Rondé Barber Addresses Zac Robinson Critics
October 1st, 2026
Playcaller talk.
Joe thinks Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson’s job or role could be jeopardy if the Tampa Bay offense can’t stop looking like a Josh McCown-led unit.
These are desperate times at One Buc Palace. Joe remembers when the Bucs fired defensive coordinator Mike Smith after Week 6 of the 2018 season in an effort to win games and preserve jobs.
Robinson has taken a lot of heat after three games from Joe and a barrage of attacks on social media, and from Jay Gruden (yes, Jay) and other NFL analysts.
Rondé Barber, the Hall of Fame cornerback and Bucs legend, addressed the Robinson skeptics during his WFLA streaming show that bears his name.
“It’s early but it’s fair,” Barber said of being critical of Robinson. ” … He’s new, right? And I think we have to have a little bit of patience. And you don’t want to be patient when you’re 0-3. But what else do we have at this point? We have to be patient with it and hope that the decision is the right one.”
Joe’s not big on hope as a football plan. Next, Robinson, a former NFL quarterback, needs to show that his assessment and preparation of undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels was on point. Daniels will make his first start Sunday for injured Baker Mayfield (thumb).
Joe doesn’t expect Daniels to be a savior. But he sure as hell should look competent and promising.
Barber said there’s stuff to build on from Sunday’s loss to the Vikings.
“There were positive things that happened in the game,” Barber said. “Like we knew it was going to be a dirty type of game running the football. Because all that [Vikings] pressure, you know, you have to find a way to negate it. Zac Robinson, I thought, did a pretty good job. Because [the Bucs] got in the pistol [formation] a lot, which we hadn’t seen much in the first two weeks of the season. And they started running gap-sheme runs, like pullers out in front. You saw Bucky get four, five, six yards a couple of clips. I expect to see a lot of that [against Green Bay.] “
Barber, who feels good about the Bucs defense, acknowledged Robinson very much has the Bucs’ fate in his hands.
“You just got to help [Daniels]. You gotta help him. It comes down to coaching right now,” Barber said.
October 1st, 2026 at 9:49 am
That offense is trash. Go watch coens offense. We need high tempo. Motion misdirection. Amd quick throws with chunk plays in the middle. Its not that fing complicated honestly. It really isn’t.
October 1st, 2026 at 9:55 am
The Bucs are not doing Zac any favors starting a camp arm at qb!….
October 1st, 2026 at 9:57 am
Go watch Coen’s offense-
While you’re at it, watch Lawrence stand in the pocket and deliver accurate throws under pressure minus the Happy Feet.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:00 am
Joe, that’s two articles with broken pictures. Is anyone else seeing the same thing?
October 1st, 2026 at 10:00 am
Scratch that. I apologize. I was on a VPN.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:06 am
0-4
October 1st, 2026 at 10:12 am
Carbarry isn’t doing his job. Something needs to be done about the line coaching. Zac cannot continue with such lousy blocking. No play call is safe with all the mistakes and penalties by this line group. Something or someone or two has to be replaced.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:16 am
Nothing can be done until Licht, and Bowles are replaced with competence.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:18 am
Its baker. Not robinson. Receivers are open. Watch all 22. Open and quick before line is collapsing. SMH
October 1st, 2026 at 10:19 am
I love Cohen I love cannales I love Cohen I love cannales I love Cohen I love cannales I love Cohen I love cannales….Do us Bucs fans and ship the f@#$ off…
October 1st, 2026 at 10:20 am
Maybe Carberry is tired of teaching a new scheme every year, too.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:23 am
Zac isnt doing the bucs any favors lol….
Zac was below average in ATL and now he’s brought his talents to Tampa….
thats what happens when you cuddle baker instead of challenging him….we get zero production and all talk
not sure what the F Barber is watching….offensively, we didnt do $h!t right and i didnt see any positive strides….the offense took a step back vs the Vikes
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 1st, 2026 at 10:29 am
It’s true. It takes time for players to adjust to a new system. It Takes QBs especially a long time, as new systems and terminology are complicated.
You can’t just erase the last system, and not confusing the new and last system is impossible.
And Baker Mayfield has had to learn 8 completely new systems and terminology.
Honestly, it’s mind boggling.
That is yet another contributing factor for how horrible this team is playing.
But the fact that Robinson’s system sucks is a bigger problem.
