Bucs Should Get Weird On Offense

Bucs History of Unique Personnel

Last year, the Bucs usage of 21 personnel (two running backs and one tight end) – called the Pony package by former offensive coordinator Liam Coen – was the most successful and explosive grouping in the NFL. This year the team has decreased their 21p usage. It’s hard to say which came first, the chicken or the egg, but their effectiveness in 21 has also decreased. But the pieces are still in place for the Bucs to be creative, explosive and successful by getting their backs on the field more often.

Take It Further

While new offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has shied away from this more creative package, I want to advocate for him to lean into it more. And take it further. Get all three backs onto the field in 31 personnel for a handful of plays. This would be a 4-6 play package per game that could create solid success rates and 1-2 explosives per game for the rest of the game.

My idea here is to run everything out of a twins sidecar pistol formation. The goal is to make everything look the same to prevent tendencies from forming and build in layers and counters. The twins would have a receiver to the outside to the field with Rachaad White in the slot. Tight end Cade Otton would be tight to the formation to the boundary and Bucky Irving would line up behind the quarterback with Sean Tucker as the sidecar to the boundary.

Fake Jet Pin Pull

The foundation of this personnel and formation is to introduce as much motion, variety and possibility to the Bucs run game. That would start with this pin-pull concept. After the handoff to Tucker, I would ask Baker Mayfield to fake a flip to Irving swinging to the opposite side. This would lead to the natural changeups such as:

• G/G Toss Counter – faking the handoff to Tucker, flipping a toss to Irving in the opposite direction and pulling the right and left guards to the right. Irving would have White out in front with the guards. The defense would have a lot to sort through.
• C/T Counter – Commit to the handoff to Tucker but him bending to the right on a traditional counter run with left tackle Tristan Wirfs and center Graham Barton pulling right.
• Play Action – This could easily be turned into an RPO concept.

Fake Jet – Fake IZ F Escort

This would be a strong build that would fake the jet, followed by a play-action fake to Tucker with the goal of getting an escort screen to White with Otton out in front. This could be an easy RPO concept where Mayfield has the handoff to Tucker as the primary and the option to pull for the escort. They could also have vertical options built into this – especially the insert release of Tucker attacking the seam.

Post-Wheel + Mesh Rail

The best passing concepts have a zone beater and man beater built into the same play. This attempts to create that same balance. A few notes:

• The Post/Wheel is designed to stress Cover 2/Cover 3 schemes. Against Cover 2 the wheel forces the flat corner to quickly recognize the wheel and get vertical. Against Cover 3 if the corner follows the post the wheel comes wide open for an explosive.
• The mesh rail is a man-beater introducing traffic and picks over the shallow middle of the field and stressing the rail defender to keep take a smart line to get down to the flat but still open up to the vertical nature of the route. The Bucs beat the Bills on this concept in Week 11.

• Variations could include Tucker and Irving swapping routes off of a play action fake to Tucker. This should cause linebackers and safeties to bite to respect the run and put them in an even more difficult position to defend the vertical elements of the routes.
• The receiver post would be against a middle-of-the-field open look (two-high safeties). Against middle-of-the-field closed that route would option to a dig and give a natural high-low look for Mayfield with the mesh. This creates a quicker progression without him having to move his head too much.
• Additional variants could include a snap swing motion for Irving. In doing this the Bucs could fake the swing screen to cause the field corner to bite down and get the receiver behind him on an easier release into the post/dig. It would also help marry the timing of the mesh concept (a faster developing play) with the post-wheel (a slower developing play). By faking the swing screen, it would allow Otton to chip release and White to fake the screen block to delay their routes and sync up timing better.

Variety Should Be The Spice Of The Bucs Life

Until Mike Evans returns the Bucs’ passing attack is going to have a difficult time clicking on all cylinders. Evans is a true coverage-tilter and X receiver. No one else on the roster can operate extremely well in that role. In order to help keep defenses off balance and introduce explosiveness, getting creative with personnel and formations can benefit the unit as a whole.

This isn’t something Tampa Bay can major in. That’s like telling your aunt Linda at Thanksgiving dinner that you are quitting Yale to go major in liberal arts at the South Harmon Institute of Technology. She would kick you out of the house before the deviled eggs make their rounds.

This is more like saying “I’m sticking with Yale and that Poli-Sci degree, but for fun I’m going to minor in Latin.”

It’s quirky and weird and may get an eye roll or two, but also fun to think about.

And the Bucs should try it.