Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich said recently that “everything should be status quo” on the team’s offense after the change in head coaches this offseason and it doesn’t sound like Todd Bowles will be spending too much time micromanaging Leftwich’s approach.
Outside of their 2020 playoff run, the Bucs haven’t been terribly productive running the ball over the last two seasons and a lot of coaches like to preach about the need for balance on offense being important. Bowles played a different tune at a Tuesday press conference. Bowles said that “nobody’s putting handcuffs on the offense from that standpoint” and that his concern is solely about the unit doing what it takes to win games.
“My attitude is to win the game anyway possible, and if we have to throw the ball 50 times to win, that’s great,” Bowles said, via the team’s website. “If we have to run the ball 30 times to win, that’s great. We’ll take what they give us and we’ll always have shots for big plays. Obviously, [Tom] Brady is a great passer; we want to equal that with the running game if we can. But if they’re taking away the run and we have to throw the ball 60 times and he throws five or six touchdowns, I’ll take the win. If we’re running the ball pretty good and we get going about 25, 30 times, I’ll take the win. Whatever we have to do to win the ballgame.”
Including the playoffs, the Bucs have gone 29-10 over the last two seasons and that makes it easy to understand why the team isn’t interested in any major changes to the way they handle their offensive business.