Last Year For Leftwich?
May 11th, 2020
Bruce Arians speaks
What exactly is Bucco Bruce Arians’ role in the Tampa Bay offense?
A detailed answer is hard to come by, but the head coach keeps repeating that he’s passed a lot of the baton to offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.
Arians was asked last week on KMVP radio, “How much are your hands on this offense because I know you’ve passed of a lot to Bryon Leftwich, correct?”
Arians replied, “I really did. Yeah. It’s the same stuff we’ve been running for years and years and he did a great, great job with it. I couldn’t be more happier. I’m sure if we have success, he’s going to be a candidate to be a head coach. I still got my hands in it pretty good. But he’s done a heck of a job with it.”
Consider that Leftwich was the playcaller for the NFL’s No. 3-ranked offense with a starting quarterback no team wants to be its starter.
When has that been accomplished in NFL history?
Think about it more from the Leftwich/offensive coordinator perspective. No middle-tier starting running back on the 2019 roster. No starting QB on the roster. Offensive linemen in Demar Dotson and Earl Watford combined for 19 starts and now they can’t find work.
The man worked miracles! It makes Joe wonder long and hard about why Leftwich wasn’t a head coaching candidate this past offseason. (For the comprehension challenged, Joe wrote “candidate.”)
If the Bucs offense is strong again this season and Leftwich departs, Joe assumes Arians is the only guy to take over the playcalling, which would drastically ramp up his stress and responsibilities — unless new Bucs icon Tom Brady slides into the role of QB/GM/playcaller.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:06 am
If Bucs win SB, Arians will retire
May 11th, 2020 at 10:11 am
First of all STOP
May 11th, 2020 at 10:15 am
First of all STOP with all the SB talk. Think playoffs this year. Secondly is old man BA Bucco Bruce going to now take all the credit when Brady takes this team into the playoffs?? and screw over Byron for the credit he deserves. I say BA’s ego will take over and he will have to act like he does more than drive around in a golf cart like the typical Florida retireee that he is. Can’t wait for this dude and his staff of never won anything coaches are gone.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:19 am
There is no way I believe Leftwich is ready to be a head coach. If Arians retires and they give the job to him, I don’t think it will go well.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:20 am
TB12 does not require anyone to call his plays and the Bucs could prolly go sans OC next year. First and foremost is just WIN baby(homage to Al Davis).
May 11th, 2020 at 10:22 am
One thing is for sure, whatever teams make the Super Bowl next year will have their OC and DC at the front of the line for HC interviews.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:24 am
Leftwich’s play calling was terrible inside his own 25. Very vanilla.
He did much better inside the redzone. More imagination.
As we’ve seen with Peter Principle poster boy Dirk Koeter, Leftwich is probably at his limit as an OC.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:43 am
The only credit I give for last year’s offense are to the receiving corps, and to a limited extent the reject, #3. These receivers will make any QB look much better than they are, just like historically, TB12 made receivers look better than they were.
Winston’s only real contribution was his strong arm and fearless play. But those qualities don’t win so many games when they are overridden by bad decision making that made him dangerous (for both teams) and careless–overall a failure on the field, and a team image risk off the field. All 32 teams in the NFL know that. That is without question now.
Leftwich really gets a C- to D from me if he actually called so many of those plays. This team had a #3 ranked offense not so much because of Leftwich, but despite him. And they had another sub .500 because of both he and Winston.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:44 am
The problem for Leftwich is who will he bring in to help teach the offense, I’d have a problem with him taking coaches from our staff but apparently BA doesn’t
May 11th, 2020 at 10:44 am
Once Byron gets a head coach gig and Hameosgets a chance to lead an offense called by Sean Payton, everyone will see it was Winston that made Leftwich….not the other way around.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:45 am
I think a year of working with Brady (and learning from him) will be another feather in Leftwich’s hat for sure. He’ll certainly have been exposed to a lot of great football minds
May 11th, 2020 at 10:46 am
Leftwich was a very inconsistent playcaller. He let off the gas in several games when we took leads, including that Giants loss. He also did a poor job calling run plays, with too many 1st down HB dives, which was a big reason we struggled in the run game. He also did not call nearly enough play action, which analytics shows us does NOT need an effective running attack to be effective, and analytics also shows us Winston played much better with play action (and analytics shows us that generally speaking, play action is the most effective passing tool). Hopefully Byron learned a lot in the off-season from watching film and will correct those mistakes, because they held us back last year.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:47 am
If we win the Super Bowl this year the Bucs would be smart to let BA retire if he wants and let Leftwich become a Head Coach elsewhere and hire Brady as our Head Coach and play caller like Chucky used to do but retain all the BA Coaches to continue to develop our rookies.
