was true.
Bowles defenses, largely with the Bucs, were terrible against the pass, regularly ranked in the 20s — or worse. And then there is Bowles’ weird disdain for sacks.
This year Bowles may have the best defense in the league. He fixed it! Finally, but he fixed it!
The special teams? Look how much they have improved.
And the offense, well, before Sunday, it seemed like Bowles hit the jackpot there. He ordered failed Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson to go ground-and-pound, to the extreme. And it worked (until they faced a good team)!
Bowles was doing a solid job — only the wins weren’t coming (key issue).
Then came the Bucs’ version of “About Last Night,” the Sunday night game in Chicago. It’s been a long, long time since Joe was that angry at a Bucs offensive coordinator.
Joe would have ordered Robinson to walk from Soldier Field to Midway Airport and force him to find his own way back to Tampa, preferably using Southwest Airlines, where he’d have his flight canceled.
Then on Monday, Bowles said everything is good enough in his eyes with the Bucs — despite dropping all sorts of veiled hints the offense is not being coached up — as he said Robinson will remain the Bucs’ play-caller.
In Joe’s eyes, that was waving the white flag on the Bucs’ chances of winning the NFC South landfill and hosting a playoff game.
Joe is actually pondering who was a worse offensive coordinator for the Bucs: ill-suited Marcus Arroyo, knothead Byron Leftwich or Robinson?
Thanks to the research of a loyal, long-time reader of Joe’s who is a heavy-hitter in the business journalism world based in Gotham, Nicholas Carlson, here’s some evidence that Robinson is very bad for his quarterbacks.
Full disclosure: Joe’s not a passer ratings guy (even though Joe Buck is). Why? Just look at the career passer ratings of quarterbacks. Any stat that tries to sell you that Deshaun Watson is a better quarterback than Tom Brady; Tua Tagovailoa is a better quarterback than Joe Montana and Marcus Mariota is better than Dan Marino is about as worthless as used toilet paper.
If some dude in a bar tried to tell you this, you’d have the guy Baker (not Mayfield) Act’ed.
But where Joe does give passer ratings a slight piece of credibility is that, comparing quarterbacks to their contemporaries using passer ratings, it sort of gives one a very broad, general, bird’s-eye view, macro idea of how they are performing.
And as you can see from the graphic below from Carlson, Robinson is bad news for his quarterbacks when he is their play-caller.
So, Joe guesses in a roundabout, wordy way, Bowles’ decision to stick with Robinson just might doom his entire staff in two months, including Bowles himself.
(Joe sure hopes Team Glazer keeps Danny Smith.)
@JoeBucsFan made this for you pic.twitter.com/ILGtP04UPb
— Nicholas Carlson (@nichcarlson) November 10, 2026
November 11th, 2026 at 4:19 am
So I was asking Gemini about Robinson and False starts and other offensive penalties, because you, Joe, have taught me there’s no coincidences in football. Anyway I asked it about the Falcons and apparently the Falcons were in the league median for false starts. I just recall 19 penalties on the infamous 3rd and 28 game. I didn’t dig too much deeper, but that may be something to look into, because the offensive line play has been… offensive to say the least.
November 11th, 2026 at 4:25 am
As long as their has been a very clear lack of enthusiasm from the top down to fix a very clear and plain as day problem with the team, the Glazers should expect the same from fans in their lack of support and lack of interest in filling the seats at Ray Jay. The street does run both ways.
November 11th, 2026 at 5:02 am
Bowles defense gave up 14 quick points. Bowles defense had a”BUST” that allowed a wide open TE to seal the game. Joe’s hammering the wrong coach. Robinson sucks, but this is Todd’s team. Zac wasn’t here when we went 2-7 last year. We fired Griz, kept Todd, and guess what? The losing continues. Todd., and Licht are the ones who need to be fired Joe. Until they are, new OC ain’t going to make a difference.
November 11th, 2026 at 5:11 am
Joe, I’ve figured it out. A way around the Baker and “Z-Rob” problem. Fire Robinson, make Baker OC and start 10. Only a Gen-Z QB can connect with Gen-Z receivers. Pay Baker for what he does best, his intangibles. He can help 10 learn blitz schemes. We’ll become the laughing stock of the league but we just might do damage.
November 11th, 2026 at 5:19 am
Hire Gruden as OC, if team doesn’t make playoffs, then make him HC.
November 11th, 2026 at 5:56 am
Wake me up when this defense gets a stop that actually matters. Even in our best games, we piss down our legs when the chips are down. Every OC in the league knows how to get it against Bowles when they absolutely have to. This goes back to the 2021-2022 Divisional game against the rams…. When you reach the crescendo, Bowles will ALWAYS land flat.
November 11th, 2026 at 6:42 am
Joe … ‘here’s some evidence that Robinson is very bad for his quarterbacks.’
Sorry Joe, but even by your own admission, Passer Ratings are garbage. They are not EVIDENCE.
Is Robinson the best OC we’ve ever had? Oh heavens NO. Is he aas bad as Arroyo was? Not hardly. As bad as Leftwich was? That one’s debatable.
