The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are expected to move on from offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Dallas Cowboys.
Report: The #Bucs to fire Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich.
The team had plans to fire Leftwich since their Bye week mid-season but Todd Bowles decided to keep him at the time, per @PewterReporthttps://t.co/OBe6W86wo7 pic.twitter.com/TkYzoD3K2Y
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 17, 2023
Leftwich just completed his fourth season as offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers. He has been one of the holdovers from the Bruce Arians regime. However, the 43-year-old offensive coordinator struggled to lead the offensive unit in his first season without Arians. This was a big reason why Tampa Bay struggled to an 8-9 record.
The Buccaneers averaged 18.4 points per game this season, ranking 25th in the league. It was a far decline from the 30.1 points per game they averaged last season and the 30.8 points per game they averaged during the 2020 season.
Tampa Bay didn’t show any improvement in their biggest game of the season. Despite defeating the Cowboys in the season opener, they looked like a shell of the team they were in Week 1. The Buccaneers didn’t score their first points of the game until the end of the third quarter. They didn’t score again until the last two minutes of the game.
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Leftwich was previously a hot name in head coaching searches in recent years. He was interviewing for the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job last off-season. However, he removed his name from consideration and the Jaguars eventually hired Doug Pederson.
The move isn’t exactly surprising, given that the Buccaneers hope to lure Tom Brady back for a fourth season. As reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, Tampa Bay wants to re-sign Brady. However, there’s a “chance” Brady doesn’t return to the Buccaneers. The quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be graced with a wide receiver duo of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Maybe the Bucs go for a more mobile quarterback behind an underwhelming offensive line.
