Although the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ticked off their fan base by keeping Todd Bowles around as their head coach for at least one more season when everyone wanted him out after an embarrassing mid season collapse, the Bucs did at least clean house with the coordinators this offseason.
The most prominent firing was that of offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard, who had one of the most talented skill position groups in the NFL but still failed to make the playoffs in a historically weak division. And although the Bucs were hurt by injuries to those offensive stars in the middle of the season, once those key men came back, the Bucs still kept losing games.
Grizzard had an uncanny ability to take the ball out of star quarterback Baker Mayfield's hands at critical times, and you could see the frustration from the head strong signal caller setting in with each passing game. The Bucs offense was thoroughly inefficient and entirely unimaginative, somehow getting worse as the season went on and Grizzard was implementing more of his awful, pedantic coaching ideas.
The Buccaneers are in trouble after missing out on Mike McDaniel
Well, the Buccaneers fan base began the offseason after firing Grizzard with dreams of hiring Mike McDaniel or even reuniting with Todd Monken, but neither former Cleveland Browns coaches are on the table at this time for the Bucs.
The pickings are slim, and it appears there are two, equally underwhelming leading candidates to become the next Buccaneers offensive coordinator. As Pewter Report pointed out, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have given two men second interviews for the position. Former Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan and former Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson are the coaches to receive that distinction.
There is no question that the drop off between McDaniel and Monken and then Callahan and Robinson is massive. At this point, most Buccaneers fans are operating under the expectation that Robinson will ultimately be the hire the Bucs have to settle on, and a coaching axis of Todd Bowles on defense and Robinson on offense is the very definition of mediocrity - or, honestly, worse.
Callahan, meanwhile, was a quarterbacks coach in the NFL for multiple teams before becoming the Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator and then the Titans head coach. He appeared to be successful with the Bengals since they reached the Super Bowl with Joe Burrow at quarterback, but his horrid tenure with the Titans revealed that the success in Cincinnati had very little to do with him and more to do with the head coach, Zac Taylor, and the quarterback over there.
The fact that Callahan and Robinson are the main candidates speaks volumes about how unattractive the Bucs job is. Even though the Bucs are loaded on offense and have a good quarterback in Baker Mayfield, the fact that the owners are the Glazers and the head coach is Todd Bowles makes this a place most top offensive minds want to stay away from.