Report: Todd Bowles Has Two Head Coaching Interviews Before Sunday’s Game
January 18th, 2022
Todd Bowles
No distraction. Nothing to see here.
That’s what officials at One Buc Palace would tell you about the upcoming interviews that defensive coordinator Todd Bowles will have before Sunday’s kickoff against the Rams.
Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Network, Bowles will interview with the Vikings on Friday and the Bears on Saturday for their respective head coach openings. And Garafolo added that the Raiders are expected to have interest in Bowles, as well.
The Vikings and Bears are storied franchises that have fallen on hard times. And Joe suspects Bowles is very interested in both gigs, especially with the talent on both rosters. Their cupboards are not bare.
So will this be a distraction for Bowles? Joe sure hopes not. But Joe plays in the real world. Many millions of dollars and a life-changing decision for Bowles’ family is on the line.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:00 pm
No interview is better than designing a great plan and stop a good offense like the rams. He should go to the interview and just tell them: “look at what I have prepared for sunday”
January 18th, 2022 at 1:02 pm
Just come out with a great game plan Bucs and execute.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:04 pm
Could be a distraction, could be a lit fire under his buns.
Fire up a great gameplan here and you’re as good as hired. Dookie in the bed, and we’ll be seeing you next year.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:05 pm
I hope the defense is back and plays like it did for 50 minutes last week and we win that Championship so no one has any good excuse why they don’t hire him. What he did with bubble gum and stickers and still kept the team in reasonably every loss is nothing short of amazing. People blaming him for bad blown coverages, missed tackles and penalties need to kill their noise
January 18th, 2022 at 1:05 pm
Great point VSyl, defense should come out flying again!!! Make that resume a little spicier…….
January 18th, 2022 at 1:05 pm
If he wants the job(s) he will have his team ready and not lay an egg
January 18th, 2022 at 1:05 pm
Big loss…..Happy 4 hime, great defensive mind and a great guy……
January 18th, 2022 at 1:06 pm
Agree with the above. Another Lombardi would be a great resume builder!
January 18th, 2022 at 1:07 pm
Who was the idiot that said coaches don’t interview during the week of playoffs? It was either Anonymous or August, doesn’t matter they are both morons. Bowles on Friday with Vikings and Leftbitch with Chicago. Now there’s a dedicated staff.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:09 pm
No Interviews should done w/ current Coaches until their year is finished. It’s silly they even do it this way and needs to be changed.
Heck, personally, I would prefer Bowles decline to even take any interviews until after the Season is over….especially in the biggest week of the season and a win or go home scenario. Why would he HIMSELF even want that distraction or ANYTHING taking him away from this week, this Playoff game and this time for preparation and singular focus. It should be strictly about the Bucs and Rams this week….not the Vikings or Bears, etc. To me, in a small way, it’s disrespectful to the current Team your Coaching and the Players on your Team who deserve everything you got this week (just as much as the Coaches expect everything one has as a Bucs player this week).
I don’t like this all-around and never have.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:11 pm
VSyl. Well said. Very well said. Todd will be like. Look, let’s cut to the chase and stop the BS interview formalities. Here’s how we are going to shut down the Rams on Sunday. After it happens, call me. Deuces, mic drop, peace out.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:18 pm
Ya and Ian Rappaport will broadcast the game plan on every media vehicle from LA to Tampa.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:19 pm
It’s today’s NFL.
I think it absolutely sucks. None of this nonsense should be allowed until after the Super Bowl. Period.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:22 pm
good for him, he has earned it.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:26 pm
Well I think that Bowles should not be telling anybody about our game plan for the Rams.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:37 pm
You guys assume tooo much. Maybe it’s 30 mins on zoom
January 18th, 2022 at 1:42 pm
The interviews are virtual, no?
January 18th, 2022 at 1:48 pm
@jmarkbuc Yeah, I think the interviews are virtual. I feel like our coaching staff is buttoned up enough to not let this get in the way.
