Tampa Bay Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich on Bucs Talent, Tom Brady & SB Wins

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Our NFL Training Camp Tour stops in Tampa Bay to catch up with former teammate of Fred and Ryan's and family of The Pivot, the Super Bowl Champion Byron Leftwich who won both as a player and a coach and holds the current reins with the Bucs as the Offensive Coordinator. Winning the Super Bowl as a teammate of Ryan's in Pittsburgh and a coach of the Bucs in 2021, Byron talks about the urgency to get back to the big game and his reaction the moment he found out Tom Brady would be back for one more season. Discussing all the talent and how impressed he is by the offensive weapons especially with the addition of Julio Jones joining Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, Byron feels the team is poised and ready to make one more run at the big game. Talking about Tom Brady and what makes him special, Byron says it's pretty cut and dry- Tom views the game as simple and approaches it that way every play. Citing no one works harder and spends more time on the game than 12. The guys talk about moments and players throughout their careers comparing them to today's talent. Channing chimes in with some of his commentary about Byron and makes him an offer he immediately refuses if he wins another Super Bowl. Fred and Ryan talk about how Byron wasn't just one of the best teammates but one of the best humans and going to make one heck of a head coach as he is next up. Reminiscing about Byron's infamous college game where he was hurt and continued to play with a broken leg, the guys ask Byron what that experience was really like and how he was able to push through that time despite the severity of his injury. Fred asks if that was his most defining sports moment before winning a Super Bowl. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 0:30Channing Crowder?

  Who the real receiver ever had?

• 0:32Speaker 02

  With my eyes?

• 0:33Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, you done delivered the ball to.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  I didn't have a chance to throw to Mike.

• 0:39Speaker 02

  I think one of the most underrated one I've been at, like Chris Godwin is unreal. Mike gets, you know, Mike is Mike. I think what Chris Godwin does is you can't put it on paper.

• 0:49Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 0:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I asked him to do anything. Can you block that Mike for me? Can you block that safety? Can you beat that DB? Can you beat him? And he do everything.

• 0:58Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 0:58Speaker 02

  He's a unique guy that I think people, he's special and he's huge. You know, he's a big guy and to be able to do everything he can do. Can't really say I threw to AB because I was the backup at that time. I threw, I gave him his first few touchdowns in the preseason, but Smooth was by far nothing close. Nothing's close to Smooth. Smooth would just win. I remember being a young guy. Smooth would always tell me, he'd come in the huddle and say, "I don't care what you in, what they in. That guy in front of me, I'mma beat him. So if you throw it, I'mma beat him. So I don't care what coverage." And that was, that's the way he approached football. This guy ain't gonna be covering me, he ain't gonna be staying in front of me. Throw it to me, I make sure I be open for you. So.

• 1:39Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, he, there was open a lot and he delivered it way too hard for it to ever be picked. But man, let's go have a conversation, man. Yeah.

• 2:12Ryan Clark?

  Slim.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  What up, baby?

• 2:14Ryan Clark?

  Coolest teammate in football. You outside every day, coach.

• 2:17Speaker 02

  It's your training camp day.

• 2:18Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you outside. You outside every day. First off, man, listen, I know what training camp is like, obviously. And it's even worse for a coach with all the hours, man. So the fact that you sitting down with us, like, that's huge for us as former teammates. But for me, for sure, as a fan, man, so welcome to the pivot. Obviously, you know this guy.

• 2:35Speaker 02

  My guy. This is my guy right there.

• 2:37Ryan Clark?

  Freddie T. This Chan, he just Chan. You know what I'm saying?

• 2:41Speaker 02

  They always on you, huh?

• 2:42Ryan Clark?

  Hey, he do it. He do it better than anybody else. Can't nobody beat him, uh, better than him, man. We want y'all to subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Make sure you like, too, you know what I mean? It's great to get all the views, but the likes are important. Um, you know, for us, man, when we put this together, we were like, man, we're gonna try to go to different training camps anytime. Now, you mentioned Tampa Bay, it's different. You know, a few years ago, when they weren't this team, right? And, and you obviously didn't have that guy playing quarterback. It was different, but now you working here, man. And I was like, I want to talk Tampa, I want to talk Tampa. But I got a real question, man. You have one of the more memorable college football moments of all time, bro.

• 3:25Ryan Clark?

  You, you were milking an injury, right? You were, you were Paul Pearson of injury.

• 3:31Speaker 02

  It ain't come get me in no wheelchair, I tell you that, you know?

• 3:35Ryan Clark?

  No, I just, I just really want to go back to that though, real quick, man. Where you that hurt be left?

• 3:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, I broke my tibial, all the way, three fourths of the way through. So it cracked. If you ever listen to the tape, you'll hear it crack. I stuck my foot out right as I planned it. Guy dove over my running back, never cutting the A gap, Freddie, as a running back, right? He went to cut, but as soon as he landed on it, I felt it. I heard it more than I felt it. And I knew something was wrong because there's nothing there but bones. So I was like, man, this ain't good.

• 4:05Channing Crowder?

  What was that conversation on the sideline? Like, the coach say, "B, get your big ass back in there." When you asking?

