Where do the Buccaneers rank when it comes to NFL coaching staffs?
This is a tough question, but one that ESPN’s Ben Solak recently attempted to answer. Research all 32 teams in the leagueCoach Todd Bowles is coming off his most successful season leading the team so there is reason for optimism, but with Liam Cohen being hired as offensive coordinator there is also some uncertainty as to what will happen on the offensive side of things.
Did both of these things affect the team’s overall standings? Let’s find out.
The Buccaneers coaching staff is 22nd in the NFL and 2nd in the NFC South.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR
The Buccaneers coaching staff was ranked 22nd by Ben Solak.
In terms of NFC South standings, the Saints are 29th, the Panthers are 27th and the Falcons, with a new head coach and two new coordinators, are just above the Saints at 21st. That’s where Solak’s reasoning begins, and one blow in particular has set Bowles back a bit.
Could someone hire Bowles a game management assistant and move the Buccaneers even higher on this list? Did he pocket a timeout to end the Buccaneers’ season and give up a chance for a Hail Mary or similar miracle in the divisional round of the playoffs? This is another in a long line of infuriating time management decisions by Bowles. He’s actually gotten smart about the fourth-down gag, but he frequently mishandles scoring situations at the end of the half to his team’s detriment.
Bowles has led some great defenses thus far, but he has always been a disappointment as a head coach. The 2023 Buccaneers are arguably his biggest success story to date, and I’m willing to accept that he has a shot at being a successful head coach if he can get past the departure of Dave Canales (and the handful of offensive assistants he poached) to Carolina. But that’s always a worry for a defensive head coach: A lot of his success will depend on finding a great offensive coordinator, and if he does find one, that person will be poached after just one season.
After Dave Canales was poached this offseason to become the head coach of the Panthers, Liam Cohen was hired from Kentucky to replace him. After working under Sean McVay with the Rams and serving as their offensive coordinator in 2021, Cohen has two stints at Kentucky (2021 and 2023) with the play-calling side. As a young offensive mind, he will be able to handle the pressure at a different level. knowledge It can be done Upgrade crime.
But Solak also raises the question of how that experience will be put to use.
Buccaneers OC Liam Cohen – Photo: Cliff Welch/PR
An interesting candidate is Cohen, who used his connections with Sean McVay to get the offensive coordinator job at Kentucky in 2021 (ask Will Revis if that worked out), then took the coordinator job under Sean McVay in Los Angeles in 2022 (with the worst offense of McVay’s Rams tenure, a team that had terrible injuries), then returned to Kentucky again in 2023 to be the offensive coordinator (not as good as he was before), and is now the coordinator at Tampa Bay.
I’m not really sure what to do with this information. Cohen’s most impressive job has been adapting Jared Goff-McVay’s offense to the college level, which is a tough thing to pull off. But I’m not sure how predictive his success there will be at leading Baker Mayfield’s NFL offense. Mayfield won’t need more than Goff’s best hits to be successful in Tampa Bay. What really needs fixing in Tampa is the running game. Cohen has been a passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach his whole life.
Solak makes a valid point, but it’s a little open to interpretation. Cohen brought in Kevin Carberry as offensive line coach, and if the preseason is to be believed, the offensive line and running backs already seem more in sync. He didn’t rank each position coach, but Carberry, along with wide receivers coach Brian McClendon, could be key in enabling the offense to have success this season. If Todd Bowles shows further improvement in game management, he and the coaching staff could be in the top half of the NFL this time next year.
Bucs fans, do you think the coaching staff is ranked properly? Leave a comment below.
