It didn't take long for Todd Bowles to start making big changes to his coaching staff. Just a day after the team revealed that it would be bringing Bowles back for a fifth season, it was announced that offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard would not be.
Grizzard was fired as part of sweeping changes expected to be made to Bowles staff this offseason.
The move doesn't come as much of a shock. Despite starting the season out 5-1, the Bucs historically collapsed to finish 8-9 with offensive struggles playing a big role in the meltdown. It wasn't the only thing that went wrong, but when averaging just 22.4 points per game things probably won't go well.
That just can't happen with an offense with as many weapons as Tampa Bay's.
It's also a move that breaks a streak of offensive coordinators needing just one year with the Bucs to propel them to a head coaching role. While that certainly stinks, it also offers a much-needed chance to hit the reset button.
Todd Bowles and the Buccaneers need to nail Josh Grizzard's replacement
Even with as bad as things went, it's worth remembering that the Bucs have proven in the past that they know how to identify top talent in places others aren't looking yet.
Both Canales and Coen were plucked out of pretty much nowhere in terms of being big names on the coaching market, which should give fans confidence that the team can do it again. The stumble with Grizzard is a necessary humbling of what ended up being an overconfidence that the cycle of having offensive coordinators turn into head coaches could continue -- which is absurd to believe.
What isn't crazy is thinking that whoever replaces Grizzard can take the offense back to great heights. There's insane talent that any rising star would love to come in and try to find a way to utalize; who wouldn't want to coach Bucky Irving, Emeka Egbuka, Jalen McMillan, Chris Godwin, and Mike Evans all with Baker Mayfield leading the charge?
In addition to that, it's safe to say the bar has been lowered, so the next guy who comes in is in an even better position to shine since he'll be directly compared to what happened last year with the goal still being where Canales and Coen ended up.
Don't let the blinders of being upset about Bowles coming back trick anyone into thinking this offensive coordinator role is anything but a top job. For as many arguments that will be made about how Bowles is a "lame duck" head coach, the opportunity coaching the Buccaneers offense provides a rising star or someone looking to polish their head coaching resume outweighs everything.
Tampa Bay's ability to identify under-the-radar talent is why a big name like Brian Daboll or Kliff Kingsbury might not be the answer, where someone like Nate Scheelhaase could be. That's a nae to keep an eye on as someone who has head coach potential but is still looking for his shot at being a coordinator to prove it.
That's the other thing here, this all could give the Bucs a do-over on what seemed to be their plan with Coen. If the idea was to bring Coen back as the highest paid coordinator in NFL history and then have him as an internal candidate to succeed Bowles when he retired, that timeline matches up with someone like Scheelhaase coming in and becoming a star that the Bucs don't have to let out the door.
All of this is to say, for as frustrating as it was to see Bowles come back it's clear that the Bucs aren't going to simply run things back. Changes are being made, and letting Grizzard go is already a sign that things are going to go differently next season.