• 4:11Speaker 02

  Nah, at that time, I was a... See, I was a senior, so you know, you come in with all your guys. And we at Marshall, so we was a mid-major, and we wanted everything. We wanted to play everybody to prove that we can play. And we can go in these big stadiums and find ways to win. So at the beginning, I felt that, man, I'd have messed this thing up. Because at the time, I'm thinking, to be honest with y'all, I'm about to go win this Heisman.

• 4:33Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 4:34Speaker 02

  You know, I'm about to go win this Heisman because all the people that were in it started dropping out. Ontario Smith. But I was like, there ain't nobody left but me. So why not, I just keep going out here and get it? And I was like, I'mma just try to go for 507 touchdowns every week and see what that do.

• 4:52Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 4:53Speaker 02

  And we was on our way. And when it... When I broke my leg, I felt as though I messed it... I messed it all up, really, for not just me, but just the university. Because that was big for us. That was big for us as a group to be even mentioned in those times, right? In those times, to be even mentioned as the Heisman Trophy candidate. That was big for us and all the crew, my linemen. So we was just... I was really just disappointed until that other thing kicked in and I decided to play.

• 5:19Channing Crowder?

  Bro, that was crazy, man.

• 5:20Fred Taylor?

  Up until, well, at least your first Super Bowl, was that the biggest moment in sports for you?

• 5:27Speaker 02

  Well, in those times, it was no such thing. You know, it was... Wasn't no cell phones, wasn't none of that. So we didn't realize how big it was until... It was nothing to us.

• 5:37Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 5:37Speaker 02

  Because we got on the bus. We actually was on the bus to Akron from Huntington. So we on the bus, I got my foot up, we all in the back. I know my leg broke. At the time, no one knew my leg was broke when I went back in the game. They tried to take me to the hospital, but they were slowing down on purpose. Because that happened like on like the eighth play of the game. So they were slowing down on purpose, and they didn't want to get me back to the game. So I was like, I knew something was wrong. So my coach was telling me, "Just get it x-rayed." And they didn't have an x-ray machine there at the Rubber Bowl. So they was trying to take me to the hospital. And the Akron people was like, "Make sure you don't come back until the game's over." And I heard them.

• 6:13Speaker 02

  So I was like, "I'm not getting in that. I'm not getting in that ambulance." So they end up taking us in a caravan, taking me to a caravan, to a little medical place, not that far away. And we went there with the doctor. Dr. Ricardo, I'll never forget it. He looked up in the light, held it up, he looked at me. He was like Byron, it's broke. And I was like, man, and I remember, I think we was up seven, nothing. And I, at that point, I started thinking, man, you just get ready for the draft. Right. Get ready for the next stage of your life. And I sat there and I cut, I was like, find the score of the game. We cut the radio and we were down like twenty-one, seven. I was like, I'm about to play. If we can't lose the aggregate, but what we had in plan, what we had as a group.

• 6:57Speaker 02

  We had it like, we had our mind on something way bigger than that. And then I was like, man. Nobody knew my leg was broke, actually, when I went back in the game. Doctor Ricard, we come back in the caravan. And I just got this energy soon as I touched on the grass. I felt something. Something was like play. And I remember my mother was in the end zone the opposite way. And she was like, I was like, Mom, why are you on the field? Why are you on the field? What you doing? She was like, I know you about to try to play. I was like, Mom, you can't be on the field. Go back in the stands. And then I went to the sideline. It was third and eighteen. Nobody knew. And I remember getting in the huddle and Darius Watts, D'Nero Murray, my, my wide receiver crew. He was like, man, where the hell you been at?

• 7:40Speaker 02

  Like, where the hell you been? I was like, let's go. And Shulo was like, hey, man, you all right? I was like, yeah, I'm good. And he was just like, no, you ain't. Let's go. The lineman said, ain't nobody gonna touch you. Man. And then we just went. And we wasn't even thinking. We never said like, I never said lift me up. I never said none of that. It just happened. We wasn't even thinking. Then the next day, that's when it got big, once it, once it got the sports and everything. But in the time that it was going on, we was just trying to get a win.

• 8:07Fred Taylor?

  Right. And we, uh, we spoke yesterday about your, uh, about your son. Loves basketball, loves playing receiver. You can't convince him so much to play quarterback. Has he seen that play in episode? What does he think about it?

• 8:18Speaker 02

  Well, he said, he always asked me, he, you know, he asked me about it like a long time ago. Cause he really, so you know, they on YouTube. So they YouTube everything. I never really told him about it. He was like, Dad, what happened? I was like, well, I broke my leg and I went through the whole thing. So he never felt it at the time when everybody went. He just see it as a video as he see all the other videos. So it's just a video on YouTube to him.

• 8:40Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  I'm just his father. I be trying to get him to play quarterback. He don't want no part of it. So he want to play wide receiver. He like to tackle right now. So eventually, hopefully, I can get him over there throwing the rock.

• 8:52Ryan Clark?

  Listening to that, obviously, family for all of us is big, man. And hearing you say your mom was on the field. It was just you, your brother Kev, and your mom growing up. And if anybody's heard the first 10 minutes of this interview, they know where in the hell you from.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:09Ryan Clark?

  You know what I'm saying? That type of toughness, though, be is different. To know your leg is broken, it's not only that pain threshold, but it's something here, it's something here. How did you get that, you know, growing up, being raised by your mom and with your bro?

