TYSONS, Va. — Byron Leftwich slips into the Northern Virginia brunch spot unrecognized and unbothered.
Lean and broad-shouldered at 6-foot-5, the previous NFL quarterback seems like he might nonetheless play regardless that his forty fifth birthday looms in a few weeks. After a nine-year enjoying profession, Leftwich made a meteoric stand up the teaching ranks. As offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he helped Tom Brady and Bruce Arians on a storybook Tremendous Bowl march to cap the 2020 season. Leftwich was a reliable head teaching candidate within the winter of 2022.
However time strikes rapidly, circumstances change and reminiscences fade. So on this chilly morning in the course of soccer season, Leftwich is simply one other man misplaced within the hustle and bustle of the DMV.
He has spent the final two soccer seasons largely shrouded in thriller — as soon as a digital lock to guide his personal group, then fired, then off the grid. And because of his comparatively solitary nature, Leftwich’s objectives and whereabouts have remained murky.
Influential NFL figures tried to take care of contact with Leftwich to maintain him on the radar, however they are saying their messages and calls went unanswered. Former colleagues relayed conflicting accounts: Some mentioned he was on shortlists for a handful of faculty jobs; others reported he had largely remoted himself in West Virginia whereas ready for an NFL offensive coordinator function to open up; others sensed Leftwich now not needed to educate.
Leftwich is right here to clear that up.
“I. Need. To. Coach,” he says emphatically over what’s left of his fried eggs, bacon and a biscuit.
After a year-and-a-half devoted largely to his 14-year-old son, Dominic — making breakfast, dropping off and selecting up, touring up and down the East Coast for a demanding AAU basketball circuit, watching each soccer follow and sport — Leftwich needs again within the teaching sport.
“There’s one thing lacking. … I actually do really feel as if one thing’s not there, and I’ve received to get again to it,” says Leftwich, who acquired his son’s blessing to return. “I’m actually into serving to different gamers. I need to assist them to play the very best. I like to show.”
Leftwich considered his sabbatical as an train in endurance. After issues led to Tampa, he promised himself he wouldn’t pounce on any alternative for the sake of touchdown a gig. He didn’t direct members of his small circle to drum up a media marketing campaign to maintain his identify sizzling and wasn’t about to ask counterparts for handouts. Assured in his physique of labor, Leftwich maintained a perception that on the proper time, the appropriate job would current itself.
Two hiring cycles quietly got here and went, however Leftwich has remained unshaken.
“I didn’t have the alternatives proper after and this final yr that I believed I’d have, however I perceive the method, and I perceive that the entire world’s making an attempt to get in that league,” Leftwich says. “Nothing needs to be given to me. No person owes me something. So, I’m going to simply work and see if I can have the chance to educate in that league once more.”
Some league insiders consider Leftwich’s under-the-radar strategy could have price him. However it’s the route he feels most snug with, even when his supporters want he have been extra outspoken.
“Byron won’t push himself on the market. He’s going to do it on his work,” says Arians, Leftwich’s offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh and training mentor in Arizona and Tampa Bay. “However I’ll say it: I feel it’s whole bullsh– that he’s not a head coach on this league.”
Tom Brady and Byron Leftwich racked up 31 regular-season wins and one Tremendous Bowl run in three years collectively in Tampa. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Photos)
Arians can’t speak about Leftwich with out recalling the November 2002 sport wherein Leftwich, in his last season at Marshall College, performed the fourth quarter with a damaged left tibia. Leftwich was unable to stroll, however his offensive linemen carried him downfield between move completions because the quarterback racked up greater than 300 passing yards.
They started working collectively eight years later when Arians was the OC in Pittsburgh on the finish of Leftwich’s enjoying profession. The coach acknowledged that Leftwich, then backing up Ben Roethlisberger, was among the many strongest leaders on the group. Arians turned satisfied Leftwich would turn out to be a powerful coach.
“He’s the hardest and one of many smartest, brightest dudes I do know,” Arians says. “He was such a shiny quarterback, and he had a fantastic rapport with younger gamers. … Guys have questions, he might reply something and the whole lot: Why and the way it’s going to make you higher if you happen to do it this manner. He simply has a fantastic really feel for the sport.”
“Superior management qualities have at all times oozed out of him,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says. “A few of it comes from the place he performed, however he has at all times had an ease about him on the subject of management. He’s snug in his personal pores and skin and will get alongside effectively with individuals, and he carries himself in a manner that instructions respect.”
Arians employed Leftwich as a training intern with the Cardinals in 2016. A yr later, Leftwich was promoted to quarterbacks coach in Arians’ last season in Arizona. A yr after that, Leftwich served as interim offensive coordinator for the ultimate 9 video games of the season earlier than being let go along with the remainder of Steve Wilks’ workers.
In 2019, Leftwich was reunited with Arians in Tampa Bay. He largely flew below the radar his first season as a full-time offensive coordinator, however the Buccaneers ranked third within the NFL each in whole offense (397.9 yards per sport) and factors (28.6) and first in passing yards (302.8). Arians credit Leftwich’s tutelage for Jameis Winston passing for a league-high 5,109 yards and 33 touchdowns.
