Buccaneers Announce More Coach Hires, Confirm Separations
· Yahoo Sports
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday announced several new coaching hires, including coach Todd Bowles' son as a defensive assistant, in addition to three staff promotions.
The team also confirmed separations from five assistant coaches from its 2025 staff. These include Kefense Hynson, Brian Picucci, Anthony Piroli, Jordan Somerville and Keith Tandy.
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News about Hynson, Picucci and Piroli leaving the Buccaneers was previously reported.
Hynson, the team's pass game coordinator, was fired late last month. Picucci left to join former Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen and the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he’ll be the run-game coordinator. Piroli was Tampa Bay's strength and conditioning coach for the past seven years.
Chad Wade has been promoted and will take over as head strength and conditioning coach.
Somerville, who had been an assistant quarterbacks coach for the Bucs, departed before the end of the 2025 season to take a job as the offensive coordinator for Cal-Berkeley. A former defensive back for the Buccaneers and the Falcons, Tandy served for five seasons as the Bucs' special teams assistant.
With new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson and Danny Smith, as special teams coordinator, in place, the Buccaneers announcement on Thursday provides a fuller picture of the changes and shifts that have taken place on a coaching staff that has been under fire since the Buccaneers' second-half collapse this past season.
The Bucs started the season 6-2 before their bye week, but stumbled to 2-7 in the second half of the season, finishing 8-9, losing the NFC South title race to the Carolina Panthers, and missing the playoffs entirely.
Robinson will be tasked with reviving a Buccaneers offense that struggled under fired first-year offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard in 2025. Last season Tampa Bay finished 21st in the league in total yards per game (320.4) and No. 18 in scoring (22.4 points per game).
Notable additions to the offensive staff along with the arrival of Robinson include Chandler Whitmer, who was hired on Feb. 3 to take over as quarterbacks coach.
Whitmer was also on the Falcons' staff in 2024 as a pass game specialist but he spent 2025 as the co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the University of Indiana, helping the Hoosiers complete an historic 16-0 season and win the first football national championship in school history. With Whitmer's help, Hoosiers quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy after leading the nation with 41 touchdown passes and a 182.9 passer rating.
The hirings of T.J. Yates, Ken Zampese, and Andrew Mitchell were announced on Jan. 30, following Zac Robinson coming on board as the Buccaneers' new offensive coordinator.
Yates and Zampese both worked with Robinson when he was coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons. Yates, who was the Falcons' passing game coordinator and receivers coach, will coordinate Tampa's pass game; while Zampese, who served as an offensive assistant in Atlanta, will work as a senior offensive assistant/pass game specialist for the Bucs.
Mitchell, who was Oklahoma State’s offensive line coach, will be an assistant offensive line coach in Tampa. Mitchell and Robinson were teammates for the OSU Cowboys -- Mitchell played on the offensive line, while Robinson played quarterback.
West joins Tampa Bay after four years with the Buffalo Bills, serving for the past three seasons as their defensive line coach.
The promotions of Atkins and Johnson previously were reported on Feb. 6.
Named Tampa's new safeties coach, Atkins has been on the Buccaneers' coaching staff for seven years, the past four as assistant secondary coach. Johnson, who has been named the team's new cornerbacks coach, first joined the Buccaneers in 2022 as a Bill Walsh Coaching Fellow; he was later hired as a defensive assistant and then promoted to assistant secondary coach in 2023.
A new hire as an assistant special teams coach for Tampa for 2026, Luke Smith worked with the 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers as a quality control coach.
Bowles Jr., coach Todd Bowles' oldest son, joins Tampa Bay after playing football collegiately at Long Island (2024-25) and Rutgers (2022-23).
Bowles has other two sons, Troy and Tyson. Troy, a junior linebacker for Michigan this past season, is reportedly set to enter the NFL draft; while 14-year-old Tyson, who was diagnosed as autistic at 2, attends middle school, plays sports, and serves with his parents as an advocate for autism awareness.
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