• 9:24Speaker 02

  I think it really started with my brother, really. Because he was six years older than me and I really hung out with my brother all the time. I really started with my brother. We grew up, we was big. I don't want to say the Washington Commanders fans. So we was huge. That was our everything. We were football everything. So when you with an older brother, they beat you up a lot. I played football, tackled football with him. But people don't realize, like, we grew up in the neighborhood, playing neighborhood versus neighborhood. Like, you know, it was nothing for us if I was living on 15th place to play somebody in another neighborhood, all streetball. It may be contact on the, you know, in the street. It may be tackle in the grass. We may get full equipment and play.

• 10:05Speaker 02

  It was just football all the time for me about everything, just everything. I could tell you everything about Washington. Every single thing from the 80s, 90s. When the game was on, I was always just big on football. And then playing it, just having an older brother, just beating you up all the time. I don't know if that made me that way or just the way we approached stuff. We didn't, when we did something, we did it. And we tried to do it the right way all the time. So it really started there with football, my love for it. Because he loved it, it made me love it. And that's where I really got all that from, from my brother.

• 10:44Fred Taylor?

  You mentioned your love for football. Obviously, we gotta get into your love for coaching, right? I remember a conversation we had, you were living in Atlanta, yeah, just retired. And you were skeptical, trying to decide if you should go in shadow under Bruce Arians in Arizona. What was the determining decision in you saying, you know what? Let me jump all the way in there.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  See, it really started with BA before I really got, because even when I was retired, it was one time they were like 13 and 1 out there in Arizona. And it's like a Tuesday and BA called me. And I remember I had my son on my lap playing with him and BA called me, he was like, hey, what you doing? I'm like, nothing. He's like, hey, I need you to come out here and play quarterback. Carson may be hurt. And I was like, BA, I retired two years ago, not one year ago. And he was, I was like, I don't know about that. And then I looked at, he was like, go out there, it's the same stuff. I'll put you in position, you'll know it. I may need somebody to play on Sunday, I may need you to come out here and play. So on my mind, I'm like, I've been retired for two years, there's no way I can come back and get ready to play in the game.

• 11:50Speaker 02

  But the fact that it was BA, the way he was talking to me, I actually thought about it. I actually thought about trying to do it. And then that's when Seattle was in their prime. And I remember looking at that schedule and they still had Seattle twice. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do that. I don't know if I'm, you know, ready to go out there and put myself out there versus the opponents that, you know, that they got to play against. So that was the first time he really called me and asked me and I ever told him, no. And then the second time, he was always telling me, even in Pittsburgh, he would be like, hey, man, you can coach, you should coach. You know, you should coach. And I remember like even in Pittsburgh, sometimes when he would come in the quarterback room, he would come in the quarterback room and he would come in to talk, put stuff in, and he would be looking at me. And I was like, why, why is he looking at me?

• 12:35Speaker 02

  You know? But he knew how the relationship that me and Ben had. He knew how I would communicate with Ben. So he was talking to Ben and me the whole time. He would come in and say something to Ben, then he would turn and say something to me, put something on the board, look at us. And he would look at us and then he would leave out. And then through that, I knew what that meant. That meant to make sure as a group, we got this part figured out and we got all this figured out. And that's how it really, that's how it really started. And I was like, man, let me go out here and see it. BA called me one day, was like, hey, man, come out here and just see it. I know you don't want to do it, just come out here for a week. And then my first day, he came, it was an offensive meeting. I introduced myself to everybody. He was sitting like at the table.

• 13:18Speaker 02

  A long table, like a dinner table, and he was the head of the table, and there was no more seats. So I came and sat by him over there. He cut, he hit play. And on the first time, he said, "Hey, don't be quiet over there. Tell me what you see."

• 13:33Speaker 02

  And from that point on, I was hooked. I was hooked. I was right there. I was like, this is what I want to do. Before I left that meeting, I'm sitting there thinking like, "Man, this is what I always wanted to do, really. This is what I've always done." Freddie, no, I was, I was nothing for me to be four, five o'clock in the morning watching film. That was just what I, I loved it so much, so. And I had to see the game that way, to play that way, because I was, I was a pocket guy, so I wasn't running nowhere. So I had to learn how to play the game from within the pocket. So after that meeting, I'll never forget it. I was like, "This is it. This is the next step." But I didn't know what that meant because I didn't have a job or anything. I was just in, I was just there.

• 14:11Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 14:12Speaker 02

  I was just there. And then at one point, BA was like, "Hey, who I need to call, but I ain't letting you leave here." And I was like, "I'm in." And he was like, "All right," and that's how it started.

• 14:21Channing Crowder?

  We all done played under, you done probably coached with, and you could, you don't gotta say it, but good coaches and bad coaches. You speak so glowingly about BA. Like, what, what, what, how, how did he get you to feel about him different than you feel about other coaches?

