“I Never Think It’s Fair”
April 3rd, 2023
When Joe chatted with Team Glazer last week at the NFL Annual Meeting, the subject of defrocked offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was raised.
Bucs fans threw all kinds of heat Leftwich’s way for a Bucs offense that woefully underachieved and was the league’s worst in rushing the football. Leftwich was the fall guy — during and after the season.
Was it justified, Mr. Glazer?
JoeBucsFan.com – Did Byron Leftwich deserve all the heat that came his way last year, when many Bucs fans singled him out as the primary culprit in an 8-10 season?
Buccaneers co-owner Joel Glazer: Byron helped lead us to a Super Bowl championship. You know how sports is — whenever you don’t get the results everyone was hoping for, some people want to start looking in one area or another area. I never think it’s fair when anybody points to one person. It’s a team game, a team effort and team result. Our record is our team record and doesn’t just fall on one person.
Hey, Joe felt compelled to go there. What a polarizing figure Leftwich was, though he probably won’t be this season because he is unemployed.
Head coach Todd Bowles talked this week about what a good relationship Leftwich had with Tom Brady and they had good give and take and the Bucs rolled often with what made Brady comfortable.
Joe will dive into that more later this week, but regardless, Joe believes Leftwich deserved all the finger pointing that was thrust upon him.
April 3rd, 2023 at 5:07 am
Yea, basically Leftwich sucked once Arians and his red pen was gone.
April 3rd, 2023 at 5:54 am
Arians would have sucked last year. The coaching has been mediocre all along at best. Brady being part time and the lost of talent on the lines and offensive weapons is the real reason it was so awful.
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:25 am
Was running the ball on first and second down 80% of the time a result of the Brady-Leftwich brain trust? If so, both are where they should be
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:36 am
“defrocked offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich” š¤£š¤£
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:40 am
I canāt really blame the teamās management, but the offense and the FA players that were signed to play there the last couple of years were b/c of Tom. Once he fake retired but decided to return they should have shifted strategies. For example, why was Trask not on the sidelines learning? I didnāt agree with the pick when it was made, but having made it you never gave the kid a chance to actually learn from Brady in the heat of battle. That was a huge wasted opportunity. Where would this team be now if we had passed on Gage and Kyle Rudolph, not resigned Fournette, and left Julio at the school yard. Theyād be richer and more experienced with a better future. I agreed with going all in with Bradyās wishes the first two years, but management should have done their after his first retirement.
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:40 am
Da Bucs Guy your comments funny why bother? Arians is considered a great offensive minded coach and was successful everywhere he went. He broke records with Brady and so what? Brady is the best all time BA was smart about how he used him and it worked thatās half the battle of coaching so I really have no idea what youāre saying.
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:41 am
Da Bucs Guy … ‘Arians would have sucked last year.’
Congrats on being the first JBF commenter I can remember who’s had the balls to write that. I for one agree with you, but I surmise that relatively few will because (1) it’s pure SPECULATION; (2) we won a Super Bowl with BA as our HC so therefore he, like Chucky, becomes unassailable to most; and (3) we had Tom Brady as our QB so we were obviously automatically ENTITLED to a winning season.
Bucs won in 2020 & 2021 by virtue of having an incredible TALENT LEVEL, many of whom will probably end up in the HOF one day (Brady, Gronk, Evans, Godwin on offense; Suh, JPP, LVD, Vea on defense plus a host of others). Not to mention that our defense … coached by Todd Bowles … ranked in the Top-10 in both seasons & provided an average of 27 TOs each season (ranking us #6 in Turnover Differential in both 2020 & 2021).
I loved BA as our coach, but in his previous 3 years without Tom Brady, that incredible 2020-2021 TALENT LEVEL & TOP-10 defenses, Bruce went 7-8-1 in 2016, 8-8 in 2017 and 7-9 in 2019. Like Joel Glazer correctly noted … ‘Itās a team game, a team effort and team result.’
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:50 am
Don’t forget how much the loss of Gronk effected the team. Gronk’s blocking & catches kept so many drives alive!
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:53 am
Byron’s still unemployed? Well isn’t that a shocker.
April 3rd, 2023 at 6:55 am
@AtlBuc
All Bucs 1st downs,
220 rush attempts
273 passing attempts
I do not know where your false 80 percentage came from, that you made up, but your from the ATL so that might explain your terrible education.
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:04 am
It seemed like 80 % to me. Iām from Lakeland
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:08 am
Those 220 were probably in the first quarter and the 273 was us trying to catch up
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:13 am
Like beating a dead horse, thanks O.J..