It also isn’t like this is Bowles first HC interview. He’s not having to practice answering questions or presenting his ideas for the first time.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:50 pm
Life changing from a standpoint of what address you call home I guess , but that’s about it.
January 18th, 2022 at 1:55 pm
Some reports out there that Aaron Donald may be suspended for putting his hands on a cardinals player last night. Including the fact that he was just fine 10,000 for putting his hands on a packers player. Dude was literally trying to choke the cardinals player last night.
January 18th, 2022 at 2:06 pm
It is interviews. Nobody has come out and said this is the Monty leaving to be with his son situation. So I don’t expect the defense to all of a sudden to be a bunch of quitters.
January 18th, 2022 at 2:20 pm
An hour or two sitting at his computer at One Buc after practice doesn’t seem too horribly distracting.
January 18th, 2022 at 2:23 pm
I just emailed Troy Vincent about Aaron Donald , we’ll see.
January 18th, 2022 at 2:37 pm
Scary. This has Bucs route written all over it. Final Score Rams 30 – Bucs 13. Rams dominate on D and smash Brady into having a bad day. Brady can’t crack the Rams code and he doesn’t have the weapons to somehow win miraculously with just talent. Great run.
January 18th, 2022 at 2:43 pm
If the interviews were anything other than virtual I’d be super pissed right now. Preparing for the Rams means the Bucs will have all hands and every orifice full.
January 18th, 2022 at 2:44 pm
Jeff wins Debbie Downer award for Tuesday !
January 18th, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Big distraction !!
January 18th, 2022 at 3:02 pm
a virtual, monotone, in his underwear, bowles interview might prove too much for any organization 🙂
let’s hope he stays for the long haul…
i much prefer to hear his monotone-ness when jenna busts his ballz with her questions…
like:
“hey todd, were you deep in your feelings when vita came to the sidelines and asked you to hold his bloody tooth in your pocket until after the game?…how did it feel todd to be like a dad-like figure at that specific moment, protecting your son’s tooth from exterior elements and conditions?”
this is like a jenna question 🙂
January 18th, 2022 at 3:22 pm
Happy for Bowles, but it will definitely be a distraction. To start, they only have 6 days, not the usual 7, to prepare because they didn’t know who they were going to play until last night. Second, the D is going to need every second of the week to prepare and practice the game plan for a very tough LA opponent. Now he has to prepare for his meetings, study the rosters of both clubs, and travel to and from those locations, not to mention the meetings themselves. That’s a lot of time he won’t have his mind on the upcoming game. It sucks!
January 18th, 2022 at 3:23 pm
I hope Bowles is more focused on his defense getting a pass rush on Stafford. That’s how i feel we have to win this game. Playing physical on both sides of the football.
January 18th, 2022 at 3:27 pm
And Joe suspects Bowles is very interested in both gigs, especially with the talent on both rosters.
– other than Dalvin Cook, the Vikings suck.
the Bears QB is Justin Fields -good luck with that.
Plus you get to play Aaron Rodgers twice/year.
Bowles would be smarter to stay in Tampa.
January 18th, 2022 at 3:30 pm
Any team that gives this guy a job is stupid. We’ve already seen the movie. The guy barely had a pulse on the sideline, and cannot gameplan. With all the talent Tampa has on defense, he can’t understand complementary football. Brady will get you 30 almost every game. The defense should be able to understand that, and make teams march down the field. It’s what Bill did almost every single year, and they got six titles because of it. Bill realized what he had, and played defense accordingly.
January 18th, 2022 at 3:37 pm
Last year, I didn’t think we had a chance on the road, 3 times in a row, just to get to the big dance.
I am just as convinced we don’t have a chance with all of our injuries this week, so we should win…
It’s the TB12 effect
January 18th, 2022 at 4:02 pm
I agree with some here. Bowles selling point will be his game plan on Sunday. His Defensive players will definitely not disappoint him and us. GO BUCS!!!