Teams don’t practice enough, during the off season and preseason, to learn new systems. Not hiring a new offensive Coordinator every year is a huge failure by Jason Licht, almost as damning as his failures at building offensive and defensive lines
And not being able to pass block destroys an offense. Other issues just add to that fatal flaw
October 1st, 2026 at 10:39 am
Was it Mayfield or Robinson? We’ll find out Sunday.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:40 am
Barber’s show doesn’t work as well when the team stinks
October 1st, 2026 at 10:43 am
Coaching matters. This team is simply not coached well if the players are not executing the game plan on Sunday. It’s in every phase and every unit within every phase that has looked bad thus far. That tells me that the coaching overall is not good enough even if the game plan Xs and Os are fantastic. Good coaches get the best out of their players. That is not happening here even if the Oline is full of a bunch of overrated guys hand picked by the most overrated GM in the league.
Go Bucs
October 1st, 2026 at 10:44 am
“he’s new right. And I think we have to have a little bit of patience.” uh what?
what a stupid comment. almost as dumb as some of the sh1t bowles says. ronde probably said the same thing about bowles when he was anointed head coach
you go ahead and have patience ronde. pretty much everyone else just wants to see the bucs win.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:50 am
It’s honestly hilarious how much tolerance there is for the 5 year failing head coach in comparison to Grizzard and Robinson. 3 bad weeks=hot seat, and 1 bad year=fired. unless you’re Todd Bowles; then you can spend five years with a defense that completely lacks the ability to cover, and rush the passer, and still maintain your job
October 1st, 2026 at 10:52 am
The Jalon Experience is likely to look different. He actually played in the offense in preseason and knew if he didn’t get it right he wasn’t making the team. that said, still a guy that is a project coming out of college. He will certainly run for a bunch of yards, especially if the O-line continues to look like a sieve. The D will have to carry the load and give us a chance to win. Run the dang ball and include ALL the RBs in that plan. As bad as Baker was he’s still a veteran PRO QB, and Daniels has a ways to go before he is.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:53 am
Barber is too close to the team for any type of critical analysis to be considered coherent.
He’s way too much of a homer to be taken seriously. He gets a paycheck from the Glazers. It’s going to be puppy dogs and rainbows every time.
Don’t get me wrong he is a great football mind and my favorite Buc of all time.
But he’s never going to speak the complete truth. Super Bowels needs to go.
October 1st, 2026 at 10:56 am
It’s almost like having your 5th OC in 5 years is a bad thing. Who would have thought!?
The only chance the Bucs and Daniels have of winning, is if the opponent is more inept than them. It’s sad but true.
I’m no Jordan Love fan but he’s not Kyler Murray. If he gets the time Kyler did, he’s gonna carve the Bucs up. Money is already down on Tucker Kraft to have a modest 4-30 line. +105. Money in the bank.
Patience doesn’t solve this. Robinson is not good. Bowles is not good. It’s the main reason I don’t understand the Baker bashers.
All over the league most of the QBs are only as good as their protection and play callers. Coen with Lawrence, Kubiak with Darnold and now Cousins. Hell Bryce Young looks decent with Canales.
SB winner Darnold throws 3 picks one a pick 6. Josh Allen and the Bills turn it over 5 times last Sunday! It happens folks. Need all this context evaluating Baker. There is no context to save our coaches, only damning evidence and about 4 years of it.
If Robinson is smart, he has option plays dialed up and is gonna let Daniels run with the ball this week. A heavy dose of Tucker probably helps and let Bucky get right for Dallas. I’m gonna guess that we don’t see any of that.
October 1st, 2026 at 11:03 am
The narrative today is the OC needs to get the offense going. Yesterday it was that the offense wasn’t healthy enough to sustain winning. The OC and his play calling wasn’t that bad to merit a week full of bashing. Look at the tape.#69 and #6 are playing terrible. #68,#62 improved but the O line as a group is SOFT. The tape doesn’t lie!
I will fault the OC for trying to run his offense through #88. He’s treating him like he’s a good TE when in fact he’s a slow and average TE. He lines him up in the back, at the LOS, at WR and he’s simply not good enough and it adds a lot of stress to the offense.
The OC shares some faults but the narrative ought to be that the O line and the QB are wrecking the game plan the first 3 weeks.
Don’t believe me do yourself a favor and pay $15/month and get nfl premium and you can see for yourself.
How does that old adage go again, “don’t be a sheep…..”
Joe always gets a laugh from the apparent mindset that a coordinator isn’t responsible for making adjustments and reading what’s working and what’s not, regardless of why. –Joe
October 1st, 2026 at 11:06 am
Amen Steve v
October 1st, 2026 at 11:11 am
“Its baker. Not robinson. Receivers are open. Watch all 22. Open and quick before line is collapsing. SMH”
Pretty much, bad play makes good plays look bad.