• 14:36Speaker 02

  Uh, because he, the way BA saw the game, I saw it that way. The way BA played the game or called the game, that's how I played at college. And that's how I saw the game. But when I first got drafted in '03, the game was played different. Me and Tom talk about this all the time. If you had 169, two touchdowns, that was a great game. That ain't gonna do nothing in 2022 in today's game, the way that the game is played. So when I got to Pittsburgh, the formations, the certain type of routes, I was like, "I can do this." And the responsibility that the quarterback had. And it really also was, I was at my peak. I was at my best I was as a player, like year seven in Pittsburgh. I'll never forget, I just felt like I was in a different place.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  I had different control of each play. It was hard to get me in a bad play. It was hard to force me into mistakes that way. I was just in a good spot where in my career. And I got with him and I was just like, man, if I can play with him, that'd be amazing.

• 15:38Ryan Clark?

  You know, we talked about you being teammates and being in Pittsburgh and being your best. You know, starting to get that relationship with BA, which obviously led to you being in Arizona. Now you come into Tampa. When you have, you know, you were answering Channing's question about how he gets you to feel that way. When you have that type of relationship, when you have that type of chemistry and understanding and seeing ball the same way, obviously that person can affect you. So you've had a great relationship, but also being around him, Byron, and seeing his love for diversity, right? To me, his purposeful hiring in that way. How has that relationship affected the person, the man, that is now the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

• 16:23Speaker 02

  I think it built something that's everlasting between me and BA. And what I mean by that is BA knew me. So he knew I can do this before I really ever thought about doing it. Because as a player, you think you'll play forever. And when I'm done, I'm done. There's no way I'll coach. But what it did, it built something between me and BA that's unbreakable now. And it's unbreakable because he trusted in me. From the time he gave me a job and he hired me, he never said, you should do this this way, you should do that that way. Because when he did it, when he was the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, I would be in his ear, hey BA, blah, blah, blah. But you know, I would be on the side, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Ben, blah, blah, blah, whatever it was that we were talking about.

• 17:06Speaker 02

  So when he gave me a job and he hired me, he wasn't in the room saying, you should do this, or you should do that. He trusted me anyway because he's seen me operate. He's seen me operate on the team, being a backup quarterback. He's seen me just operate and move. So he knew I would be able to do it. He knew I knew the information. So he was never worried about the information. He just, I think he had to. Prove to other people and just show because he just grabbed me right out the streets. I was at home playing golf and out of nowhere, hey, I want to make this kid the quarterback coach. I want to make this kid the offensive coordinator. And I'm bet a lot of people was like, what? What are you doing? You're supposed to be great at this. He would always tell me, hey, you're going to do this way better than I did it, ever did it. Because you see it differently.

• 17:50Speaker 02

  You'll see it in a way because you're actually out there. So he always trusted me with that. So it allowed me to grow like that. It allowed me to make mistakes early. It allowed me to do whatever I saw and just do it and just present it. And he never said no. He never said anything. He just trusted that I'll find a way through since he hired me. And I respect that because we know BA, he loved calling plays. That's what he loved. That's what he do. I'm a play caller. And for him to give me that and to back off and say, hey, man, let me see you do you. I'm not going to put no added pressure on you. If I see something, I see you about to run into a brick wall, I'm going to tell you. But he never had to come to me in the four years we've been working together.

• 18:35Fred Taylor?

  What is it about Tampa? You know, when you were in Pittsburgh, you won your first Super Bowl here with the Steelers.

• 18:42Speaker 02

  In that stadium.

• 18:43Fred Taylor?

  Bruce Arians was the offensive coordinator. You won it right in the stadium. Now, here you are as the offensive coordinator. You know, he was the head coach. You guys win another Super Bowl in that stadium. After the game, what was the conversation like between you? Was it like, hey, we own this, we own this stadium? Like, what was that conversation?

• 19:04Speaker 02

  It's you two.

• 19:04Fred Taylor?

  I know it's you two, but you know, I'm trying to, no, I'm really interested in knowing what was that conversation like?

• 19:11Speaker 02

  Well, it really started when we, after we beat Green. We knew the Super Bowl was going to be here. And I felt that we were going to win it. I felt it from the beginning. We signed Tom. I really did. I told our staff, even before we was going into 19, we were going into free agency. And I was like, man, if I'm a free agent quarterback, I'm coming to play for the Bucks. Because I got Mike Evans, I got Chris Garland, I got all these players around. And if you're a free agent quarterback, you're thinking of coming to the Bucks. I don't care if you doing your homework.

• 19:45Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an ultra because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  I think we'll be one of the places. And but I love Jameis. I love Jameis. I love working with Jameis. Like one of my biggest disappointments that we only had eight months to work. Only had eight months for me and Jameis to work together from like March or April to the end of the year. That's a that's a short period of time to spend with a quarterback. And but I knew the situation. I knew we were going to free agency. So I knew, hey, man, we got a good enough team to really like the coaching staff. We knew it. I mean, it's a good coaching staff, BA, Tar Bow, smart guys that know football that's been around football. And we were walking to the practice because it was COVID and we was doing everything inside the team meeting. And they were putting up stuff, getting ready for the Super Bowl.

• 20:58Speaker 02

  We can see it every day. Like we can see the process happening from here. And we were walking and you know, Foot's here. Yep. And Foot was like, B, they don't know we won it over there in that stadium. You know, and I was just thinking about that. And it just sent me back to that night. And I was like, man, that is true. Like you know, I never really thought about it like that. And we just was like, let's just get to the game. Let's get to the game. I had, I just felt as though where we were at as a team, I just, I had a really good feeling that we was going to win it. When we added Tom and I knew who was already here. And I knew if when Tom came here and put his sprinkle Tom on it, it's going to be a good group. Because we had to learn how to win this.

