Thaddeus Lewis enters his second season as quarterbacks coach with the Buccaneers in 2024, after spending the prior two seasons as the team's assistant wide receivers coach.
In year one as Tampa Bay's quarterbacks coach, Lewis oversaw a Pro Bowl campaign for first-year Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield, in which Mayfield set career highs in completions (364), completion percentage (63.4%), passing yards (4,044) and passing touchdowns (28) on his way to the 2023 Pro Football Writers of America Most Improved Player award. Mayfield finished seventh in the NFL in passing touchdowns, tied for eighth in passing first downs (188), ninth in passing yards, 10th in completions (364) and 10th in touchdown-to-interception ratio (2.8). With Lewis' instruction, Mayfield was 1-of-2 quarterbacks – alongside Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys – to put forth 4,000+ passing yards and 25+ passing touchdowns while throwing for 10-or-fewer interceptions in 2023. In the 2023 playoffs, Mayfield posted a 106.5 passer rating – the highest career postseason passer rating by any player in franchise history. Mayfield became the only quarterback in club history to throw for 300-or-more yards and three- or-more passing touchdowns in a postseason contest, and he did so in each of the team's playoff contests.
Lewis' final year working with the wide receivers saw both Mike Evans (1,124) and Chris Godwin (1,023) surpass the 1,000-yard mark for the second consecutive season. That duo is one of just three pairs of teammates across the NFL to have put forth back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 2020-21. In his return from ACL and MCL tears late in the 2021 season, Godwin set a career high with 104 receptions in 2022 – the second-most receptions in a single season in Buccaneers' team history. As a group, Tampa Bay wide receivers led the NFL in receptions (299) and ranked third among all wide receiver corps in yards (3,252) and first downs (166) for the league's second-ranked passing offense (269.8 pass yards per game).
In his first season as assistant wide receivers coach in 2021, Lewis worked alongside former wide receivers coach Kevin Garver to instruct the NFL's most-productive receiving corps, with Tampa Bay leading the league in receptions (492), receiving yards (5,383), receiving touchdowns (43) and receiving first downs (273). The Buccaneers had a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in Mike Evans (1,035) and Chris Godwin (1,103). In 14 games played, Godwin finished second in team history with his 98 receptions, while Evans secured a Pro Bowl selection after setting a franchise record with 14 receiving touchdowns.
Lewis began his NFL coaching career in Tampa Bay during the 2020 season as a representative of the Bill Walsh coaching fellow program, during which he worked as an assistant to the offense during the Buccaneers Super Bowl LV championship season.
Prior to arriving in Tampa Bay, Lewis began his coaching career by spending two years as an offensive analyst at UCLA under Chip Kelly from 2018-19.
Lewis was a four-year starter at quarterback for Duke (2006-09), where he set school records for career passing yards (10,065) and passing touchdowns (67) and added nine rushing touchdowns. He also set Duke's program record for most consecutive pass attempts without an interception at 206. He was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award – presented to the nation's top quarterback – in his senior season in 2009. Lewis then went on to spend parts of eight seasons in the NFL (2010-17) with the St. Louis Rams, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens. He played in seven career games, making six starts, recording 115 completions for 1,296 passing yards and five passing touchdowns, adding one rushing touchdown.
Lewis is a native of Opa-locka, Florida.
