Looking Forward To The Bucs’ 2025 Run Game

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The Bucs are on their fourth offensive coordinator in as many years. With steady improvement from 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024, there are high expectations for this year. The passing offense improved in each year, but the run game took over a year to click. They were one of the league’s worst rushing attacks in 2022 under Byron Leftwich and his duo-based system. Dave Canales brought a new scheme but generated similar results from the run game in 2023 with his mid zone attack.

Liam Coen found the right groove with the Bucs’ offensive personnel about midway through last year, pivoting to a lead/pull/counter system that unlocked the team’s ground attack. The team averaged 166 rushing yards per game from Week 5 through the end of the season. That number went up to 183 per game from Week 11 on as the team leaned even more heavily on their new gap-based direction.

Isolating lanes, letting the running backs play faster and weaponizing their athletic linemen as pullers and climbers. The shift to a vertical attack made a world of difference. Applying his patented creativity, Coen took things to the next level.

New offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has a leg up on Coen as he enters 2025. He already knows what works for his personnel and should be able to hit the ground running – pun intended. Prior to coming to Tampa Bay, Grizzard spent two seasons with another innovative run-schemer in Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel. He is a zone merchant just as Canales is and Coen wanted to be last year. Just under two-thirds of the Dolphins runs from 2022-2023 were zones.

Grizzard is bound to add in elements from each of the previous systems he has worked within, including McDaniel’s. Looking at some of the staples of McDaniel’s system there are a few things Grizzard might bring to the Bucs’ run game in 2025 to keep it evolving.

Heavy Personnel Usage

The Bucs have invested quite a bit in their receiver room over the past few seasons. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have each received $20+ million APY extensions in the past 14 months. Over roughly the same time period the team has also invested a first- and a third-round pick in receivers Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan, respectively. Given all of that, it would be somewhat surprising if Tampa Bay doesn’t operate predominantly out of 11 personnel. But that doesn’t mean Grizzard won’t strategically implement the same heavy personnel that the Dolphins have practically lived out of under McDaniels’ tenure.

In 2023 the Dolphins used either a fullback or 2nd tight end almost 50% of the time. Using that heavy personnel from condensed looks gave the team opportunities to run behind better blockers and get their speedy playmakers into leveraged space.

The Bucs don’t have a pure fullback on the roster, but they did see impressive strides from a couple of backup tight ends late last year. Even before moving into the starting lineup in Week 16 due to a Cade Otton injury, Payne Durham was seeing an uptick in playing time last year. Through Week 10, Durham was averaging about 15.5 snaps per game. From Weeks 12-15 that number almost doubled to 27.5.

From the Bucs’ bye week through the playoffs Durham earned a 66.7 run block grade from grading site Pro Football Focus. And he complimented Otton’s split flow blocking well as an in-line base blocker.

With Otton out the last stretch of the regular season, 2024 seventh-round pick Devin Culp saw some extended action, logging 36 snaps in the last two weeks of the season. Culp had limited opportunities to block in the run game but showed an aggressive nature and a high aptitude to stay attached and in control.

Continued Use Of Split Flow Should Maximize Cade Otton

Cade Otton struggled as a blocker his first two years in the NFL. That narrative changed considerably last year as Otton became a weapon in the run game. Per PFF, his run block grade moved from the mid 50’s over his first two seasons to a 65.2 in 2024. The bulk of that improvement was the result of a change in usage.

Liam Coen stopped asking Otton to be the lead blocker on mid zone runs trying to crease the edge or working as a double in duo, and primarily worked him as a split flow blocker. Relying on his plus targeting system and letting him get a head of steam working from the increased motion the Bucs ran last year, Otton routinely sealed the edge, picking off outside linebackers, nickels and crashing safeties.

Bucs TE Cade Otton – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

While he worked with McDaniels in Miami, Grizzard was a part of an offense that used motion over 200 more times any other team in the league. With that motion the Dolphins asked their tight ends to split flow block regularly. Grizzard’s background with McDaniels on top of the success Otton had last year should mean a healthy dose of him successfully split flow blocking in 2025.

More Crack And Toss Plays Coming For Bucs Run Game?

Looking for ways to integrate the run schemes Mike McDaniel has employed with the success the Bucs enjoyed last year doesn’t have any obvious overlay. But there is one concept that Josh Grizzard could lean into to keep Tampa Bay’s run game diversified. The Dolphins added to their outside zone scheme with crack toss plays to change up how they got to the edge.

On toss cracks, their offensive linemen would climb immediately rather than move horizontally as a unit to crease the edge. This would work well for the Bucs offensive line that excels with guys climbing and working in space.

The Bucs only attempted 31 toss plays last year, for minimal results. But the talent is there to improve upon that. Look at the clip above with the left tackle, center and right tackle all climbing to space. Tristan Wirfs, Graham Barton and Luke Goedeke have the athletic traits to execute these types of plays at a high level.

The fun part of this hypothetical is the variations Grizzard could employ at the fullback position. Without a true fullback on the roster the reflexive answer is one of the backup tight ends; Durham, Culp or Ko Kieft. But I am openly wondering what possibilities could come from the Bucs’ successful 22 package with Rachaad White lined up as fullback.

Bucs Rbs Bucky Irving And Rachaad White

Bucs RBs Bucky Irving and Rachaad White – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

 

These are just a few of the ways that Grizzard can make Tampa Bay’s offense similar yet different, while incorporating some of the successful principles of other systems he has worked with while putting his own stamp on the team.

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