After all, Winston additionally threw a league-leading 30 interceptions that season. Leftwich says the most important remorse of his teaching profession is that he solely started working with the previous No. 1 choose for eight months. He needs that they had extra time collectively to hone Winston’s decision-making expertise, however Leftwich couldn’t disagree with the Buccaneers’ resolution to pursue Tom Brady.
Life with the GOAT received off to a rocky begin. COVID-19 restrictions robbed Brady of the standard acclimation course of provided by offseason practices and conferences. Arians says Brady didn’t absolutely grasp Tampa Bay’s offense till mid-November. He directed Leftwich to mix the aggressive downfield parts of Arians’ playbook with the up-tempo tenets that Brady thrived at executing throughout his storied Patriots profession.
Issues began to click on within the last month of the season. After getting into their Week 13 bye 7-5 and averaging 28.6 factors a sport, the Buccaneers returned with a revamped offense and reeled off eight straight victories (4 to shut out the common season and 4 extra en path to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy) whereas averaging 33.9 factors a contest.
“He’s received a fantastic work ethic, a fantastic soccer IQ. It’s simply been a rising course of for each of us,” Brady mentioned when requested about Leftwich throughout Tremendous Bowl week. “It’s taken a while to get there as a result of we didn’t have a number of the issues that we usually have with soccer (within the offseason). Over the past couple of months we’ve actually executed a bit bit higher.”
By way of a spokesperson, Fox Sports activities declined to make Brady obtainable for this story.
The Bucs have been higher in 2021, averaging 406 yards and 30 factors per contest. Leftwich believes they need to have returned to the Tremendous Bowl. However they fell within the divisional spherical of the playoffs to the L.A. Rams, who two video games later received a championship of their very own.
That offseason, Leftwich interviewed for head teaching openings with the Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars, the group that drafted him No. 7 in 2003. It was extensively believed that Leftwich would obtain a Jacksonville homecoming because the Jaguars’ head coach. However then got here stories that Leftwich turned down the job as a result of he didn’t need to work with basic supervisor Trent Baalke.
Leftwich denies these claims. He says he had a superb interview with the Jaguars and didn’t know Baalke.
“The tales began out of nowhere. I believed I used to be in a great spot, didn’t even discuss to anyone. I perceive this enterprise, and I’m smart sufficient to know to not speak about what you’re going via whenever you’re going via it,” Leftwich says. “I by no means turned down that job as a result of they by no means provided it. There have been a number of tales on the market and I by no means spoke on it, however I by no means turned it down.”
Jacksonville finally employed Doug Pederson, who had guided the Philadelphia Eagles to a Tremendous Bowl victory 5 years earlier. Pederson guided the Jaguars to a playoff look in 12 months 1 however missed the playoffs in 2023 and is on the recent seat with Jacksonville at 4-12.
“I used to be keen and able to take that (Jaguars) job,” Leftwich says. “That’s the place I performed, and I used to be very fascinated by making an attempt to assist that scenario — all fingers on deck — actually making an attempt to assist that scenario, as a result of I do know that metropolis, I do know the fan base and I believed that that they had actually good gamers down there that you would be able to win soccer video games with.
“However once I did the interviews … I knew that, ‘OK, on the finish of the day, if I don’t get both, I get to return with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and perhaps (Brady, who was contemplating retirement) — individuals who I constructed sturdy relationships with.’ I used to be like, ‘I simply get to return to that and coach ball.’”
Brady retired, then unretired in February 2022. The subsequent month, Arians retired abruptly, turning the group over to defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. It appeared like a seamless transition plan: Bowles would proceed to supervise the protection whereas Leftwich and Brady ran the offense. However accidents ravaged the Buccaneers’ offensive line, and Brady, who was going via a extremely publicized divorce, wasn’t as efficient.
Tampa Bay’s offense plunged to fifteenth in yards (346.7) and twenty fifth in factors (18.4). After a first-round playoff exit, Brady retired for good and Bowles fired Leftwich.
“We didn’t rating sufficient factors and we didn’t run it effectively, and at occasions we didn’t throw it effectively,” Bowles mentioned on the time when explaining his resolution. “If you see one thing fallacious, it’s a must to try to repair it. I’ve been with these guys a very long time, so it was a tricky resolution. However I felt the change needed to be made.”
Arians, who had taken on an advisory function with the group, didn’t agree with the transfer. He’s on file saying Brady’s private issues hindered the quarterback’s play. And the previous coach believes Leftwich turned the scapegoat for the Buccaneers’ struggles.
“It seems prefer it all falls on Byron, and that to me is completely fallacious,” Arians says. “I imply, it was only a completely different philosophy that Todd needed to go along with. … But when there’s anybody that places something out negatively about Byron, they’re completely stuffed with s—.”
The fallout from that season dramatically altered Leftwich’s teaching trajectory, however he says he understood Bowles’ resolution. “I felt it was time to maneuver on,” Leftwich says. “It was the primary time we have been out of the highest 5 in offense. So the truth that we have been fifteenth allowed individuals to say, lastly, ‘Does that man actually know what he’s doing? Can he do that?’ … That’s the character of the enterprise.”
