Ian Allan

It used to be that pretty much any offense that was put together by Jon Gruden was solid gold in fantasy terms. You could count on plenty of passing yards and TD passes, and the offense tended to flow through the team’s starting flanker, so that guy could be counted on to catch 80-plus balls.

But times change. Either Gruden is using a different philosophy or his current teams simply aren’t talented enough. Maybe a combination of both. But regardless, the Bucs have become more conservative in recent years, relying more on the run – translating into lesser passing stats.

The Bucs have won the NFC South in two of the last three years, but they haven’t put up big passing numbers since 2004.

PASSING PRODUCTION UNDER GRUDEN, 1996-2007
Yds  TD   Year  Team
249   19   1996   Philadelphia
251   22   1997   Philadelphia
221   21   1998   Oakland
241   24   1999   Oakland
214   28   2000   Oakland
241   27   2001   Oakland
229   23   2002   Tampa Bay
246   27   2003   Tampa Bay
236   24   2004   Tampa Bay
198   17   2005   Tampa Bay
187   14   2006   Tampa Bay
224   18   2007   Tampa Bay

AVERAGE IN 1997-2004 SEASONS
235 yards per game, 24.5 TDs per season

AVERAGE IN 2005-2007 SEASONS
203 yards per game, 16.3 TDs per season

—Ian Allan

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