Baker Mayfield Got His Man
January 31st, 2025
Joe assumes/hopes/prays that the Bucs put their new offensive coordinator hire largely in the hands of their 29-year-old franchise quarterback.
As Joe wrote weeks ago, it’s the only thing that makes sense.
Not only has Baker Mayfield played for a tremendous number of coordinators and assistant coaches in his seven seasons spanning four teams, the Bucs are a win-now kind of team and Mayfield needs to have massive confidence in the guy he’ll go to football war with daily.
Joe suspects Mayfield and his offensive mates were yearning for continuity, as well, without tossing their playbook in the Hillsborough River for the third consecutive season.
Presumably, new coordinator Josh Grizzard, 34, the in-house hire, will work with Mayfield to craft a relatively seamless transition.
Todd Bowles has a good track record of hiring playcallers and spent the past year around Grizzard. That gives Joe a load of confidence on this sunny Friday. The Liam Coen cloud has drifted north.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:07 pm
Bucs admin has been making solid choices at OC now for a couple years. I like it for the obvious pros.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:11 pm
Now, Celine Dion loving GM Jason Leitch can focus on trading up to the first round to draft a punter.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:13 pm
I really do like this more than going after a name – to me keeping the same system in place is a huge deal.
As for play calling – that’s where things get a lot more iffy since Coen was exceptional at keeping defenses off balance and not really sure what was coming all the time. Since the new ‘kid’ hasn’t called plays before, that will be worth monitoring, but I’m already telling people – don’t panic in the preseason when he’s running up the middle on every 1st and 10. It’s preseason, no one shows their playbook and just like we don’t know what to expect, the defenses won’t either.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:13 pm
Now on to the defense.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:16 pm
How do you know this is Mayfield’s man? I mean, for all we know, his position coach, Thad Lewis, was his man. I don’t think Mayfield picks the O-coordinator, but he probably has veto power.
That said, I don’t have any reason to think Mayfield would disapprove of this hire. I’m sure we’ll see some comments in the next few days.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:17 pm
Better believe that this Bucs offense will be on a mission considering how the playoffs went and how that “Duvall” clown left
January 31st, 2025 at 4:18 pm
He was in charge of planning 3rd down plays and we led the league in 3rd down percentage.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:20 pm
That “Liam cloud” was still wafting around my bathroom after coffee this morning…
January 31st, 2025 at 4:22 pm
Like the continuity and familiarity with the system that worked last year. Dont like the lack of play calling. Canales struggled with this and so did the offense as a result. Time will tell and gotta give the kid a shot to prove himself. Hopefully avoid the growing pains, it’s one thing to understand and be familiar with the system and playbook, it’s a totally different beast to understand what the defense is trying to do in the moment and call a great play execute. Go Bucs!
January 31st, 2025 at 4:31 pm
“Cobraboy Says:
January 31st, 2025 at 4:20 pm
That “Liam cloud” was still wafting around my bathroom after coffee this morning…”
Funny… I think I took a giant Liam this morning and remembered to wipe my Coen…
January 31st, 2025 at 4:32 pm
Joe again I agree, very important that Mayfield get to have basically the same offense, terminology and scheme for more than one year. Also, it’s not like Grizzard is new, although he wasn’t the play caller, from what I keep hearing is, that Grizzard was deeply involved in the Bucs game plan with Mayfield last season.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:35 pm
Sounds like a sound decision in Grizzard. Just a little concerned about lack of play calling experience. But then again, Lefty had ‘play calling experience’ and I wouldn’t want hin anywhere near the sideline again…
January 31st, 2025 at 4:38 pm
I do wonder how Thad Lewis is taking this. how many times has he been passed over?
January 31st, 2025 at 4:39 pm
FOR GRIZZIE MY NIZZIE
January 31st, 2025 at 4:46 pm
Dewey Selmon Says:
January 31st, 2025 at 4:38 pm
Well, promoting him to passing game coordinator might soothe his hurt feelings. Thad Lewis hasn’t had the depth of coaching experiences that other candidates have, including Grizzard. He’s still young. This experience under a different coordinator will just add to his resume. I’m sure if he was a better candidate than Grizzard, they’d have hired him.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:47 pm
Good deal.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:49 pm
Hopefully this means Godwin returns.
