Ben Bredeson Sees No Obstacle In Taking Offense To Another Level
March 13th, 2025
Improvement?
Last year the Bucs ranked third in average yards per game at 400 yards (399.6 to be precise). Pretty impressive.
But not impressive enough for Ben Bredeson?
The Tampa Bay left guard, seeing the Bucs will return all 11 starters from that same offense (provided Chris Godwin is healthy), can envision the offense taking a step forward.
“Personally, it’s something I’ve never experienced – having the entire offensive line return let alone the entire offense return,” Bredeson said yesterday. “It’s very exciting. We’re going to have to build this thing back up again – it’s not just going to pick up right where we left off.
“We have to build this back up through OTA’s and training camp. With that continuity between the running backs, O-line, [wide] receivers, quarterback, we can really make some strides and hopefully streamline that growing process a little bit faster.”
This sounds great and Joe’s not trying to throw cold water on the idea. But remember that new Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has never called plays before.
Yeah, Joe gets it, he was on Liam Coen’s staff last year. That alone should help Grizzard quite a bit. He knows what and who he’s working with, knows each player’s strengths and weaknesses.
Still, Joe thinks that’s putting a lot of undue pressure on a first-time offensive coordinator. It seems unreasonable for Grizzard to guide the Bucs’ offense to a top-two unit.
Could the offense be that good? Sure. Remember, the Bucs had three rookie starters last season. Just having experience in the NFL, all three (Bucky Irving, Graham Barton and Jalen McMillan) should be better.
If Grizzard does get the offense to improve, it’s a safe bet head coach Todd Bowles will once again be looking for another offensive coordinator next winter.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:11 am
Giggle, Grin & Go Again
March 13th, 2025 at 12:37 am
Eh. I suspect griz will stay at least another year. He’s only 34 and I think is smart enough to realize that more experience will benefit him greatly.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:52 am
Joe … ‘It seems unreasonable for Grizzard to guide the Bucs’ offense to a top-two unit.’
You’re probably right Joe. Bucs came in #4 offense this past season in Points Scored with 502 points. There are 3 teams ahead of us who have solid offenses AND defenses who’ll be hard to unseat.
#1 – Lions: 564 Points Scored (Defense #7 in Points Allowed)
#2 – Bills: 525 Points Scored (Defense #11 in Points Allowed)
#3 – Ravens: 518 Points Scored (Defense #9 in Points Allowed)
The one place we potentially gave up a lot of points offensively was because of Turnovers. Bucs had 23 giveaways. Lions had 15 giveaways; Bills only had 8 giveaways; and the Ravens had 11 giveaways. In other words, we gave it away considerably more than the Top-3.
In takeaways, Bucs had 18 for a Turnover Differential of MINUS 4. Lions had 24 takeaways for a PLUS 9 T/O Differential. Bills had 32 takeaways for a whopping PLUS 24 T/O Differential. And the Ravens had 17 takeaways for a PLUS 6 T/O Differential. In other words, Bucs were the only negative Turnover Differential in the group.
The best way to score more points is to not give the ball away as often (more scoring opportunities) AND to take it away more often (again, more scoring opportunities). Got a hunch that’ll be a point of emphasis in this year’s offense AND defense.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:55 am
Hey Joe! Don’t forget about rookie Devin Culp.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:55 am
I don’t think Grizz will bolt next year. Plus there was like 8 new coaches hired this year. How many jobs realistically will be open next year. Maybe a few like Giants Browns or Bengals if they miss playoffs again. That would be only one ai could see him bolting for out of those 3. Dolphins could open up which could also be a possible landing spot for him since he already has worked there. Outside of those 2 don’t see him bolting.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:58 am
There’s no need to remember him. He’s not a starter. Barton, Bucky and McMillan are all starters. Nice player for a seventh-round pick, but not a starter.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:58 am
Great points Defense Rules. Love reading your posts by the way. They have to force more turnovers and stop doing it themselves. Minus 4 is awful. Has to be corrected this season if they want to make a deep run in the playoffs.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:58 am
If Grizzard does good he’ll stay at least 1 more year. He won’t be in that much of a hurry to be another Baker victim and be forced to take a $13 million job as a head coach. He’ll take another year to hone and improve his newly needed skills. You never know, if he is really exceptional in his first year and Coach Bowles retires…
I just hope the offense stays hot and can be in the red zone within 5 or 6 plays like last year. So fun to watch!!!
