The Buccaneers Interviewed TEN Candidates For Offensive Coordinator Before Making A Surprise Hire In Seahawks QB Coach Dave Canales

Ted S Warren. Shutterstock Images.

The Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator position has been open for 27 days since the team fired Byron Leftwich. Over that time, Tom Brady has retired and they've interviewed 10 candidates for the job.

- Lions assistant Head Coach/Runningbacks Coach Scottie Montgomery

- Rams assistant Head Coach/Runningbacks Coach Thomas Brown

- Broncos Passing Game Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach (and friend of our former office manager, Brett Merriman), Klint Kubiak

- Jaguars Quarterbacks Coach Jim Bob Cooter

- University of Georgia Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken

- Bengals Quarterbacks Coach Dan Pitcher

- Giants Quarterbacks Coach Shea Tierney

- Saints Passing Game Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach Ronald Curry

- Former Buccaneers Receiver and Vikings Receivers Coach Keenan McCardell

- Seahawks Quarterbacks Coach Dave Canales

On Wednesday night it was announced that Canales would get the job.

But only after news broke the other day that Monken had turned the gig down for the same role with the Ravens.

Monken was the Bucs Offensive Coordinator from 2016 - 2018 and did a nice job in the role. I would have been thrilled to have him back, but I am excited about Canales who comes from Seattle where they just had the ultimate reclamation project in Geno Smith at Quarterback. Will that translate to either success for Kyle Trask or a veteran they may sign like a Jacoby Brissett or a Baker Mayfield? I wouldn't go that far just yet. Canales has never called plays before, but he is young at just 41 years old. Will he be the next whiz kid? We'll see. 

What we do know about him is that he was in Seattle a long time. From 2010-2017 he was the Receivers Coach. In 2018-2019 he was Russell Wilson's Quarterbacks Coach. In 2020-2021 he helped the Let Russ Cook movement as the Passing Game Coordinator and then moved back to the Quarterbacks Coach role in 2022 where he worked with Geno Smith to turn his career around. So while I was getting nervous about the lack of a hire, it appears the Bucs got a promising candidate that can hopefully fix the run game and revamp an outdated passing attack.