Zac Robinson: Offensive Football Is About Adapting
February 4th, 2026
Bucs OC Zac Robinson.
This is refreshing.
One of the hangups Joe has with NFL coaches, and this mostly seems to apply to defensive coaches, is that they have a set way to do things. If their players can’t pull that off, it’s a s(p)itshow.
Joe always believed the art of coaching is to get the most out of each individual player and that doesn’t happen when you have a square-peg-in-a-round-hole scheme.
Bill Belichick was fantastic for putting a player in position to make plays. Joe loved how he used to tell his scouting staff, “Don’t tell me what a guy can’t do. Tell me what he can do.”
Wade Phillips used to tell scouts, “Just get me a good player and I will find a way to use him.”
In other words, those coaches, and others, are not locked in to specific ways to play. New Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson sort of leans that way.
Last week Robinson admitted he has a scheme he likes to use and that’s the core of his offense. However, he added his offense is always adapting.
“I think we all have a foundational belief in what we want to do, scheme-wise,” Robinson said. “Now, offense is ever evolving. You’re adapting to your players, you’re adapting to your quarterback, your offensive line, the skill group – all of those things. Ultimately, that’s what the offseason is great for.
“There will be some great carryover and there will be some new things that we did in Atlanta. There will be some things that I’ve never done and they’ve never done that might fit us.
“The great thing about offensive football is there’s more than one way to do it. I think before you even get to scheme and specifics, it’s your style of play. We want our guys to always be in attack mode, we want our guys to play with relentless play energy, effort, and strain.”
Additionally, Robinson said, he wants to make sure his Bucs players have fun in the new offense. Robinson also promised he very much wants to retain elements of the recent Bucs offenses that worked.
Joe loves that mentality. Why would you not want to use something that works?
February 4th, 2026 at 9:06 am
So is defensive football
Feel free to read between the lines….
February 4th, 2026 at 9:14 am
We saw how a lack of adaptability by Grazard lead to a disastrous season. He was in over his head – that’s the definition of poor coaching.
2026 will be a polararising opposite with a real OC that knows what he is doing. This has to have Baker pumped.
The Bucs need to find a legit backup quarterback in case Baker is injured again. We seen what happened both in Cleveland and Tampa Bay when Baker played injured.
February 4th, 2026 at 9:15 am
Yes Joe, his comments are refreshing. But then again, I remind myself that this is off-season, and ALL comments sound refreshing. Then the season starts and the reality of facing opponents who also have every intention of winning sinks in.
Bucs had the #18 offense last season, scoring 380 points. Falcons had the #24 offense last year, scoring 353 points. We beat them once (23-20) and lost to them once (29-28). Teams were probably fairly balanced against each other. Zac had some decent capabilities to work with (OLine was OK, RBs were quite good, WRs & TEs were fair, and his QBs were meh).
Coming to the Bucs, Zac should have a better QB to work with, OK RBs, much better WRs but probably similar TEs, and a better OLine (if everyone stays healthy this year). I’m HOPEFUL that our #18 offense rebounds and pops back into the Top-10 (we were #4 in 2024). The capability there IF we can stay healthy AND Zac proves to be a good a play-caller as Coen was.
February 4th, 2026 at 9:27 am
Zac Robinson will teach Bowles how to be a play caller and Bowles will be himself and show Zac Robinson exactly what not to do when he’s a head coach after this season
February 4th, 2026 at 9:28 am
I saw highlights of the ProBowl. WHAT A JOKE – ROGER GOODELL only cares about money and he has made watching ping pong more exciting than watching the ProBowl.
February 4th, 2026 at 9:29 am
I’m thinking of the young captain of the ship ( Joe’s dad) saying we’ve adapted plenty long enough. Now it’s time to overcome. It’s high time to Overcome!
February 4th, 2026 at 9:46 am
All coaches say that. Every single one. Most try to do that. Varying degrees of success follow and much of that is dependent on the players too to compromise and adapt to the new offense.
February 4th, 2026 at 9:48 am
As I’ve said many times before (and will again): schemes don’t matter, coaches do. Do you want a great scheme and a crappy coach, or a crappy scheme and a great coach? I know what I prefer. Which situation are we in? Certainly it is somewhere between the extremes. Time will tell.
February 4th, 2026 at 9:51 am
Wow, a coach that actually adapts the scheme to his players strengths. Who would’ve thought!?
Unlike some coaches, who continue to blame the players, blame the assistant coaches, for not pulling off their complex and outdated scheme.
February 4th, 2026 at 10:05 am
Some position groupings are more important than others. Start with the offensive and defensive line. Trent Dilfer won a Super Bowl for crying out loud. Both starting QBs this year have never been there before. The hodge podge we had on the offensive and defensive line this was not playoff caliber. You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken-sput.
February 4th, 2026 at 10:07 am
Blah, blah, blah….remember when Grizz talked about a downfield passing attack all spring and summer in 2025? He saw how bad the downfield accuracy was for the QB but advertised that anyway. So, how did that turn out?
All this talk means nothing and the perfect gameplan means nothing without execution. We’ll see how this looks in training camp.
February 4th, 2026 at 10:26 am
Not defending Grizz
But his WR room was crushed by injuries
Oh .. sign FA
TE Pitts … yeah he is not perfect but that’s why we have a chance to get him!
I am very concerned and not buying any off season hype about the WR and RB room
Both are C+ over the 17 game season.
February 4th, 2026 at 10:33 am
Defense Rules, I agree about comments from coaches in the offseason. I just want to touch on the Bucs defense. Bowles may not be this or that, but when you look at who he has on defense pacify the DL and LB it doesn’t look promising Beyond David and Vea, I don’t see much. Maybe others see differently but, that’s just my opinion
February 4th, 2026 at 10:37 am
Well, DR, I didn’t realize the Falcons offense was that bad. The Falcons are seldom on TV, so I rarely see them except when they play the BUCS. Worrisome little fact you put out there.
February 4th, 2026 at 11:03 am
we’ll see Zac
GO BUCS!!!!
February 4th, 2026 at 12:16 pm
Allen Lofton Says:
February 4th, 2026 at 9:14 am
We saw how a lack of adaptability by Grazard lead to a disastrous season. He was in over his head – that’s the definition of poor coaching.
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I agree 1000%. When we started the season, we were better on offense than where we finished. That’s poor adapting. Dave Canales was also in over his head in 2023 when he started… we started average, hit a lull and then finished stronger than we started. It took him a solid 10-12 weeks to start to figure it out… Grizzard, defenses had adapted to his offense faster than he was able to adapt and figure them out. Thats poor coaching. I’m hoping Robinson is at least a little above average… because the talent for the offense is there.. top 10 in the league for sure. Look what the offensive genius, Brian Billick did with the Minnesota Vikings offense of 98… set records… then look how bad his Ravens offenses were while he was there… proving, oftentimes, great talent will make average coaches look good. Liam Coen isn’t average… he is exceptional… he proved it in 2024 when he took an offense that had underperformed and made them one of the best, then he did the same thing in Jacksonville. Sometimes, great coaching produces great results.