Ryan Fitzpatrick pushes Jon Gruden to meet new Bucs OC Josh Grizzard for one key reason

NFL journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick wants to connect former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden with current offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard.

Josh Grizzard / Logan Robinson

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been hard at work since the start of the new league year when they began building their 2025 roster before the NFL Draft in April. While many of the moves the Bucs will make during this offseason will be on the defensive side of the ball, they have made a few changes on offense despite much of it remaining the same.

One of the major changes, albeit not as vital as first imagined, is the integration of Josh Grizzard as the team's offensive coordinator after Liam Coen headed to Jacksonville to become the head coach of the Jaguars.

While new to the role for the first time in his career, Grizzard has plenty of experience with some of the top minds in football, learning from the tree of Sean McVay as well as Kyle Shanahan.

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Grizzard spent last season as the Bucs' pass game coordinator under Coen and it should be a fairly simple transition. He will likely maintain much of the continuity from the season prior while looking to build off of that with his knowledge from working with Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel.

Miami Dolphins offensive quality control coach Josh Grizzard during practice. / © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In a recent podcast episode of Fitz & Whit, a podcast hosted by former Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Whitworth, the podcast's namesakes sat down with former Buccaneers Super Bowl-winning head coach Jon Gruden to discuss several different topics. It was brought up by Fitz that he would love to connect Gruden to the Bucs' new offensive coordinator to help the latter learn from one of the best coaches to do it.

"I need to connect you with Josh Grizzard,” Fitzpatrick told Gruden. “Young guy, really smart dude that’s been in a few different systems, and I think he can learn a lot from you and you’d help him out a lot. So I would like to hopefully bridge that gap for you guys.”

Fitzpatrick had some overlap with Grizzard during their time together in Miami, and Grizzard has even gone on record stating how impactful Fitzpatrick was in helping him learn and advance through the coaching ranks in the NFL. Getting all three of these guys in the same room would be something to see, especially with all the knowledge they do have, but even getting the minds of Gruden and Grizzard together would be thrilling as the two toss back and forth their ideas from a football standpoint.

Gruden has been heavily featured throughout sports since the debacle that almost canceled anything in his future and has recently had his name reestablished into the Buccaneers' Ring of Honor. Gruden calls Tampa his home, so it would be an easy thing to put together between the two and there is no better person for Grizzard to learn from other than a head coach who has done it in Tampa Bay before.

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