March 13th, 2025 at 1:18 am
There is one obstacle. The trajectory of declining performance by the defense since BA handed over the reins. Baker might only get the ball for three possessions at this rate.
March 13th, 2025 at 1:24 am
ATLBUCSolar … I’ve got very little to back this up, but Devin Culp could end up being the find of the century. But not as a TE; as a WR.
Culp’s listed as 6’4 & 237 lbs. He’s also FAST for a TE (4.47 sec 40 at his Combine), and seems to have very good hands intermediate & deep (only targeted 6 times last year, but caught 5 of them … 83.3% … for a 17.6 yards/reception & OUR 1st downs). I was impressed.
He reminds me more of Mike Evans than of any of our TEs (very light for a TE?). ME13 is listed at 6’5″ & 231 lbs. He’s just a tad slower than Culp is (4.53 sec 40 at his Combine), and he’s quite good intermediate & deep (actually improved quite a bit after working with Brady it appears). Mike has averaged 15.2 yards/reception over his 11 year career.
It’ll be interesting to see if Grizz uses Culp in some of the intermediate & deep routes similar to what ME13 runs.
March 13th, 2025 at 5:14 am
Defense Rules Says:
March 13th, 2025 at 1:24 am
ATLBUCSolar … I’ve got very little to back this up, but Devin Culp could end up being the find of the century. But not as a TE; as a WR.
Culp’s listed as 6’4 & 237 lbs. He’s also FAST for a TE (4.47 sec 40 at his Combine), and seems to have very good hands intermediate & deep (only targeted 6 times last year, but caught 5 of them … 83.3% … for a 17.6 yards/reception & OUR 1st downs). I was impressed.
He reminds me more of Mike Evans than of any of our TEs (very light for a TE?). ME13 is listed at 6’5″ & 231 lbs. He’s just a tad slower than Culp is (4.53 sec 40 at his Combine), and he’s quite good intermediate & deep (actually improved quite a bit after working with Brady it appears). Mike has averaged 15.2 yards/reception over his 11 year career.
It’ll be interesting to see if Grizz uses Culp in some of the intermediate & deep routes similar to what ME13 runs.
GREAT TAKE!!
Well done. Thank you!! 👍👍
March 13th, 2025 at 5:41 am
That was my thinking about Culp also–with that height/weight, you’d expect to see “WR” beside his name. I don’t think a 237 pound guy is gonna make a DE move where he doesn’t want to go, at best, be a road block
March 13th, 2025 at 6:34 am
If he can’t call plays then we got big problems. Hope we got someone in One Buc who can. Phone number maybe. Bruce?
An OC who can’t call plays? Leftnut is looking for work still?
Ouch that though hurt my hammy.
Go Bucs!
March 13th, 2025 at 8:58 am
Defense Rules always like reading your posts and I agree. I must add though that if we forced more turnovers on D who knows what the offense would have been ranked. Another big issue is the long drives the D was giving up most of the year. Just the last game I believe the Commanders had two 15-play drives. That’s Crazy!The Offense spent too much time sitting on their butts!
March 13th, 2025 at 10:01 am
On the way to forcing more turnovers, which requires some luck and often come in bunches, it might be good to tighten up the secondary and give up fewer passing yards, which will also reduce opposing time of possession and points allowed. Maybe tackle better, which can be coached.
What we would like to see is the defense hold opponents to fewer points than we score.
March 13th, 2025 at 10:12 am
If so, I would think Grizzard gets an interview, but he seems a little green to be running his own team. Probably would stay here for at least another year after this one.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:04 pm
The biggest key for me will be TRUST! We need Bowles to trust Grizzard and his now veteran laden offense to execute and carry the team when needed.
Instill that confidence from day 1. In certain situations, we are going for it, be prepared and execute.
Barton, Bucky, JMac aren’t rookies anymore. Keep the ball in Bakers, Buckys and Evans/Godwins hands. Not Jayden Daniels or Patrick Mahomes. Don’t care how good the D is. If the O doesn’t get it done, the D will get their chance to stop them or make a play.
March 13th, 2025 at 12:58 pm
Why don’t the bucs lock in the OC for more than 1 year with the option of releasing him at their option & with a 2nd option of extending for another 2 years this way they have the advantage this will stop the abuse of power by the employees or r they stupid ?
March 13th, 2025 at 1:02 pm
It’s like when team goes after a QB & the QB has all the advantages so u end up with a cousins or Watson dilemma.never understood the mentality it’s always to the employee benefit not the employer that theory does not work in the real world