The Overlooked Move By The Bucs
March 25th, 2025
Bucs OL coach Kevin Carberry.
Yes, the Bucs made a bunch of moves this month, large and small. But one move in retrospect seems to almost have been swept under the rug.
Last month, Bucs offensive line coach Kevin Carberry got a promotion to run game coordinator. That was enough to likely keep Carberry from getting cherry-picked by another team.
The Bucs offense had an impressive improvement last year, including it’s run game from 32nd to fourth. Just on face value alone, that is a staggering improvement.
Jenna Laine of ESPN noted Carberry’s hand in improving the run game is no small thing. And Joe fully agrees. He did a helluva job and keeping him was a key move.
He played an integral role in their run game improving from a league-worst 88.8 rushing yards per game in 2023 to fourth-best with 149.2 in 2024.
The Bucs’ 5.3 yards per rush also set a new franchise record and according to Elias Sports, they became the sixth team since the merger to have a 1,000-plus rushing yard improvement in a full season year-over-year.
Yeah, it is very, very rare for any football team to have an improvement like the Bucs had in the run game — from rock bottom to top-five. If a team goes from dead last to middle of the pack, that’s a pretty good job.
For the Bucs to go from 32nd to fourth, that’s almost unheard of.
And yeah, Carberry was a big reason why. Now that he knows the Bucs’ offensive line and he has the same starting five, Joe’s looking forward to seeing what Carberry can do this fall.
March 25th, 2025 at 7:07 am
Replacing White as the top dog with Bucky certainly helped improve the running game.
March 25th, 2025 at 7:22 am
Drafting Bucky was huge… as was Barton.
And they will be veterans this season.
March 25th, 2025 at 7:26 am
amen !
March 25th, 2025 at 7:34 am
Sounds good
March 25th, 2025 at 7:55 am
Pound the rock. I can’t wait for the draft
March 25th, 2025 at 7:59 am
The balance this Offense has is remarkable.
The improvement in the running game involved 4 changes. Barton, Bredeson, Irving, and Sean Tucker being fully healthy.
The running game should be even better this year.
March 25th, 2025 at 8:21 am
trade white and draft a running back….
March 25th, 2025 at 8:28 am
I was at a bar recently and just when I was about to down a whole bottle of cyanide to make the basketball on their tv’s go away, I remembered I could count on another round of fresh content here to save me. Joe, thank you, thank you for the daily content, even during the off season!
March 25th, 2025 at 8:30 am
Carbs and Pic did a great job evolving the run game to suit what Bucky did at Oregon. Coen did a good lob calling a variety of runs. Barton and Bredeson were solid, while Goedeke and Mauch stepped up their games. The OL was much improved but the run game inside the 10 needs to be better and pass protection for Bake needs to be more consistent. If the OL and Bucky stay healthy they’ll be even better. LFG!
March 25th, 2025 at 8:36 am
Although a combination of things, including the addition of Coen as OC, Carberry’s input, Barton, and Bredeson, we all know the biggest part of the running game’s success was the addition of Bucky.
Let us all hope Bucky does not get a single touch in any preseason game this year.
March 25th, 2025 at 8:56 am
Joe,
I’m sorry you had to delete our ability to comment, but I had to say something about your story on Baker’s faith.
I remember that night very well …Thursday night, Dec. 8th, 2022. I remember it so well because I was in the hospital 1 week after having my stroke. That was the first day after my stroke. I can remember feeling like myself again! I could talk! I could move! The “brain fog” has dissipated! I ate a little something! I started my rehab! I felt that God had touched me on the shoulder and whispered in my ear, “You are going to be Ok, my son. You may have hit rock bottom, but I will be with you on the way back up!” As I lay in my hospital bed that evening, I smiled and thanked God for that!
