Fate of Bucs resides in the mind of new offensive guru Dave Canales

TAMPA — Important man, Todd Bowles. After all, this is his team and his legacy.

Future Hall of Famer, Mike Evans. On his way to the NFL’s list of top-20 receivers all-time.

Local icon, Lavonte David. Rarely has there been a more loyal, classy and, of course, elite linebacker.

The Bucs have their share of familiar, significant and beloved faces. And, yet, the upcoming football season in Tampa Bay will not be decided by the mainstays. Not completely, anyway.

The fortunes of the Bucs in 2023 will rest on the shoulders — or the playbook — of a rookie offensive coordinator with a motivational speaker’s soul. For those of you with a closet full of pewter and red, Dave Canales is your best hope for success this season.

Think about it. The defense is still under the purview of Bowles, and still somewhat similar to the unit that flirted with top-10 status in 2022. It’s the offense that needed an overhaul. The line has been revamped and Baker Mayfield has been handed the football, but the playoffs will seem light years away if Canales does not deliver the offensive scheme that Bowles and general manager Jason Licht crave.

If that thought is keeping Canales, 42, up at night, you would never know it. He hits the practice field daily with a schoolboy’s enthusiasm for recess. He is frightfully upbeat and has the earnestness to pull it off. He began his tenure in Tampa Bay in the spring by phoning every single player on the offensive side of the ball to introduce himself, and hasn’t stopped talking since.

“It hasn’t changed since Todd brought him in here for an interview and I had the opportunity to sit with him for a couple hours,” Licht said. “It’s been the same every day: very steady in terms of the energy, the focus. It’s fun to talk with him because he’s looking for solutions at all times. ‘If this doesn’t work, we’re going to do this. But trust me, I feel good that this is going to work. We’re going to put these players in these positions. …’

“He’s a very positive person and I like a lot of positivity around the building. He definitely adds to that.”

Positivity is one thing. Third and long is another. As likable, peppy and assured as he is, Canales is still an unknown in this job. At best, a calculated risk. He has never been an offensive coordinator, never called plays during a regular-season game.

He was on Pete Carroll’s staffs at USC and Seattle for 14 years and yet, when Carroll was looking for a new offensive coordinator in 2021, the Seahawks coach bypassed Canales in favor of Shane Waldron.

If his ego was bruised, Canales hides it well. He worked under Waldron for two years, brought many of his offensive philosophies to Tampa Bay and still quotes Carroll to assure you that he does not feel the weight of expectations in this new career-defining role.

“I don’t feel that, really,” Canales said. “It’s just a new thing. Coming from Seattle, where Pete was fantastic at reframing our minds, to say every year is a new team. There are no expectations, even if every single player stayed the same, which never happens of course. Through the offseason, through the preseason, it was always this new thing, this new beginning, this new creation. That was always so refreshing because it lifts the burden of expectation.”

That may be true in the offensive meeting room, but not so much in the tavern down the street. Bucs fans have expectations of an offense that is more diverse, more flexible than what they saw last year. That offense had Evans, Tom Brady, Chris Godwin and Tristan Wirfs, and could barely find the end zone.

That’s why the Canales hiring is so critical. Even with the same receivers and the same running back, this offense needed an overhaul. A fresh start. The Bruce Arians no-risk-it, no-biscuit philosophy worked remarkably well in 2020-21, but was less impressive when Jameis Winston was throwing into coverage in 2019 and Brady was too skittish to allow plays to develop in 2022.

It’s up to Canales to convince a locker room — and a community — that this is a new direction and not a continuing downturn.

“He is exactly as advertised,” said Bucs receivers coach Brad Idzik, who spent the past four seasons working with Canales as a receivers and quarterbacks coach in Seattle. “He’s been with Pete so long that he fits that mantra of being positive, encouraging guys. Every guy in a Bucs uniform is ours. There is no bashing a guy down, there’s no negative talk. We’re trying to get him to be the best human being and be an important part of this team.

“He is invested in every single guy and wants them all to feel important. You can see it just watching him walking down the hall and stopping and talking and encouraging everyone he sees.”

The Canales scheme will definitely look different. It will have more pre-snap motion, more quarterback movement, more running plays with a line-friendly zone blocking technique. Fans in Seattle will immediately recognize the signs.

But even Canales is unsure where this group will end up. He’s got different personnel with different skill sets. In that sense, this offense will be an evolutionary project that may look different in December than it did in September.

The Seahawks were not a particularly impressive offense in Waldron’s first season at the helm, so do not be surprised if it takes Canales a little time to find his groove. And do not be shocked if he pulls it off.

“That’s what I told the group early on. I said we will become us. There will be a Hallmark moment where we’re like, ‘Hey, this is us,’ ” Canales said. “It’s more about a style of play than actual plays. It’s more about attitude. It’s more about an ownership and a confidence from our group.

“We will have a certain style in the pass game and the run game, but I’m not in a rush to figure that out. I just want to put us in a position to have success in each game, and then the story of the season will write itself.”

John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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