2025 Offense
Last season, Josh Grizzard served as a resource for then Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen by tracking league tendencies to potentially implement into the gameplan to maximize the Bucs' personnel. Grizzard specifically studied the utilization of shifts/motions and how to use it to generate space to attack zones and the flats, which helped the offense achieve historical success. He was tasked with strategizing for third-down situations during the week of game preparation and the Bucs led the NFL with a team-record 50.9% third-down conversion rate in 2024.
During his time with the Dolphins, Grizzard served as a quality control coach (2017-19, 2022-23) and wide receivers coach (2020-21). He was a part of four consecutive winning seasons with the Dolphins – accomplishing the feat for the first time since the club did so in seven straight seasons from 1997-2003. Grizzard contributed to an offense that finished the 2023 season ranked first in yards per game (401.3), passing yards per game (265.5), and yards per carry (5.1), while ranking second in yards per play (6.5), net yards per pass attempt (8.0), and points scored per game (29.2). In 2025, Grizzard was promoted to offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers, bringing stability and familiarity to the offense with Mayfield at the helm. Many of the concepts will carry over to 2025 with new wrinkles added in to confuse opposing defenses.
"There have been very minor changes in terminology, really just formation stuff but he was in Miami for seven years I think and so his whole background is motions and how to get Tyreek and some of those other guys open," said Mayfield via the New Heights Podcast. "So now, it is how to get Mike [Evans] open. Then you add in some of the gap schemes that we have been really good at and that they did in Miami and we kept our offensive line coach. It is still the motion-based, make the defense communicate and really see if we can make them one-dimensional and get a beat on that and can we keep doing it until they fix it."
Home in the Bay
Since his arrival in Tampa Bay, Baker Mayfield has reached several career milestones, galvanizing the Buccaneers' offense but also the city of Tampa with his physical play style on the field. The Bucs embraced Mayfield and his trademark moxie, allowing the former journeyman to be unapologetically himself. The results have paid dividends for both sides. Mayfield completed 407 of 540 passes (71.4%) for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns in 2024, earning a passer rating of 106.8. For the second consecutive season, he established career highs in completions, completion percentage, passing yards and passing touchdowns, while also setting new career bests in passer rating and net yards per pass attempt (7.9).
In 2024, Mayfield led a Tampa Bay offense that ranked fourth in the NFL in scoring (29.5 points per game) and finished with the second-most points scored in a single season in franchise history. The Bucs were the only team in the NFL to rank in the top five in both passing yards per game (250.4) and rushing yards per game (149.2) and became the first team in NFL history to complete 70% or more of their passes while averaging at least five yards per carry. He revitalized his career in Tampa Bay, playing the best football of his career. The former Heisman Trophy Winner has sparked a new era in Buccaneers' football with precision, improvisation skills, off-platform talent and fiery competitiveness.
"This is not to s* on other teams but when you step in and your GM and Coach say, 'Hey, just be you,' after I have been told at every stop and everywhere to, 'Tone it down,' and be the 'franchise quarterback;' that is just not who I am," described Mayfield. "I wear my emotions on my sleeve. We have hung out, you guys know, I am going to talk s* and do whatever. But when it is time to turn the lights on and to go do something, I am going to do it. When I stepped into the building, they told me to just be myself. It has been, I would not say comfortable, but it has felt like home since I got there. As a quarterback that has been through a journey, I could not ask for anything else."
Facing Todd Bowles' Defense
Todd Bowles, a defensive guru, is known for his complex defenses, including 15-plus coverage concepts and everything from a nose tackle dropping to fire zone blitzes to disguises in the secondary. From down to down, offensive coordinators never know what will happen. Bowles' blitz-centric and pressure-packed system is lauded, as are his insights. For Mayfield, practice over-prepares him for Sundays. Daily, Mayfield is exposed to every possible look he could see, and then some. When the lights turn on, Mayfield goes through what he calls a "dumb-down" process, a reality check in facing a traditional defense in the NFL and not Bowles' exotic looks.
"It is good when it comes to preparation and to say, 'Ok, I have seen this look before and this front where everybody is lined up,'" said Mayfield. "But what I refer back to is in practice they will completely show it one way – rolling the safety down Troy Polamalu style and run back to the middle of the field – so sometimes on gameday, I have to dumb it down a little bit because what I see is what I get. I am not trying to play the chess game, I am just, 'I see this, let's make this move.'"
