Buccaneers fire offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, a favorite of Tom Brady after playoff defeat

Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was fired after the Bucs lost Monday night’s NFC Wild Card game to the Dallas Cowboys.

Under his direction, Leftwich orchestrated the 15th-best offense in the National Football League, averaging just 346.7 yards per game. The Buccaneers barely won the NFC South, posting an 8-9 record in the process.

Leftwich will be one of up to ‘five offensive assistants and two defensive assistants’ expected to be sacked, according to Tampa Bay Times reporter Rick Stroud.

While the passing game was consistently one of the best, second in the NFL, the running game was the worst in yards per game. Last year, Tampa Bay was the only team to average less than 80 rushing yards per game, at 76.9.

Leftwich had been with the Buccaneers since 2019, making this his fourth season in charge of the offense in Tampa Bay.

He was brought in under the coaching of Bruce Arians, who gave Leftwich full control of the play on offense.

Arians had said when he was hired to coach the Bucs, that he “wouldn’t have taken the job if it hadn’t been for general manager Jason Licht, and probably wouldn’t have taken the job if Byron Leftwich had gone.” not available.’

Together, with Leftwich in complete control of the offensive plays, the Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV in 2020 with quarterback Tom Brady leading the way.

During that time, Leftwich’s stock as a possible head coaching candidate increased. Reports say he’s interviewed multiple times for head coaching jobs over the years, but never got the job.

Last season, Leftwich seemed to struggle on offense with a game that focused heavily on passing while the running game suffered.

Prior to this job, Leftwich had been the quarterbacks coach and interim offensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals.

Leftwich worked with Arians and the Cardinals until the latter’s retirement at the end of the 2017 season.

In the 2018 season, Leftwich was promoted to interim offensive coordinator after OC Mike McCoy was relieved of his duties. At the end of that season, Leftwich was fired along with his then head coach Steve Wilkes.