January 18th, 2022 at 4:03 pm
I think it’s dirty, for teams to be interviewing coaches while their own teams are still playing. Seems unfair to the teams still playing.
Loser teams trying to poach good team’s coaches, while they’re still working.
Seems odd.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:06 pm
All three of those teams have no GM- is that ideal for him? Everyone says he had a garbage front office at the jets/ this stuff matters.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:07 pm
you get a job interview, when you apply for one, right? even with the new contract, he wants to leave(he did apply). Great! hope he get hired somewhere…
January 18th, 2022 at 4:09 pm
Never a good idea to be taken off the task at hand. Never EVER. The bright side is given he prepped his own portfolio a few weeks ago (when the Bucs playsed awful against the Jets but thankfully won). So he only has to tailor some study time to the teams he interviews with–what he would do for them. It’s completely bogus to think it won’t distract at all. But he’s entitled to do it, wish him luck, and hope he doesn’t lose focus on Sunday.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:17 pm
I wonder if the Bucs step in at any point and tell Bowles he has the Bucs job when Arians retires — and I wonder if he’d even want the job, since you know Arians isn’t retiring so long as Brady keeps playing. Once Brady retires, the team is going to be in serious cap hell for a couple of years and doing a rebuild, and in that case, I’m not sure how good of a job this is going to be, and if he’d want to even undertake a full roster rebuild.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:18 pm
This should not be allowed when the candidate’s team is still playing games. If you want someone, wait for them and stop wasting someone’s time.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:21 pm
What do you have to do before going on a job interview for a professional role, not to mention a leadership role? You prepare, then you prepare some more. Then you lose sleep imagining questions that you will be asked. So Bowls get to go through this mental obstacle course, not once, but twice, instead of thinking about how to stop the Rams. Sure he will give the Rams some thought, but he will be losing sleep over interviews, not stopping the Rams. This is complete insanity!!!!! No interviews for any coaches should be allowed to happen until after the Super Bowl. That way the coaches on the playoff teams are not disadvantaged by available jobs getting snapped up while they are tied up in the post season.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:31 pm
I do think Bowles is a better coach, than he gets credit for.
His record at the Jets should be voided.
No HC has had success at the Jets, since Joe Namath, lol
January 18th, 2022 at 4:32 pm
I don’t necessarily think Bowles ‘asked’ for an interview, though he obviously agreed to one. They asked the Bucs permission to talk to him, others did the save for Leftwich … the teams contacted them & the interviews were set up …. no conspiracy here all out in the open, and no betrayal. It’s very selfish for us to sit here & say they are jerks for even thinking about wanting to move up.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:42 pm
I’d rather be selfish and keep my coaches, if I were a team, or fan of a team.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:46 pm
Loser teams = Coach Poachers
January 18th, 2022 at 4:52 pm
This game on Sunday will hinge on a very aggressive Bucs defense. There have been too many times this year vs Saints and Rams where the defense was punched in the face and were physically beat down.
That cannot be the case Sunday for Bucs to win and it certainly will help Bowles land a HC job if the defense goes out and balls for 60 minutes. If the Bucs defense can dominate the Rams offense, Bowles will have the best reference he could possibly have and interviews won’t mean anything. If his D stands up to the bullying Rams, he wins any coaching job out there that wants him!
Besides playing for their own futures, his players are putting it on the line for Todd Bowles.
January 18th, 2022 at 4:55 pm
I don’t think this is a issue of Leftwitch or Bowles being selfish. The issue is with the rules that allow teams to pick off a teams coaching staff while that team is still in the playoffs. That shouldn’t be ok. Its also not fair to those playoff coaches that other coaches are interviewing for the open positions while they are not available for the opportunity. To me the best answer is vacant coaching positions cannot be filled until after the post season. That way everyone can complete for the open positions while not sabotaging teams still making a run. If that slows an individual team down from filling open positions than so be it.
