Enough Is Enough - Todd Bowles Has To Go As Buccaneers Head Coach
Jefferee Woo. Shutterstock Images.This is a blog I was hoping to never write. I've been a Todd Bowles guy since he got to Tampa. He's from two towns over from where I grew up. He held Patrick Freaking Mahomes to zero TDs and nine total points in the Super Bowl!
When Bruce Arians stepped down going into the 2022 season, giving the keys to Bowles, it seemed he was set up for great success. And while Todd has had success in terms of division titles in 2022, 2023, and 2024, it appears the wheels have fully come off after a third straight division loss in as many weeks.
It's not all doom and gloom. The Buccaneers still control their own fate. If they win their final two games (at Miami, vs. Carolina), they'll win their fifth straight division title. That'd be nice, but even if they do that, even the most optimistic of Bucs fans can't expect them to reasonably make any noise in the playoffs.
Speaking of the playoffs, Bowles has had limited success in them as Head Coach.
2022: Lost 31-14 to Dallas
2023: Beat Philadelphia 32-9, Lost at Detroit 31-23
2024: Lost to Washington 23-20
Bowles did lead the Bucs through an expedited rebuild and they surpassed expectations in 2023. With revived QB Baker Mayfield starting, they overachieved in every possible way making it to the Divisional Round of the playoffs. In 2024, the team was legitimately good but lost a close game to Washington in the Wild Card round.
But honestly, the NFC South hasn't been filled with too many tough opponents lately. Drew Brees, Matt Ryan, and Cam Newton aren't running out onto the field anymore. It's been filled with Tyler Shough, Taysom Hill, Jameis Winston, Derek Carr, Michael Penix Jr., Kirk Cousins, Bryce Young, PJ Walker and others.
After starting out 6-2 this season pulling out many close games, the tide has turned on this Buccaneers team as they dropped three straight divisional games they were favored in to Tyler Shough, Kirk Cousins, and now Bryce Young leaving the playoffs in doubt as they sit today at 7-8. Certainly they could turn things around and win two more games, but does that get us a home playoff game where we get blown out by the Rams?
I listen to every Buccaneers press conference and week after week, Bowles will come to the podium and blame a handful of plays with players being out of position and saying that they need to clean up those mistakes. Last week, the normally mild mannered Bowles decided to get colorful with his language to express his frustration and maybe send a message to the team.
It did not work. The Bucs gave up this atrocious TD at the end of the half when all they needed to do was not get beat deep and tackle and they would've gone into the half leading.
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It turns out those four points were pretty important as the Bucs lost by three. But it's more of the same from this Bowles-led team. They do not seem to get up for games that should be must-wins. They continuously come out flat and if you're the defensive guru, you can't continually lose because your defense cannot stop anybody and you're having mental errors week after week after week.
I thought Ronde Barber summed it up well on the PewterReport podcast as he pointed out the Bowles doesn't play a normal base defense. They have a lot of different looks so when they do play more vanilla coverage and base coverage, they don't practice it as much as other teams, so they are more prone to mistakes.
Now, I will point out that Barber mentions that this happens a lot when starters go down. For example, Bucs starting Cornerback Zyon McCollum went down last week and is now on IR and out for the year. That led to backup CB Kindle Vildor playing a lot more and he made a critical error that ended up being the critical error in last Thursday's game vs. Atlanta.
It's not just that position. The Bucs lost both starting Guards on Offense in Cody Mauch and Ben Bradeson. That has made doing anything on offense very difficult. All-Pro LT Tristan Wirfs, Pro Bowl WRs Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have all missed multiple games this season too. But every team has injuries and that is not an excuse.
At the end of the day, Bowles is 34-32 as Bucs HC in the regular season and 1-3 in the playoffs. So he's exactly 35-35 in total. That is fine, but that just isn't good enough when your goals are the Super Bowl. It became clear to me on Sunday that a change is needed at Head Coach. I fully trust GM Jason Licht and his staff to find the next HC, but Todd's time has come, no matter what happens the next two weeks.