Todd Bowles Wants More Deep Fade Throws
July 24th, 2025
Is QB coach Thad Lewis telling Baker Mayfield to throw deep?
Throw deep!
Years ago former Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter said he asked his friend and longtime Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis what drives defensive coordinators crazy. What affects them? “Throw deep,” was the answer.
Todd Bowles is a defensive guy, too, and he doesn’t shy away from wanting the Bucs to throw more deep ball. He told JoeBucsFan.com this week that the Bucs threw a strong share of deep balls down the middle and across the field but not the traditional fade routes to Mike Evans.
He’d love to see it happen more this year.
“It’s not like we didn’t have them dialed up,” Bowles said. “But every team should go down the field five or six times [a] game. And they’re all dialed up to do that, it’s a just a matter of whether the ball comes out or not.”
Bowles acknowledged Evans has been a league-leader in drawing pass interference penalties, and the Bucs would like to get back to that.
“Anytime he’s single, there’s a good chance he’s going to make a play or he’s going to draw an interference penalty. We got to get the ball up to him more,” Bowles said of Evans. “He saw a lot more double-coverage, especially when Chris went down. So that had a lot to do with it as well. But we still got to find ways to get the ball up to him.”
Joe can attest that Bucs fans would love, love, love to see more deep shots to Evans.
July 24th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
It’d be great to see but Baker has to improve on his deep accuracy. He has trouble consistently hitting receivers in the hands, in stride as they run down the field. Plus Wirfs is out so he’ll need protection as well.
July 24th, 2025 at 12:10 pm
I want the DBs worried every snap “Are they going over my head?”. Makes everyone backup. Plus it’s just a hell of a lot of fun.
July 24th, 2025 at 12:11 pm
If we can get Godwin healthy with Emeka Egbuka or McMillan on the field at the same time, it’ll be hard to double team Evans.
July 24th, 2025 at 12:16 pm
If they want to go deep more often.
Then it makes sense to keep Trey Palmer, he’s our speedster
July 24th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
“It’d be great to see but Baker has to improve on his deep accuracy.”
Kyle should bring out the Brady & Blaine buckets they used to practice their touch and accuracy with at practice.
July 24th, 2025 at 1:27 pm
The double coverage comment is the key there. If they don’t double him odds are he makes the play. If they do the d is screwed. There’s too many other guys that can get downfield or take it short and turn it up field if they have a corner and safety on him.
July 24th, 2025 at 2:31 pm
Trask threw a great deep ball to Kam Johnson and he, of course, dropped it. Meanwhile Tez Johnson, not to be confused with Kam, skied for a great catch and TD from Bake. It seems Kam may go back to the practice squad this year.
In punt practice, Tez looked solid. The big surprise is that Emeka Egbuka was catching punts! That’s a big NO for me – don’t risk him catching punts – not even in practice!
July 24th, 2025 at 2:52 pm
Trey Palmer has the speed for that, but he can’t catch.
July 24th, 2025 at 3:33 pm
Who is this HC and what happened to Todd “Run the A Gap every 1st Down and Don’t score to quickly because the defense will tire out” Bowles?
I wonder if Bowles is a little more risk-it-no-biscuit friendly because of his new contract?
July 24th, 2025 at 4:25 pm
Again, another jbf priority read, with some helpful comments.
have nothing to add, wish i did.
really important matter
July 24th, 2025 at 5:44 pm
it could open the run game too
July 24th, 2025 at 5:51 pm
Yeah ranking 7th like Baker does out of 33 quarterbacks in deep throw completion percentage isn’t the best. I guess he could move up 5 spots to #2 if he would just practice some more, which I would bet he is doing on a regular basis.
July 24th, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Trey Palmer is not going to make the roster.
July 24th, 2025 at 10:02 pm
I don’t think the offense was good enough in Baker’s first year. This last season the offense really came together and the line vastly improved along with run game. That didn’t become consistent at first because the O line was still gelling and it didn’t seem coen was concerned with deep throws. Now that the Oline has more time together, I can see deep throws being the next step. However, with Wirfs out, can Baker trust whoever is at left tackle? Just need to make sure Baker has the time and let’s be honest, he needs to be able to see his receiver to avoid that INT. I think he can do it and our receivers can do it, I just question that left tackle not named Wirfs to hold pass protect long enough.
July 25th, 2025 at 6:20 am
Baker needs to work on that one Joe. He missed a few last year. He knows it. Bowles can say wht he wants but if we can’t hit one or two it is not much of threat. Palmer has speed, Mike will get open even if he is not open, Buka?
Go Bucs!
July 26th, 2025 at 12:45 am
Nice. Now, about that 80% completion rate against the run defense (since there isn’t a pass defense).