What is he looking for?

Joe would think on paper, the Bucs would have a coveted opening at offensive coordinator.

You have a Pro Bowl quarterback, a Pro Bowl receiver, a second receiver who, until the roof caved in, looked like the second coming of Amon-Ra St. Brown, and a third receiver who, when his neck healed, looked like an above-average No. 2 receiver.

And if Mike Evans decides to come back, well then, you can add a Hall of Fame receiver to the lineup. That’s pretty sweet.

Now Joe has read in the past that if, for example, Mike McDaniel was interested in the job, he would be granted “autonomy” because Bucs coach Todd Bowles is mostly hands-off and is otherwise focused on his defense.

But what does Bowles really want in an offensive coordinator. Bowles last year at the combine told Jenna Laine of ESPN what he’s looking for.

“Obviously, any offensive coordinator has leeway coming in, but you understand what we have to do,” Bowles said last year. “He has to read the game when we’re playing well defensively, when he might have to outscore someone, and it’s never just run, run, pass, he has leeway to call his plays. I’ll have the say-so on whether to go for it on fourth down, things to do on two-minute, and so forth — as well as red zone — but he has a lot of leeway.”

How much does Bowles wield power over the offense? It’s hard to say. But a reader stated the following in a comment on this here corner of the interwebs that made Joe think.

Joe assumes — but no one has confirmed it — that the Bucs offense last year went down the drain because Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield was hurt so badly he simply couldn’t throw right.

As a reader pointed out: When is the best time to change an offense? During a bye. After the bye, the Bucs offense was awful. So this reader suggested Bowles ordered former Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard to go more to a running, dink-and-dunk offense during the bye.

That sort of adds up until one remembers that the final game before the bye, a win at New Orleans, the Bucs’ offense was awful but it was the defense that took over the game and dominated the slimy Saints.

So Joe’s not so sure he fully buys the offense-changed-at-the-bye argument. The Bucs offense began playing like trash right before the bye.

Whatever the reason for the plummeting offense (Mayfield’s health, Bowles’ direction, Bucky Irving’s absence), that cannot be repeated again this fall.