October 1st, 2026 at 11:13 am
Makes me think Bowles wanted Robinson because he was no threat to replacing him?
October 1st, 2026 at 11:15 am
Zac Robinson doesn’t need patience. He needs points.
October 1st, 2026 at 11:18 am
ronde barber bucs hero how good was that 1997 2003 defence and him and gruden and brooks still like the bucs bring them back
October 1st, 2026 at 11:24 am
They hired Zac and Liam because of their ties to Baker Mayfield
Zac was the passing game coordinator, Liam the OC
During Mayfield short period with the Rams
Josh Grizzard was promoted because of his familiarity with Baker
Since Mayfield was brought to Tampa
They have been building around him, not the team
They could have hired numerous Offensive Coordinators
October 1st, 2026 at 11:25 am
44 needs a shot. Forget the nuance, the O has to establish something. Preferably the running game
October 1st, 2026 at 11:40 am
We know which hand fills up faster when you hope in one and shat in the other!
October 1st, 2026 at 11:47 am
Ronde said hope oh boy this thing is done and we are just looking at the corpse.
October 1st, 2026 at 11:55 am
As Barber noted, it seems Robinson is dumping zone concepts for gap concepts in the run game which is what Coen did with this line. That is nice to see but I’d like to see the dump-off passes get all but scratched as well.
Bucky Irving’s vision and slippery style are perfectly complimentary for zone blocking that opens the middle of the field but the way the Bucs OL is executing only their opponents are enjoying wide open lanes in the middle of the field. It should be the 5 players doing the blocking’s talents dictating the scheme, not one RB’s. Old school gap blocking when executed perfectly does have the unfortunate side effect of clogging the most direct lines to the end zone with bodies but that’s what this line was built to do and these QBs have a wealth of WRs to hit beyond the line of scrimmage so use the talent at hand to its greatest effect. More gap power and counter with duo concepts. That is what this line was doing when we spoke of them as a top unit in the league. Let them clog the middle and throw over the pile they create. Stop being an NFL offensive fashion victim and rock the weapons at hand. They look like they’re square dancing when they aren’t getting whistled. And stop pulling guards on pass pro sets. These guys don’t have the wiggle for that crap and the other cutesy crap that has everyone looking foolish and hapless.
I like winning. I remember what it was like. I think it’s still awesome.
October 1st, 2026 at 12:00 pm
“Josh Allen and the Bills turn it over 5 times last Sunday! It happens folks”
Josh Allen by himself has outscored us as a team through 3 games.
Sam Darnold led a top 10 scoring offense in 2024 and a top 5 scoring offense in 2025 with 2 different OCs and separate groups of teammates in back to back years. 28-6 record in that span with 2 different teams.
When you make players comparisons, compare the players ability vs. ability.
The moment you start trying to make player to player comparisons’ it MORE about who’s standing on the sideline or their surroundings you start losing the plot. Just sayin
October 1st, 2026 at 12:00 pm
2 Losers. Zac and Todd. Stay tuned for their next album, “Losers Honeymoon”. Bowles has not been a winner and neither has Zac Robinson. I say, “Clean House” Glazers. That is, If..you got the balzs to do so. Thats right thrrow Licht out with the bath water too. Lets start fresh. Because we are not going anywhere this year but to the Titanic Resting place. Thats the botton guys. Now, With the 3rd pick of the 2027 NFL draft, The Tampa Bay Bucs select….
October 1st, 2026 at 12:11 pm
I guess I can’t comment anymore. I’m in moderation hell.
October 1st, 2026 at 12:13 pm
It’s a lot of things that are wrong on the offense, but Zac is not helping with his pathetic play calling. He is not helping Baker in the passing game or doing anything to counteract all out blitzing by the opponents defenses. The guy just isn’t very good with match ups and play calling. Nobody will be calling him for a HC job after the season, much less another OC job. The guy just isn’t very creative with the offense.
October 1st, 2026 at 12:21 pm
“As Barber noted, it seems Robinson is dumping zone concepts for gap concepts in the run game which is what Coen did with this line. That is nice to see but I’d like to see the dump-off passes get all but scratched as well.”
Same on all accounts, especially the screens. By time it hits about 2:30pm est on Saturdays since college football started I’m beyond looking at a million sideways passes. So to turn on NFL football the next day, and see the same thing especially from us is tiresome.
October 1st, 2026 at 12:24 pm
Zac and Bowles will take us to the Super Bowl Baby!!!!!
Joe we are with you too. We lost HOPE last January. Now I wish for Ws but in reality I look forward to see the development of Hurst, Walker, Trotter and Bain. To look forward to a win is as Byron used to say THATS FANTASY FOOTBALL!