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:18 am
Will be the same time next year when Bowles is let go. The excuses will be he did not have āhisā QB.
People will point to other things and blame that and discount that he took over a playoff team and had two losing records in a row.
Guys donāt play for Bowles because he is a wooden Indian. Heās a statue.
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:35 am
Glazer is right……”It don’t be fair”
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:37 am
BL was the scapegoat because of Brady’s bad play on the field . Brady sucked without AB and Gronk and that’s a fact. Brady knew he wasn’t as good anymore. I didn’t let AB and Gronk fool me like a lot of people on here did and pushing narratives saying he took the same team Jameis had to the super bowl. They added 2 hall of famers and a pro bowl running back which hid Brady’s decline. The moment he actually played with the same team Jamie had you got the same results. But this fan base only looks for scapegoats and Todd Bowles is the new scapegoat for the bucs this year lol š¤£š¤£ .
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:52 am
Lefty deserves most of the blame but believe this shows very low character in Bowles not trying to defend him. You see what happened in Carolina fired their OC then after 5 games the following year Ruhle got the ax. Finger pointing is not the way to run an organization.
April 3rd, 2023 at 8:07 am
Oneilbuc, BL rarely made adequate adjustments. Rarely called plays that maximized personnel. Doesnāt currently have an NFL job. And you think he was a scapegoat? Your Brady hate has tainted your reasoning ability. Brady is gone and youāre still a grump.
April 3rd, 2023 at 8:33 am
“the Bucs rolled often with what made Brady comfortable”…I get it now.
I was pretty pissed at Leftwich for not incorporating some level of change to give the offense a spark and/or at the very least give the other team something to think about then our 1 dimensional offense had become. Bucs ranked almost dead last in pre-snap motion this past season, then all of sudden in the first half against the Bengals, they ramped up the pre-snap, and the Bengals looked lost and our offense had some life. We got Romo on the telecast saying this is the best the Bucs offense has looked all season. Then come second half, who knows what truly would have transpired, since Brady managed to have one of the worst halves of football I’ve ever seen with 3 or 4 straight consecutive turnovers, but the trend looked like they were going away from pre-snap, and why? Because Brady was not comfortable running it, he is a traditionalist, 20 years ago, read-options and pre-snap motion were left at the college level, probably because there were so few QBs that could be effective with keeping and running it. It’s a trend now, and guys like Mahomes and Lamar run it almost to perfection…and its incredibly effective, especially against our def.
The truth is EVERYONE, Brady needed much more of a supporting cast then you’d like to think. I don’t remember too many years he played behind an Oline in New England that was as bad/patch work and/or banged up without having a functional running game, and without having a true outlet for him to move the chains, i.e. Edelman, Gronk, Welker, etc.
I’m excited about what this season will bring. I think our line will be a little better in some spots, and Canales will bring pre-snap with a QB that can create space and buy time to get a receiver open. We will see.
April 3rd, 2023 at 8:36 am
Lots of guys like Leftwich out there. Guys who have studied football and know it very well in regard to all the concepts.
However, when it comes to actually being average or better than average when it comes to knowing when to call plays, last year confirmed he was below average.
Leftwich was exposed without Bruce Arians on the sidelines or on Friday afternoon without Bruce’s red pen. He was literally like Dungy on offense.
April 3rd, 2023 at 9:12 am
I’m sure Brady was comfortable. He picked what he liked for plays every week. Problem was, he was picking plays from an antiquated and talent centric playbook. The BA system is almost completely reliant on recievers winning their matchup. That’s fine when you have Gronk, ab and a healthy Godwin. Once that went away, plus the losses on the line, you get the results of last year. BL was incapable of making adjustments, because that’s all he knew. The BA offense. It was unrealistic to expect to chance the entire offense midstream. Bowles commented on that during the year. Brady made the best of a bad situation. If you can’t run the ball, you’d better have Josh Allen.
April 3rd, 2023 at 9:18 am
ATLBuc Says:
April 3rd, 2023 at 7:04 am
It seemed like 80 % to me. Iām from Lakeland
____________
Ah, you’re using that Poke County/Medulla Math.
š
April 3rd, 2023 at 9:24 am
Ignoring results for the sake of personal agenda is an oddity. But whatever.
BA as head coach went 7-9 (thanks to JaMiss and 30 picks), 15-5 and SB55, 14-5 with a division crown and a playoff win. Should have been more. Thanks, Toad! Because of BA, Brady chose the Bucs. Because of Brady, some really good free agents chose the Bucs. Some people donāt like BA, probably because he is blunt and has a sense of humor. But there is no denying his offenses were potent. There is also no denying that his offense without him doesnāt work when a boob is entrusted with the keys to the Lamborghini.
