Liam Coen, Baker Mayfield And Short Passing
January 7th, 2025
Bucs OC Liam Coen.
Last week in his weekly press conference, Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen needled (?) Joe for focusing so much on how the long pass is pretty much a thing of the past.
Coen either had the impression that Joe was calling him out for this or felt slighted in some way. Joe is sorry if it was taken that way. That certainly was not Joe’s intent. Was only pointing out in Baker Mayfield’s passing charts how the long pass is rarely used. Nothing more.
(Shoot, Joe has typed for months he believes Coen will be a head coach somewhere in 2025. He’s that good. And Joe also pointed out several times that only a first-class a-hole would nitpick one of the better offenses in the league. You know, if it’s working — and it surely is — that’s the best you can ask for. That’s what one wants.)
Coen went into detail last week why he throws shorter passes to, for example, Mike Evans. Coen of course wants to get the ball into Evans’ hands. So why take a bunch of low-percentage shots when you can call shorter routes which have a higher percentage of getting caught and let Evans’ wheels take over from there? Makes sense.
However, before Coen needled (?) Joe, Joe wondered if one reason for the short passing (guessing “dink and dunk” didn’t go over well at One Buc Palace), by Coen was if he believed that was more in Mayfield’s wheelhouse.
It seems a stat guy has some statistics that suggest that could be a factor. It seems Mayfield has been damn accurate in short passes.
The passes charted below (if the chart doesn’t show, click here) show Mayfield’s overall completion percentage from the line of scrimmage to 9 yards, 10-19 yards and 20 yards and beyond.
There is also a category for “highly accurate completions.”
The only spot where Mayfield is a little shaky is a highly accurate completion percentage over 20 yards.
Maybe, it is a combination of the two? Regardless, Coen’s explanation about short passes makes sense to Joe. But it also seems Mayfield is taking advantage of that philosophy.
Completion and charted highly-accurate throw percentage by pass depth downfield. pic.twitter.com/QxZjc0kpTV
— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) January 7, 2025
January 7th, 2025 at 12:11 am
their is something about this team i just love.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:28 am
I wonder what it would look like since the bye? Or the last 5 games? It definitely seems like the long ball connections have been better since J-Mac has emerged as a dependable target down field.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:30 am
Coen needs 2 realize those dime long throws R BAKER EVWB ON THE RUN N BAKER CAN DEADLY ACCURATE WITG THEM, evdn BRADY couldnt hold ba k his xcifdment of Kers lonv accurate on the dime passes, sure, some short ok, but BAker luvs challenge n xcitement 2 so calling Coen out is GOOD JIE N FAIR!
January 7th, 2025 at 12:39 am
The media is always the enemy, Joe. You know that.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:41 am
Was not his best game. Too many ‘running plays’ (wasted plays/downs) on 2nd & Long. Too much pressure on 3rd downs. Never could get into a Rhythm, & it forces Baker to always have to pull a rabbit outta the hat on 3rd & loooong. And, I was very disappointed that they didn’t ‘try’ running another play (right after a HUGE play), before allowing’ the 3rd Quarter to expire. RHYTHM. Pace. Tempo. Keep it movin. Let’s GO!!!!
January 7th, 2025 at 12:46 am
There’s always safety help over the top. Not worth-it. There’s nothing there. NOBODY throws it deep anymore. You CAN’T. And, Mike is no ‘young pup’ anymore, is banged-up, & doesn’t move (or jump) the best anymore.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:46 am
Daniel’s a little better than Bake in each category. I just have this bad feeling with Britt back in there the middle is going to be wide ass open and Daniel’s will run wild if abritt is bring asked to shadow him. Hope Bowles has a plan. Sure do wish we had Sir Vocea back. B e played great in that role. Just don’t know if we can stop rthem with this sort defense Bowles insists on using. Hope I am 100% wrong.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:47 am
who invited the cajun to the convo? ^^^
I agree haha, i’d like to see the playbook open up more to keep defenses more spread out. If healthy and in tact, next year’s offense will be historic giving Baker a second year in a system for once.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:48 am
Also worried if Lattimore plays. He always shuts Evans down and gets in his head. Without Godwin we would need J Mac tight ends and the rbs to step up big.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:50 am
Nah, Joe didn’t take it like Coen was real peeved at Joe. He was just explaining his philosophy of long vs. short passes. In fact, Joe laughed when Coen brought it up and (he was laughing too) suggested Joe was beating him up for so few shots downfield. LOL 🙂
January 7th, 2025 at 12:51 am
LOL!
