Who is Thomas McGaughey, the Buccaneers new Special Teams Coordinator?

Since suffering a tough season-ending loss to Detroit in the NFC Divisional round, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have already begun to revitalize and make key changes to their coaching staff this offseason. The moves began with the departure of offensive coordinator Dave Canales, who left the Buccaneers to become the Panthers' head coach and has continued seemingly non-stop ever since.

For the next two weeks, Tampa Bay held interviews with ten different candidates for the offensive coordinator position but missed out on Zac Robinson, Kellen Moore, and Ken Dorsey, who were the Buccaneers' top candidates. On February 2nd, Tampa Bay officially hired Liam Coen as their next offensive coordinator, who previously served as Los Angeles' and University of Kentucky's offensive coordinator.

Just days after being hired, Coen began working with head coach Todd Bowles to shape their coaching staff. The first move Coen and Bowles made was to hire Kevin Carberry as the team's new offensive line coach, replacing former o-line coach Joe Gilbert, who followed Canales to Carolina.

The changes reached all the to special teams, where Keith Armstrong's retirement after 30 seasons in the NFL created a need to find a replacement. The Bucs did that, hiring Thomas McGaughey as their new Special Teams Coordinator.

Before joining Tampa Bay, McGaughey spent the last six seasons as the special teams coordinator for the New York Giants, and worked alongside Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, and Brian Daboll. During McGaughey's six-year tenure with the Giants, the Giants' special teams ranked sixth in the NFL in field goal percentage (87.1%), fifth in opponent kickoff return average (21.2), and ninth in opponent punt return average (7.8).

In 2023, New York ranked seventh in opponent punt return average with 6.9 yards per attempt, their third season finishing in the top seven under McGaughey. In addition, the Giants finished inside the top two in opponent kickoff return average in three of those six campaigns.

During his 17-year tenure as an NFL coach and coordinator, McGaughey has had stints with Kansas City (2002), Denver (2005-06), New York (AFC) (2014), San Francisco (2015), and Carolina (2016-17).

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