‘He’s a wizard’: Bucs believe new OC Josh Grizzard can keep high-powered offense going​on February 14, 2025 at 12:53 pm

TAMPA, Fla. — After losing offensive coordinator Liam Coen to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have turned to pass game coordinator Josh Grizzard.

The 34-year-old will be charged with the task of keeping the wheels churning on an offense that averaged 28.6 points sd quarterback Baker Mayfield had a breakthrough season, throwing 41 touchdowns.

The high school valedictorian out of Lizard Lick, North Carolina, and Yale graduate whom Mayfield called “unbelievably smart” chose spending 20-hour days grinding tape over a “real job” for this simple reason: “It was very competitive but … they can’t win a Super Bowl,” Grizzard said.

Grizzard has never called plays before but feels he’s ready.

“I would say two years ago I really started thinking like a coordinator,” Grizzard said. “When you’re in the booth and you’re looking at coverages and just doing your mundane [quality control] work, you start thinking, ‘Okay, what do I call next? What do I call next? What’s this situation?’ Whatever it might be. Over the last two years [I was] trying to think in that way to prepare myself for this day.”

Like with 2023 offensive coordinator Dave Canales, now the head coach of the Carolina Panthers, the Bucs will implement periods in training camp and practices to call plays to help him acclimate.

“I mean Dave hadn’t called plays until Tampa, but you get used to it,” Mayfield said. “We were in every meeting together, so how involved he was in the game and whatnot, I know that he’s going to be a good playcaller. You can just sense that already.”

Grizzard was Coen’s right-hand man in Tampa. He was responsible for their third-down packages, and on game days, he served as his eye in the sky while Coen was down on the field. From the coach’s booth, he communicated coverages and pressures to him, and if there were unscouted looks, he would provide assistance in determining how best to attack them.

“Grizz knows [this system] like the back of his hand,” left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “He’s a wizard. … He knows what to do. He knows what to call.”

“I mean, it’s going to be similar to what we’ve run,” wide receiver Mike Evans said. “We’re just trying to get it to that best in the league level. We were really good last year. We were one of the tops in the league, but we’re trying to be the best offense in the league. I think Josh can help us get there.”

They won’t try to reinvent the wheel, but there will be new wrinkles, gleaned from Grizzard’s time with the Miami Dolphins under Mike McDaniel and Adam Gase, and working under David Cutcliffe at Duke. The verbiage, formations and the motions will stay the same, which means there won’t be a learning curve come April, like there was the past two seasons.

“The continuity will remain essentially the same. What you want to do, like we did last year, is morph it to the players,” Grizzard said. “With that said, I do think you have to evolve every year because now there is a full season of tape on what we did here and now people are studying that. … There are definitely things I’ve done in my past that I want to add to it to continue to apply pressure, but again, the last thing you want is to get stagnant. So now we can take it to the next level.”

Grizzard certainly got some learning lessons last season. The Bucs came into the year thinking they were going to be an 11-personnel team — one running back, one tight end and three wide receivers — but that changed. They started using 21 personnel — two running backs, a tight end and two receivers — with the emergence of rookie running back Bucky Irving.

Then injuries mounted. At one point they were down all three starting wide receivers — in Week 9 at the Kansas City Chiefs. Tight end Cade Otton stepped into Chris Godwin‘s role in the slot.

“Cade — the weeks he stepped up when those guys were down — there’s so much that goes into that game planning and informationally and Grizz was a huge part of that,” Mayfield said. “So it’s why I’m excited. He’s a guy that didn’t get a lot of credit behind the scenes last year, but he’ll get at the forefront of it.”

And since they got so good at the run, they utilized more 13 personnel — one running back, three tight ends and a receiver. They also came in expecting to be a mid zone running team — which they were — but wound up being widely successful as a gap running team down the stretch.

“Not that you want to see you guys get hurt, but I found it fun because now it’s another challenge that week and because you can run the same concepts to be able to tell a tight end, ‘You’re now doing what Chris did, the receiver. Bucky, you’re doing what the receiver did,’ and vice versa,” Grizzard said. “It’s just the teaching of it and the fundamentals. You can use the same buzzwords to try to get those guys to understand what you’re trying to get out of it. Being able to be multiple, it applies pressure to the opposing sideline, and we definitely want to keep that going.”

The front office, coaching staff and players believe having offensive line coach Kevin Carberry, who was promoted to run game coordinator, and assistant offensive line coach Brian Picucci, who promoted to offensive line coach, will help Grizzard’s transition.

Evans’ confidence stems from the way Grizzard led their third-down meetings and the tools he supplied them with heading into game day.

“We were very locked in and engaged when he gave those meetings,” Evans said. “We knew what was coming on those down and distances. … It was just a breakdown in the film, and we had wrinkles to what other teams ran and beat the teams that we saw and so we had beaters off of that.”

Without giving too much away, Grizzard foresees them being able to do more in the downfield passing attack this year as it gives them the ability to move the ball quickly, although it will still vary week-to-week depending on the opponent.

“I do think moving forward that is something we’re going to put an emphasis on,” Grizzard said. “Not that we didn’t do it last year, but I think we can put even more on trying to create more explosive plays … creating seven- or eight-play drives that could be 12 if you’re not having a 25-yard pass. So it’s definitely something that it limits the amount of plays in the drive, which is always a good thing.”