Historically, OCs are normally only as good as their QBs in my opinion. It’s possible to ‘dummy-down’ an offense to where an average QB can run it & look a lot better than he actually is however (Seattle & Sam Darnold last year?).
Baker Mayfield has now been here thru FOUR OCs.
o 2023: Bucs finished 9-8 with Baker in his 1st season here & Dave Canales as the OC. Bucs had a decent defense (ranked #7) and a decent running game (ranked #5); we ran on 41.9% of our plays. Baker completed 64.3% of his passes, with 28 TDs, 10 INTs & 5 Fumbles Lost. Our offense ranked #20 (Points Scored) for the season.
o 2024: Bucs finished 10-7 with Baker in his 2nd season here & Liam Coen as the OC. Bucs defense faltered (ranked #16) but our Run Game stayed strong (ranked #4); we ran on 44.1% of our plays. Baker completed 71.5% of his passes, with 41 TDs, 16 INTs & 5 Fumbles Lost. Our offense zoomed to rank #4 (Points Scored) for the season.
o 2025: Bucs finished 8-9 with Baker in his 3rd season here & Josh Grizzard as the OC. Bucs defense slipped even more (ranked #20) and so did our Run Game (ranked #21); we ran on 44.2% of our plays. Baker completed only 62.9% of his passes, with 26 TDs, 11 INTs & 7 Fumbles Lost. Our offense plummeted to a #18 ranking (Points Scored) for the season.
o 2026: Bucs are now 3-6 halfway thru our season, with Baker in his 4th season here & Zac Robinson as the OC. Bucs defense is playing solid football (ranked #7) and so is our Run Game (ranked #1); we’ve run on 52.4% of our plays to this point. Baker has completed only 60.6% of his passes in the 6 games he’s played in, with 3 Passing TDs, 4 INTs & 3 Fumbles Lost. Our offense is currently ranked #18 (Points Scored) for this season.
The ‘evidence’ Joe tells me that the Bucs have been an ‘average team at best’ since 2023 when Baker became our starting QB. That’s what the season records tell me (he’s 29-28 as our starter … that’s pretty close to break-even and ‘average’). Having FOUR OCs over 4 years stinks, but there’s been quite a bit of ‘consistency’ in the offensive plans (we’ve run the ball around 45% overall & used a LOT of dink & dunk). At some point, folks need to look BEYOND the guys planning this offense and more at the guys OPERATING IT. BOTH need significant improvement.
November 11th, 2026 at 6:43 am
We ALL know what needs to be done. We don’t need a fortune teller to break the news. What a mess.
November 11th, 2026 at 6:44 am
Todd could have a top defense but his game management will still lose them 6-7 games EVERY year
November 11th, 2026 at 6:53 am
Baker was suppose to be out up to 6 weeks and rushed back. Just like he had to come running right back on the field after trask got his only pass attempt. He had this thumb injury in 2019 came back and wasn’t the same, he hurt this same thing last year during a game but was never on the injury report for it and his play declined from that point then he pushed for this contract and injured it worse again
November 11th, 2026 at 7:01 am
“Having FOUR OCs over 4 years stinks, but there’s been quite a bit of ‘consistency’ in the offensive plans (we’ve run the ball around 45% overall & used a LOT of dink & dunk). At some point, folks need to look BEYOND the guys planning this offense and more at the guys OPERATING IT. BOTH need significant improvement.”
Amen!!!!
Common denominator, yes having no continuity at OC stinks, but the funny thing is all 4 of those guys ran very comparable systems, why? Because OCs are only limited by the collective capability of what they have to work with what.
November 11th, 2026 at 7:02 am
Was Zac Robinson on the field committing all those pre snap penalties?
Was Zac Robinson on the field dropping passes and throwing a Pick Six?
Oh Yeah thats right he was not.
November 11th, 2026 at 7:07 am
I’m starting to think Baker is experiencing the same career decline as Russell Wilson, and that he is currently in the Denver Broncos chapter
November 11th, 2026 at 7:14 am
Who was a worse OC Joe?
Let’s take a look.
Leftwich had Tom Brady at QB.
Arroyo had McClown and Glennon at QB.
Z-Rob has Baker Mayfield.
Leftwhich has to be the bigger dunce in this group…
November 11th, 2026 at 7:32 am
Turnovers are not on the coach!
With all the turnovers in the 6 losses
They fought in every game till the end ,thats on the coaches!
Simple ..
Clean up the turnovers!
If a player holds thats on him
If a player jumps early thats on him
Clean it up
November 11th, 2026 at 8:04 am
a “fixed” defense doesnt give up 14 in the first quarter and allow opposing offenses to regularly score on their last possession to win.
a “solid” HC or DC would stop that kind of garbage from regularly occurring.
because the HC is the DC it is nothing he will do anything about. he’ll say “well the young guys needed to settle down” like children giggling after bedtime. cause that is what grandparents say.
even baker mentioned it in his post game comments, and its true.
robinson sucks. he drags down the entire offense.