• 21:43Speaker 02

  I mean, you got to thank these, the guys that were here, Mike Evans, Ryan Jensen, Sky, Vontae. They've been here forever, but they were never fortunate enough to be in those playoff games, to be in those meaningful football games. So I knew once we got Tom, he'll lead in that way and we'll have a shot. I really thought we would win it that year when we signed Tom.

• 22:04Channing Crowder?

  You bring up Tom and everybody know he, this man knows football. He's a gold in my mind, greatest of all time quarterback. But BA. Is also an offensive genius, yourself's an offensive genius. How uncomfortable do some of them game plan meetings go? Because I know I played with Zach Thomas and a defensive coordinator walk in there and have a game plan? And Zach will look at it for 10 seconds. What if they go Y Y slot? What if they go double, you know, double vertical? And he just, he sees it and now the DC had to reset and be like, oh Zach don't like this. Let me look at it again. With all that offensive brain power in one meeting room, does it get uncomfortable?

• 22:39Speaker 02

  Not really. It's never been. It's been actually really good. I don't know why people think it's been, it's been excellent because when he come with me with those, I got those answers. So all y'all, all players want is put me in the best position to have the best success I can have. And they'll call your bluff first if you bluffing. So if you don't know what you doing, you just, you know something one way, you don't really know how to teach something. The first people gonna know are the players. So I never had, me and Tom never had that problem. First thing Tom said to me was, hey, I don't make no decision lightly. I know what I'm coming into. Tell me where you want the ball. You got people running open everywhere. That was the conversation.

• 23:19Channing Crowder?

  I love that.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  And you know, and that's how we approached it. Now, as we got into it, we start, as we got out on the grass, we, now I can see it. Cause the thing about a, coach, you can't call plays for a person unless you know a person. I say that all the time. You have to know the person to call plays. Cause what he say he's gonna do and what happens naturally is different. So I knew we just need to get time on task. We just needed to get as many reps as we can possibly get. But we couldn't because we didn't have OTAs. We didn't have nothing. First time we touched the grass together was training camp. And that's where we was just trying to figure everything out. And most people say we struggled that first. We started off 6-2. People were like, we struggling. I'm like, damn, we 6-2. 6-2 struggling like?

• 24:04Speaker 02

  If people think we struggling now and we wasn't rolling at 100%, I knew we would get better. And me and Tom would say, we just gotta win. We just gotta keep winning, just keep trying to stack these wins until we can play our best football in December. So that was our, that was me and Tom whole mindset really from the beginning.

• 24:23Fred Taylor?

  So what, what makes Tom special? I mean, I, I was a teammate for two years in New England with Tom. And I can, I can speak to this, but I want to hear from you, having worked with him now for a few years, every day. What makes him special?

• 24:36Speaker 02

  The simplicity that he sees the game.

• 24:41Speaker 02

  And he don't get bored. If the flat route is there, he's gonna take it. If number one's open in the progression, he's gonna take it 100% of the time.

• 24:53Speaker 02

  And when you do that, when he's not there, that forces you to get to your second guy in the progression. Then the third guy. So I'm always getting to the right guy. So mistakes are not happening because I'm never guessing. I'm going off the progression. This, I'm doing this and this and this and this. He's gonna do this and this and this and this, and the open guy gets the ball. That's what's the simplicity in the ways, in the way that he plays the game and the way that he sees the game. Obviously, he's intense, he's intense. I have, I've never seen nobody, nobody prepare like this. And I'm not even talking about, I'm talking about from a physical standpoint. I have never, we've never seen someone really go about it 365 days a year.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  On preparation, on how am I gonna get ready, how am I gonna get ready to play my best football? That's the way he prepares. So you're, I haven't seen anything like that from a preparation standpoint. On everything that you need to get yourself ready to play the best football you can play.

• 25:54Ryan Clark?

  You know, when you talk about, when, when anybody talks about Tom Brady, it is with that sort of reverence. Especially people who have gotten to work with him. You know, and when he signs here in free agency, which we all knew was the best place to go. The first question is, how long are we going to have him? Right? Or how long are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gonna have him? Uh, then the offseason comes this year, and shortly after, Adam Schefter, he fired up. I get the report, I'm the first one to break it. Tom Brady retires. During that period, what are you thinking?

• 26:31Speaker 02

  I've been in, I've always was in contact with him. So me and him was in, I'll say we were in contact. So nothing caught me by surprise, nothing.

• 26:40Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 26:43Speaker 02

  Going into last year, you know, nobody knew what next year was gonna bring. None of us, right? None of us really knew what was going, next year gonna bring. Anytime you were part of teams like that, teams most of the time get split up, right? Assistant coaches go here, assistant coaches get head jobs. So, nobody really knew anything. So, after we talked, it's like, hey, man, just... I knew he was contemplating it. I knew he was thinking about it, so I didn't really know. And then, found out that he was, and it was like, man, like, okay, now, we gotta find a quarterback. You know, we gotta find somebody to go out here and play with, uh, because we got a good enough team that can compete. So, we gotta get somebody in here, and...

