Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator search heats up after former head coach takes a big step forward in the hunt
It looks like the Bucs are close to wrapping things up.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers interviewed an eighth offensive coordinator candidate in Cincinnati Bengals OC Dan Pitcher on Wednesday, but it’s a different candidate with ties to the Bengals that’s set to take a big step on Thursday.
Per source, former Bengals offensive coordinator and former Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan will head to Tampa Bay on Thursday to interview in person. Callahan was the Buccaneers’ first OC interview via virtual means, marking this as the “next step”, and an important one, at that.
The Buccaneers are narrowing down their options
Callahan is the first coach to receive a second interview – no one else has received as much, just yet.
Callahan is also just the third of the eight prospects to land an in-person interview with the Bucs. McDaniel and Todd Monken are the others. McDaniel is expected to join the Los Angeles Chargers and it’s looking more and more like Monken will join Jim Harbaugh in New York.
I expect this to come down to Callahan, Zac Robinson, and Mike Kafka. Of all the candidates, those guys make the most sense when it comes to the play-calling experience the Buccaneers desire.
Robinson’s offense took a step back in 2025, but injuries to Michael Penix Jr. and Drake London, as well as losing their top-2 right tackles, played a big part in that. He helped take Bijan Robinson’s game to a new level, though, and the Falcons offense was a solid unit in 2024.
It also doesn’t hurt he torched Todd Bowles’ defense in three of the four games they coached against each other.
Kafka is an interesting one. He was stripped of play-calling duties several times with the Giants and his role was a mixed bag of responsibilities. A lot of people still bring up his shining moment as Patrick Mahomes’ QB coach from 2017-2021. While that’s certainly something to talk about – it’s a bit of a red flag if he hasn’t accomplished anything that’s worth talking about over the Mahomes history.
Lastly, there’s Callahan. He has play-calling experience after his Titans stint and while yes, that went terribly, the Titans roster was equivalent to what your dog leaves outside on a daily basis. He only had Cam Ward for a handful of games and never really had a chance to do good things in Nashville.
Callahan was highly regarded when he left the Bengals. It’s logical to think he could make things work in Tampa Bay with a much better roster and established veterans at key positions. We’ve seen plenty of bad head coaches go on to be good coordinators in the past and that could easily be the case with Callahan.
Regardless, we’ll know soon enough as the Buccaneers start to wrap things up over the next few days.
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