January 31st, 2025 at 4:59 pm
Makes me wonder if, during the interview process, Grizzard (Aside: man, I hope one particular “Joe” figures out that pronunciation better than he has for our behemoth DT, despite years of opportunity) was asked which assistants were valuable for his potential regime and which were not. As fun as it is to think Jason is just guffawing as he is p!ssing in Coen’s Cheerios for fun, it’s better for our organization to be aligned in securing the staff that helps us win on Sundays. It would be a raw deal to find out in a couple of months that we let Picucci go, once Coen had already filled the role he wanted for him…and that we’d held onto him just out of spite.
January 31st, 2025 at 5:02 pm
LFB
January 31st, 2025 at 5:06 pm
Draftkings has Grizzard at -105 to be named an NFL head coach in 2026
January 31st, 2025 at 5:13 pm
OC hires lets go for 3 For 3 !!!!!!!
January 31st, 2025 at 5:14 pm
The thing that makes me feel really good about this hire is the presence of Tom Moore. This new OC may be a little bit inexperienced, but he’ll have a fantastic resource to rely on.
January 31st, 2025 at 5:21 pm
I hope the Bucs didn’t put this hire largely in the hands of their 29 year old QB. He’s not the G.M.. Of course you’d like him to be on board with Grizzard, but making a hire like this is way above Baker’s pay grade.
January 31st, 2025 at 5:33 pm
Greetings All
My prediction on the hiring of new OC. ONE AND DONE again! How do I know. 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021. The odds are in my favor. Baker now has someone he can control and that is not good based on his previous 6 stops. He needs a grown up in the room. Keeping it real in Ireland.
January 31st, 2025 at 5:35 pm
Joe
The Bucs have a win-now offense.
They do not have a win-now defense.
January 31st, 2025 at 5:49 pm
Excellent. Now get to work on the full time Defensive Coordinator.
January 31st, 2025 at 5:49 pm
Steve Garner what in the actual hell are you saying?
January 31st, 2025 at 6:21 pm
I’m sure Sean mcvay is grateful
January 31st, 2025 at 6:22 pm
This is good news, hopefully he does well (I don’t see why he wouldn’t considering his previous position with the Bucs), and we get to keep him around for more than a season.
January 31st, 2025 at 7:24 pm
Good hire. We need an all defensive draft but if that stud WR from Ohio State is sitting there at 19 that’s going to be hard to pass up.
January 31st, 2025 at 8:17 pm
Rod
“I’m already telling people – don’t panic in the preseason when he’s running up the middle on every 1st and 10. It’s preseason, no one shows their playbook”
That is an EXCELLENT point!!! Calling for some nuance and perspective before the “Chicken Little” crowd goes out of their gourds. Well done!
I’m not too concerned about play calling. I think Baker has been with enough OC’s in his time to be worth hiring himself. Obviously he doesn’t have the time to be OC but he’ll have a LOT of say as they craft the offense together.
He won’t have “Brady power” nor should he, but he will have the power of an NFL QB coming off two solid seasons. He doesn’t have to be elite, just very good! As in Brad Johnson good! Brad has been my favorite Buc QB.
January 31st, 2025 at 8:43 pm
As for playcalling, I think last year’s success was primarily calling plays that allowed free rein to the improvisational skills of Baker, Bucky, Evans, et al., within a disciplined framework. If Grizzard was the third-down guru, he was basically calling the third down plays. The framework is still there. The trick is not to literally take the ball out of Baker’s hands in the fourth quarter and put it in the hands of a rookie receiver and a rookie center.
January 31st, 2025 at 10:36 pm
JK
An important consideration is that when one is “keeping it real in Ireland,” the emphasis is on Ireland.
1.) That comment was nearly midnight in Ireland.
2.) Still, it was Friday night in Ireland.
3.) Every self-respecting Irish person, near midnight on a weekend, will have helped themselves (gratuitously) to the Tullamore Dew by then, or risk being called English by their friends!
Just glad to have fans across the pond—perhaps even fans of the Ira Kaufman podcast in a land further away than Costa Rica!