• 27:27Speaker 02

  I won't talk about when I knew, you know, when I knew that he was leaving or coming back. But, I felt good about us as a team.

• 27:35Ryan Clark?

  So, you felt, you said you felt good while Tom was retired. You felt that you still could find a guy and, and be good?

• 27:43Speaker 02

  I, I was hoping we can. I was hoping that we can find somebody, and my, my job is just...

• 27:49Speaker 02

  Try to, whoever comes in, they coming into a team that's, a year ago, just won the Super Bowl.

• 27:54Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 27:54Speaker 02

  So, you're gonna have Mike Evans, you're gonna have Chris Godwin. It's a chance you may have Gronk. That's enticing to any quarterback, right? Like, what we talking about? That's enticing.

• 28:04Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 28:04Speaker 02

  That, oh, I can play with these guys. So, my worry was not that we can find a quarterback, or find this, or find, it was just... Just going through the process of offseason, self-evaluating, self-scouting. And now, we gotta find a quarterback. And what does that mean? It's Kyle. Is it Kyle trash time? Is it all those things going through your head? So, you weighing all your options.

• 28:29Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  In March and April, trying to figure out what's gonna be the next step. And, then everything turned back, and it was, hey, he coming back. And it was like, okay, well, that's, now, we're, instead of thinking this, now, I don't have to think that broadly. Think more narrowly, now, how do we get better? How do we get better as a team? How do we put... Better players around Tom to just continuously help us play the way that we've been playing.

• 28:54Ryan Clark?

  B. Love, man. I know, I know you from DC, man. I know you the coolest cat walking around Tampa. There is no way you were that chill when you heard Tom was coming back. There had to be some level of relief, excitement, something because it's, it's Tom. And it's not like he had a year where you think you should retire. Like I watched Drew Brees in his last year. Every week I'd watch him and I'd be like, yeah, he should, he should hang it up. Right? Like he should let it go. You watching Tom, uh, attempts, completions, yards, touchdown. I mean, led the league in all of those things at 44 years old.

• 29:38Ryan Clark?

  And I'm sure you have a belief in Kyle Trask. I'm sure you have a belief in the fact that you can coach. But it had to be like, woo, we got one more year. Let's go win this thing.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just did it before everybody knew.

• 29:53Speaker 02

  I just had my moment before everybody else had their moment. Oh, trust me. Yes. I was like, yes. Trust me. Oh, no. By no means. It was like, when, when I, you know, when I, when, I'll say when we talked. It was like, all right, let's, let's really, that's what I mean by narrowing down instead of, let's narrow it down. And let's try to do everything possible to put ourself in the best position possible. Because the way that it, as an offense, we don't feel as though we played our best game, the, the, in that playoff game that we lost.

• 30:26Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 30:26Speaker 02

  We felt as though we didn't play our best game. And when, when, when you lose that way, it was like, when he said he's coming back, it was like, okay. 2020.

• 30:37Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 30:38Speaker 02

  Let's lock in and narrow this thing down and focus on what we need to do to have an opportunity, right? Because it's hard to win these things, right? Everybody make it seem like it's easy to go out, win a Super Bowl. People have been trying forever to win this. It's not easy. But let's try to narrow it down and just try to put ourself in the best position possible to see if we can get there again.

• 30:59Fred Taylor?

  B, I, uh, I seen you come in as a rookie, man, uh. I know the attention to detail. You know, I seen your notepads. You know, you got beautiful handwriting, by the way.

• 31:11Fred Taylor?

  That don't mean pleasant. Yes, pleasant handwriting.

• 31:17Speaker 02

  He ready, he ready.

• 31:19Fred Taylor?

  But no, seriously, man, I seen it. I seen the growth. You know, I saw, we had the conversation before you went out to Arizona. You've, you know, you've climbed the ladder to get yourself to this position. You know, you won a Super Bowl regardless of, you know, the guy that was back there throwing the ball. You were calling the plays and, you know, you guys worked together to win that championship. You had an opportunity to interview for a head coach, uh, head coaching opportunity. There are some whispers out there, we don't know if Byron's ready yet. What do you say to that?

• 31:52Speaker 02

  Well, just don't switch it up. To me, how I really see that is just don't switch it up. If that's what it is, if you need experience, okay. Let me get experience and then whatever. But those are not really the, that narrative always changes. You know, it'll go from experience to, when I first got in, I remember it was about, well, there's no capable African Americans calling plays or, you know. But I was smart enough to know, like, I was in the NFL, so I understood it. I was smart enough to know that really ain't got nothing to do with it. That's just the talking point this year. And then the year after, it'd be another talking point, and then the year after, it'd be another talking point.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  So I knew that experience didn't really matter. I knew that because all you got to do is look at the hirings and that. Just look at it. It shows you that experience don't really matter. But I was never really, I never have gotten frustrated from it because I really got in it because of my experiences as a player. Like, I wanted to help that, I wanted to help me. In my situation, that's what initially really got me into it. Then when I found out that I can do that as a coach, oh, you can actually help this player and this human being become a better human being and a better player. So that's my approach to it. So a lot of people in this business, I mean, I say like lifetime coaches, right?

