Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield calls new OC change 'different' from past years

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has seen a number of offensive coordinator changes over his time in the NFL, and he's going through yet another one in 2025 — but he says this time around, Josh Grizzard's transition is different.

Mayfield has played under eight different offensive coordinators — Todd Haley, Freddie Kitchens, Todd Monken, Alex Van Pelt (two years), Ben McAdoo, Liam Coen (once with Rams, once with Bucs), Dave Canales and, now, Josh Grizzard. Grizzard will take over for Coen, who left to become HC of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and he took over for Canales, who was with Mayfield for a year before he moved on to become the head coach of the Panthers. Grizzard is set to be Mayfield's third OC in three years, but it isn't quite the same situation.

ESPN's Dan Graziano stopped by Buccaneers training camp to talk to Mayfield, and when he asked about the team's OC change, Mayfield made sure to say that this one isn't like the others. Grizzard was Tampa Bay's third-down pass game coordinator, so he was already in the building last year, and the system he's running in Tampa Bay is the same one that Coen ran last year.

New OC, same system

"Yeah, but this one's different," Mayfield said. "I'm not meeting him for the first time. He was in all the meetings last year, and it also helps going into the same system. With the run game, he's leaning on our offensive line coaches, which — huge, keeping those guys is a huge part of the run game's success. So he'll be motioning guys."

Josh Grizzard, Baker Mayfield | Tampa Bay Buccaneers

That motion was a huge part of what Coen did in Tampa Bay, and Grizzard will carry the torch. Players have mentioned that he's looking to include a few "wrinkles" in the scheme to make it his own, though, and those wrinkles could come from his experience working with another team in Florida.

Before coming to Tampa Bay, Grizzard was an assistant with the Miami Dolphins under Mike McDaniel. They ran a lot of motion there, and it seems like he's set to continue that trend heading into the 2025 season with the Buccaneers.

"When Grizz was in Miami, it was, 'How do they get Tyreek [Hill] to not be doubled?' So his background is how to motion, how to get certain looks out of the defense," Mayfield said. "Our third-down stuff last year, a lot of it was Grizz. He was our third-down pass game coordinator. So we trust in that. Just having the communication of knowing him before, we don't have to get to know each other. We can kind of just say what we're thinking."

Grizzard and the offense have been building a rapport all camp, but he'll get his first small taste of NFL action when the Bucs play the Tennessee Titans in preseason on Saturday.

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