New Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Zac Robinson wants to ignite the Buccaneers' ground game and unlock Baker Mayfield's aerial potential for explosive scoring.
The average football fan is attracted to big offensive plays, and that's something the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had mixed success with in 2025.
When passing the ball, only two teams in the league were more successful than Tampa Bay in creating explosive plays, with 10-percent of Tampa Bay's passing plays netting gains of 15-plus yards.
Running the ball was a different story.
Tampa finished tied for 22nd with the same 10-percent of its running plays counted as explosive -- that is, gains of 10-plus yards.
In a video produced by the Buccaneers that documented new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson's first 24 hours with the team, Robinson said he was "excited to put an explosive and efficient offense on the field."
Robinson came to the Bucs after two seasons in the same position with the Atlanta Falcons.
Atlanta was better than Tampa at creating explosive running plays, with an 11-percent success rate that tied for 12th in the NFL.
Passing the ball, Atlanta finished tied for 23rd, with a 7-percent success rate.
If Atlanta's rushing offense, led by Bijan Robinson, were to merge with Tampa Bay's passing offense, led by quarterback Baker Mayfield and featuring playmakers such as receivers Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin, and Mike Evans, their NFC South opponents would be in trouble.
From an efficiency standpoint, neither Tampa Bay nor Atlanta did well.
The biggest stat to measure an offense's efficiency is Expected Points Added, which measures whether a team improves better or worse than how it's expected to on a given play.
Tampa finished 20th in the league in EPA. Atlanta finished 24th.
There's a lot to take away from all of this.
A lot of Tampa Bay's explosive play success in the passing game came in the first half of the season, where the Bucs started 6-3 and averaged more than 24 points per game.
At this point, team's started to key on Tampa's best receiver, Egbuka, and it worked.
Over the last eight games, Egbuka never had more than 64 yards receiving, and Tampa went 1-6. For the explosion to be more consistent in 2026, Tampa must spread the ball out to Jalen McMillan, Godwin and, if the Bucs resign him, Evans.
Even if Mayfield doesn't fix his biggest problem in 2025 (turnovers), it's hard to argue that he wouldn't be better than either of Atlanta's quarterbacks (Michael Penix Jr., Kirk Cousins).
Irving isn't going to replicate what Bijan Robinson has done over the past two seasons.
Only two running backs have eclipsed 1,400 yards in each of the last two years, and Robinson was one of them.
But Irving is no slouch, having eclipsed 1,000 yards as a rookie in 2024.
He missed seven games due to injury this past season and so didn't replicate the 1,000-yard mark, and even when he did play, the effects of his injuries were evident. He ended the year averaging 3.4 yards per carry, down from 5.4 the year before.
Irving is the type of dual-threat back (392 yards receiving in 2024) that should thrive in Robinson's system, and if he does, the hoped-for explosion will come.
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