May 11th, 2020 at 10:54 am
Everyone likes to speculate!!! BA said it was Leftwich’s playcalling and game planning, so why can’t that be the truth? Why is it all the receivers? Or all Jameis? We didn’t have the #3 offense with Koetter. The redzone efficiency is why I say it wasn’t the players because they sucked at it the year before. Redzone offense definitely points to the playcalling and by that measure, LEFTWICH was one of the best in the business in 2019! Maybe he sux as a head coach, but running the offense after 1 year looks like we may have a gem in Leftwich!
May 11th, 2020 at 10:54 am
Hopefully Sennett will be trained by Brady this year so he can take over after Brady retires. That would be good if we hire Brady as our next Head Coach.
May 11th, 2020 at 11:05 am
Lefty will not be a HC in the forseeable future. At least 5 yrs. If he becomes HC anywhere he wiil surely get the GM fired. What the hell has he done to deserve consideration for HC? Except to ride on BA’s coat strings. Bowles deserves another chance before Lefty.
May 11th, 2020 at 11:15 am
If Leftwich leaves, which I doubt, Arians will toss his kid in as OC. The overlying plot of the offense is still Arians work, Leftwich just filled in the blanks.
There are too many people in front of Leftwich in the head coaching queue to keep him here for three or four years.
May 11th, 2020 at 11:22 am
@Buddy: Why do you want BA gone?
May 11th, 2020 at 11:30 am
If we have a great offense this year, BA needs to take a hike unless we were to win the Super Bowl or go to NFC Championship. He’s retiring within the next 2-3 years and with Byron hopefully our good coaching staff will hang around as well. Byron is going to have his own OC in Brady this year and we’ll see how it plays out.
May 11th, 2020 at 11:40 am
BL will not be a head coach next year or anytime soon. I’m sorry if Eric Bienemy hasn’t got a job as a head coach and he’s been successful with Andy Reid for years as well as winning the Super Bowl last year. I don’t see BL getting one before him. And what’s with all this talk of hiring Brady as a head coach? Has he spoke about wanting to be a coach? He’s the Goat as a player but most guys with that level of success on the field or court( think Jordan or Kobe) will not be successful as a coach because they’ll expect everyone to put in the same time and effort that they did and we all know that’s not going to happen.
May 11th, 2020 at 11:43 am
I can see Byron getting a HC job and then trading for Jameis !!
May 11th, 2020 at 11:46 am
Arians would hire Freddie Kitchens if Leftwich leaves.
May 11th, 2020 at 12:21 pm
@Joe … “The man worked miracles!” I’m still trying to convince myself that you REALLY wrote that Joe. That craft beer must be powerful stuff.
According to BA, “It’s the same stuff we’ve been running for years and years”. Does THAT sound like a coach who adapts his attack to his players’ talents & skills?
Bucs’ scored 458 points last year (28.6 PPG), of which the Bucs’ DEFENSE contributed SIX TDs. Subtract those 42 points and the Bucs’ offense scored 416 points in 16 games … 26.0 PPG. Of course the Bucs’ DEFENSE also produced another 22 turnovers, resulting in a lot of short fields that the Bucs’ offense benefitted from. But hey, forget those. Let’s make sure that Byron Leftwich gets all the credit. To include sharing credit for our 7-9 record last year of course.
BTW Joe, only SEVEN teams passed for over 4,000 yards last season: Bucs (4,845 yds); Cowboys (4,751 yds); Falcons (4,714 yds); Rams (4,499 yds); Chiefs (4,498 yds); Chargers (4,426 yds); and the Saints (4,244 yds). Of those, only TWO made the playoffs (Chiefs & Saints). Those 2 teams had very good Turnover Differentials (Saints – PLUS 15 and Chiefs – PLUS 8). The other 5 teams (who didn’t make the playoffs) had 0 (Rams) or negative Turnover Differentials (Cowboys, Falcons, Bucs, Chargers). Hmmm, just an observation.
May 11th, 2020 at 12:37 pm
813bucboi Says:
December 15th, 2019 at 5:22 pm
Mentioned this earlier
make BA president of football operations
Make BL HC/OC
Make TB asst HC/DC
Do all of this when the time is right….
Bring everyone back….consistency is key
GO BUCS
its happening!!!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!!!
May 11th, 2020 at 1:14 pm
It looks like ole stale biscuit’s “role” is a cinnamon roll, by the looks of him!!!!!!!!!!!!
go bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 11th, 2020 at 1:51 pm
Yawn…. Knob gobbler
May 11th, 2020 at 1:54 pm
Prada I don’t see that trade, Jaymiss is not coach able, and we know why he’s warming a bench at our divisional rivals. I see Leftwich working with someone who can listen and adapt.