January 18th, 2022 at 5:09 pm
@The Beer Whisperer:
“No HC has had success at the Jets, since Joe Namath, lol”
^^^^^^^
this is simply not true at all…wtf bruh?
the year the bucs got good – which technically would have been 1997 – the year of the new bucs unis – the jets also began to again be a pretty darn good football team as well….
from the that point in 1997 to the year 2010, the jets won between 9-12 games in a season, 10 times…that’s 10 seasons with 9 or more wins in like a 13 year span…
and in that time span they went to the playoffs 7 times…that’s about an average of once every 2 years…
and to top that off, they went to the afc championship game 4 times in that span as well…4 afc championship games in the span…wtf are you drinking bruh…
keep those blankets statements correct if you can my dude – unless your only definition of success is being in the superbowl or winning the superbowl
(and in that case, that would mean 30 teams every year had an unsuccessful season)
January 18th, 2022 at 5:10 pm
I don’t expect him to take any of those three. I suppose the Raiders might offer him a mountain of cash and a long contract like they did Gruden, but I doubt it.
More likely, he will be made an offer to stay here…increased pay, a title promotion with a guaranteed HC job when Arians retires, etc.
January 18th, 2022 at 5:12 pm
Also, with the size of the coaching staff, I’m sure there is an assistant ready to step up.
January 18th, 2022 at 5:15 pm
yeah he should hang tight and wait to replace BA…
jump into the top spot and keep things hopefully flowing smoothly, as opposed to a complete re-installment with another team…
but omg those monotone press conferences are slowly draining the life out of thee 🙂
#TheeBeGettingDrained
January 18th, 2022 at 5:39 pm
Adam you are wrong Rex Ryan coached the Jets to the playoffs.
January 18th, 2022 at 5:45 pm
Do any if you know these are virtual interviews? Where did you find that information?
January 18th, 2022 at 5:49 pm
This season is over fans, what players want to play or listen to two coaches trying to jump ship? I get BL, he needs to get his gig before Brady leaves or he gets exposed on his own.
January 18th, 2022 at 5:51 pm
Hey Adam, maybe you’ve not been keeping score. It’s been 53 years since the Jets appeared in a Super Bowl. That’s quite a dry spell.
Watching on black & white tv, adjusting the rabbit ears trying to get a good reception. You probably weren’t even born yet, judging from your immature replies.
January 18th, 2022 at 5:57 pm
Yes list, the season is almost over, hopefully in about several more weeks. What’s your point? This happens absolutely every year and always with assistants who are under contract with teams in the playoffs. Do you watch football? Do you actually follow the game? This is how things work.
January 18th, 2022 at 6:42 pm
He better be prioritizing this game because if his defense is mauled by the Rams, he’s not getting hired.
January 18th, 2022 at 6:43 pm
@Listnfrmafar:
well then a coach had success there…duhhh…lol
also why don’t you check the numbers…
during that 13 year period they only had 3 losing seasons, one
8-8 record, and all others were winning seasons with playoff appearances, 4 championship games and so on…and all in a division with the pats and brady (for most of those years) top it off…
so if you stand by beer whispers post that no head coach had success when the team was fairy successful spanning a long 13 year period, —–then you my friend are the one who’s wrong…
#SorryPalCheckYoSelf
#AndArentYouKindOfAyeTrollOnHereIfImCorrect lol
January 18th, 2022 at 7:06 pm
Total BS. The NFL should not let coaches interview until after the playoff season is over. A big distraction, and we have to play the Rams.
Total disrespect to the players and the fans. One reason I don’t care for Kiffin to this day.
January 18th, 2022 at 7:10 pm
Adam I was agreeing with you, I gave you another example.
January 18th, 2022 at 7:11 pm
Right. They interview today. Hire tomorrow. Expect him to quit and leave for the new team and put his new staff together. Get ready for the draft. Some of you Really think that is how it would ply out??? Man you need help.
