Report: NFL Suits Believed Bucs Had “Deficient Playcaller”
February 24th, 2026
Victim of poor coaching?
This isn’t really all that surprising to Joe, but the source(s) of the story is a little.
Heavy metal headbanging Jason La Canfora, formerly of the Washington Post and CBS, had sort of an eye-opening line in a story he typed for Sports Boom about Mike Evans and his looming free agency.
Naturally, La Canfora noted that Evans would like to stay with the Bucs (no surprise) and La Canfora thinks both Evans and the Bucs want each other (no surprise). But La Canfora noted Evans is looking for a team that will use him as a starter, has a proven offense, and is a legit Super Bowl contender.
The Bucs may not fit that last criteria, which La Canfora notes may open the door for Evans’ exit. And while typing how Evans is still a dynamic receiver, La Canfora included the following:
It was clear to executives from several teams that watched Evans last season that Tampa’s offense suffered from a deficient play caller and quarterback Baker Mayfield was hobbled much of the season, too, limiting the scope of the passing game.
Deficient play caller? Well, the Bucs did can former offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard last month.
And the Bucs offense, late in the season, was truly painful to watch given how Grizzard mismanaged the offense.
Joe is just trying to be fair: Was Grizzard that bad? Or was there meddling?
Did anyone gripe about the Bucs’ play-calling when the Bucs racked up 38 points on perhaps the best defense in the league on the road against Seattle? Did anyone whine about how the Bucs, terribly short-handed due to injuries (including to Emeka Egbuka), put up 30 points on San Francisco?
Joe fully believes Rachaad White was misused last year and there is some evidence that Cade Otton was, too. And how the Bucs seemingly became unraveled when the offense got healthier is a total mystery. How does that happen? Was that all Grizzard’s doing?
Again, early in the season, nobody claimed Grizzard was garbage. Then in the second half went way south.
So again, what happened?
Interesting intel from La Canfora.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:29 am
Play caller had deficient talent to work with.
It’s the old chicken and egg story.
Offensive line was in disarray, oh BTW KO Kieft was GREATLY MISSED!
WR’s were in disarray
Poor OC was between a rock and a hard place.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:35 am
“And how the Bucs seemingly became unraveled when the offense got healthier is a total mystery. How does that happen?”
Well, the offensive line never got healthy, the quarterback never got healthy, and the head coach publicly threw his players under the bus.
It wasn’t all on anyone…so Grizz wasn’t the only one to blame. To me, it was injuries and Bowles humiliation of the he players. He lost a lot of players when he did that.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:38 am
SB~LV 🏈 Says:
“Poor OC was between a rock and a hard place.”
Gotta say, I agree. He may or may not been great, but he also didn’t have much to prove it.
At this point, I’m feeling sorry for the guy. (Not so sorry that I want him back)
February 24th, 2026 at 4:46 am
La Canfora should have checked with Munch and the girls. He would have learned that Mayfield was faking his injuries.
February 24th, 2026 at 5:08 am
😂😂😂😂
I am Joe Buc Fanning from Hanoi and the pop up ads are Vietnamese company advertising 🇻🇳🇻🇳🇻🇳
February 24th, 2026 at 5:13 am
SB~LV , the ads drive me crazy. I get a full page ad every time I change pages. I understand Joe needs to make money, so I usually don’t say much, but it the full page once constantly hit me,
February 24th, 2026 at 5:20 am
BB 😂😂😂😂
I’d LOVE to be able to post a screenshot of what I am seeing
February 24th, 2026 at 6:00 am
On both sides of the ball. Deficient sounds right
February 24th, 2026 at 6:03 am
Playing 2 third string guards=no offensive plays are even available to run other than quick outs and screens.
Which is almost all of what we saw. That’s not on the OC.
February 24th, 2026 at 6:25 am
“Debacle” I believe is the best word to describe the offense last year. All the way around, it was a weekly debacle.
February 24th, 2026 at 6:30 am
Joe … ‘Joe is just trying to be fair: Was Grizzard that bad? Or was there meddling?’
It’s interesting Joe that you seem to use that innuendo (?), pure speculation (?) technique quite a bit for Bowles, but virtually never for Licht.
