Buccaneers can’t let win distract from obvious coaching issue
By Rob Leeds
The Buccaneers may have stopped their losing skid, but that doesn’t mean that Byron Leftwich needs to remain the offensive coordinator.
It might seem like poor taste to talk about a coaching change in the hours after a win, but the Buccaneers need to keep their offensive production under Byron Leftwich at the forefront of their review.
Tom Brady is off to one of the slowest starts to his career and the Buccaneers have one of the weakest offenses in the league. The sample size is large enough now that you can’t just blame this on a new team, injuries, or new players.
Is such an unproductive offense worth keeping? How is maintaining the status quo in this area worth it in an offensive league?
The Bucs have no choice but to fire Byron Leftwich. It felt like this was inevitable if the team lost to the Rams last night, but a win create a cloud of murkiness going forward. Can the team really fire Leftwich after a win? They should.
At the very least, Bowles needs to fire Leftwich based on the run game alone. For a coach that talks about the run as much as Bowles does, he has no business being satisfied by one of the worst rushing attacks in league history.
The issue under Leftwich isn’t volume. The true problems lie in the scheming, play-calling, and style of running employed.
Twenty rushes in a game is fine for a team like the Bucs that needs to rely on the pass and the primary focus. Those twenty rushes can be far more effective under a different coordinator.
One way or another, the Buccaneers need to make a change. So few points per game is not going to work come the playoffs. If Todd Bowles really wants to win football games, he needs to make a change with his coordinator, even if he is coming off a win.
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