The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offense was very good in 2024, breaking multiple franchise records and ranking in the top five in the NFL in a variety of categories. Josh Grizzard, who was the passing game coordinator for that offense and is now the Buccaneers' offensive coordinator following the departure of Liam Coen, thinks it can get even better.
"At the end of the day, as coaches, we need to be able to adjust to scheme. It could be on a yearly basis, [or] it could be on a weekly basis, to put the players in a position to score points. That's what we're tasked to do, and now having another offseason to be able to add to that and add different pieces – we feel like last year was just the foundation to be able to take it to the next level."
The bar is set high but that foundation is indeed solid. The Buccaneers finished the season ranked third in both total yards (399.6 per game) and passing yards (250.4), fourth in both rushing yards (149.2) and points scored (29.5), third in yards per carry (5.23), fifth in yards per pass play (7.46), second in first downs (23.2) and fourth in red zone touchdown rate (66.7%). The Buccaneers converted third downs at a 50.9% clip, the best in the NFL and a new team record by a wide margin.
The Bucs also rushed for more yards in a season (2,536) than they ever had before, averaged more yards per carry than ever before, set a new team record with a 106.8 passer rating and 71.5% completion rate and became the first team in NFL history to both complete over 70% of its passes and run for more than five yards per carry.
All of this, of course, is what made Coen a name of interest in the 2025 head coach hiring cycle, and the Jacksonville Jaguars hired him on January 24. The Buccaneers followed with a fast-moving but intensive search for his replacement and, after interviewing five candidates from other team's staff, ultimately chose to promote Grizzard. Head Coach Todd Bowles liked the continuity the move would provide the players, but also believes Grizzard has a creative offensive mind and can bring new innovations to the scheme.
Coen repeated the term "next level" multiple times during his introductory press conference on Thursday, and finished the Q&A with this:
"I'm fired up. You guys know the foundation that's in place. We didn't come here to go to the playoffs and lose a home game, so we're trying to take it to the next level [and] try to bring a championship back to Tampa, and I'm fired up to be here and try to lead this unit down the road."
It's clear, then, that "next level" in this context alludes to team success, but Grizzard also sees a path to an offense that is even more dangerous and diverse in 2025. His confidence is based on continuity, not only in regards to his own promotion but on the rest of the coaching staff as well as the roster. The Buccaneers face the potential free agency losses of wide receiver Chris Godwin and left guard Ben Bredeson, but they could also bring those two back, and the rest of that unit should be mostly intact.
Grizzard thinks that will allow the offense to hit the ground running when the team reconvenes in the spring.
"The continuity of having the staff and the players together is the most important part because we can go from installing an offense to naming plays, route concepts and halfback footwork to just know now," he said. "Once we hit the field, that's the base level. What we did on the fundamentals we can now evolve to the next level of the teaching of coverages, of D-line technique, [etc.] – that way we can now expand the scheme, continue to add from around the league, add from college [and] continue to put pressure on the defense [as we] try to score points."
Grizzard doesn't plan to start from the ground up in building out the Bucs' 2025 offense, nor would the team want him to given the successes of last season and the carryover of personnel. But there will be some additions and subtractions to that personnel, and thus reasons to continue evolving the playbook.
"The continuity will remain essentially the same," said Grizzard. "What you want to do, like we did last year, is morph it to the players. You can morph after the draft, like it was last year, or in-season based on who is hurt or who is not. But we want to keep the root of that the same because that takes as much time as anything. With that said, I do think you have to evolve every year because now there is a full season of tape on what we did here and now people are studying that. We can go from the college ranks; we can do studies from around the league to put our unique spin on it. There are definitely things I've done in my past that I want to add to it to continue to apply pressure, but again, the last thing you want is to get stagnant, so now we can take it to the next level."
