Brown has found success at every stop he’s made along his coaching career

The dream of many Bucs fans was that Todd Monken would make his return to Tampa as the offensive coordinator. Many were also intrigued by the idea of Dan Pitcher, the quarterbacks coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. Both options are off the table as Monken has joined the Baltimore Ravens and Pitcher is staying in Cincinnati.

However, Thomas Brown should be the guy the Bucs should put the full court press on to join the staff.

Brown, a former sixth-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons, has found success along every stop of his coaching career which has been primarily in the role of running backs coach. While he got his start as a strength and conditioning coach with the Georgia Bulldogs in 2011, he quickly moved to running backs coach with Chattanooga in a string of one year stops starting in 2012. With Chattanooga, the offense averaged 166.4 rush yards per game. That got him a shot with Marshall in 2013 where the offense hit 205.9 rush yards and 2.4 rushing touchdowns per game. A big step up to the Big Ten with Wisconsin in 2014 resulted in 320.1 rushing yards and 3.3 rushing touchdowns per game before going back to where it all started as the Georgia running backs coach where they hit 190.4 rush yards and 1.7 rushing touchdowns per game.

That got him a chance to be the offensive coordinator with the University of Miami from 2016-18 where the team averaged 34.3, 29.1, and 28.8 points per game in Brown’s three seasons before heading to South Carolina as their running backs coach and getting 149.7 rush yards and 1.5 rushing touchdowns per game.

That was when Sean McVay brought Brown to Los Angeles and Brown coached the running backs in 2020 and 2021 while also serving as tight ends coach in 2022 and assistant head coach in 2021 and 2022. The Rams, of course, won the Super Bowl following the 2021 season and while 2022 was disappointing due to a never ending list of injuries, Brown sparked tight end Tyler Higbee to his career high in receptions per game.

Not only that, but Brown might be on track to join quite the list of successful coaches to come from the McVay coaching tree. Zac Taylor has a Super Bowl appearance and back-to-back AFC Championship appearances with the Bengals, Matt LaFleur has an NFC Championship appearance and two NFC North titles with the Green Bay Packers, Brandon Staley has seen some success as head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, and Kevin O’Connell is coming off an NFC North title and improbable season with the Minnesota Vikings.

Thomas Brown might just be the next in line to find individual success after working with McVay. He even garnered interest from the Houston Texans for their head coaching vacancy before they landed their number one choice in DeMeco Ryans;

Finding a young, up-and-coming coordinator with a potential future as a head coach might be exactly what the Bucs need. There are a lot of veteran coaches around and finding a young guy that can bring fresh perspective and ideas while grooming a young quarterback – whether that’s Kyle Trask or a draft pick – or can work with a veteran – like Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield – is the ideal candidate. Not to mention, someone that has gotten the best out of the running backs he has worked with and can come in and spark the worst rushing attack in the NFL from 2022.

He may not have the “sexy name” like Monken did, but Brown should absolutely be the Bucs’ top choice to be offensive coordinator – and they certainly can’t let the Carolina Panthers swoop in and hire him.

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