• 33:20Speaker 02

  They, they whole thing is to get their head coaching job from the second they got into it. Well, my process, I wasn't even thinking of coaching. Uh, will I want to be a head coach one day? I believe so. Now that I'm in it, I never thought about it, but now that I'm in it and I'm doing it, I think everyone would like to have that opportunity. But that's not really why I do it. So that don't really push, that don't have to move me no way. I just gotta just try to be the best coach I can be. Cause my philosophy is just be good at what you do. Just be good at it. Yeah. And force them to deny you. Force them to deny you. Just force them to deny you. That's really my approach on it. Uh, I can't control that, so I ain't, I ain't worried about that. I can't control that.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  The things I can control, how we go out and showcase ourself every time we touch the grass. So I try to represent that every time we touch the grass. And that's really my thought of it of this, this thing gonna change up. The narrative gonna change of why people, why people getting hired and why people not getting hired. But, and that's always gonna change. Just look at the context. You could just look at TV and you could tell what the narrative gonna be. Get to about week eight and just listen. Listen to TV, you could find out what the narrative gonna be around that. Right.

• 34:35Fred Taylor?

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  You, you, it always does, it always showcases itself. So if you understand that and you see it, why you gonna play in that game? Don't even play in that game. Just worry about the things that's really important. And the things that's really important is helping them young men in that locker room become better human beings, better football players. That's all I really worry about.

• 34:53Ryan Clark?

  You know, we spoke about Tom coming back in the offseason and how that narrowed your focus. And then you moved into narratives when it comes to getting head coaching jobs. Whether it's the narrative of when you're the offensive coordinator under another really good offensive coordinator who is now the head coach, how much are you actually offensive coordinating? Right? And I mean, it didn't matter for what, who was that? Matt Nagy, right? It didn't matter for Doug Peterson, but it seems to matter for Eric Biennium.

• 35:24Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 35:25Ryan Clark?

  In 2022, man, it's a different landscape. You're now coaching under head coach Todd Bowles, right? BA is still around the building, but BA is not going to be on that sideline. He's not going to have a headset. For you, what are you most looking forward to showcasing now? Because it's not going to be, oh, who called that play? It's not going to be who was implementing the game plan throughout the week. Even though we knew it was you then, that narrative can't be said anymore. So what is your focus in 2022 about Byron Leftwich, that coach on the sideline?

• 36:00Speaker 02

  Well, it'll be something, right? Regardless of how our record is, regardless of how we're playing, it's going to be something. I remember in 2020, you know, every week people's like, well, why you got Tom Brady throwing the ball deep? They throw the ball deep. I'm like, we hitting them. Like, what do you mean why? I'm with him every day.

• 36:19Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 36:20Speaker 02

  I know what he can do and what he can't do. Just think of it, 2020, every day. Oh, they throwing the ball deep. I said, I never heard of that.

• 36:27Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 36:28Speaker 02

  2021, oh, they don't motion enough or something.

• 36:33Speaker 02

  I'm like, man, all right, this is how it's going to be. So it'll be something.

• 36:36Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 36:36Speaker 02

  But I don't know what it's going to be, but it's irrelevant, really. It's really irrelevant when you really think about it because we just really trying to win. We trying to do, get in position to have an opportunity to win the whole thing. And.

• 37:19Speaker 02

  Whatever the narrative is around that, because when you do it, right? We won it in 2020, but they say, well, we can't say he's throwing the, he got Tom Brady. That's not Tom Brady. He don't throw the ball deep all the time. Why you got him doing that? And then we win it. Right. So you can't really say that no more. You can't really say why we doing it because we proved why we doing it. We're doing it to have the opportunity to do this. Right. Because of the skill set we got around them. Yes. That's what people don't understand. Everything we do is, it's not generic. It's for the people that's in that locker room and for the people that's in the huddle. So it's thought out that way. So it'll be something. I'm quite sure it is. It'll be something. But I'm quite sure I won't pay no attention to it. I'll lock in.

• 38:00Speaker 02

  I appreciate the players like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Ryan Jensen. Allowing me to be involved in their career. Meaning by that, having some sort of responsibility, how good it goes. Having some responsibility of how bad it goes. As the coordinator, it's my job to put these guys in position. And I just got a lot of respect for that when guys like Mike Evans can give me his undivided attention and trust everything that I say. Chris Godwin will trust everything that I say. Tom will trust everything that I say. It's because what we built, not just off of me being some this or that. It's just really, we built, we building something. And once you around each other like that, you have a good opportunity to learn each other.

• 38:45Speaker 02

  And we just enjoy being around each other, but I'm appreciative of players like that given, you know, with the responsibility that I have trusting in me with that process.

• 38:56Channing Crowder?

  Be loud, talking about narratives and players. Was that damn Leonard Fournette thing overblown? They acted like the man came in at 3:50.

• 39:04Speaker 02

  I didn't even know about that. See, so.

• 39:05Channing Crowder?

  The narrative thing.

• 39:06Speaker 02

  By the time I heard about that, it was in training camp, but I think they were talking about OTAs.

