What Does The Bucs’ Offense Look Like?
July 30th, 2023
Bucs OC Dave Canales.
So the Bucs have completed three training camp practices. What’s Joe’s takeaway?
Well, the offense will look radically different. Set aside the loss of Tom Brady, it won’t look anything close to what it was with inept fired offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich (SpongeBob).
In fact, the more Joe watched the offense in underwear football last week, the worse SpongeBob looked in retrospect.
The biggest key is the sudden development of Kyle Trask. Previously, Joe had a hard time trying to figure out if Trask was the Bucs’ No. 3 quarterback, forget overtaking Blaine Gabbert.
New offensive coordinator Dave Canales did something with Trask. Joe put out on X on Friday that Trask looks like a totally different quarterback. He’s not practicing better than Baker Mayfield (yet) but the gap has narrowed. Whereas in minicamp and OTAs and the previous two training camps, Trask was throwing lollipops, he’s now throwing ropes to receivers. He also looks quicker, nimble and agile.
Where has this guy been the past two years? For the first time, Trask looks like he belongs in the NFL.
Something clicked. Clearly, Trask had his mechanics worked on. Why wasn’t this done before?
In the past, Trask would have an OK practice, then regress, sometimes brutally so. Through three training camp practices Trask has been consistent. That’s progress.
So the offense is different and Trask has been reprogrammed, that gives Joe early faith in Canales.
Dalton Wasserman and Jim Wyman of the PFF tribe believe the Bucs will be horrid again running the ball this year because the Bucs did not upgrade at running back for the league’s worst rushing attack. And in the PFF tribe’s view, the Bucs didn’t upgrade the offensive line.
It’s hard to imagine how [Leftwich’s] successor will succeed without an improvement in the running game.
(Trust Joe, the last outfit on earth you want to get offensive line analysis from is the PFF tribe. If you want to see NFL types howl in laughter, mention the PFF tribe offensive line grades. You’d think the NFL guys were watching a Sam Kinison video.)
Again, it’s only been underwear football. Joe will get a much better idea when real football resumes at One Buc Palace this week with pads and hitting. But just seeing the plays, style and tempo Canales is using, and the seemingly overnight transformation of Trask, Joe has a hunch Canales has a clue.
SpongeBob had no clue last year.
Besides, when you hit rock bottom as the Bucs’ running game did in 2022 there is nowhere to go but up.
July 30th, 2023 at 10:07 am
Fair analysis. The kid from Syracuse could turn out to be a steal.
July 30th, 2023 at 10:09 am
Don’t forget we were #2 in total passing yards, bet that number is going to go down with Baker Mayfield’s sorry as
July 30th, 2023 at 10:11 am
“Trask’s not practicing better than Baker Mayfield (yet)”
I read your practice notes and an argument can be made that he is. Certainly, Mayfield is not practicing better than Trask.
July 30th, 2023 at 10:14 am
Also, Joe, you seem to overlook the fact that Trask was practicing and playing exclusively with scrubs before, and only now is he getting snaps with the starters. Who he was playing with affected Brady’s play, right?
July 30th, 2023 at 10:36 am
Jack Clark Says:
July 30th, 2023 at 10:09 am
Don’t forget we were #2 in total passing yards, bet that number is going to go down with Baker Mayfield’s sorry as
^^^^^^^^^
It’s not about stats, it’s going to be about winning games. Of course, you and you twin sister HC Grover don’t think the Bucs will win any games.
July 30th, 2023 at 10:39 am
Out with Mayfield in with Trask.
July 30th, 2023 at 10:39 am
#2 in pass yards means very little when you lead the league in pass attempts by a mile because you have 0 running game.
Top 3 in pass attempts. 2022
1. Tom Brady. 733!
2. Justin Herbert. 699
3. Mahomes 648.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:04 am
Can’t wait to see if tucker has the same juice he had in collage. It’s about time bucs get a ace for a rb in the draft. Last one was muscle hamster and he was only good every other year.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:05 am
Joes overlooking they’re in shirts and shorts. QB play becomes way different and way more difficult when the pads come on. Bakers a 🔒 week one.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:12 am
You say Spongebob didn’t have a clue last year I say did he ever have a clue.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:12 am
SOEbuc he’s a lock huh?
The 180 PYPG last year really won you over huh?
July 30th, 2023 at 11:14 am
Wait, I thought Bruce Arians was a QB whisperer?