As I watched Thursday Night Football that evening, I saw Baker Mayfield—two days removed from the Panthers—lead the Rams to a stunning victory over the Raiders with a 98-yard drive with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter! I remember watching Baker celebrate with his teammates, and then he went to the bench, got down on his knees, and hung his head down. At that very moment, I heard, “You are going to be Ok, my son. You may have hit rock bottom, but I will be with you on the way back up!” I smiled! Baker smiled when he got back up! The rest is history!!
I knew right then that I wanted Baker Mayfield to be the Bucs’ quarterback and how important faith was to both of us!
Thanks, Joe, for letting me write this; please share this with Baker if you can!!
March 25th, 2025 at 9:09 am
I say we KEEP all three of our backs.. Adding a Bruising back would be nice though!
March 25th, 2025 at 9:42 am
Only overlooked by the national media because its not a sexy story like a young offensive coordinator. Football people know what o-line coaches mean to the program.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:01 am
Just one question why can’t Bowles do it with our Defense he’s had two years
March 25th, 2025 at 10:26 am
That is really nice, I think things might get a little better for Bucky & co. Bucky did something that some people aren’t seeing, he put White on notice and I believe White got a little better but if you have this little guy just making would be tacklers look like crap, why is that White who was pretty good in college, still couldn’t bust a grape. Remember his coach last season before it all started saying I want him to run the ball like a man. Maybe he got to teenager last season. Man this season? Maybe but if Tucker stays healthy, they all catch the ball pretty good, so Whites catching and all of the in space dynamics don’t really make him irreplaceable. Tucker is faster than both but Bucky is awesome to watch, especially when he’s bustin out big yardage like he does.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:49 am
Sorry for the broken record effect here, but I’ve noted for all the greatness our run blocking did, boosted by the very talented Bucky Irving, our pass blocking appeared to suffer down the final stretch of last season. Baker really hid it well by escaping and getting rushing yards and first downs. But we looked exposed when the short game got sniffed out and Coen tried to stretch the field. Let’s hope another year, some more gelling, our rookie center in year 2, that Baker isn’t having to Houdini himself out of too many pocket collapses.
March 25th, 2025 at 10:57 am
Quite ironic that excellent coaching has been responsible for resurrecting the offense from squalid in 2022 to now challenging the Lions for most explosive offense in the league.
Coaching matters.
Defense?………….____________________zzzzzzzzzzz
March 25th, 2025 at 11:59 am
Heck will be used as a second tackle.
We will run more 6 OL formations.
We have so many options.
Licht has set this team up for the draft.
We have zero needs. We can go BPA on every pick.
Hopefully some freaks will fall to us.
I say trade down and trade up to get as many 2nd round picks and 3rd round picks.
If I was a GM I would maneuver to always get 5-6 picks in rounds 2-3.
I would trade away my 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th as a way to get 3 2nd round picks and 3 3rd round picks.
Or 2 2nd round and 4 3rd rounds.
6 picks in rounds 2-3 are way better than 7 picks in rounds 1-7.
Prove me wrong!
March 25th, 2025 at 12:44 pm
Go look at the draft value charts. The math doesn’t work. You can trade away all your picks but you’re not getting 5-6 picks on day two for them.
March 25th, 2025 at 1:34 pm
JOE not only did the Bucs have the worst rushing game in the league the previous year but it was a 2 seasons straight being the worst under 2 diff OC. Then you couple all that with we had a rookie center and another new olineman. This guy knows what he’s doing. Also I wonder how much it was Mr snaky snake
March 25th, 2025 at 6:30 pm
If we could trade Rachaad White for a cornerback maybe we would have the luxury of drafting one of the 330+ pound defensive tackles/nose tackles. Otherwise I am anticipating the fun of watching our three-headed running attack.
Go Bucs!!
March 26th, 2025 at 2:51 am
Correct Joe!
It’s still very annoying to me that teams now have to play these “promoion” games to keep coaches that they have invested in, and have contracts with. Corporate America has no compete clauses for this reason.
Really ticks me off! I’m all for guys being able to advance their careers but not at the cost of a franchise missing out on championships. The entire organization suffers!
Go Bucs!
Go Bucs!