Some like to pretend theyāre on a different level of wisdom by typing long paragraphs filled with humorless opinions, copy-pasting statistics and generally qualifying every opinion like a politician.
In the end, results are what matters. BA has āem.
April 3rd, 2023 at 9:41 am
@ DR/Da Bucs Guy
I agree.
BA’s offensive system is outdated and BL didn’t have the immense amount of elite talent that was present in 2019-2021.
– Gronk
– AB
– Marpet
– Jenson
– Cappa
– Godwin (before the knee injury)
– Fournette (before he lost his mojo)
The talent level was able to overcome the offensive system’s inefficiencies…
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:14 am
Oneilbuc, they were historically bad in the run game. Name me a team that made the playoffs with a running game that bad. You can’t because it doesn’t exist. Jay miss had virtually the same line as Brady in 2020 and 21. Tom Bradys “decline” had much more to do with a bad offense, and a lack of talent around him. No QB succeeds in the modern league without talent around them. Your hatred for the goat had blinded you, or maybe you just don’t understand football. I liked winning. You begrudgingly accepted it. That’s not a bucs fan. That’s a fan of failure.
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:15 am
Don’t tell me TB12 wanted to run on 1st and 2nd down most of the time.
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:17 am
Redeemer, Osqueel is likely a bot from a hallucinogenics website, demonstrating what happens when you “eat the brown acid.”
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:22 am
Marine Buc, it was a combination of bad o-line play and bad play calling that forced TB12 to get rid of the ball or be sacked in 2.5 seconds. B A’s no risk it no biscuit is very sound! Imo.
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:24 am
Of course 3 of the 7 players you named were o line men.
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:26 am
I think Glazer has a point. there is plaenty of blame to go around. But try to get the knuckleheads here to see it. Missing a bunch of the O line , Shaqs injury, A runniing back who seemed to think that dancing around in the backfield was gonna make him the second coming of Barry Sanders. Poor special teams play…
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:33 am
NFL=Never Fair League, if in doubt of that interview Trask.
Yes BL made his bed with that lack of any innovation on offense. It was so obvious that no other team even asked for an interview with him.
That lack of interest is the most telling thing.
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:34 am
Itā¦wasā¦fair.
April 3rd, 2023 at 10:48 am
I donāt see how Leftwich was polarizing, everyone agrees that heās terrible.
April 3rd, 2023 at 11:05 am
Redeemer. Brady had Tristan Wirfs at RT vs Jamies Damar Dotson that’s a big difference. In 2020 Brady had a running back that should have had a 1,000 yards but BA didn’t let him get and he didn’t even play the whole season. Brady had AB and Gronk Jamies didn’t have them either. They changed the plays once Brady had threw 12 picks and he had thrown 8 picks in 4 games I believe. They told Jamies to keep slanging it instead of changing the offense. Jamies had a 1000 yard rushing running back only 1 time and he became rookie of the year that year. I’ve watched a bunch of all time great NFL players that got old and washed up because they stayed to long. And it’s ok to acknowledge it when it happened that don’t mean you hate the guy . I seen a washed up Jerry Rice something I thought I would never see . But for some reason you can’t say that about Brady even though it’s the truth. I get it now days you guys are more fans of players than the team. But the definition of haten is how you bash a player that haven’t even played yet. All the negative things you say about Trask is actually hate because you don’t know if he’s good or not. You have no proof of Kyle Trask being a bad quarterback but yet and still every time his name comes up or picture being shown you bash the guy every comment you make about him without any evidence only opinion.
April 3rd, 2023 at 11:37 am
Nobody wants to reveal the truth here. So I will. If Tom Brady had a great season last year? Leftwich would still be the Bucs OC. It was Brady who caused Leftwich to lose his job. His skill were eroding, His O line was depleted, and his ex-wife was in his head. Byron Leftwich became the sacrificial lamb for that. And that’s the truth. Whether you want to hear it or not.
April 3rd, 2023 at 11:52 am
Redeemer … ‘Problem was, he (BL) was picking plays from an antiquated and talent centric playbook.’
That one statement probably comes as close to describing ‘No RiskIt; No Biscuit’ as anyone can Redeemer. Without the elite talent, it wasn’t going to work well in BL’s hands because THAT was the extent of his playbook. I might be wrong, but BL didn’t seem to be creative enough to modify the playbook when things kept going south. He kept trying to do the same things over & over & over … and getting the same results. I guess that (in a nutshell) he just couldn’t adapt to a different reality.