He coached Peyton Manning, Big Ben, Andrew Luck, Carson Palmer, and Tom Brady. How much whispering had to be done? The only one who didn’t get absolutely killed standing in the pocket was Brady, but that had way more to do with Brady than anything Arians did.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:17 am
In the modern NFL, the average QB takes quite a few hits from DL, LB, and S players. Most starters will miss some games because of injuries! Last season, TB12 avoided that mostly by throwing the ball away or into the ground after about 1.5 seconds. Yes, it was very ugly! This year, BM might very well be injured during the season. So it’s good to see KT becoming NFL ready. He may be needed to start at some point during the season. That’s if he can beat out JW11 for the number 2 qb spot of course!
July 30th, 2023 at 11:18 am
“ Besides, when you hit rock bottom as the Bucs’ running game did in 2022 there is nowhere to go but up. “
While I appreciate the sentiment, and agree that SpongeBob was clueless, I feel the need to point out that there IS one one other place to go then up. Although I feel it won’t happen, we COULD just get nowhere with this new offense. Just sayin’ ….
July 30th, 2023 at 11:27 am
Tbbucs 3 says, “#2 in pass yards means very little when you lead the league in pass attempts by a mile because you have 0 running game.”
I think the yards only mean nothing when you can’t find the end zone and settle for field goals.
If the Bucs scored more TDs when they got into the red zone last season they would have looked way better!
July 30th, 2023 at 11:30 am
We may be watching two different practices.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:32 am
Joe *clearly* pointed this out in the post.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:33 am
This is simply inaccurate. He had some throws to Evans and Godwin. Not many, but he was the No. 3 QB.
Scrubs don’t make a quarterback lollipop the ball most of the time, which Trask was doing this spring to Evans and Godwin. Someone got to him since and reprogrammed him.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:36 am
We didn’t get the #1 pick, so clearly there is room to fall.
SOE is right, Baker Mayfield will start.
…
But he won’t deserve it.
July 30th, 2023 at 11:55 am
“But he won’t deserve it.”
HA! 70 career NFL games started and nearly taking down Mahomes in the playoffs 3 years ago plus by all account seems to be playing better than Trask in camp.
You Trask fans boys will only believe what you want to hear.
You simply can’t have a first year starter paired with a first year play caller, it’s a recipe for disaster, go with the experienced guy.
July 30th, 2023 at 12:02 pm
It is funny to me how I picture the 2 different Joes when reading these articles and then the responses from whichever Joe. There is such a difference in tone and perspective.
July 30th, 2023 at 12:06 pm
The fact that Habitual Complainer Grover wants Trask to start is even more of a reason to start Mayfield, The Habitual Complainer WANTS THE BUCS TO LOSE, to give her more to whine about.
July 30th, 2023 at 12:22 pm
‘Dalton Wasserman and Jim Wyman of the PFF tribe believe the Bucs will be horrid again running the ball this year because the Bucs did not upgrade at running back for the league’s worst rushing attack. And in the PFF tribe’s view, the Bucs didn’t upgrade the offensive line.’
Not understanding the basis of their analysis Joe. We’ve just barely started preseason, so how do they KNOW that we didn’t upgrade our rushing attack? If I had to put our problems running the ball last year in some order, I’d go with (1) SpongeBob was clearly deficient in planning & calling the run game; (2) our OLine was pretty well beaten up & inexperienced; and (3) our RBs paid the price for 1 & 2 above.
I don’t know for sure that Canales will be better at planning & calling the run than Leftwich was (and neither does the PFF Tribe), but I’m confident that he couldn’t do worse. Our OLine has made some significant changes & additions, and I doubt that it could do worse than last year either. Our RBs are all young & relatively inexperienced, but they’re not slouches by any means. With improved planning & a better OLine, they could very well open a bunch of eyes this year. But the fact of the matter is that … at this point … we simply don’t know yet what we have. And neither does the PFF Tribe.
July 30th, 2023 at 12:25 pm
We can be assured that if Cannales still had the GOAT under center this season, with Gabbert as backup, he and his assistants would not be coaching up Kyle Trask as much as he obviously has done so far.
Joe never misses an opportunity to dump on our former OC, while always failing to mention that Coach Leftwich won us a Super Bowl and two NFC South championships with a passing attack always ranked #1 or #2 in the league during his time here. Leftwich proved excellent at coaching up a Brady-led offense and producing great results, even last season despite losing our entire starting offensive line for part or all of the season (a fact that Joe is only belatedly starting to admit, after spend the entire off season mocking Bucs fans who dared to state the obvious, that our O line sucked last season).
Now that the GOAT is retired. it may well be that Byron Leftwich was not the best coach to develop younger quarterbacks. But Leftwich was never incompetent.
Let us hope that Dave Cannales is the right guy to coach our offense this season. But it is far from proven that he is the man, until we’ve played some games that count against real world defenses.
July 30th, 2023 at 12:51 pm
“He’s not practicing better than Baker Mayfield (yet) but the gap has narrowed.”
