Suitors Lining Up For Todd Bowles
January 11th, 2022
Interviewing.
[UPDATE 9:31 a.m.] We know Bucs defensive coordinator Bowles interviewed with the Jags last week. Now, a big city in the rust belt is calling.
The Bears seem interested in Bowles, types NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
The #Bears have requested permission to interview #Bucs DC Todd Bowles, source said. Bowles has also interviewed for the #Jaguars and will likely have others. A top candidate.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 11, 2022
Would Joe be surprised if Bowles bolts? Not really. Would Joe be surprised if Bowles stays with the Bucs? Not really. Bowles has already said he likes working with the Bucs and living in Tampa and last summer he got a new contract from Team Glazer.
So Joe is going to guess Bowles isn’t just going to take any job offer. He’s going to be picky, as he should.
And Joe still has a hunch Bowles may have a handshake deal to take over for Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians whenever that happens.
Here is something to keep in mind for both Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and Bowles when it comes to the Jags: In the last five seasons (current) Jags general manager Trent Baalke has been running an NFL franchise (San Francisco & Jacksonville) he has gone through five head coaches.
[UPDATE 9:31 a.m.] You can now add Leftwich to the Bears’ to-do list.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:28 am
Good for Todd. This is a reflection of BA, and the Bucs success lately. 3 years ago, we were the team on the hunt for coaching talent, now our guys are leaving. Who would of guessed.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:32 am
It’s hard to tell if they’re really interested, or just playing the Rooney rule game. I think defensive coaches aren’t what the Bears are looking for with a second year QB. B.L. makes more sense.
January 11th, 2022 at 9:45 am
Hopefully he will stay with Bruce here, and then replace Bruce when he retires with Brady
January 11th, 2022 at 9:48 am
I agree, a lot of the interest in our 2 coordinators are Rooney Rule satisfiers.
And I agree about the Chicago situation.
They have a young QB they want to develop.
No one wants to go to Jacksonville, as long as Trent Baalke is still there.
Trent Baalke is a well known butthole, who ran off Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:00 am
If both Leftwich and Bowles leave for HC jobs and BA stays as head coach things will get very interesting in Tampa.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:03 am
Remember the Bears interviewed and liked him a lot a few years back when BA was hired. Seems they’ve been in pursuit of Bowles and have liked him for years now, not just this Season. There’s definitely something to this one for sure, imo.
As well I think BL possibly goes to Miami. If he does AND Bowles leaves as well, does BA even Coach next year w/o them both. Then what are we doing? This could be some off-season ahead.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:03 am
No way Brady coaches. He may own a piece of a team someday.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:04 am
I’d go to Jacksonville long before crime infested Chicago. No state taxes nice weather and a chance to make the laughingstock of the NFL better. If A HC got 7 or 8 wins in his first season he would be a hero.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:06 am
They would both be ucking fidiots if they were to leave Tampa! Head coaching, as a replacement – always be looking over your shoulder to see who’s coming in as YOUR replacement!
January 11th, 2022 at 10:08 am
I hope Bowles is not focus on his interviews. We have a big game this SUnday. PLease focus on manufacturing creative defensive schemes.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:11 am
TB is great at what he does. Wish him well. Would pick him over BL all day long.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:13 am
So wouldn’t the Bucs be smart to already have a plan in place in case Arians happens to leave after this year. He has said as long as Brady plays here he is coaching but health problems can change a lot of plans. I know he has a bad Achilles which I guess will require surgery when the season is over so I don’t know that he is returning for certain next year. Hopefully the Bucs already have a plan B ready.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:16 am
Happy for Bowles and Leftwich if they get HC positions elsewhere. They did great in Tampa and deserve a shot.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:19 am
I’m ambivalent about Bowles or Leftwich stain or going, but I hope they can talk Sherman into the coaching world
January 11th, 2022 at 10:19 am
I agree that one of the coaches has a handshake deal with arians/ licht.
But if bowles goes , a ton of good d coordinators out there. Flores may get another HC spot but he is there and knows brady well. Zimmer is probably better d coordinator then coach. Same with vangio.
And if leftwich goes , what offensive coordinator would not want at least one year with the GOAT. I mean brady may be able to make the pick who he wants 😂
And why wouldnt the owners not want brady to be part owner. How smart would that be. A small slice of team. And i think brady would like that too. He is business man. He has his hands in everything right now. But wants to be around family more.
The franchise could continue in TB with TB 😂
January 11th, 2022 at 10:22 am
Just reading the tealeaves from what Arians has said in the past, he’d likely hire from within.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:25 am
I think that contract extension was to keep Bowles here to take over for Arians.
Unless a real intriguing job comes up, I think he stays
January 11th, 2022 at 10:27 am
If I am an NFL team in need of a coach I would have already offered Flores a ton of money. The dolphins fired a guy who helped win 7 games in row after a bad start. But keep the gm who picked Tua over Justin Herbert. Craziness.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:32 am
Guys, I would conjecture that nearly every team that wins the super bowl or is in the super bowl has one or more coaches who are interviewing for head spots elsewhere. Obviously it isn’t that big a distraction. An interview is an interview. We’ve all had them. I think the whole distraction thing is overblown.
