With new offensive coordinator Liam Coen in house for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a Super Bowl-winning wide receiver in Van Jefferson could follow suit.
Jefferson, 27, played with the Los Angeles Rams when Coen served on the coaching staff in 2020 and 2022. Between Coen’s stints with the team, Jefferson won a Super Bowl with the Rams in the 2021 season before he scurried to a local hospital for the birth of his baby, Champ.
“A guy that can obviously stretch the field vertically, right?” Coen told reporters via Sports Illustrated’s Rams Digest in 2022. “He can run but he is also a unique route runner. He can do some different things at the intermediate levels of the defense, we know he can push the ball down the field, and just his juice.”
Tampa Bay has a need to fill at wide receiver this offseason with Russell Gage as a possible salary cap casualty, and star wide receiver Mike Evans could leave in free agency. Gage sat out the whole season due to injury, and his 3-year, $30 million is quite costly amid two injury-riddled seasons with the team.
If the Buccaneers release Gage, it would save the team $11.18 million in salary cap space — which could help to keep Evans. Jefferson could easily fill the void left by Gage, but the former Rams wideout won’t be able to make up for Evans’ production.
Last season, Jefferson caught 12 passes for 101 yards in 12 games for the Atlanta Falcons after the Rams traded him in October. Jefferson had eight receptions for 108 yards in five games with the Rams before the trade.
His best season came in 2021 with 50 catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns, but his production dipped in 2022 amid injury. Jefferson caught 24 passes for 369 yards and three touchdowns that season.
Baker Mayfield Has a Connection With Baker Mayfield
One of his most notable plays that year came with Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield. A newly-signed member of the Rams in December 2022, Mayfield connected with Jefferson for a game-winning touchdown against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Mayfield and Jefferson have more of a connection beyond that. They go back to their college days.
“I was trying to get him to come to Oklahoma, and he wouldn’t text or call back. He owes me one,” Mayfield joked in December 2023.
Jefferson played at Ole Miss from 2015 to 2017 followed by Florida from 2018 to 2019. He played with Buccaneers backup quarterback Kyle Trask with the Gators.
Van Jefferson Has Glowing Review from Rams QB Matthew Stafford
Besides any vouch either Mayfield or Trask could make for Jefferson, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford had positive things to say about Jefferson after the 2023 trade. Stafford and Jefferson go back a ways as well.
“I’ve known Van since he was a kid with his dad being a receivers coach in Detroit when I was there,” Stafford told reporters via “Rams Digest” in 2023. “He was around a bunch of training camps, followed his career for a long time, loved getting to work with him.”
“Nobody’s more excited for somebody else to score than Van,” Stafford added. “He’s always the first guy to congratulate people. We all love it when he makes big plays for us. He’s just a fun guy to be around with the energy that he has. He’s just a guy that you ask him to do something, he does it, full speed, a hundred percent.”
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