January 7th, 2025 at 12:55 am
Mike is still great in single coverage on the long ball, so you gotta take it if it’s there. But he’s always been lethal and still is in that intermediate, 12 – 19 yard range too.
J-Mac seems to be coming on as another intermediate – to – deep threat too, which would be amazing. Just gotta fight all the way though, kid. Cant ever let a DB take the ball from you.
January 7th, 2025 at 1:19 am
Mike’s great with drawing pass-interference; which has a way of changing he momentum of a game like no other play, and I’ve never seen any receiver so consistently “adjust” for where the ball is in-coming.
There is a lot of advantage in the “deep ball” play, not to.mention depriving the fans of the excitement if not using it; remember Bruce Ariens?; hummm, seemed it worked pretty well just a few years ago.
January 7th, 2025 at 1:21 am
Daniels isn’t better than baker at anything except scrambling. He’d be even faster if he’d get in the weight room
January 7th, 2025 at 1:32 am
Dan Quinn versus Todd Bowles. Take 2.
Detroit proves a well coached defense can employ pressure man coverage and win against “superior receivers. “. No one can tell us that Dan Campbell’s waitresses and bartenders playing defense are any better than ours.
The difference is coaching.
January 7th, 2025 at 1:48 am
The one pass I’ve never seen Baker complete with the Bucs, he constantly overthrows it, was the pass where he overthrew Evans who was heading for a sure Touchdown. This happened at least twice this season with Evans & at least once with anyther receiver (McMillan?).Same thing happened the year before with the Bucs- not sure who the receivers were.
January 7th, 2025 at 2:06 am
Baker’s 20+ yard completion rate was very bad last year at around 29%.
In 2024 – his long ball completion rate is 42.9%
Mayfield may not throw more than 4-5 long balls a game this year – but he’s hitting on a solid % of the ones he does throw.
Anything above 40% with that distance is good.
January 7th, 2025 at 2:56 am
Stats…. PLAYOFFS!!! BUCS!!!!!!!
January 7th, 2025 at 3:12 am
WoW!! I’m amazed how delusional some people really are!! Besides this last draft the Detroit Lions have been picking in the top 10 of the draft for iIONS also the franchise is DESPERATE to finally win a Super Bowl so are going all out spending WAYYYY more money in free agency to accomplish this goal!! THE BUCS HAVENT BEEN IN THAT MODE SINCE 2020 with Tom Brady!!! Yes the Lions have a lot of injuries BUT they are not rolling out UDFAs on the field like the Bucs have Todd Bowles working with people!!! OPEN YALL EYES PLZZZZZZ
January 7th, 2025 at 3:39 am
before the season big jim predicted baker at around 4500/35/10, looks like for 3 years in a row big jim nailed baker stats, dam big jim is good, I gotta get my own bucs blog,
goooo bucs!
January 7th, 2025 at 4:22 am
LOL. I thought I heard Liam say that. Funny.
January 7th, 2025 at 8:57 am
He’s excellent at that. Pretty sure he leads the NFL in drawing defensive pass interference.
January 7th, 2025 at 8:58 am
Big Jim:
Hope you profited off of your sharp vision. 🙂
January 7th, 2025 at 9:13 am
Liam doesn’t like the derogatory term ‘dink and dunk’ and neither do I.