Leftwich doesn’t view the 2022 season as a complete failure. Given the calamity he and his gamers confronted and all the mixing and matching he needed to do to compensate, he views that season as his greatest teaching job. It compelled him to develop.
“(Arians) at all times instructed me, ‘I’ve been fired for successful, I’ve been fired for dropping. I’ve been fired for doing my greatest. I’ve been fired for doing my worst.’ So being fired means nothing,” Leftwich says. “You’ll be able to’t fear about being fired. Imagine in what you consider in, do what’s greatest for the gamers, and settle for the whole lot they might include it.”
Following his Tampa Bay departure, he anticipated to obtain inquiries, however no NFL groups referred to as. He acquired some curiosity in school positions, however a few of these would have required him to make what he believed have been rushed choices, so he declined. Others didn’t appear to be good suits, so he embraced the chance to make up for misplaced time along with his son.
Leftwich began 50 NFL video games for 4 franchises after Jacksonville made him a top-10 choose in 2003. (Jamie Squire / Getty Photos)
The physique clock nonetheless chimes at 3 a.m. with out using an alarm clock, simply because it did throughout his teaching days. As a substitute of reporting to an workplace by 3:30 a.m. for movie research, follow and sport planning, he hits the weights, then the punching luggage. By midmorning, after he feeds Dominic and will get him to highschool, Leftwich finds himself in entrance of a display, clicker in hand.
He research the coaches movie of each NFL group. When watching stay, he calls performs as if he have been within the quarterback’s ear. Typically his predictions are appropriate, generally they’re not, however Leftwich makes the following name regardless. He digs deep to increase his information of offensive and defensive patterns and tendencies, “staying sharp and up on what all people’s doing.”
“He has a 360-degree perspective of the sport — not solely offense however protection as effectively,” Tomlin says. “Sure individuals have the power to see the sport in 3-D, and Byron is certainly one of them.”
Leftwich says Arians taught him simply as many nuances about inside offensive line play as he did move routes and coverages. Arians additionally helped Leftwich be taught the significance of understanding gamers’ capabilities, believing a agency grasp of every participant’s ability set permits a superb coach to design extra expansive and versatile schemes whereas drawing better confidence and dedication out of gamers.
“Folks get hung up on ‘The system this, the system that.’ I don’t care what the system is,” Leftwich says. “I do know sufficient several types of offenses and several types of personnel packages and methods to assault to have the ability to … be as a number of as potential. And that’s all about preparation.
“It’s how (Arians) raised me. Anyplace I’m going, we’ll be as a number of as we should be. We should be two tight finish set this week? Then it’s two tight finish set. We should be a 4 large receiver set subsequent week? We’ll do no matter we have to do to win that sport. However due to our preparation, we can do the whole lot.”
Each Arians and Tomlin agree that Leftwich needs to be a member of an NFL teaching workers, if not main his personal. However to return to the NFL ranks, Leftwich has a sequence of questions he should reply.
A question of six front-office members who’re anticipated to interview for basic supervisor positions — and who’re thus forming their very own potential head coach candidate lists — yielded combined opinions. All agreed Leftwich exhibited nice instincts and management skills as a participant. Some believed these strengths translated effectively to teaching and praised the skills he showcased with Tampa Bay. Others expressed reservations about Leftwich’s independence.
How a lot of Tampa Bay’s success stemmed from Brady’s greatness, they questioned. How a lot of the offensive explosiveness was Leftwich answerable for, and the way a lot got here from Arians’ experience and path? How a lot of the drop-off in manufacturing in 2022 could be attributed to Arians’ absence?
Leftwich believes a deep dive into his {qualifications} and obligations in Tampa Bay will dispel any doubts. “I used to be blessed to have that chance in Tampa as a result of the man that employed me put lots on me and I understand how to do issues the appropriate manner due to that,” he says. “I encourage anyone to do their background checks. Ask anybody who has labored with me.”
“I get a number of credit score for issues I didn’t do in Tampa,” Arians says. “Byron referred to as all of the performs. Very seldom did I name something. He did all of it, even within the Tremendous Bowl.”
Then there’s the recency query. In a league the place head teaching tenures hardly ever exceed three years, sizzling prospects shoot up in reputation, then fade rapidly into oblivion. Will Leftwich’s identify nonetheless carry sufficient clout to garner consideration in a training market anticipated to function head teaching veterans corresponding to Mike Vrabel and Brian Flores and coordinators Ben Johnson, Aaron Glenn, Joe Brady and Kliff Kingsbury?
Leftwich lately employed a brand new agent and harassed his want to aggressively pursue NFL jobs. He believes that if he meets with a group proprietor or basic supervisor on the lookout for a head coach — or a head coach on the lookout for a coordinator — his credentials will elevate him above competing candidates.
“Simply give me the chance. Convey me in and see. Talk with me, see if I’m the appropriate kind of chief you need,” Leftwich says. “Do your homework. See if I can lead males. … See if I do know my X’s and O’s. See if I do know individuals. See if I do know what must be performed to succeed on the job.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; pictures: Douglas P. DeFelice, Perry Knotts / Getty Photos, Scott Boehm / Related Press)