REPORT: Bucs Pursuing Offensive Coordinator from College Football National Champion
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have some tough decisions to make this offseason following a disappointing season where they went 8-9 in the regular season and lost to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card game.
With the offseason now here for the Bucs, the first shoe dropped when early Thursday morning the team decided to fire offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. With Leftwich now on the out, the Buccaneers will be in the market for a new offensive coordinator come the 2023-24 NFL season.
One name that has been hot across teams looking for an offensive coordinator is former Bucs' offensive coordinator and current National Champion offensive coordinator for the Georgia Bulldogs, Todd Monken, and the Buccaneers seem to want to bring him back to Tampa Bay according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
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Monken formerly served as the Buccaneers' offensive coordinator under Dirk Koetter from 2016 until the latter was fired as the Bucs' head coach in 2018 and Bruce Arians took over in 2019. After his time with the Buccaneers, Monken was hired as the Cleveland Browns' offensive coordinator in 2019 before returning to the college ranks to join Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs as their OC.
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Georgia's offense really took off once Monken got into the fold and they have won back-to-back National Championships in 2021 and 2022; accounting for two out of the three seasons that Monken has been on staff.
Since taking over at Georgia, the Bulldogs' best offensive output came this past season, during their second National Championship run, which saw them average 41 ppg, 205.3 rushing yards per game, 295.8 passing yards per game, and 501.1 total yards per game.
The Buccaneers offense in 2022 saw a drastic decline since the retirement of former head coach Bruce Arians. There was so no cohesiveness between players and the offense lacked creativity and consistency throughout the season. The running game could hardly get going behind Leonard Fournette and Rachaad White and the inconsistency in the connection between Tom Brady and his wide receivers was apparent.
Insert Monken.
With Monken back in Tampa Bay, Bucs' fans will welcome a friendly face back with open arms as former OC, Byron Leftwich, struggled in his former position. Monken has shown that he is more than capable enough to call his own game on the offensive side of the ball and had NFL-caliber players during his time at UGA. Bringing in a veteran play caller, like Monken, would surely provide head coach, Todd Bowles, with confidence heading into his second season as the Buccaneers' head guy.
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