Bucs' decision to promote Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator is a risk worth taking

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have found a new offensive coordinator and it's a very familiar face in now-former passing game coordinator Josh Grizzard. Per NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, the Bucs promoted him on Friday.

It's a move that always made the most sense, considering Grizzard's 2024 success. He was the offense's "third down coordinator", essentially, and guided the Bucs offense to record heights on third down. The Bucs set a new franchise record and led the NFL with a 50.9% conversion rate that also happened to be the 14th-highest rate in league history, per Buccaneers.com.

"I think, first of all, shoutout to Josh [Grizzard] and really the staff in general have done a phenomenal job throughout the whole year," former offensive coordinator Liam Coen told reporters back in December. "The guys in charge of those areas – Thad Lewis is in charge of the red zone, ‘B-Mac’ (Brian McClendon) is in charge of two-minute, and ‘Grizz’ (Josh Grizzard) happens to be in charge of third downs. Their ideas, plays, and thoughts and schemes is what does come to life as what you see on Sunday.

"Definitely, not all of those plays come right from me – we have a full staff. These guys put a lot of work into those areas."

It's a smart move, mainly because things will stay a lot more consistent in terms of scheme and terminology. The big question is Grizzard's ability as a playcaller - he's never done it at the NFL level, before. Or in general. However, Coen didn't have NFL playcalling experience and we all saw how that turned out last year. He did have two years of experience at the collegiate level, though, which I'm sure helped. 

Regardless, in terms of the all-around picture, the Bucs offense will barely lose continuity or anything of that ilk. For starters, the guys mentioned by Coen above will be back in their same roles to help Grizzard focus elsewhere and then there's the Bucs' offensive roster. Outside of Chris Godwin, whose future is currently unknown, the rest of the starting offense returns in 2024. 

That's a good start, for sure. It's just all about making things come together in the best way possible, now. Either way, it's a risk worth taking because if it works, then the Bucs hopefully will have a good, young offensive coordinators for at least a couple of years.