Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles Gives Strong Thoughts on Dave Canales' First Year Being OC

The Buccaneers season was a successful one despite their loss to the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. There were not a ton of expectations surrounding what the Bucs could accomplish coming into the season with a new quarterback trying to fill the shoes of Tom Brady, a reimagined offensive line, and a first-year offensive coordinator who had never called plays at the collegiate or professional level.

As mentioned, one of the aspects of why there was major doubt surrounding the Bucs' organization was due to having a first-time playcaller on offense in Dave Canales.

Things took a bit to get going for the young coordinator, but eventually, about halfway through the season, things started to click for the Buccaneers' offense. Canales was allowing the players to dictate the plays and scheme - letting them hone in on what worked for them instead of forcing an agenda that might have ended in below-average results.

Now, the offense was still far from perfect as there were inconsistencies and the Bucs once again finished in the bottom quarter of the league in rushing, but it showed promise for what can be if the team is able to retain much of the same pieces this offseason as they had in 2023.

Following the team's Divisional Round loss, head coach Todd Bowles spoke to the media in which he addressed the job that Canales was able to do in his first season calling plays.

"I thought he had a great year. I really thought he did a heck of a job coming in the first time out, coming in with a new quarterback and four out of five starting offensive linemen and putting his system in [and] working with what he had with the cap money we had and dead money, not giving him too many more pieces to add. He had some pieces here, but working the way he did, getting to know these guys and figuring out how to get these guys open in the pass game, how to get the run game better, and those coaches working as a whole together…'Goodie' (Harold Goodwin), Joe [Gilbert], Thad [Lewis], Brad [Idzik] – all of those guys – Skip [Peete] did a heck of a job and Dave was the spearhead of that and he did a heck of a job this year for his first year out."

Canales just wanted to gel with the guys and let the guys gel with one another, and he knew if he was able to accomplish them coming together for one another then things would fall into place just as they should.

Canales' first season as a playcaller was so good in fact, that he is now starting to garner head coaching interest - having just earned a second interview for the Carolina Panthers' head job. When posed with the question of who would possibly be the team's next OC should Canales get the Carolina gig, head coach Todd Bowles was straight up acknowledging they would need to go through the interview process as well.

"We would have to [have an interview process]. We've got a lot of qualified guys here and there's some qualified guys outside. We'll see."

It is hard to imagine a first-year offensive coordinator jumping straight into a head coaching job right off the bat, but with his Canales' past history working with the Seahawks, some of the relationships he has in Carolina, and the incredible, and noteworthy, job he did with Baker Mayfield and the Bucs' offense it is not as far fetched as once imagined.