Jenna LaineFeb 16, 2026, 07:00 PM

CloseJenna Laine covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for ESPN. She started covering the Bucs for ESPN in 2016, but she has covered the team since 2009. Jenna is a former cheerleader at the University of South Florida and speaks to the consistency of the program as being one of the top best in the nation.

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TAMPA, Fla. — The phone call came when Zac Robinson was sitting at his gate at Tampa International Airport. He had just interviewed with Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles for their vacant offensive coordinator position, and Bowles wanted him to come back because he had gotten the job.

“[I was] just about to get to the airplane,” Robinson said. “I was ecstatic. I called my wife, called family and we were all pumped. That was definitely one of the best phone calls I’ve ever [received], and I was happy to get right back [over] here.”

The Bucs are too. While former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel was intriguing, as was former offensive coordinator Todd Monken — McDaniel was named the Los Angeles Chargers‘ offensive coordinator while Monken was named head coach of the Cleveland Browns — Robinson might give them the best chance to get back to their prolific scoring of 2024 under Liam Coen.

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Robinson and Coen are both direct descendants of the Sean McVay coaching tree — with Robinson working for him from 2019 to 2023. Robinson then followed Raheem Morris to the Atlanta Falcons, serving as offensive coordinator the last two seasons. With his past proximity to McVay, Robinson has a thorough understanding of the “why” behind each play and how to package them together.

“You just gain so much knowledge first off about offensive football, but then the defensive side of the game of the field, just how to attack defenses — ‘OK, hey, they’re doing this. What is our answer versus this?'” Robinson said. “I think just always having the solves for the players so that you don’t want to waste plays. That’s the biggest thing with Sean when I learned there is like, we’re not just running plays to run plays. We have to have an intent behind everything that we’re doing. We have to have sound football plays that our guys have an answer for every time that the ball is snapped.”

On the other hand, the Bucs’ last offensive coordinator, Josh Grizzard, was a McDaniel disciple who had learned McVay’s offense from Coen and placed more of a vertical emphasis on the Bucs’ offense. The offense was initially successful to start Grizzard’s lone season in that position, but the unit struggled as injuries mounted for quarterback Baker Mayfield and the offense.

This was especially true when the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, Mike Evans, suffered a broken clavicle in Week 7. In games with Evans, Mayfield averaged 4.5 pass attempts of 20 or more air yards per game. In games without him, he averaged 2.67 per attempt.

Robinson was also responsible for getting Mayfield ready in 48 hours when Mayfield first signed with the Los Angeles Rams toward the end of the season in 2022 after he was waived by the Carolina Panthers — a game that Mayfield was thrust into early in the first quarter but was still able to pull out a win against the Las Vegas Raiders. The two would work together for five games, so there’s already an established connection there.

New Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Zac Robinson worked with quarterback Baker Mayfield with the Los Angeles Rams. Chris O’Meara/AP

Los Angeles was where Mayfield said he “learned to love football again,” so maintaining that type of environment can help Mayfield rebound from a down 2025 season.

“I love the chip that Baker plays with,” Robinson said. “I hope that’s reflected with the way that I coach every single day with these guys, and I hope that those guys feel that every single day.”

Mayfield, who made it a point to show up and support Robinson in his first news conference, said he already trusts the new OC, telling The Associated Press, “I think when you know somebody, that doesn’t always mean it’s going to go well, but having worked with him before, understanding his process, how much he puts into it, and just honestly his football knowledge — he played.

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“Just being in L.A., I mean, I basically had a cup of coffee [with the Rams] for five games, but the stuff he did to help me get ready on the fly and help me learn the offense within that short time period — I trust him, and I know how hard he works.

“I know how much he is able to grasp the offense and teach everybody. And so for me, that’s really important to have a guy like that, and he just demands excellence out of you.”

Robinson plans to adapt to the Bucs’ talent and what they do best. They ran the pistol extensively in Atlanta, but much of that had to do with what the Falcons were accustomed to previously and to help Kirk Cousins, who was coming off a torn Achilles tendon when Robinson arrived in 2024, and the square stance is something Cousins felt comfortable with.

“There’s definitely some advantages to that — working out of the pistol,” Robinson said. “My background comes from [McVay] and true run-and-pass marriage, underneath the center, all those things that come with that. Obviously, we’ll pick our spots with what that looks like exactly, and we’ll find out once we kick it off in September.”