Byron Leftwich Says He Knew He Was Getting Fired And It Was Time For Him To Go
August 23rd, 2023
Byron Leftwich
Super Bowl offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich delivered a classy answer to a tough question about his Buccaneers demise.
Leftwich appeared this spring on a YouTube channel called Curtbone TV.
There he was asked for his thoughts during what might have been the dramatic moment of being terminated from his position in January.
Leftwich essentially said he knew it was coming and he deserved it.
Curtbone, host of Curtbone TV: What’s going through your mind when you get the call that Tampa Bay [was] releasing you?
Byron Leftwich: No, I knew everything going into it. Me and Todd [Bowles], I grew up watching Todd [play for the Redskins]. It was time. It was time for it to happen. It was just time. You know what I mean? It was just time. We set out to get there to win a championship. We did that … We knew when we got Tom [Brady] it wasn’t going to be a 10-year plan. We knew it was going to be a two-, three-year plan and let’s try to win it. We got it done. Last year, I call that year, ‘We had to pay our taxes.” Had to pay taxes last year. … Last year, that was a different year, man. That was unique. Obviously, how I feel, I don’t run away from it. I’m the offensive coordinator. It didn’t go right for us as a team. It didn’t go right for us as an offense. I’m responsible for that. Hey, that comes with it. I accept that. … And regardless of why it didn’t work out, I’m still the head of the snake from a title standpoint as offensive coordinator. It was time for us to go. But the thing that I pull from it the most, I talked to Tom about this. Tom was in the league 24 years. In 2020 and 2021, I don’t know if he ever played better his first two years of us together – in a two-year stretch. And this is the greatest guy to ever play. It would be tough for anyone to go back-to-back seasons and do what he did, what we did together. I appreciate that.
Woven into the answer was Leftwich reflecting on the 2021 season. He said that was his greatest regret with the Bucs because he felt the team was good enough to win the Super Bowl and should have.
He also added that he’s very close to Brady and that he expects their friendship to be a lifetime bond. Also, Leftwich said Jameis Winston throwing for 5,109 yards and 33 touchdowns in his first year in the offense was a special accomplishment.
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:31 pm
Interesting interview. Kudos to BL for accepting responsibility. Find what he said about Brady to be especially interesting …
‘In 2020 and 2021, I don’t know if he ever played better his first two years of US TOGETHER – in a two-year stretch.’
Gets me wondering just how involved BA was those 2 years. Also how involved Brady was in the offensive planning.
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:31 pm
I have always liked Leftwich, and Bowles. Leftwich wasn’t really “the head of the snake” during the disastrous season last year. The head coach was, as always. Nice of him to say, though.
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:34 pm
Did Curtbone asked him why he upgraded the offensive scheme when Arians left?
smh
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:36 pm
Great answer. Classy. I just would love to know what really happened then… was Tom really mentally not there? Was he physically done, finally? Too many cooks in the kitchen? I think the Brady Years Bucs will make a great 30 for 30.
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:42 pm
Never heard Todd Bowels accept accountability for his sorry as coaching
Kudos to “Super Bowl offensive coordinator” Byron Leftwich
RIP no risk it no biscuit
August 23rd, 2023 at 7:52 pm
Very classy answer from Leftwich. I hope the SpongeBob crap will be put to rest. You can’t talk crap about a man repeatedly online and not expect unclassy response when you see him in person. Think Jim Everett and Jim Rome.
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:03 pm
BL didn’t have the team that could execute his plays last year and wouldn’t change his gameplan. Canales seems a lot more flexible in finding what works no matter what Bowles says about the running game. Best of luck to BL going forward.
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:10 pm
I think Leftwich fit that very big group of coaches that understand about football at such a high level.
But in the end when they are going against others of high-level coaches or even higher levels, he was over matched. When you are talking about the small group of elite offensive minds. He did not get there.
B.A. really was 3 or 4 levels above Leftwich in coaching ability for an offense.
So, whether it really was BA with a red pen or just BA making certain key calls like the Brady to Miller TD pass at the end of the 1st half in the GB playoff game. Those just better skills show up.