January 11th, 2022 at 10:32 am
I would trade out Bowles for Brian Flores any day
January 11th, 2022 at 10:39 am
They can both leave and we would be better for it
January 11th, 2022 at 10:47 am
Hodad and Chris, then why are they interested in Dan Quinn? Just another distraction to this playoff team. The real coaches are waiting until the end of the season, not Bucs, they’re interviewing even if they don’t want the job. Just another day off for Bucs coaches. How much would any of you like to bet Bucs start.out slow again Sunday because they’re not prepared??
January 11th, 2022 at 10:49 am
Who do we see at DC and OC if Arians stays at least one more year?
January 11th, 2022 at 10:50 am
The Bears wont be a issue for leftwich or Bowles. They will be going after Jim Harbaugh and Dan Quinn the most. If not the coach of Ohio State to reunite with Justin Fields.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:11 am
SOEbuc Says:
January 11th, 2022 at 10:49 am
Who do we see at DC and OC if Arians stays at least one more year?
^^^^^^^^
DC: Larry Foote?
OC: Harold Goodwin?
January 11th, 2022 at 11:11 am
Hey Joe has flores and ba ever worked together? I would think they would mesh well Flores loves to bring the kitchen sink on any given down.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:14 am
Why is it so hard for idiots like Anonymous, webster, Hodad, SB to realize interviewing with these teams take time away from Bucs preparation? Please someone explain to me how this helps the Bucs against the Eagles in anyway? You can shat on me for any previous post but I’m 100% right on this one.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:29 am
Listnfrmafar Says:
January 11th, 2022 at 11:14 am
Why is it so hard for idiots like Anonymous, webster, Hodad, SB to realize interviewing with these teams take time away from Bucs preparation? Please someone explain to me how this helps the Bucs against the Eagles in anyway? You can shat on me for any previous post but I’m 100% right on this one.
^^^^^^^^^
If those guys take a few hours of the week off to interview in their free time (nobody game plans all day and all night), and the Bucs happen to lose to the Eagles, they were going to lose to the Eagles regardless, IMHO.
January 11th, 2022 at 11:55 am
This whole ‘interviews during the playoffs’ thing is ludicrous! How has the NFL not fixed this somehow?
January 11th, 2022 at 11:57 am
If I were interviewing for one of the head coaching openings, I would not consider the Jaguars as long as Baalke continues to be the general manager. And I wouldn’t consider the Dolphins. Ross is an absentee owner who trusts his GM more than the coaching staff. I was surprised that Flores was fired. I thought he had Miami moving in the right direction and just needed another infusion of talent.
January 11th, 2022 at 12:40 pm
Demitrios … ‘I would trade out Bowles for Brian Flores any day’.
Some JBFers might agree with you Demitrios; I’m not one of them. No way the Bucs even make the playoffs last year without Todd Bowles, much less win the Super Bowl. Pretty much the same impact this year.
To really appreciate what he’s accomplished in 3 years as our DC, go back & relook at how the Bucs defense did in ‘the lost decade’ in terms of defensive ranking, average PPG allowed and won-lost record:
2011: #32 ranking … 30.9 PPG … 4-12
2012: #23 ranking … 24.6 PPG … 7-9
2013: #21 ranking … 24.3 PPG … 4-12
2014: #25 ranking … 25.6 PPG … 2-14
2015: #26 ranking … 26.1 PPG … 6-10
2016: #15 ranking … 23.1 PPG … 9-7
2017: #22 ranking … 23.9 PPG … 5-11
2018: #31 ranking … 29.0 PPG … 5-11
2019: #29 ranking … 28.1 PPG … 7-9
2020: #8 ranking … 22.2 PPG … 11-5
2021: #5 ranking … 20.8 PPG … 13-4
It took Todd a year to get the stink out, but the 2020 & 2021 results speak for themselves. There was a LOT of rebuilding & coaching-up that had to be done in that 2019 year; like bringing Suh & Shaq onboard as FAs, drafting White, SMB, Edwards & Nelson, coaching-up near-rookies like Vea, Davis, Dean & Whitehead to play in Bowles’ hybrid defense, etc. But again, the results speak for themselves.
And BTW, Brian Flores has never been a Defensive Coordinator. He’s been a Linebackers Coach & a Safeties Coach, and obviously a Head Coach. But not a DC. He MIGHT make a very good DC, but there’s no track record to validate that.
January 11th, 2022 at 12:46 pm
Listnfrmafar … I agree that it potentially takes time away from preparation for the playoffs, but for the NFL NOT to allow it could negatively impact assistant coaches on playoff teams by lessening their chances of getting HC opportunities. And maybe even negatively impact the ‘product’ that losing teams put on the field the next year because they ‘settled’ for a less-than-ideal HC candidate.