AGAIN…Buc’s fans, particularly many who post here could get over their battered wives syndrome. It is POSSIBLE to have TWO players on the roster with enough talent to win. I’m rooting for BOTH of these guys and I don’t really care who starts.
July 30th, 2023 at 12:56 pm
Joe,
Jason Licht said clearly that the last two years Trask never practiced or played with the ones and would do so for the first time this year.
July 30th, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Then how come Joe has seen Trask throw to Evans before? No, Trask didn’t regularly practice with the ones, but that doesn’t mean the backups never got a chance to throw to Evans or Playoff Lenny. Hell, today Joe saw John Wolford throw a touchdown pass to Evans.
And remember, when Trask got bumped up to the second team when Brady was in the Bahamas/Caribbean, Trask fully melted down. Shouldn’t a guy have to earn a promotion?
July 30th, 2023 at 1:43 pm
The PFF guys are only looking at personnel and not scheme. When I looked at Seattle’s run game, both backs looked way better than White or Sneak. Tucker may be similar. So I agree our backs may be lacking. Our line has been rearranged and will be running more zone. Most of them are young. The first 4 or 5 games will be tough for the entire offense running a new offense. I’m optimistic that the run game will improve under the zone scheme as long as defenses don’t stack the box because they don’t respect our passing game. We need the play action game to work.
July 30th, 2023 at 1:51 pm
“Whereas in minicamp and OTAs and the previous two training camps, Trask was throwing lollipops, he’s now throwing ropes to receivers. He also looks quicker, nimble and agile.”
If he can throw with velocity without losing accuracy, he’ll be in the NFL for a long time (think Mike Glennon).
That is the best possible news we can hear about Trask.
However I will say I don’t know if I’d give Canales all the credit on that. The Bucs clearly have worked with Trask for a couple of years now trying to get him to change his throwing style, and we might just finally be starting to see the results of that. But I have no doubt that whatever Leftwich was telling Trask was probably the wrong thing.
July 30th, 2023 at 1:54 pm
This must be a different Joe than the one who writes the practice notes. The notes I’ve been reading has Trask playing better than Mayfield all four practices. Now this Joe says Trask is “catching up” and that Mayfield has been better in practices. What gives?
July 30th, 2023 at 2:14 pm
ATLBuc – I’m pretty sure what he’s saying is that Trask started way behind Mayfield, thus he can outperform him and still only be catching up, since he started from so far behind.
July 30th, 2023 at 2:58 pm
Alt Buc says, “This must be a different Joe than the one who writes the practice notes. The notes I’ve been reading has Trask playing better than Mayfield all four practices. Now this Joe says Trask is “catching up” and that Mayfield has been better in practices. What gives?, ”
I’ve read all the Joe’s notes too! I come to the same conclusion as Joe and the 2 other similar Buc sites that I follow!! KT may be catching up to BM but he surely isn’t leading so far.
Altbuc, you are reading into the notes what you want to believe. Imo!
For the record…
For KT to become the starter he will have to perform significantly better than BM! Significantly!! This is because BM has significant NFL game and playoff experience!!!!!! If the competition is close, the experience tips the scale to BM!!! Imo.
July 30th, 2023 at 4:35 pm
Glad it’s a competition. That means we should be set at the position. I’ve definitely been in the Mayfield camp but if *both* are serviceable starters then we should contend for the division.
July 30th, 2023 at 5:37 pm
Sam Kinison? You don’t have any references from like, idk within the last 20 years?
July 30th, 2023 at 6:45 pm
Mike S
No the one game Trask played against a butt ugly ATL team went 3 for 9 for 23 yards wins me over. If it even comes close to a tie Baker will get it based on experience.
July 31st, 2023 at 3:52 am
Thing is its not gonna be close coz Trask is and always was gonna be a great QB
July 31st, 2023 at 5:31 am
“Why wasn’t this done before?”
Joe can get us some real info on this I bet.
I have wondered who was responsible for this heinous crime for some time now.
Go Bucs!
July 31st, 2023 at 3:14 pm
and an old Bucs fan, this reminds me of trying to replace Doug Williams. Free agent experienced QB Jack Thompson vs previous years backup Jerry Golsteyn, who hadn’t thrown a pass in regular season in 5 years. Golsteyn won the preseason, leading the Bucs to more touchdowns, better numbers. Opening day vs Detroit Lions, the Bucs opening drive got sort of into Lions territory. that was closest the Bucs came to scoring all game. Lost 11-0. dont go with the preseason winner, go with the guy who is the best. 1983 Bucs= 2-14 and had no 1st round pick thanks to Jack Thompson. Do I need to list the names of 1983 rookie QBs?? marino, Elway, etc…