In the Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise history, they have only had two coordinators become head coaches after leaving central Florida (Dirk Koetter, of course, went from Bucs OC in 2015 to Bucs HC in 2016): Wayne Fontes was the Bucs first ever secondary coach, during the team’s inaugural season of 1976, and he stayed in that role throughout his time in Tampa Bay under John McKay. Fontes was promoted to defensive coordinator in ’82, and led the defense for the final three years of McKay’s tenure.  When McKay retired from coaching after 1984, Fontes nearly got the Tampa Bay head coaching job: when it went to Leeman Bennett instead, Fontes went to Detroit to become the Lions defensive coordinator.  From there, he got promoted to interim head coach in 1988, and became the team’s head coach on a full-time basis beginning in 1989.

McKay also had another young assistant turn into a head coach: Joe Gibbs.  The Hall of Fame head coach famously coached under the great Don Coryell in both St. Louis (as running backs coach from ’73 to ’77) and San Diego (as offensive coordinator in ’79 and ’80), along with the San Diego State Aztecs in the ’60s.  So how did Gibbs wind up in Tampa Bay?

Well, the Cardinals lost their final four games in 1977, Coryell was hired and planned to the the year off from coaching (that didn’t entirely work out). That left Gibbs without a job in ’78, but the timing was right: Gibbs coached under McKay at Southern Cal in 1969 and 1970, and since the Bucs were looking for an offensive coordinator, the timing worked out nicely.  Gibbs was instrumental in Tampa Bay drafting Doug Williams that year, and the rookie was an above-average passer in 10 starts.  After the year, Gibbs reunited with Coryell in San Diego for two seasons before building his legacy in Washington.

Incredibly, though, Fontes and Gibbs are the only two coordinators in Tampa Bay history to go to become head coaches. Take a look:

Tampa Bay’s last two defensive coordinators were head coaches, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Instead, we’re looking at offensive and defensive coordinators for a team that went on to become a head coach.

Of the 32 teams in the NFL, 30 have had a coordinator since 2006 go on to become a head coach. The 31st team is the Detroit Lions: in 2004 and 2005, Dick Jauron was the team’s defensive coordinator, and he became the Bills head coach in 2006. The 32nd team is Tampa Bay, who remarkably have not had an offensive or defensive coordinator go on to become a head coach since Fontes, who was last a Bucs coordinator in 1984.

This is a fascinating bit of information, but it’s also an incomplete picture of the Bucs coaching history.  Because Tampa Bay is also an outlier in another regard. Herm Edwards, Rod Marinelli, Lovie Smith, and Mike Tomlin were all position coaches under Tony Dungy,  and Edwards and Marinelli were two of the rare coaches to go directly from position coach to head coach.   And while for purposes of this post I have ignored same franchise promotions, it’s probably worth noting that Raheem Morris also went from Tampa Bay’s defensive backs coach to head coach from ’08 to ’09.