October 1st, 2026 at 12:41 pm
badbucs … ‘Carbarry isn’t doing his job. Something needs to be done about the line coaching. Zac cannot continue with such lousy blocking. No play call is safe with all the mistakes and penalties by this line group.’
The Bucs have one of the highest paid OLines in football for a reason … it’s one of the most talented. It was also badly beaten up last season (as I recall, only Barton got through unscathed). So the rest of them are probably still recovering from injuries, to the extent that very possibly none of them are really at 100%. And especially our 2 Guards, Bredeson & Mauch.
Nonetheless, our 5 OLinemen at times look like they’ve never played together. Is it that they’re not 100% healthy? Is it that the blocking schemes are so poorly designed that even the best & healthiest Olinemen couldn’t execute them? Could ask similar questions til the cows come home, but the bottom line is still the same … they’re not getting the job done.
October 1st, 2026 at 1:54 pm
The Vikings have the no 1 Defense in the NFL as of today.
The Bucs had a tough time with them, but still could’ve won the game if Special Teams didn’t screw up and if they can get some quality execution out of the QB position.
The Bucs are not going to fire Bowles or Robinson during the season so all the whining is pointless.
Let’s see how Daniels performs and if he helps the Bucs win games, screw Mayfield and his ridiculous contract,… if Not, well there’s next year.
October 1st, 2026 at 2:05 pm
IMHO
The issues for the O-line is that they never played together during the preseason. I know everyone wanted to play it safe after last year, but you have yet another new OC and the line needs time together to play in the system. I agree with the many that have already commented that we suck because we didn’t use T-Camp and Pre-season to get everyone on the same page. We have a ton of new faces on Offense as well that had never played together as a complete unit before game one. It’s football. I’m dating myself, but my coaches pratices were so hard we looked forward to the games. Yes, that was in the Central Florida heat. Conditioning can prevent a lot of injuries.
Todd! Why aren’t your players in shape ready to play!
October 1st, 2026 at 2:12 pm
Its Baker! Yall need to watch all 22
October 1st, 2026 at 3:07 pm
Hope is not a plan, but neither is a hair trigger. Barber is right, you have to give Robinson some slack. As far as it being all on Baker, based on what the savants here see on the all 22, I see a different story. The offensive line has been destroyed, especially by the Vikings. The backs and tight ends can’t pass block either. As far as the receivers, while talented, they are apparently not well coached or disciplined in their route running. Multiple gaffs on the deep shots against the Browns and multiple times where they have run into coverage which naturally results in in a throw that looks way off. I would imagine that on their routes, they have options. I think they too often make the wrong choice. And to be fair, Baker did single handed cause the loss in Cincinnati, and hasn’t been terrific in the other two as well. He played well enough to win the last two imo. A point of interest regarding PFF as it relates to our offensive line. The highest pass blocking grade for pass blocking in the Vikings game went to Ben Bredeson. He received an 85 point something pass blocking grade.
October 1st, 2026 at 3:07 pm
This offense didn’t work in Atlanta that’s why he isn’t there and it is not going to work here. I am kinda getting sick of everyone wanting the Sean Mcvay clone and offense. First off big difference from Matthew Stafford and Baker and on top of that the Rams got Adams and Puka. You won’t be able to replicate that. Let’s also stop giving Bowles a pass because his defense has been garbage 90 percent of the time. Yes they did play well last week but that is not the norm for that defense. Who gives up 3rd and 28 and Can’t cover TE position except for last week.
October 1st, 2026 at 4:05 pm
If coaching is needed… we are screwed!
October 1st, 2026 at 4:06 pm
Hands down one of the worst offensive coordinators I’ve ever seen. In the last game it was definitely a quarter and a half or more of some of the worst called football I have ever seen. I don’t care how many ways you wrap the poop in gold. It’s still poop
October 1st, 2026 at 5:13 pm
How long will the O line coach, the WR coach, and the play call coach last under Jay and John Gruden? How can it turn out worse? Every one is done with the excuse making. I have never Booed my team. I will not do that but this offense is booable. I’m sure Zach is real good at something on offense but this OC thing is not working out for him nor us. He looks to be way over his head. This mess is what’s called a loose loose situation. If we win this week we are still in the hunt for winning our division. Tez needs a lot of snaps this week. He is good at getting open, probably all they back yard stuff with his brother Bo. Kieft needs to be Daniels body guard too. When Daniels runs Ko needs to be leading the way. If we loose this week it’s on the Glazers and Bruce, period.