There were a ton of personnel decisions (or non-decisions) that set the stage in the Spring & Summer for the lack of quality players we put on the field in the Fall. For example … Bridgewater as backup QB, Dennis as starting ILB, various OLinemen who simply didn’t cut it as backups. But the list is far more extensive than that.
Bowles is HC, and has every right to provide ‘guidance’ to his coordinators. What I saw last season is that when Baker’s healthy AND has healthy ‘weapons’ AND ‘protection’, Bucs almost always have a decent offense. When he’s not healthy OR his ‘weapons’ OR his protection aren’t healthy, our offense isn’t nearly as productive. Duh. I’m sure the same can be said for every team in the NFL.
I think what I’m concerned about at this point is that the Bucs have numerous personnel problems right now. There are tons of quality free agents available who can help us immediately. There are some excellent draft prospects who could also help us immediately. Bowles is NOT the one who’s in charge of FIXING this personnel mess; Licht is. I was very unimpressed with most of his personnel moves (and LACK of moves) last season. He needs to do MUCH BETTER this year or we’ll be in serious trouble for years to come.
February 24th, 2026 at 6:50 am
Well said DR and I could not agree more. This is a watershed year for Licht and Bowles as I believe their futures are now intertwined.
February 24th, 2026 at 6:52 am
Duh……
February 24th, 2026 at 6:57 am
“Did anyone gripe about the Bucs’ play-calling when the Bucs racked up 38 points on perhaps the best defense in the league on the road against Seattle?“
I was complaining starting around week 2, and kept complaining throughout the season. It was evident, execution, situational calls, running our WRs when the backfield was still healthy and all types of foolishness from Grizzards’ etch a sketch. Being healthy wouldn’t have changed that, just look at how he handled Bucky.
February 24th, 2026 at 7:01 am
Joe said:
Did anyone gripe about the Bucs’ play-calling when the Bucs racked up 38 points on perhaps the best defense in the league on the road against Seattle?
—————————————————
Remember that Seattle game was early in the season before the DC’s had much tape on Grizzard. But they caught up. I think that Zach Robinson recognized that situation because one of the things that he said is that offensive coordinators always need to adjust because the defenses are always going to be adjusting to what they do.
February 24th, 2026 at 7:27 am
JL AND TB collaborated on the drafting of players. TB keeps trying to put round pegs in square holes and cannot really develop talent. Nick Saban called TB out public tells us what we need to know.
February 24th, 2026 at 7:35 am
So OC is fired for inadequate play calling due to the Bucs last half of the season.
But The article clearly shows he BEAT the best team with the Best Defense.
AND THE GUY IN CHARGE OF THE DEFENSE AND THE ENTIRE TEAM KEEPS UIS JOB?????!
Josh had one year AND FIRED
Bowles gets 4 seasons
Replaces Coaching staff TWICE but keeps his job
HAHA. Again what a JOKE
The punch line
BOWLES IS A HEAD COACH STILL
February 24th, 2026 at 7:38 am
2026 is going to suck
February 24th, 2026 at 7:49 am
It wasn’t the play calling per se in my opinion. It was practice. They did not practice very well and so did not play very well. The plays could have been better, I suppose, but they wouldn’t have worked any better because they just did not have the precision they needed. Injuries were a significant contributor to the discontinuity as well.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:35 am
Maybe he meant the defensive play calling. Soft cover no one zone comes to mind. Let them get the first downs then run up for the tackle too. Don’t worry we can blame it on Grizz. 3rd and 28.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:44 am
Grizzard is the passing game coordinator for the Eagles now.
He didn’t get another O/C job. He wasn’t and currently isn’t ready for that job.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:45 am
“Again, early in the season, nobody claimed Grizzard was garbage. Then in the second half went way south. So again, what happened?”
80’s sitcoms on TV were great; today that format is mostly dead. It works until it doesn’t. One trick pony. The league figured him out.
February 24th, 2026 at 9:32 am
who did the bucs interview besides grizzard for the OC job last year, anyone?
bowles and the bucs were lazy to just promote grizzard. he was promoted to a job he was unqualified for on a wave of enthusiasm frequently punctuated by the fact that he went to yale (who cares).
he was given way too much credit for just being on coen’s staff and he turned out to be a loser.
quoting one game as some sort of marker of competence is typical curve fitting “journalism” that goes on here. it was the same curve fitting that led bucs fans down the garden path with cries of OROY and MVP and SUPERBOWL bound….