May 11th, 2020 at 1:55 pm
Tom I agree Bowles deserves a HC position before Leftwich.
May 11th, 2020 at 2:03 pm
For the betterment of the Bucs Franchise, the “real” fans hope that it is leftwich’s last year
And
Ole stale biscuit’s last year!!!!!!! And
Licht bulb’s last year!!!!!!!!! And
Toilet bowles last year!!!!!!!!!! And
The one hundred coaches on the staff last year!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 11th, 2020 at 2:04 pm
If BA retires soon I hope it’s after a great year. Preferably a Super Bowl victory. I see us making the playoffs this year and getting close but winning it all next year. Then BA retires and with BL or TB (Todd not Tom) becomes the head coach. Starting over with an entire new regime would not be good. We need stable coaching for this franchise. I’m not of the Super Bowl or bust this year crowd. The coaches get the 2yrs that Brady is signed for.
May 11th, 2020 at 2:13 pm
Leftwich had two primary responsibilities when the season started.
First implement BA’s game plans and call the plays in a no risk it no biscuit offense. BL gets an A in this area. The team clearly moved the ball…lots of yards and TD’s.
Second..BL was supposed to calm our excitable QB. Remember how even “Blameless” said the fact that BL was a “black” QB in the NFL made him understand JW better. So did BL bring consistency to our “Wild Child”?
He gets an F there. So I guess you average the F with the A and he gets a C overall.
May 11th, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Remember when we thought this about Mike Smith..
May 11th, 2020 at 3:24 pm
Josh McDaniels OC with Tom, NOT a HC. why you think Leftwich one year with Tom will be a HC somewhere ….. and the most important, why we care !!! he is not a HC material, end never will be.
May 11th, 2020 at 4:20 pm
for the betterment of the bucs franchise the “real” fans were blessed with 2018 being dirks last last!!!!…and smitty!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!!
May 11th, 2020 at 4:25 pm
Everyone seems to dislike Byron Leftwich – wow.
El Buco was a huge Mike Smith fan – wow.
May 11th, 2020 at 4:27 pm
@Bonzai I agree. I believe Bowles would be better suited to take over the team after Arians retires. He had some success in NY until his Gm ran the talent into the ground.
May 11th, 2020 at 5:24 pm
If Lefty were smart, he’d build on what’s here for the next two years, and step into a ready made situation with the Bucs.
May 11th, 2020 at 5:48 pm
He was coachable enough to put up 5.000 in a new offense and lead his team to the 3rd best offense in the league! …..hey maybe he like Brady and don’t need no coaching….just needed a team around him, like Brady had!!
May 11th, 2020 at 7:14 pm
Todd Bowles is the next HC of this team and Byron will get another team’s gig – in 2022 after we win back to back SB
All the hype is Brady, Gronk – the O and understandably so from the outside looking in
The story of the 2020 Bucs will be their DEFENSE – Bowles is building an absolutely filthy D -the speed – the play makers – the way he attacks full throttle
Much like our last SB run, the D will carry us until the O starts clicking – then, WATCH THE F OUT!!!!!!
May 11th, 2020 at 9:15 pm
You folks have lost your minds. Lefty doesn’t have enough exp to coach a little league team. All he is doing is implementing an offense that is already in place folks. He created very little of the offense in Tampa Bay. This is his growing years. He has a long way to go to be in those HC shoes. GO BUCS!!! I really believe some of you are nuts lol
May 11th, 2020 at 10:34 pm
Leftwich also contributed to Winston’s 30-30. He needs TB12 to have a great season without throwing INTs.
May 12th, 2020 at 6:33 am
Wow, joe. What a take. I like leftwich.. but the only “miracle” he worked was turning a promising starting qb into a guy that threw so many picks, every other team was scared to touch him. Considering this comment section is 99% jameis hate, i don’t anticipate many people realize that multiple people played a role in those 30 picks. A reigning passing leader has never switched teams during the offseason, much less been passed over for a starting gig. We also blew a second half lead in 13 GAMES last season. So take it down a notch with the praise, at least until we know hes capable of making a second half adjustment. All that being said, im hoping we hand him the keys next year (after proving hes HC material) and the glazers finally give jameis the 115 million dollar contract he was promised this offseason. The reactions on this website alone would be priceless.
May 12th, 2020 at 9:07 am
Penny – JW ‘a reigning passing leader’ was not only passed for a starting gig, he was passed as backup as well. NO also traded next draft capital to get there third stringer in the mold of Taysom. JW has a far better chance of getting cut before the season starts than getting a $100+M contract.
In BA I Trust!