April 3rd, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Mike Johnson … ‘It was Brady who caused Leftwich to lose his job.’
Interesting assessment Mike, but it’s probably only half way there. BL was destined to be ‘exposed’ once BA’s Red Pen vanished. He was smart enough to realize that his success required capitalizing on Tom Brady’s talent & experience, but apparently not capable of adapting once it became obvious that TB12’s talent wasn’t gonna be enough to CARRY the 2022 Bucs. As the supporting structure around Brady began to crumble, so did he. And so would virtually any QB in today’s NFL (even Mahomes couldn’t carry the 2020 Chiefs when their OLine sputtered).
In the end, Byron’s own limitations did him in IMO. Tom Brady being under a LOT of pressure as a 45-year-old starting QB may have accelerated BL’s demise, but it was inevitable once his mentor cut the apron strings.
April 3rd, 2023 at 12:41 pm
He did a downright terrible job last year. Completely stubborn and uncreative and terrible at scheming and okay sequencing. On top of it was completely disrespectful to the media during his press conferences on his high horse where every question he laughed at like whoever asking is a bunch of idiots and gave no business questioning his play calling.
April 3rd, 2023 at 12:44 pm
If he was worth anything at all…he would have been hired somewhere
The word is out. He might as well go to college because I doubt he gets another job in the NFL
April 3rd, 2023 at 1:16 pm
Oneil, you keep moving the goal posts. JW was bad here. For 5 years. Under BA as well. Then he went to the Saints. He was so great they elevated him to starting quarterback. Sarcasm. Oh yeah, he had a couple of decent games after his wings were clipped by Payton who was so overwhelmed with his talent he retired. And now he’s holding a clipboard for them because they were so confident he would take them over the top so they invested in Derek Carr for huge dollars. Sarcasm. Listen, either you’re a fan of this team or you’re a fan of your favorite backup quarterback. I guess you can be both. But might as well get on board if you’re a fan of this team because he’s long gone and will never be seen from under center here again.
April 3rd, 2023 at 2:04 pm
Get em Steven!
April 3rd, 2023 at 2:21 pm
Steven007, Iām curious as to why the Saints started Dalton over Winston then let Dalton walk and sign Winston? I believe their new contracts are pretty close.
OāNeill, you canāt argue with this fan base over Winston. Of course he would have had more success with a better team around him. He had no real TE or pass catching backs. Go see how well all these former Bucs are doing on other teams. Itās hilarious how bad they are.
Brett Favre threw 29 picks one year and no one remembers he went 4-12 that year. There is a narrative that the sports talking heads push and that is that. Most people just jump on their bandwagon.
April 3rd, 2023 at 4:36 pm
007 . I don’t move the goal post for any player but I do remember how bad our defense was back then. I do remember our offense had to score 40 points a game if we were going to win. And Jameis wasn’t perfect by all means but he was asked to do to much without a good defense or running game the same reason people say why Brady struggled last year. So I understand when someone criticize surint players it’s call hate. Brady is exempt from any kind of criticism and other quarterback are not . But I don’t think it’s criticism when you say a player washed up and his time is done. Eventually Pat Mahomes time will come when he’s declined. So it’s normal it happened to all the all time greats and Brady is not exempt from it either!!!
April 3rd, 2023 at 9:01 pm
Am I the only one that thinks the D sucked and that didn’t help? How does Bowles go unscathed in this conversation? Oneilsuckyall, your forgetting the players Brady recruited to win the SB. Also FYI, the Mason and Wirf side were worse run blockers than the left side. Look at the stats.
April 4th, 2023 at 1:13 pm
Brady’s off the field struggles had to affect his on the field situation which didn’t help Leftwich at all, the defense wasn’t all that great at times and that had nothing to do with Leftwich, and we made that guy Head Coach.
April 4th, 2023 at 4:18 pm
Letās be real folks.. this is Year is a rebuilding one. Mayfield is just a plug, and Trask hasnāt played long enough to pick up enough to be a starter. They all have to learn a new offense, which will have a mixture of game plays from Dave Canales. Hoping we can select one of the good quarterbacks coming out next years Draft. This year hopefully they will select a tackle in the first round unless there is a Great, edge rusher available. The. If they can get The RB J Ghibbs from Alabama in the second Round and another TE. That will be good. A DT in the 3rd round and another CB and offensive lineman.