The Buccaneers’ biggest unknown may not be what you think.
When the 2024 season ended a few months ago, every Buccaneers’ fan could’ve stood up and said aloud “The Buccaneers just need a pass rush!” The sentence would have come out in perfect unity across the fanbase.
The Tampa Bay Bucs main offseason concern projected to be finding a way to generate sacks from their edge-rushers, a group that has been maliciously maligned since Shaq Barrett terrorized offenses off the edge. The Buccaneers didn’t draft an edge-rusher in round one of the NFL Draft, despite many believing that would be the way the team addressed the need. The need, however, was addressed through free agency as well as in the later rounds of the draft.
Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images
The Buccaneers’ defense was a weakness last season. With new additions to the pass-rush, linebacking corp, and secondary, is likely to approve. The biggest unknown the Buccaneers are going to face in 2025 is not related to the Todd Bowles’ group at all— The unit opposite them has all mystery.
Tampa Bay’s offense is returning all 11 starters from a year ago and even added a young talented wide reciever with their first-round pick. Right now, the group runs four-deep at wide receiver, three-deep at running back, has a sturdy offensive line, a reliable tight end, and is all manned by a 100-million dollar quarterback.
Josh Grizzard’s group, on paper or in a game of madden, is top-notch. The concern comes with it being Josh Grizzard’s group. On January 24th, 2025 Liam Coen completed a cycle where he put himself back into a race he pulled himself out of as the Jacksonville Jaguars made a final push to sign Coen as their head coach, which including firing long-time general manger Trent Baalke. Coen’s behavior aside, the Buccaneers were put in a place where they needed to pivot quickly. Tampa looked inward— Josh Grizzard.
Grizzard may be fully deserving of the promotion he received and if history continues to repeat itself Josh Grizzard will be an NFL head coach in short order. In reality, three straight head coaching candidates coming from the same exact position on Todd Bowles’ staff is remarkably unlikely.
A year from now, we will see where Tampa Bay’s offense and their coordinator are. Right now, the Bucs’ OC is an experienced coach without a track record of a success. Baker Mayfield was great in 2024, he was good in 2023. In 2025, Mayfield will need to be great again if the Buccaneers want to make a legitimate run.
Players in NFL history with at least 4,500 pass yds, 40 pass TD and 71.3 comp% in a season:
Baker Mayfield. END OF LIST.
Baker’s 2024 season was HISTORIC pic.twitter.com/DmD2R3wJyB
— Hard Rock Bet (@HardRockBet) May 9, 2025
A great Mayfield with the support of an improved Buccaneers’ defense is Tampa Bay’s path. What will Mayfield’s performance look like under Josh Grizzard’s orchestration?
This will be nothing new for Mayfield who, to his credit, has had eight play callers in eight years of NFL play— The results have been mixed. What a Grizzard–Mayfield tandem will manifest in their first year together, remains Tampa Bay’s biggest unknown.
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