January 31st, 2025 at 10:37 pm
Coen really missed up by leave this year. He left the Bucs for the Jags and a Bust named Trevor Lawrence no weapons and a garbage defense. Trevor Lawrence has said this and this has came out of his mouth that tells me he doesn’t care about winning. He just signed a 275 million dollar pay day. He’s happy everyday no matter what.. smdh I begged the Jags not to do it bc he’s not the QB ppl think he is. He’s garage!!
January 31st, 2025 at 10:48 pm
IDK what happened but this is what it was really supposed to say Coen really messed up this year by leaving the Bucs for the Jags especially since the Jags have a bust name Trevor Lawrence as their franchise quarterback that just got paid May I my add. With no weapons and no defense now that he tries to get Chris Godwin to come over there which I don’t see happening He literally went to a horribly losing team to start off his head coaching career. This is going to destroy his coaching career not help it at all going to Jacksonville is like coaching at the Brown’s.
February 1st, 2025 at 1:26 am
You know Dewy Selmon, since he has been passed over for this position before I assume that maybe the coaches know something about him. Like maybe, he just can’t call plays. That is particularly a very very difficult job to perform. Just because you have the education and years of experience building up to the actual job doesn’t mean you can think with all that pressure on you. And there isn’t a job I can think of that has more pressure on you when it’s time to think and preform at the highest level as offensive coordinator. I imagine it is out of this world pressure at this level leaving 99.999% of all human beings unable to think clearly and do the job correctly. The whole world, almost, is watching every call. If you fall apart, it is obvious to see even for the not so bright football fans. Not too many people have felt that kind of pressure.
February 1st, 2025 at 5:00 am
Now if Bowles could only recognize that he needs to give up Defensive Coordinator duties and focus solely on situational football and clock management this team would take off.
February 1st, 2025 at 5:23 am
New guys always have something to prove. A tweek here a new idea there… He knows that there’s a LOT at stake not only with the team winning but with his own future in the NFL. Maybe he’ll focus on playing to win games. He’s seen first hand what losing 4 or 5 games in a row does to your path to winning the division. LFG!
February 1st, 2025 at 5:34 am
saludos from a puerto rico bucs fan to ireland and costa rica!
glad Bake is happy with the hire, is Bake the new Brett Farve? gun slinger apt to turn the ball over? can the new oc tach bake not to fumble in the 4thqrt?
need some studs/leaders on defense and win the turnover game to make it past wild card weekend… still 2 super bowls in 20 years is not bad! just ask the jags, bills and many others
February 1st, 2025 at 7:49 am
Baker needs to get a percentage of Gizzards 2026 HC salary.
February 1st, 2025 at 8:02 am
Tullamore,Tullamore,Dew. I just really got that song 🎵 in my head now. But I think this a great choice by Tampa Bay.
February 1st, 2025 at 4:50 pm
I’m satisfied with the hiring of Gizzard. If he turns out to be a HC next year, I’m thinking that their will be a massive shake up in the organization. From GM to the long snapper. Maybe they sell out and become a sinicized swimming team. Who knows. Let’s play 🏈 . Let me he chips fall where’s they may.
February 1st, 2025 at 11:02 pm
Well if this guy doesn’t work out like we all hope he will, then baker will have to shift in a higher gear and take the reigns, you know call some plays on the field, that’s what an elite QB would do.
We shall see
February 2nd, 2025 at 2:16 am
Baker will still be able to audible out of a called play depending on the defensive scheme he sees at the line of scrimmage. Grizzard will be the 9th O.C Baker has played for in what will be 8 seasons. That’s a lot of playbooks, a lot of experience with different defense designs. I would think Baker and Grizzard will break down tape on their opponent, consult the analytics and the numbers crunchers, then come up with a offensive scheme that will exploit that defense’s weaknesses with a list of plays to work with.
They both will still have guys “up in the box” to give them needed information that can be transmitted to Baker in the huddle.
If Baker was a second year pro there might be a greater cause for concern about Grizzard’s lack of play calling experience. Baker had that in Cleveland with Freddie Kitchens, who was calling plays for the first time in his career to a 2nd year QB in Mayfield. The Browns went 6-10 and weren’t even that good.
Baker is now the “better version” of “young Baker” and should be okay with a high probability of repeating 2024’s blistering performance. Working out of the same playbook with the same play “identifiers” without learning a new code and sequencing will seem like a luxury to Baker given his past challenges.