January 11th, 2022 at 1:10 pm
DR, on your two points, are the numbers skewed a bit because offense score a lot of points and the opposition becomes one dimentional? As far as your second point, this equates to a Dicks Sporting Goods store employee telling his manager I need a few hours off to go to a job interview during the last week of Christmas. I am shocked the owners go for this.
January 11th, 2022 at 1:53 pm
Joe in Mich, getting on a plane in Tampa, flying to Chicago, go to stadium or wherever, go back to the airport and fly back, a few hours? Even a private jet would.be half the day. These interviews are full day events.
January 11th, 2022 at 2:01 pm
With as much as people complain about Bowles, he’s the guy the Bucs don’t want to lose.
I do wonder if the Glazers go to Bowles and give him a deal where he takes over the team in Arians retires.
Then again, if you’re Bowles, would you even want that deal? You’re going to get a team with no Brady, rebuilding and in legit salary cap hell. It’s a job where you’d need at least 4 years to do anything.
January 11th, 2022 at 2:04 pm
Defense Rules,
Don’t forget in 2019 the offense turned the ball over 41 times and spotted the opposing offenses a little over 7pts a game. Take that away and the 2019 defense gave up a little over 21pts a game.
January 11th, 2022 at 2:11 pm
Colonel Angus … In deference to the two Jameis supporters who still read JBF I didn’t want to go there.
January 11th, 2022 at 2:29 pm
Listnfrmafar … Interesting 1st point; jaded but interesting nonetheless. IF opposing defenses have become one-dimensional (ie, pass-happy), it’s more because Vea, Suh, Gholston, Shaq & JPP have been pretty good at shutting down their run game.
And as far as playoff coaches interviewing prior to the SB goes, football is still a BUSINESS last I looked. And getting the best people to run that business is essential to success. Besides, it’s unfair to assistant coaches who make the playoffs to NOT get interviewed because teams have shown that they don’t want to wait to hire.
January 11th, 2022 at 4:14 pm
I think both Bowles and Byron should be picky. We got enough coaches around here that got enough experience that they should know taking a job with a lousy orginization can be the kiss of death on your career.
You get two years andyour career as a HC flushed down the toilet.
I do think one of these two will be our next HC which will be a great setup and that gives them the leverage needed to wait for a good job with a quality orginization.
On the surface the Broncos job is intruging because they dont stay terrible consistently like the Jaguars…..and the Viking have a pretty decent roster I think……Chicago sorta sounds good but dang they have not sustained anything good for years now not sure that team is being run very well.
January 11th, 2022 at 6:01 pm
I’d much rather keep Bowles than Leftwich. Bowles is never going to win you a Superbowl though. Even knowing that, I’m not totally against him taking over for Arians. He can be a solid coach provided he has a stocked shelf of talent.
January 11th, 2022 at 6:04 pm
For those making the case for Bowles based on his numbers, I’d suggest you consider the fact that he had one of the most loaded defensive rosters in the league to work with.
If you truly want to judge coaching ability you have to create math models that account for talent differentials… what were there records/stats against teams that were better on paper? Sean Payton and Bellicheat consistently beat teams with superior talent, sometimes even blowing them out.
January 11th, 2022 at 7:08 pm
Listnfrmafar Says:
January 11th, 2022 at 1:53 pm
Joe in Mich, getting on a plane in Tampa, flying to Chicago, go to stadium or wherever, go back to the airport and fly back, a few hours? Even a private jet would.be half the day. These interviews are full day events.
^^^^^^^^^
Do we know that’s an actual visit, or a zoom call? 🤔
January 11th, 2022 at 9:08 pm
Izod i swear you gotta be on the sauce with that comment. The defense Bowles inheritted was statistically one of the worst defenses to ever play the game of football. I can still remember Joe posting articles on how pathetically we stacked up historically.
We were so bad we had to fire Mike Smith midway through the season. A very slight improvement after firing Smith is the only thing that saved us from being the worst defense to ever set foot on a football field.
“one of the most loaded defensive rosters to work with” hahahahahaha
January 12th, 2022 at 6:34 am
To the babbling fool talking about Coaches catching a flight to and from interviews and missing a day of preparing for the playoffs… Let me educate you please…. They do not interview this week prior to the games, and they interview via Zoom when they do interview. Amazing how you speak with such authority on things you have no knowledge of and are typically dead wrong about.
January 13th, 2022 at 8:49 am
Joe in Michigan, fair enough if they are zoom meetings, then your talking a hour or two versus longer. I would think the potential would want to walk the facilities meet some staff members but probably not. Who knows. There is still interview preparation which distracts focus. Ironic the teams NOT in the playoffs disrupting and trying to puck the pockets of those in the playoffs. My quess is the healthier team with the less interviews gies.to the SB. GB looking awful good then.
January 13th, 2022 at 9:02 am
Anonymous, do you even have a job or do you live in the free and easy Biden world? Where everything is given to you and flowers are blooming. If you ever interviewed for a job especially one that is upper management there is a lot of preparation and stress that comes with it which means distraction and lack of focus. Being a freeloader like yourself It’s not your fault you are ignorant to the process of participating in a job search.