Todd Bowles Is Firmly On The Hot Seat After A Loss To The Browns Dropped The Buccaneers To 0-2

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Over the past few years, I've defended Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles on several occasions. Despite a very odd first season in 2022 with Tom Brady unretiring and Bruce Arians stepping down in March of that year, Bowles had a tough start out of the gate with a 8-9 record and getting blown out at home in a wild card game vs. Dallas.

The following years were better. 

2023: The team overachieved, winning the division, going 9-8 with free agent QB Baker Mayfield and beat the defending Champion, Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round only to lose in the Divisional Round to the Lions

2024: Won the division again with a 10-7 mark with upstart Offensive Coordinator, Liam Coen. That team was really freaking good. However, they lost to the Commanders at home in the wild card round 23-20. Washington went onto the NFC Championship game that year. When talks of Liam Coen being a Head Coaching candidate were going around, a few select people suggested Bowles be fired. But that's hard to do coming off of two winning seasons where you either make noise or are competitive in the playoffs.

2025: Not a good year, finishing 8-9 and missing the playoffs. Noticeable sideline outbursts from star WR Mike Evans and a complete collapse down the stretch led to a lot of people wanting to fire Bowles. At this point, I was on board. However, first time OC Josh Grizzard and some injuries kind of tanked this season. Not to mention, Bowles just got an extension last year.

2026: The team has started off 0-2 and Baker Mayfield looks like he's gotten worse. The offensive line, which is supposed to be a strength of this team, looks leaky. And the team looked sloppy, turning it over FOUR times in the opening game, a loss to the Bengals on the road, and now a disappointing loss to the hapless Browns at home.

If you're counting at home, Bowles is now 35-35 as Bucs HC in the regular season. His lone playoff win against a Philadelphia team that was imploding seems less impressive and far in the rear view mirror. Is he really the guy to lead this team to the promised land?

I firmly do not believe so. He was always an excellent Defensive Coordinator, but unless he's got an absolute wizard as his Offensive Coordinator, he hasn't been able to get it done as HC. With Dave Canales now in Carolina as their HC and Liam Coen in Jacksonville as their HC, there is a lot of pressure on new OC Zac Robinson to be that next guy. 

If he does have a good year, I could definitely see him being Tampa's next Head Coach. But if he continues to have a bad season, I think you see basically the entire coaching staff gone.

That is not ideal and I don't want to start over. There are legitimately good players on this roster. From Tristan Wirfs, to Baker, to Emeka Egbuka, Graham Barton at Center, Luke Goedeke at Right Tackle, and Bucky Irving in the backfield, this offense has the pieces to get it done and put points on the board.

On Defense, stalwarts like Vita Vea, Zyon McCollum, Tykee Smith, and Antoine Winfield are all good players. Reuben Bain needs to step up, but seems to have that in him. Josiah Trotter already looks like the real deal. And Benjamin Morrison and Jacob Parrish are players at CB. So how do we keep losing to teams like the Browns?!

It comes down to coaching and while I put a little more of this loss on Zac Robinson than Todd Bowles. It's becoming clearer to Bucs fans everywhere that both of these guys might not be the right guy to lead us back to the promised land.