TAMPA – After a losing season and a one-time playoff appearance despite having quarterback Tom Brady, the Bucs are making massive changes to Todd Bowles’ coaching staff.
The Tampa Bay Times confirmed Thursday morning that offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and three other offensive assistants have been fired as well as two defensive assistants. Among them is receivers coach Kevin Garver.
Quarterback coach Clyde Christensen, 66, has decided to retire after 43 years of coaching.
The decision was made after the Bulls met with members of the Glazer family, which owns the Book family, and general manager Jason Licht.
The entire Bulls coaching staff he inherited from Bruce Aryan arrived at work Thursday for a staff meeting, unaware of the changes.
Tampa Bay ranked last in the NFL in rushing yards and rushing attempts while suffering one of the steepest offensive declines in league history, going from 61 touchdowns in 2021 to just 31 in 2022.
Brady attempted a career high 66 tackles in Monday Night’s 31-14 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card Game, two shy of the league playoff record and the most in his 383 career games, including playoffs.
Leftwich, 43, joined the Bucs as offensive coordinator in 2019 as part of Bruce Arians’ original coaching staff. His firing comes after a season in which the Bucs scored 198 fewer points than they did in 2021.
The Bucs averaged over 30 points per game under Leftwich during the 2020 season, when they won Super Bowl 55 and 2021, when they captured their first back-to-back NFC South titles.
Even with Jameis Winston at quarterback in 2019, the Bucs are averaging 28.6 points per game.
This season, however, Tampa Bay has struggled by averaging only 18.2 points during the regular season. Only twice have he exceeded 30 points, including a 41-31 loss to Kansas City on October 2.
The Bucs will begin an immediate search for Leftwich’s replacement. Among the candidates is Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien. The former head coach of Penn State and Houston Texans was Brady’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for three seasons in New England.
Tampa Bay had discussions with O’Brien a year earlier, when they thought Leftwich might be named head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Georgia’s offensive coordinator Todd Monken is a name to watch if he’s willing to return to Tampa Bay in the same job he held as a linebacker for Dirk Kuetter in 2018.
It was not until March 30 that Powells was promoted to head coach and inherited Leftwich and the coaching staff from the Arians, who had retired to take a job as senior advisor to general manager Jason Licht.
Leftwich played quarterback with the Steelers when Arians was Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator and was a schoolboy on the “No Risk It, No Biscuit” offense that featured a deep, wide-open passing practice.
Stay on the lookout for hackers
Sign up for the free Bucs RedZone newsletter
We’ll round up news and commentary on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers weekly during the season.
You are all signed up!
Want more of our free weekly newsletter in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Explore all of your options
In his first season with the Bucs, Brady passed for 4,633 yards with 40 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while leading Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl championship.
He followed that by leading the NFL with 5,316 passing yards, 43 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in 2021.
Under Leftwich, however, the Bucs have never been able to find any balance with their running game. In the past two regular seasons, Brady has led the league with 719 and 733 pass attempts.
This story will be updated.
• • •
Sign up for the Bucs RedZone newsletter For updates and analysis on the latest Bucs team and NFL news beat writer Joey Knight.
Don’t miss the latest with college sports from the Bucs, Rays, Lightning, Florida College, and more. Follow our Tampa Bay Times sports team on Twitter Twitter And Facebook.
“Food ninja. Friendly thinker. Explorer. Entrepreneur. Zombie junkie.