Liam Coen Vows To Have A Lot Of Pre-Snap Motion

September 6th, 2024

Bucs OC Liam Coen

Joe remembers way back in 2022 with the Bucs offense simply woeful, then offensive (emphasis on “offensive”) coordinator Byron Leftwich, in his normal condescending if not outright lying way, got into a sparring session with a couple of reporters.

One peppered Leftwich about why he avoids pre-snap motion, citing stats on how teams that used a lot of motion are more successful. Leftwich scoffed, mocking pre-snap motion stats as “fantasy football.”

Some 18 months after he was canned as Bucs offensive coordinator, Leftwich’s fantasy now is to have any job in football. (To the best of Joe’s knowledge, Leftwich is out of football.)

Joe thinks it is a safe bet reporters won’t be asking Liam Coen about not using pre-snap motion. The Bucs playcaller all but promised yesterday at One Buc Palace that his receivers may run more motion before the snap than ever.

“Yeah, it’s almost every play,” Coen said.

Coen then explained how the Bucs’ strength and conditioning team asked him how much motion he will use. The trainers were looking to craft specific workouts for how the players would be used by coaches.

Coen told the trainers to get them ready. They will be running around. A lot.

“I said we’re not going to kill them in routes in air (normal pass routes) or on plays, but they’re going to run a lot – they’re going to run a lot more than they’ve ever run.

“That’s pre-snap, post-snap, motion, shift.”

Coen said there is a purpose to all of this. It’s trying to get the defense to expose itself.

“We don’t just do it to be cute, we don’t just do it to say we do it,” Coen said. “It’s to undress coverage, it’s to undress pressures, it’s to get man/zone indicators, it’s to gather information. … Try to gain information for our guys to say, ‘Okay, we just did that motion, this is how they responded.’ I can maybe rule out a few coverages or defenses pre-snap, so now I have a better idea of how to go execute this play.

“That’s the whole point of it.”

So in two days when the Bucs open the season against the Commandos, get ready to see Bucs receivers being very active before the snap. It won’t be a stationary offense.

20 Responses to “Liam Coen Vows To Have A Lot Of Pre-Snap Motion”

  1. Bradinator Says:

    Thank God for this! Pre snap motion does so much good for an offense. It’s been Vanilla here for years now. I like Coen a lot so far.

  2. BuckyBuc Says:

    love it, no shame

  3. BucU Says:

    Dude is going to be leaps and bounds better than Dave Cannoli.

  4. SlyPirate Says:

    Canales sucked!

    Coen is building an offense around guys’ strengths and creates ways to help them succeed. This offense is going to be light years better. Don’t be surprised to hear Baker in the MVP race.

  5. Cobraboy Says:

    But but but…the talking heads all say the Bucs O will miss The Great Cannoli as OC, that the ONLY thing that made Mayfield even average is Mr. QB Whisperer, he who made Geno Smith a HoF candidate.

    /sarc

  6. Dave Pear Says:

    Meanwhile in Carolina…..Bryce Young hands off to Hubbard up the middle on first down for no gain.

  7. infomeplease Says:

    Bring on Sunday!

  8. AlabamaBucsFan Says:

    I hope Liam Coen sticks around for more than a year. I think several teams are going to recruit Coen after seeing how well the Bucs offense is going to be this year.

  9. Gipper Says:

    Defense must avoid prolong drives by offense. Tampa offense needs the ball before offense can do anything. Big problem last year was sustained drives allowed by Tampa defense.

  10. Dave Pear Says:

    Right on, Gipper. Certain pontificators are sensitive about any criticism, even if factual, aimed at Todd’s defense.

    If Todd goes further down the “bend don’t break” road we will see “bend over it’s broken.” Offense needs to carry the team.

  11. Baking with Evans Says:

    We have a better team than last year. Whitehead is a huge upgrade. The defense should show a heartbeat in every down.

    The key might be our time of possession. Make the Commandos raise a white flag by the 4th quarter. I’m hoping our running game excells. I’ll take plenty of screens if their run defense is a problem for us.

    LFG!!!!

  12. Brandon Says:

    Canales did very little pre-snap motion, he also didn’t vary his personnel packages either…. he was clearly in way over his head. Good riddance.

  13. Biff Barker Says:

    This guy really knows football. I’m sad to say we may need another OC soon!

  14. Saskbucs Says:

    Coen is saying all the right things. Gotta love it. Can’t wait for Sunday!

  15. Alanbucsfan Says:

    2021, Kentucky’s offense under Coen averaged 32 pts/game
    2022, Coen went to Rams and Kentucky’s offense dipped to 20 pts/game
    2023, Coen returned to Kentucky and their offense averaged 29 pts/game
    If Mayfield has a good year and Bucs’ offense improves significantly, the Titans may look to reunite Coen with Will Levis. And if that happened, the Teddy Bridgewater anxiety syndrome will return to JoeBucsfan posts.
    Look for alot of Mayfield checkdowns to the backs on Sunday for nice gains.

  16. orlbucfan Says:

    No more running up the middle on first down?? A moving, imaginative offense?? Okay Coen, deliver cos I’m still a bit skeptical. I’ll be all ears Sunday.

  17. First Name Greatest Says:

    Cautiously optimistic about the offense

    Pessimistic about Bowles Cover NO ONE zone schemes

  18. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    Delay of game penalties

  19. Dave Pear Says:

    All we need now is another 3289 word diatribe educating the world on all of the excuses needed to absolve Todd of his losing record as a head coach with two franchises, his 20ppg offense and his 4th worst pass defense in the league, which if not corrected, will translate into a lot more points allowed and fewer victories.

    Offense is needed, Arians has a .500 record or worse without averaging 30ppg.

    #OffenseRules

  20. unbelievable Says:

    @Gipper – to be fair, our offense went 3 and out A TON last year as well, putting the defense right back on the field again and again…