Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coaching Staff Ranked Low By ESPN

Jan 15, 2024; Tampa, Florida, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles stands on the sideline during warm ups before a 2024 NFC wild card game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coaching Staff Ranked Low By ESPN

Originally posted on Tampa Bay Buccaneers on SI
By River Wells | Last updated Aug 22, 2024 2:07 PM ET

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are "running it back" in 2024 with a large portion of the roster that made it to the NFC Divisional Round in 2023. They'll be doing it with head coach Todd Bowles and new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, but not everyone is confident they'll keep that success going.

ESPN writer Ben Solak ranked all 32 NFL teams by their coaching staff, and he had the Buccaneers placed in the lower half of the NFL at 22nd. He first discussed Todd Bowles as a head coach, and he noted that while Bowles is a great defensive playcaller and gameplanner, his heading coaching acumen remains shaky.

"Can someone get Bowles a game management assistant so I can bump the Buccaneers further up this list? He ended the Bucs' season with a timeout in his pocket, forgoing the chance for a Hail Mary or similar miracle in the divisional round of the playoffs? This is another in a long line of maddening clock management decisions from Bowles, who has actually gotten wiser to the fourth-down gag but still regularly mishandles end-of-half scoring situations to the detriment of his team."

The criticism is certainly fair. Todd Bowles has been known to mismanage the clock, with recent examples popping up in Tampa Bay's playoff game against the Lions last year and against the Cleveland Browns during the 2022 season. It's an area he needs to work on, and while his third and fourth-down aggressiveness has gotten somewhat better, it's still not as notable as some of the best coaches in the NFL.

Solak also brought up offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who is coming to Tampa Bay to call plays in the NFL for the first time.

"An interesting candidate here in Coen, who used his Sean McVay connection to get an offensive coordinator job at Kentucky in 2021 (went great, ask Will Levis). In 2022, he took the coordinator job under Sean McVay in Los Angeles (the worst offense of McVay's entire Rams tenure, though they were super injured). Then, in 2023, he went back to Kentucky as the offensive coordinator again (not nearly as good), and now he's Tampa Bay's coordinator."

It will be interesting to see how Coen fairs. He runs a more modern offense than previous Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales, who became the head coach of the Carolina Panthers this offseason, and he'll have some work to do to get the Buccaneers to become a truly great offense. His rapport with quarterback Baker Mayfield could go a long way to make that happen, and with a new interior offensive line to work with, it will be interesting to see what he can do with this offense.

All in all, the Buccaneers coaching staff certainly has to prove that last year is the norm and not the exception. And should they be able to do that, they'll likely find themselves higher on lists like these.