Bucs Assistant Named To Risers List
February 19th, 2025
Bucs QB coach Thad Lewis.
The Bucs may have lost a top, young up-and-comer in the NFL when Liam Coen bolted to the Jags. However, The Athletic believes the Bucs were able to retain the services of another.
Jourdan Rodrigue and Mike Jones cobbled together a list of the top 50 NFL people under 40 years old — NFL suits, media and (weirdly) agents — whose careers are on a steep upward trajectory.
Hey, why not the cops who work games to keep us safe on Sundays or the best street food salesmen working the sidewalks outside the stadiums? The cops and the shish kabob vendors on Himes Avenue have a more direct impact with everyday fans than agents do.
Anyway, Bucs quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis is on this list.
The Athletic is of the mind that Lewis won’t just be a QB coach much longer.
… …Lewis has played a role in Baker Mayfield’s career revival. The former Duke quarterback and NFL journeyman was a coaching intern with Tampa Bay in 2020 and then served as assistant wide receivers coach in 2021 and 2022. Lewis took over as quarterbacks coach in 2023 and helped position Mayfield for back-to-back 4,000-yard campaigns and a pair of Pro Bowl nods. As a result, Lewis has started generating interest on the offensive coordinator level.
What Joe finds interesting is that on this list are a few either former Bucs coaches (like Coen and former Bucs receivers coach Brad Idzik, who is now the Stinking Panthers offensive coordinator) or guys the Bucs interviewed to replace Coen like Nate Scheelhaase and Grant Udinski.
So it is clear the Bucs were swinging for the fences to look for the best man to fill Coen’s void.
That’s a double-edged sword the Bucs are playing with. If the Bucs and Baker Mayfield have success again this fall, it’s a decent bet that offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard and/or Lewis will be working somewhere else next winter.
February 19th, 2025 at 10:42 am
If the Bucs had an offensive minded head coach this would never be a problem!!!
February 19th, 2025 at 10:44 am
I think Grizzard will be here for at least 2 yrs as long as Bowles is HC
February 19th, 2025 at 10:47 am
Who wouldn’t want to be a coach for the Bucs offense? It’s straight shot to HC.
February 19th, 2025 at 11:29 am
Then we’d potentially lose a defensive coordinator every year. Losing assistants is always a concern. It’s not often you find a coordinator with no interest in the top job, like Monte Kiffin.
February 19th, 2025 at 11:41 am
Man the talent pool in the NFL (players and staff) is so severely watered down..
You can be a 1st year play caller, then a HC, no experience required. Or an intern in 2020 and now considered a probable OC?
February 19th, 2025 at 11:57 am
Philly didn’t seem to have an issue losing their OC last year.
February 19th, 2025 at 12:10 pm
Larry … ‘If the Bucs had an offensive minded head coach this would never be a problem!!!’
Bucs had an offensive minded HC from 2016-2018. We went 9-7, then 5-11 and 5-11. Care to return to those days Larry?
February 19th, 2025 at 12:18 pm
Joe … ‘If the Bucs and Baker Mayfield have success again this fall, it’s a decent bet that offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard and/or Lewis will be working somewhere else next winter.’
I think it’s awesome that coordinators/assistant coaches get a chance to move up. But at the same time I think it sucks that the team that gave them the opportunity & the quality roster to do well ends up getting the shaft because we only get to use their talents for ONE year. As I understand it, contracts for coordinators & assistant coaches typically run for TWO years.
I feel that the team losing an coordinator/assistant coach after just 1 year should be compensated. That compensation should be in the form of a high draft pick … Rnd 1 or 2 … from the team hiring that assistant coach. If they hire a coordinator as their HC, then it’d be a Rnd 1 pick. If they hire an assistant coach as their OC or DC, it’d be a Rnd 2 pick. Fair’s fair.
February 19th, 2025 at 12:22 pm
Joe you are always giving someone credit for Bakers revival….. could it possibly be that Baker is responsible for his revival and those guys are just along for the ride. The crapshows of Cleveland, Carolina and even the Rams that year who maybe had won 3 games or something like that put Mayfield behind the 8 ball. It was always there with Mayfield, he should of pulled a Manning telling the #1 pick, don’t pick me I will not play for you. If he did, his career trajectory would be on a whole other path.
February 19th, 2025 at 12:43 pm
Thad interviewed for the OC position – but the Bucs decided Grizz was the best man for the job.
If the offense kicks butt in ’25 and Grizz gets a HC job like the last 2 OCs did – then Thad Lewis would be the obvious choice to replace him if need be in ’26 – to keep the ‘continuity’ rolling….
Seems to me, at some point, there has to be at least begrudging acknowledgement from the Todd Bowles haters that he’s doing a fantastic job of spotting, hiring, nurturing/teaching these young coaches…
The Todd Bowles ‘coaching tree’ has already sprouted and is growing impressively without much notice….
February 19th, 2025 at 12:59 pm
Too bad nobody is clamoring for any of Todd’s defensive assistants. Must be all that tight shut down coverage he plays.
February 19th, 2025 at 1:24 pm
This is all so stupid.
So disruptive.
I still can’t believe all the press influencers are not suggesting a rule change that offensive and defensive coordinators MUST serve at least two years (guaranteed) before another team can get interview them for ANY position, lateral or as head coach.
That solves everything.
Brings sanity back to the NFL.
It should be called “The Todd Bowles Rule”.
Enough.
February 19th, 2025 at 1:25 pm
Where’s the defensive coaching tree? Bowles being a defensive guru you would think his assistants would be getting DC jobs? Hasn’t happened. Did he even name a DC for the coming season? I guess it’ll be Foote. He interviewed somewhere else for DC but didn’t get it. So I’m glad Bowles has found good OCs, who brought in good coaches like Grizz, and Carberry, but Todd has done nothing to further the advancement of his defensive coaches, and that’s a shame.
February 19th, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Good points, Hodad.
However, Todd is also the head coach. Thus any coaches hired from his staff could be considered “offspring”.
February 19th, 2025 at 1:45 pm
Here’s to Thad Lewis!! Seems to do everything the right way and is getting some recognition. Refreshing!
February 19th, 2025 at 3:02 pm
In a PERFECT world, the Bucs win the SB and Todd goes out on top with Griz moving up to HC and Lewis as his OC.
How often is the world PERFECT? I love the slogan/saying of LLCoolJ one of the most successful humans around. Rapper, mogul, actor…when asked about all this he replied that he believes in DDHD.
Dreams Don’t Have Deadlines! Gotta keep on dreamin’ for ANY of them to actually come true.
Here’s dreaming of a Bucs SB win this season!!!
February 19th, 2025 at 3:10 pm
LOL
February 20th, 2025 at 12:53 am
I think because Grizzard is only 34 years old, he’ll be here at least 2 years.
February 21st, 2025 at 6:40 am
I don’t know about that Ryan the Saints head coach looks like about 15 years old to me.