John Van Dam begins his sixth season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2024, and his first as pass game assistant.
Leading the tight ends room in 2023, Van Dam coached second-year tight end Cade Otton to career highs in receptions (47), receiving yards (455) and receiving touchdowns (four). In the playoffs, Otton led the team with 13 receptions, amassing 154 yards and a touchdown reception. His 154 yards were the second-most by a Tampa Bay player in a single postseason, trailing only Cameron Brate's 175 receiving yards during the Buccaneers run to a Super Bowl LV title following the 2020 season.
In Van Dam's first season as tight ends coach for the Buccaneers in 2022, he led a group of tight ends that combined for a total of 72 receptions for 673 yards and four touchdowns. Individually, Otton led all rookies at his position in receptions (42), ranked third in receiving yards (391), and fourth in receiving yards per game (24.4). Otton's 42 receptions were the second-most by a rookie tight end in franchise history.
In 2021, Van Dam served as assistant tight ends coach – his first season working specifically with that unit. Tampa Bay's tight end corps combined for 1,182 receiving yards and 11 receiving touchdowns in 2021 for an offense that finished first in each of those categories as a team. Individually, tight end Rob Gronkowski finished third among all tight ends with 66.8 receiving yards per game, and his 55 receptions and 802 receiving yards were each his most in a season since 2017.
Van Dam was promoted from offensive quality control coach to assistant tights coach following Tampa Bay's Super Bowl LV championship season in 2020. During the 2020 season, Van Dam assisted the league's second-ranked scoring offense (30.2 offensive points per game). The Buccaneers scored 30-or-more points in 12 games between the regular season and postseason – including seven-consecutive 30-point games to finish the season – which were the second-most such games in the NFL in 2020. Tampa Bay ranked fourth in the NFL with a +137 point differential during the regular season. In addition to the scoring, the Buccaneers finished fourth in passing yards per game (298.5), seventh in total offense (384.1), seventh in red zone efficiency (68.9%), seventh in yards per play (6.0) and 10th in first downs per game (22).
In his first season handling quality control efforts for the Buccaneers, Tampa Bay finished first in the league in passing offense (302.8 ypg), third in total offense (397.9 ypg) and tied for third in points scored per game (28.6 ppg). Van Dam spent a lot of time working closely with the tight end and quarterback groups, where starting quarterback Jameis Winston threw for a franchise record 5,109 yards passing and 33 touchdowns.
Van Dam came to Tampa Bay from Lafayette (Pa.) College, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2018. Prior to that, Van Dam was the offensive coordinator for Southern Illinois for two seasons (2016-17). In 2016, the Salukis led the Missouri Valley Conference in total offense (470.2 yards per game), ranked second in points per game (30.9), and set a school record and led the Missouri Valley Conference in passing yards in a season with 3,660.
Before arriving at Southern Illinois, Van Dam served as offensive quality control assistant and assistant quarterbacks coach at the University of Florida in 2015 and served in a similar role at the University of Michigan in 2014. That followed two seasons at the University of Alabama, where he was an offensive graduate assistant, primarily working with wide receivers and running the offensive and special teams scout teams. During his time with the Crimson Tide, the program won the SEC title in 2012 and the 2013 BCS National Championship. Van Dam was also a graduate assistant and tight ends coach at Augustana (SD) College in 2008 and 2009 before being promoted to wide receivers coach in 2010 and 2011.
A native of East Lansing, Mich., Van Dam played quarterback at Michigan State, where he earned Academic All-Big 10 honors from 2006-08. He and his wife, Heather, have three children – daughters, Vada and Julia, and a son, Joseph.