I really saw a lack of guys appreciating BA on the blog here. Oneill buc and others just crapping on him.
If Bowles is fired during or after the season, I want current Philadelphia coordinator, Brian Johnson, to be our HC next year.
I think he is 2 or 3 levels above a guy like Leftwich.
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:24 pm
Joe forgot to add the “Super Bowl winning*** offensive coordinator” Byron Leftwich 😆
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:31 pm
He will always be Boron in my book.
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:38 pm
Lefty said time for US to go. Bowlzo and Lefty.
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:53 pm
Read it again he was the head of the snake in title who was pulling the strings!
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:56 pm
Time for us to go. Him and Brady. We certainly missed Gronk
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:57 pm
Thanks to Todd Bowles “Cover No One Especially Not Cooper Kupp defense”, the Bucs lost to the Rams after Brady dragged the team out of the abyss to tie the game. And Todd was rewarded for his scorching ineptitude with a promotion that enabled him to use the Leftwich as his scapegoat. Lefty needed to go but the primary culprit for the Bucs free fall is currently still calling the shots. Very conservatively and very poorly. Nice.
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:02 pm
Jack Clark hit the nail on the head.
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:05 pm
I have no problems with Leftwich.
I absolutely agree with him – It was time for him to go…
I wish him luck.
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:29 pm
Good on Leftwich for accepting the blame that was actually mostly Brady’s. I know Leftwich didn’t constantly audible to smoke screens or checkdown prematurely for the first three quarters.
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:31 pm
Classy response – it’s the most cogent response I’ve heard from Leftwich because what he said is what we all knew at the time, and after.
Glad to hear you say this, coach, and I wish you luck on your future endeavors.
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:31 pm
Brandon,
Bro what are you smoking?
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:35 pm
He’ll never be an offensive coordinator in the NFL again. You can write that down with BA’s permanent RED marker.
August 23rd, 2023 at 9:51 pm
It’s strictly business…seems like a good dude. He’s just not an NFL OC.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:08 pm
Leftwich is right about 2021, the loss to the Rams was on Bowels.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:11 pm
yall are the same dbags that criticized him before he was fired.. smh.. this joe chat site is ridiculous. love the fantasy football buc fans.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:12 pm
idiots like tkras
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:19 pm
Byron Leftwich was the offensive coordinator for a Super Bowl winning team. He can sleep good at night with that accomplishment.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:20 pm
Since when are my comments being moderated?
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:22 pm
If you don’t want my participation or my contribution, I can go elsewhere.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:22 pm
Where is my post?
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:29 pm
I make a comment praising Leftwich as the offensive coordinator for our superbowl winning team, it goes under moderation and gets deleted. What’s up with that Joe? You didn’t agree perhaps?
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:37 pm
Zero idea what you are talking about. Joe’s busy writing stories.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:42 pm
All you who are saying he “accepted responsibility”, wake up! He is NOT accepting responsibility, he’s accepting victimhood.
He first says with the “taxes” line that 2022 was bad because 2020 and 2021 were so great. That’s blaming Licht. (and had nothing to do with not having Arians holding his hand!?)
And then he says he was the head of the snake, and THAT is why he got fired. What he is saying is that he was just the fall guy. “I’m responsible for that.” in that, HE has to pay the price for the failure, “regardless of why it didn’t work out”.
It didn’t work out because you were not a good offensive coordinator, Byron. Does he say that? NOPE.
He’s blaming basically EVERYBODY ELSE, but not himself. That’s the takeaway here.
August 23rd, 2023 at 10:58 pm
He isn’t the same coach without BA overseeing him, his game plans, and his in game play calls.
Todd doesn’t have what BA did either when it comes to understanding the flow of games, when to attack and when to play safe, travel schedules, practice routines etc – Todd just came in and cut out a lot of stuff that made us winners saying it wasn’t “his way”
As fans, we are stuck with the watered down BA regime that like most “tree” coaches rarely live up to their mentor
August 23rd, 2023 at 11:16 pm
Hey he got a ring, hanged out with GOAT, not a bad career in comparison to most of us
August 23rd, 2023 at 11:23 pm
He ran up the middle every friggin first play of every game, and every first play every second half. He’s right, it was time for him to get fired. He was terrible at his job. I don’t care that he gave a classy answer. And he does not deserve credit for Tom Brady’s performance or Jameis for 5100 yards. Sorry.
