“It Had To Happen”
January 14th, 2026
Not a scapegoat, radio host says.
Joe has no idea if it was a chemistry thing or what. But when have you see a team lost its best players on offense and when those players got healthy, the offense fell off the map?
Yeah, that’s what happened to the Bucs and it’s a great mystery to Joe. But for Pat Donovan of WDAE-AM 620, it was no mystery. And that’s why Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard is now the former Bucs offensive coordinator.
“With Grizzard, it had to happen,” Donovan said. “There was no plan to get the ball to playmakers. You could see it over and over again.”
Well, not enough of a plan. Earlier in the year we saw Grizzard call plays for Baker Mayfield to get the ball to Emeka Egbuka. But what happened to Egbuka when Mike Evans and Chris Godwin got healthy, well, you’re guess is as good as Joe’s.
How could a guy go from being a sure-fire “Rookie of the Year” to vanishing and splitting snaps with a No. 3/4 receiver? That was damning to Joe. Very damning.
And how Grizzard didn’t use Rachaad White is another puzzle. White was dangerous catching passes out of the backfield. If he was able to catch the ball in space he was lethal. How many times did that happened in 2025? Twice?
Donovan also called out Grizzard’s gameplan when the Bucs traveled to Carolina. But that had the smell of Bucs coach Todd Bowles taking over on offense.
“There are too many weapons on offense for it to look the way it did,” Donovan said.
He’s right and Joe is sure that got the attention of Team Glazer. Don’t think Team Glazer agreed to pay Evans and Godwin handsomely to see Sterling Shepard and Cade Otton get targeted.
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