If Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles had given new offensive coordinator Liam Coen a list of goals when he hired him this offseason, improving the team’s league-worst run game would surely have been at the top of the list.
Though we’re still two weeks into training camp and just one preseason game into the season, the early results are positive, Bowles said after the Warriors’ 17-14 win over the Bengals in Cincinnati on Saturday in the preseason opener.
“It was encouraging to get going,” Bowles said. “After the first series, we were able to move the ball pretty well and get in the flow, run a little bit, pass a little bit, so that was encouraging.”
Buccaneers RB Bucky Irving – Photo courtesy of USA Today
For Todd Bowles and Liam Cohen, there was a lot to like about Tampa Bay’s run game in the preseason opener. Overall, the Buccaneers rushed the ball 32 times for 136 yards, averaging 4.3 yards per carry. And let’s not forget that this was all without starting running back Rachad White, who was one of many starters who couldn’t play at Pacor Stadium.
Starting in Tampa Bay’s backfield was rookie running back Bucky Irving, who showed many of the qualities the Buccaneers saw in him when they selected him in the fourth round of this year’s NFL Draft, running six times for 28 yards. And touchdownaveraging 4.7 yards per attempt. After the game, Todd Bowles had plenty of praise for the rookie running back.
“He wasn’t nervous,” Bowles said. “He wasn’t nervous. He hit the holes well. He caught the ball well. He did some good pass blocking. We’ll look at the rest of it on video, but I thought he did a good job for a first game.”
Keep it BUC 😤
📺: #TBvsCIN About the WTTA pic.twitter.com/vRnG7A46iz
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) August 10, 2024
Sean Tucker took over from Irving. Most impressive player He was on the field all night. The second-year back ran 10 times for 68 yards (6.8 average), with his longest run being 26 yards. Helping the cause on the 53-man rosterBut he’ll need to keep that form up as the rest of the preseason progresses.
Undrafted rookies DJ Williams and Lamon Jefferson contributed late, though their overall numbers weren’t spectacular. Williams ran 10 times for 29 yards and Jefferson ran twice for 6 yards, including a 3-yard game-winning touchdown run with 57 seconds left.
Buccaneers RB Bucky Irving and C Graham Burton – Photo courtesy of USA Today
Rookies Graham Burton and Elijah Klein, second-year guard Cody Mauch and veterans Ben Bredeson and Justin Sukur all contributed greatly to the success of the run game, which was the deciding factor in Tampa Bay’s victory Saturday night. Quarterback Kyle Trask, Cincinnati’s starting quarterback in place of Baker Mayfield, echoed Todd Bowles’ praise for the run game’s performance.
“It’s been great,” Trask said, “I mean, if we can get the running game going like that, it just gives us hope that the whole offense can open up. And it’s all about assignments and communication and getting to the right ID points and making the right checks … I thought we did a great job of that all night.”
There’s still a long way to go, but Todd Bowles is understandably encouraged.
In Todd Bowles’ first year as head coach, the Buccaneers had the worst run game in the league, which contributed to the end of Byron Leftwich’s tenure as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator. Dave Canales did a great job with Baker Mayfield, who was hired in 2023, but the run game improved slightly but still finished last in the NFL. So when Canales left to take the head coaching job of the Panthers, Bowles needed a new coordinator who could fix that aspect of the team’s offense.
Buccaneers GM Jason Licht, head coach Todd Bowles and offense manager Liam Cohen – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR
Liam Cohen, who comes from the Sean McVay coaching lineage, has the profile Bowles was looking for. His tactics are more diverse, with a wider range of plays coming from the same style. That makes defenses more unpredictable and removes some of the predictability of the run game the Buccaneers had under Canales in 2023. Offenses and defenses have pointed to that as a big strength of the tactics so far throughout training camp, and the early signs were good Saturday night.
It’s also important to keep in mind that this is still the preseason and there’s still a long way to go. That said, Cohen, like other coordinators, was very mediocre in his tactics against Cincinnati on Saturday and will likely continue to do so as exhibition games continue. The evolution of the run game and the eventual addition of Rachad White should produce even better results.
Considering Tampa Bay’s terrible rushing performance last year, finishing 32nd out of 32 teams, there’s certainly still a lot of work to do and obstacles to overcome. But Todd Bowles is right to be encouraged by Saturday night’s start. You should be too.
