It's probably been a day at the Buccaneers' practice facility. On Thursday morning, it was announced – somewhat surprisingly – that Tampa Bay's offensive coordinator Dave Canales was leaving the team to become the head coach of the Carolina Panthers. The hiring is a bit of a surprise on two fronts: Canales' name wasn't being floated around quite as publicly as some of the other offensive coordinators around the league, and it's not every day that a coach leaves a team for one of their division rivals. 2023 was also the first time in Canales' career that he was a coordinator, so the Panthers are going out on somehwat of a limb here. But he does have experience helping to revive the careers of Geno Smith in Seattle and Baker Mayfield in Tampa, so the reason's why Carolina would want him are pretty clear. As for the Bucs, they'll now pivot into an impromtu-ish coordinator search with the hopes that whoever they hire will persuade Mayfield to return in 2024 and beyond. Here are three guys that could fit the bill.
1. Thaddeus Lewis -- Bucs QB Coach
With all the offensive coordinators getting head coaching gigs these days, this seems like a growing trend that we're going to start seeing more of. It's already happening in Cincinnati – after offensive coordinator Brian Callahan left to go take the Titans job, they turned around and promoted QB coach Dan Pitcher. The Bucs could do the same for Lewis – he played in the NFL for seven years, and has been with the Bucs in a variety of roles since the 2021 season. Lewis played a major part in Baker Mayfields' career resurgence, and teams certainly took notice: on Thursday, the Raiders officially requested to interview him for their open OC position. So the Bucs would have to move quickly, but if they value some continuity from this year's Divisional Round run, Lewis would be the guy to hire.
2. Zac Robinson -- Rams Passing Game Coordinator
Robinson seems like the last big name McVay coordinator left, which could be great news for the Bucs. He's in plenty of demand – he has interviews with the Raiders, Saints, and Bears, and reportedly was the runner up behind Seahawks OC Shane Waldron for the OC job in Chicago. Robinson's entire coaching career has been spent in LA, where he joined in 2019 as the assistant QB coach before spending some time as the WR coach, and then being named the passing game coordinator/QB coach in 2022. He knows the McVay offense as well as anyone, and in theory would pair well with a defensive-minded head coach like Todd Bowels. He'd also be a good person to have in the building if the Bucs were hellbent on bringing Mayfield back – the two crossed paths during Mayfields' short-but-useful time with the Rams in 2022.
3. Kellen Moore -- LA Chargers OC
Moore's a bit of a moonshot choice, especially because as of earlier this week, the Chargers were blocking interview requests from other teams. But now that they've hired Jim Harbaugh, it seems like there's been a change of heart in LA: on Thursday, it was reported that the Cleveland Browns were interested in interviewing Moore for their OC opening, and that the Chargers weren't going to get in the way of that happening. Moore's one year in LA was sort of a huge disaster, but so was everyone's. Before that, his half-decade spent running the Cowboys' offense speaks for itself. He'd bring one of the NFL's highest-scoring offensive schemes to Tampa, and has plenty of experience playcalling. If they can manage to keep him away from Cleveland, Philadelphia, or any of the other half-dozen teams that'll probably hand him a blank check, Moore would do wonders for a Bucs' offense that was fairly mediocre in 2023.