January 18th, 2022 at 7:12 pm
play
January 18th, 2022 at 7:23 pm
I don’t like it, one day is one thing, but two days of interviewing?
January 18th, 2022 at 7:29 pm
Listnfrmafar Says:
January 18th, 2022 at 1:07 pm
Who was the idiot that said coaches don’t interview during the week of playoffs? It was either Anonymous or August, doesn’t matter they are both morons. Bowles on Friday with Vikings and Leftbitch with Chicago. Now there’s a dedicated staff.
GET A LIFE LIST, NEVER SAID A THING ABOUT ANY COACH DOING ANY INTERVIEWS
GO BUCS!!!!!!!
January 18th, 2022 at 8:22 pm
Who is the fool is not even a Bucs fan who has gone on and on about how incompetent the Bucs coaches are and how happy you will be to see them leave, now you are crying like a little girl that they performed so well other teams want these same coaches you said were no good. Clearly talent evaluation is not your thing anymore than the Bucs are your team. Stick to your Patriots who not only got beat by these Bucs but has missed the playoffs two years in a row now.
Listnfrmafar Says:
January 18th, 2022 at 1:07 pm
Who was the idiot that said coaches don’t interview during the week of playoffs? It was either Anonymous or August, doesn’t matter they are both morons. Bowles on Friday with Vikings and Leftbitch with Chicago. Now there’s a dedicated staff.
January 18th, 2022 at 9:57 pm
Well I hope for his sake it’s not a distraction or that second interview may not come if his defense isn’t ready
January 18th, 2022 at 11:01 pm
I may be wrong but didn’t Bowles agree to a 3-year contract extension with the Bucs last year? It’s not as if another team that will probably hire him as head coach will assume his DC contract. That will be absurd. Are contracts really just a joke in this league?
January 18th, 2022 at 11:04 pm
Joe is pretty confident Bowles, and every coach, has an exit clause in the contract that allows him to leave for a promotion.
January 18th, 2022 at 11:14 pm
The NFL needs to fix this. Most of the headlines during the playoffs are coaching moves, GM moves, etc. No interviews should take place until after the Super Bowl. It is just terrible policy for bad teams to distract from good teams trying to make a run. Would be very easy to fix, but the league is running on bad decisions for years now. Whatever BSPN wants.
January 18th, 2022 at 11:20 pm
Contractual obligations in this league are eased if an assistant gets promoted to a higher job title within another franchise. If an assistant coach is hired to be a head coach, then he is automatically released from his asst. coach contract. However a head coach cannot leave for another head coaching gig without being released or traded; that’s a lateral move.
Here’s what takes the sting out of Bowles or Leftwich being hired for a HC gig elsewhere: The Bucs would receive 2 third round picks, one apiece in successive drat years if either is hired elsewhere.
January 18th, 2022 at 11:23 pm
Hey, I get that he should not be prevented from seeking promotion, but this is just a little ridiculous! What is this, number 2 and three while supposedly preparing for a playoff game?? Is this some kind of joke? Does the team he is on now still come first? I guess we will know soon enough.
January 18th, 2022 at 11:37 pm
Totally agree!
January 19th, 2022 at 4:48 am
They should have a league interview window for coaches from the Super Bowl through the end of February. That would make the offseason more interesting and fill in the dead space. GMs can be hired in January or sooner.
Related, college head coaches should have to sit out a year of they break their contract early.
January 19th, 2022 at 5:05 am
@westernbuc
That way there is little time to prepare for the NFL Draft and free agency for the new coaches and GM’s. Wouldn’t work.
January 19th, 2022 at 6:24 am
Too much of a distraction, not only for the coaches but the players. There should be 1 focus this week.. Just 1.. and that is the Rams. Nothing else matters.
January 19th, 2022 at 8:42 am
How times have changed.. everybody all worried about your coaches being interviews during the playoffs. First World problems.
Relax, they are zoom interviews. That,and our coaches have coaches who have another set of coaches.
Our most important coach never missed a minute.