• 39:12Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 39:12Speaker 02

  So it was like. I don't know, my son tell me all this stuff because I'm not on none of the stuff. So my son would tell me, hey, what's this about Lenny for now? My son don't pay no attention to that job. You know, that's, that's how I figure out most of the stuff. You know, my TV stay on some sort of sports. And if it don't, if I don't see it in my office or see it at my house, I don't really get all that. Because I don't, I don't dabble in that world. So, man, Lenny's fine. Lenny be fine. Lenny come in here, he'll have training camp to get himself where he need to be and he'll be ready to roll week one.

• 39:45Ryan Clark?

  You know, you talk about, you know, weapons, you, Chris, Chris Godwin, you know, who will be coming back from injury, explosive wide receiver, Mike Evans, one of the best in the world, doing his job. You've coached Gronk, shoot, A B. Like you've had Hall of Fame talent.

• 40:01Speaker 02

  A B.

• 40:01Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you know, you, you've had Hall of Fame talent, you know, within this building. And you just added another one, in, in Julio Jones. And being the offensive coordinator, man, and having those opportunities and then looking at what y'all have this year, what are your expectations?

• 40:20Speaker 02

  Well, my expectations is for us to go out and play our best football that we played together. That's how, that's what we're using this camp for. Let's go out and just try to play as good as football we can play, play in and play out. Ultimately, your big goal is to win it, right? Anytime you have the caliber of team that we have, your goal is to try to win it. But right now, it's just training camp. We don't know what type of team we gonna have. We don't even know how this thing really gonna look. So right now, let's just go out and just work on technique, fundamentals, and try to be the, as good an offense as we can be. Let's try to be more consistent, you know, if it's a 72-play game, that's, and where we played 67 great snaps, let's see if we can have 71 great snaps in a 72-play game.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  Little things here, because football's a, you know, it's little things. A bunch of little things add up and then the big picture tends to just show up. So we're just trying to work on the little things, get better at things we can get better at.

• 41:18Channing Crowder?

  Look at ourself really and know, hey, man, we do this really well, but we can fine tune this. And we just trying to play as best as we can play as an offense, really. We trying to attack people and score points. That's how we view it.

• 41:30Fred Taylor?

  Hey, B, man, you know I love you to death, bro, and, uh, super proud, always excited for you. Uh, when I saw you guys getting Julio, I was like, wow, my, my dog got another weapon. But, uh, but more than that, man, uh, I want to give you your flowers, bro. Um, Super Bowl in 2009, love everything you're doing here in Tampa as the OC. I know you're gonna get the HC job, uh, soon. And, uh, when that happens, only one thing that comes with it, you gotta go on vacation with Channing. You gotta go hang out with Channing.

• 42:04Speaker 02

  What's up with that? I seen a few of these, right? I seen a few of these, I don't know about that.

• 42:10Fred Taylor?

  Or maybe the next Super Bowl, you gotta go. Either way, it's an open invitation.

• 42:16Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, yeah, tonight's resorts and folks get naked, you just walk around.

• 42:23Speaker 02

  I ain't going there with you. You know what I mean? I ain't going there with you.

• 42:29Channing Crowder?

  It's called all natural. I'm trying to get, man, I'm trying to get my brothers to be proud and come, you know, come to the other side, man. I'm, I'm transitioning. That's what we gotta do. We open, we talk more now, we talk about our feelings, and we can get naked.

• 42:43Speaker 02

  I don't know about that. I don't know about that. I don't know about that.

• 42:46Ryan Clark?

  Since he's tried to get Kevin Hart to go on vacation, vacation with him, that's his new goal. Every guest we have, he's trying to see who's gonna go on vacation. I think we did a poll and so far, not many people have said they actually go, man. Listen, teammate, bruh, uh, I said it when we were driving over, one of the best I've ever been around, uh, and I'm talking about human. Like, hell, yeah, you, I hated, I hated the fact that we had to practice against you. Cause I was never gonna catch a pick in practice. I used to try to feel good. You know how practice was, you won't feel good. Bruh, Byron used to throw, and if I could pick it, I'd act like I was going for the hit, cause I already knew I wasn't gonna catch it, no way.

• 43:26Speaker 02

  Remember them Fridays?

• 43:28Ryan Clark?

  Yes.

• 43:28Speaker 02

  We had good competition there, man. It was great.

• 43:31Ryan Clark?

  But I just want to say, man, like, I am, as Fred is, man, extremely proud of you, but also a huge fan. Like, man, to watch you do what you do, man, knowing how hard you've worked, knowing how hard you, you still work doing it, like. They get to say it all the time, man, but you are truly one of the good guys of football, man. Best of luck this year. And again, thank you so much for giving us your time, man, in training camp. We know how important it is.

• 43:55Speaker 02

  No problem, man. I love what y'all doing. Y'all got something good rolling, man. It's good to see y'all. Know them too well. I knew of you, met you, I think, a couple times. But I'm happy for you guys that you guys got this platform to do what you're doing with it. A lot of people got the platform, right? But it don't look and feel like this. So it's good what y'all doing, man. Y'all keep it up. Good luck all the way through.

• 44:17Ryan Clark?

  All love, big dog.

• 44:18Speaker 02

  All right, baby.

• 44:18Ryan Clark?

  Yes, sir. Gotta be a little cooler than you know. He ain't changed that.

• 44:25Ryan Clark?

  He ain't changed that.

• 44:27Channing Crowder?

  He got that accent now.