While the offseason strategy for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wasn't necessarily an out with the old, in with the new approach, the team did replace a key member from last year's squad.
Dave Canales parlayed his single season of running the Bucs offense into a head coaching job with the Carolina Panthers. It was a bittersweet moment for the guys who hired him, as losing Canales created an unforeseen challenge while also serving as a feather in their cap.
Most fans viewed it as a turncoat moment for a guy who had already worn them thin. Canales offered a fresh approach from what Byron Leftwich did before getting fired last offseason, but things were far from perfect.
One of the biggest criticisms was Canales' obsessive need to force the run game, something that rarely worked despite how emotional he got about trying to make it happen. Rachaad White was a breakout star last year but mostly because of what he did in the passing game, while the Bucs run game still ranked near the bottom of the league.
With Canales gone, Liam Coen was hired to replace him and he's wasting no time in taking some shots at his predecessor.
Liam Coen roasted Dave Canales over how he ran Buccaneers offense last season
It wasn't just Bucs fans who saw that the overreliance on the run game was a detriment to the rest of the offense. Coen mentioned as much in his press confernce this week ahead of rookie minicamp opening up.
Coen not only described how he plans on fixing the offense, he threw Canales under every single wheel of the bus.
“Some diversity in terms of giving these guys different ways of hitting blocks, whether it’s the mid-zone, the wide one, the tight zone, duo, gap with pullers, perimeter runs — defenses are too good to say that, ‘We’re just going to line up and run a few runs,'” Coen said. “We have to give these guys a toolbox, and also, that goes along with giving them multiple plays in the huddle. “
That pretty much addresses every frustration Bucs fans had last year with Canales.
It's worth pointing out that not everything with Canales was bad. He helped change the pace in a much needed way for a lot of the offense, but he couldn't help reaching for the run game like it was the Holy Grail at the end of Last Crusade, just like Leftwich did.
Coen doesn't seem to have that stubbornness, or at least has the ability to see that what didn't work for the last two guys probably won't work for him no matter how hard he forces it. That's a key change, and it's one that could help open up other things on offense as well.
A major failure for Canales was not finding ways to scheme Chris Godwin or Mike Evans into being bigger parts of the offense. Coen aims to change that, and it all starts with finally figuring out how to get the run game going, and it seems the new guy in charge isn't going to make the same old mistakes.