February 24th, 2026 at 9:36 am
‘was there meddling?’
I believe someone felt threatened he could lose his job to a 3rd successful OC since the owners realized to late they should have made Coen their HC…
Makes WAY to much since the way it all turned out…
February 24th, 2026 at 9:54 am
I still whole-heartedly believe Bowles sacrificed Grizz, and other assistants, to cover for his failure as a HC. The tell was when Bowles went into finger pointing and excuse mode and did not make the necessary adjustments to his coaching staff after letting folks go. The guy really only knows one way of doing things. While I really hope JL makes some noise in FA, I just don’t see this happening. The Glazers publicly acknowledged they like Bowles, but they went after Harbaugh and others behind closed doors. There is no confidence there in Bowles, lets be real. They are going to reluctantly roll with Bowles and save their cash for the next regime. I would do the same thing.
February 24th, 2026 at 10:23 am
It’s likely Licht and the Glazers told Todd he was gone unless he made visible changes, so Todd canned the assistants. Todd will never be a good coach because he still prioritizes run defense over pass defense, which doesn’t work in today’s NFL.
Licht needs to look at Howie Roseman and be more aggressive in free agency, and also get rid of some current players. I’m tired of the Dollar Store shopping and the lack of trades.
February 24th, 2026 at 10:45 am
every coach on a staff has a job. the hc oversees them. if spec. teams coach sucks, off. coach is in over his head, and def. coach is clueless, shouldn’t the hc step in?? 2 coaches got fired, but the 3rd, the def coach is still there. the biggest weakness in the organization. he can’t develop players, he can’t teach tackling, he can’t scheme for opposing offenses, and can’t make in game adj. BTW – last 3 oc’s for the bucs got promotions. what are we missing???
February 24th, 2026 at 11:02 am
Definitely a deficient play caller on defense!AKA Lovie Bowles
February 24th, 2026 at 11:31 am
Yes they did have a deficient play caller. On defense.
How many times are we going to have to hear about how bad Grizzard was in the second half?
He’s gone and we have a new OC. Period.
But no one wants to highlight the gaping crevasse that was the Bowles defense.
Four straight losses to teams we should have easily beaten.
And what do we get to hear? Just gotta get better…..
February 24th, 2026 at 12:37 pm
“So again, what happened?”
I say follow the bread crumbs and work the problem….
– Prior to the Patriots game on Nov 9 Baker told Tracy Woodson (CBS) he was at 50% before the bye (his play against the Saints (at least to some) suggested as much).
– Nov 10th JBF article “Neutered Baker”.
– Nov 11th Richard Sherman said “I know some things.”
– Dec 12th Gerald McCoy said there were internal problems……..
Questions never answered include…
– Who decided a 50% Baker was greater than 100% Bridgewater? And did Baker ever get back to 100%?
– What did (or does) Richard Sherman know?
– What did (or does) Gerald know?
I bet the answers will tell us why we lost 7 of the last 9.
February 24th, 2026 at 1:00 pm
I’m with you on this Grizzard thing Joe. To many times things got a little stagnant once they figured out they had a real game on situation. Coen called plays in college and had been through the ups and downs before. Figuring out how to get out of a hole wasn’t to good last year. I said it not long ago, calling plays when you’re leading is a little easier probably but in a shootout and getting into a hole is not easy. Composure under pressure can’t be just that with the crowd screaming and everything else combined.
February 24th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
Bowles did his best. It wasn’t his fault.
February 24th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
Can not buy this…he was great for 8 games. Then got Bowzoed.
February 24th, 2026 at 1:20 pm
Apocabucs Now
February 24th, 2026 at 2:35 pm
He was feeling himself going into the bye. He thought he would outsmart the league because they had tape on enough Bucs games so he switched up the offense and tweaked way too much. His specialty was 3rd downs amd he was a horrendous play caller on 3rd down. He was afraid to throw the ball more than the line to gain most of the time. He got his paid internship just like the other 2 except they actually jad legit talent at offensive football play calling. The Grizz turned turtle clenched his cheeks and became scared.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:18 pm
That deficiency extended to all three phases, not just offense.