Baker has a lot of green boxes, that’s very good. I’m ignoring the ‘Highly Accurate Throw %’, it’s too subjective, like PFF grades. Completion % is a good number and Baker is better than many highly regarded QB’s at many distances.
Deep throws can certainly stretch the defense and if Mike is 1 on 1, throw it to him. Don’t forget that long throws take more time so a bigger chance of a sack or holding call, and a bigger chance of a pick. I like the shorter throws that are set up for big YAC and keep ahead of the chains.
January 7th, 2025 at 9:36 am
The reason they don’t throw long passes is that Mayfield can’t connect. They are incomplete or intercepted. The solution? Throw short passes and pad the stats.
January 7th, 2025 at 9:53 am
Coen’s gameplan in the first half STUNK! I fell asleep during the half cos I’ve seen/heard this Bucs-Aints movie plenty of times. I bet Baker gave Coen an earful in the locker room at the half. You can bet ME13 added his $.02, too. I’m the Buc nut in our house so my hubby woke me up with a few minutes left in the 4th. He told me the Bucs were leading and turned on the tube so I could watch it. And there it was: the adjustments. Baker can throw a long ball but he’s short in height, and that has to be considered. I’m not surprised ole Coen got a little testy. Too bad. He still has plenty to learn about this rapidly improving O. Hope he shows it Sunday Nite!
January 7th, 2025 at 10:38 am
very interesting article about Coen on yahoo, how he fits with every team needing a head coach. Bears, Jags, Patriots the author’s best fits, in order.
January 7th, 2025 at 10:39 am
Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen’s name has been floated as a head coaching candidate all season. And now, he has his first interview request.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have been putting in requests since firing their head coach Doug Pederson on Monday, and on Tuesday morning, they officially requested to interview Coen. Jacksonville’s request is the first for Coen in this hiring cycle.
January 7th, 2025 at 11:04 am
Alman Says:
January 7th, 2025 at 9:36 am
The reason they don’t throw long passes is that Mayfield can’t connect. They are incomplete or intercepted. The solution? Throw short passes and pad the stats.
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lmao tell me you cant read a chart without telling me…
baker’s completion % for passes 20+ yards is 42.9% – higher than both patrick mahomes and joe burrow. almost all of his interceptions this season were on passes that were less than 20 yds.
guessing you also didn’t watch the game on sunday, so you missed the two 30+ yd darts to mcmillan. and the one to evans that hit him right between the hands and in front of his face but was dropped (think the defense also got his hand in there a little bit, but not positive it was on that play).
going all the way back to college baker was known for his accuracy on deep passes. he also had lots of great deep passes in cleveland. his first game for the rams after learning the playbook in like 2 hrs on the flight to la and without practicing with the team he threw two beautiful deep passes over 30 yds on that gamewinning drive.
January 7th, 2025 at 12:22 pm
Beautiful chart.
What I found educational is how effective a coach is in the short passing area.
In time a new trend will be our friend, until then an occasional experiment is OK by me
January 7th, 2025 at 1:04 pm
Sunny
Thanks. I didn’t understand how that chart made the point. If you compare Baker’s completion % in all three categories they are in the top half of the league and don’t vary widely between the distances in comparison to the other QB’s.
ALL QB’s make bad throws as ME13 pointed on Bakers really bad throw.
Baker has also hit some dimes in the end zone through double coverage, right at the edge of the end zone where only the Buc could catch it like that TD toss to McMillan.
January 7th, 2025 at 3:13 pm
Detroit schemed up a great D against the Vikings for sure BUT:
Bucs defense last 7 games 17 ppg allowed
Lions defense last 7 games 23.6 ppg
Coaching?
January 7th, 2025 at 4:39 pm
Probably every QB in the league would fall into that catergory. The further the ball travel the harder the ball is to complete. Big shocker there. I just saw an old clip of Baker as a Brown completing a 75 yard bomb. How hard was that.
January 8th, 2025 at 6:29 am
Baker 42.9% the great Mahomes 27.9% .. or something like that. I’ve got no complaints.