Byron Leftwich Out And Other Buccaneer Coaching Changes Could Affect Tom Brady Decision
Byron Leftwich was a hot head coach candidate a year ago and actually was a finalist for the Jacksonville Jaguars job. Now, he's just been fired from his job as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator, a source confirmed to OutKick.
The story, first reported by tampabay.com, is far more reaching than that.
The Buccaneers, eliminated from the playoffs in the wildcard round on Monday night in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys, are expected to make massive changes to their coaching staff.
It was expected most of the offensive staff would be fired and that has happened. Some of the offensive coaches retired. And assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust, the lone female assistant coach in the NFL, was also fired.
"We appreciate the hard work and contributions that all of these coaches made to our successes over the past four seasons," said head coach Todd Bowles in a statement. "As a collective group, we did not meet the high standards that had been set for this past year and my focus now is on doing what is needed to ensure a successful 2023 season. These were very difficult decisions but something that I felt was necessary for our football team going forward."
This is the fallout from a year in which the Buccaneers averaged only 18.4 points per game and were 25th in the NFL in scoring. The Buccaneers averaged fewer points than the Bears, Saints, Panthers and Cardinals, among others.
So a team with Tom Brady playing all 17 games scored fewer points than those other teams that had to turn to their backups and sometimes their third-string quarterbacks during the season.
The stunning part is the Buccaneers were among the top scoring teams the previous two seasons under Leftwich. They were No. 2 in scoring in 2021 and No. 3 in scoring in 2020, averaging over 30 points per game each season.
Head coach Todd Bowles is going to be busy the next couple of weeks. He will have to hire a practically new offensive staff and is seriously considering changes to the defensive staff as well.
The changes on offense, however, could have far-reaching effects.
Brady, who is a free agent and has not decided what his future will be, was close with Leftwich and an advocate of the coach. It's impossible to predict what this decision to revamp the offensive staff will have on Brady's decision.