August 23rd, 2023 at 11:41 pm
Yes Byron it was time. Thank you for saying it more than once. Go on and enjoy retirement you likely will never coach anything outside of pee wee football.
August 23rd, 2023 at 11:47 pm
Just no
No more
No way he can rewrite history
That was a brutal job last year he did
I call bull on him being friends with Brady
He can’t get a job as a position coach – he’s got to be radioactive
August 24th, 2023 at 12:15 am
Why in the he’ll would they quote that? He said 4 things but just repeated each of them multiple times with different wording. I wish the audio was included because I’m sure it somehow sounded more ridiculous than it read. Good riddance. Take Todd with you. It’s time for him to go too.
August 24th, 2023 at 12:33 am
A losing season, especially an exceptionally bad losing season, would play in BL’s favor. He could say, “see, it wasn’t me after all”.
But I don’t see this attitude.
I don’t see him hoping that Bowles fails, or the Bucs lose.
For all of his faults and shortcomings as a coach, I don’t see him as the architect of last years disaster of a season.
That fault falls on several different shoulders as well as ‘chance’ injuries.
But there had to be a scapegoat.
August 24th, 2023 at 1:10 am
Let’s see if we run up the middle on first down most of the time. To me that would tell me if Bowels is the culprit behind that, and the way he wants to run the ball so much, I’m having my suspicions. And I don’t see an Alstott in the bunch bowling guys over
August 24th, 2023 at 1:33 am
That was a good humble reply by Lefty. But he still sucked hard without his training wheels on (BA). His play calling was atrocious except the first half of the Bengals game where I really thought Tom stole BL’s call sheet and replaced it with his.
August 24th, 2023 at 8:22 am
Leftwich had to go, but he’s not wrong about Brady’s first two years here in Tampa. The 2020 and 2021 seasons may have been Brady’s best back to back seasons. One can make a case for 2010 and 2011 but he wasn’t as accurate and didn’t throw for as many yards (an overblown statistic anyway).
Paying our taxes is how I feel about this year’s Bucs team.
August 24th, 2023 at 8:50 am
Maybe its just an effect of the depressing offense and team wide lack of enthusiasm that seems to be a Todd “the toilet” Bowles MO… But…
Does anyone else miss Jameis? Or a lil 400 yard Fitz Magic?
C’mon, at least it was fun then…. Id take 3 TD 3 INT over the “up the gut” 3 and outs….
August 24th, 2023 at 9:19 am
HC Grover Says:
August 23rd, 2023 at 8:38 pm
Lefty said time for US to go. Bowlzo and Lefty.
^^^^^^^^
Bowles is still the coach, meat whistle. Do you follow football?
August 24th, 2023 at 9:48 am
Wishing Byron well.
Go Bucs!!!
August 24th, 2023 at 10:48 am
The interview could have been much shorter if BL would have just said that he sucked at his job and was fired as a result. No talk of it being time or taxes or nonsense like that is relevant, coherent or helpful. Just admit you suck and move on to marketing girl scout cookies.
August 24th, 2023 at 1:09 pm
Byron won a Superbowl. More than many can say. He has moved on and taken responsibility. Although we know..had Brady had a great season? He’d still be coaching. It was Brady’s fault just as much as Byrons. Many here in Bucland will never admit this.
August 24th, 2023 at 1:23 pm
“We dids what we dun dids…….”
August 25th, 2023 at 1:00 am
Classy answer from Leftwich.
And here is the truth: When that offense had 70 – 80% of the starters being guys who were pro bowl / all pro / future HOF caliber, it was able to dominate most of the time. It didn’t matter if things were predictable because they could impose their will.
But once they lost a few of those guys, it was easier for defenses to stop it. And Leftwich simply didn’t know how to scheme around weaknesses, nor exploit opponents. He just did what he did, and the rest of the league figured it out.