Changes in Offense Bring "A New Day in Tampa Bay"

Jon Gruden was the ring leader of a technicality-littered offense that offered more entertaining sound bites than highlights. His play calling was often the football equivalence of—to steal a line from the creators of South Park—"building a sand castle with a bulldozer." 

Plays that began with mass motions and audibles often ended in failed short screen passes, or procedure penalties.

An offense that was designed to mentally batter opposing defenses often resulted in disarray for the offense and frustration for the strained quarterback. Gruden wore this confusion as a badge of honor, almost flaunting the fact that few could master his extensive terminologies and concepts.

Jeff Jagodzinski, the man who will now take over the remains of Chucky's offense, is nothing like Gruden.

Jagodzinski preaches a magical term known as simplicity.  He is a strong believer in limiting terminology and using fewer words to convey the same messages to his offense. 

His background shows similarities to that of Gruden. Jagodzinski was brought up under the same system in Green Bay that influenced Gruden's offense heavily. While Gruden became strongly engaged with the style and took it to another level once getting an offense of his own, Jagodzinski took small pieces of what he learned and only allowed it to lightly affect his future decisions.

Jagodzinski's philosophy is rather basic.  He plans to strongly utilize running back Earnest Graham and rely on his power running style as a breaking point for other plays. From there, he hopes to establish a passing attack that will be much more player friendly and effective than the one that his predecessor had in place.

He also plans to enact a zone blocking scheme that will be new to the Buccaneers and change the way that lineman such as Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood approach run blocking.  J

Jagodzinski will push for notable offensive production out of tight ends and fullbacks, positions that were often used more strictly for blocking under Gruden. 

The playbook revolution will not come solely from a major shift in coaching.  The Buccaneers have been extremely active in personnel decisions this off-season, adding names such as Kellen Winslow, Byron Leftwich, and Josh Freeman to the offensive equation. 

Many moves have been deemed controversial and unpopular by numerous fans and analysts. The Bucs now have an apparent surplus of quarterbacks that reminds many of the Gruden days and have yet to do anything to replenish a lackluster core of receivers.

Jagdozinski has played the customary "we have what we need" role so far and has avoided pointing out true weaknesses in his options on offense. With Winslow, he has a play making threat at tight end that could compliment his play calling identity.

However, Jagodzinski also claims that he has the personnel to stretch the field and use the running game to set up big passing plays. With the exception of Antonio Bryant, last year's pleasant surprise, it appears unlikely that there are any highlight-reel weapons at wide-out.

There is always a degree of uncertainty in how a playbook will look under a new coach.  All we really know about Jagodzinski so far are the few characteristics of his offense that he has publicized and the fact that he plans on considerably shrinking Gruden's playbook, which resembled a copy of War and Peace. 

One can watch film from his Boston College teams or his 2006 Green Bay Packer offense and attain a clue of how things will look. You can not be certain that the same look will transpire to these Bucs.  Every team is obviously different and Jagodzinski has an array of personnel challenges to battle through in Tampa.

One can only hope that the offense will be as clear and concise as it seemed when Raheem Morris discussed it briefly in his introduction press conference. When asked about offensive schemes, Morris gleefully exclaimed that "we're going to score touchdowns." 

As unthoughtful and naive as this sounds, after an era of ultra-confusing play calling that brought more bad than good, it may be a welcomed train of thought. 

It may no longer take three years to learn the Buccaneer offense and that is a promising sign for the future of the franchise. As Tampa's football-loving population is clouded with a chaotic off-season and a mysterious future, a simple man such as Jeff Jagodzinski may be a refreshing change. 

In an organization that has made many detested decisions recently, Jagodzinski may be the guy that can make everything seem alright.