Sticking up for Todd Bowles.

For those who may have doubts that former Jets coach Todd Bowles can get the job done as a head coach with the Bucs, Michael Lombardi is here to offer comfort.

The former coffee fetcher and NFL suit took to his podcast “GM Shuffle” to rave about Bowles as a leader of men.

It is not unusual to hear Lombardi praise Bowles. In fact, a few months ago he suggested if the Bucs were smart, they would have already named Bowles “coach in waiting” for whenever former Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians stepped aside.

“I am a big Todd Bowles guy. Look, I know that his record with the Jets was a disaster. But you become a head coach with Mike Maccagnan as your general manager and see how that works out for you,” Lombardi said. ” [Bill] Belichick wouldn’t have been able to survive that either. I mean that is a hard thing to do.

“I mean this guy [Maccagnan] thought Christian Hackenberg could be a starter and drafted him in the second round. This tells you the level of what he saw pro football as. [Bowles] needed help there, no doubt. But he will be a better coach the second time around.”

Lombardi then retold a story about how impressed Bill Parcells was coaching against Bowles when Bowles played for Washington. Bowles called the defensive plays and that jumped off the film for Parcells. Previously, Lombardi had told the story that Parcells told his staff of Bowles as a rookie, “This kid is playing with a Harvard degree in football.”

“What is fascinating about Bowles, and people don’t know this, [Bill] Parcells is the reason why Todd Bowles became a coach,” Lombardi said. “When Parcells was on the sidelines he watched this young kid from Temple as a free agent rookie start at free safety for the Washington Football Team. And Richie Petitbon was the defensive coordinator. And that defense Petitbon ran was real complex.

“In fact, [Petitbon’s] signals were complex. You really couldn’t get a read on what he was doing. Everything was predicated on matches. You had to have really smart linebackers and really smart safeties. And Bowles mastered it quickly. Parcells saw that and said, ‘I have to hire this guy one day as a coach.’

“Parcells nutured him as a coach. Obviously [Bowles] became his own man. But I think that relationship [with Parcells] fosters a relationship with [Tom] Brady stronger than anything he may have had with Arians.

“I think it is a great move for the Bucs. I really do.”

If you believe the rumors of friction between Arians and Tom Brady, one reason Brady was irked at Arians is Brady thought Arians ran too loose of a ship (despite winning 22 games in two years and a Super Bowl) and Brady began getting homesick for Belicheat’s evil ways. Bowles will bring more of a Belicheat-like tight ship than Arians, Lombardi believes.

While what Lombardi said about Bowles is all true, remember something here: Guys from branches of a coaching tree really like to stick together and stick up for one another.

For example, when lousy Lovie Smith was (rightfully) canned by the Bucs, the narrative went out, pushed by Lovie’s son/agent, Lovie was a victim of chicanery. And the many people in the Father Dungy coaching tree screamed this as the Dungy Tree clan circled the wagons for a fallen comrade.

Fast-forward to today and the Bucs hiring Bowles. Who are the ones banging the drum that the hiring of Bowles is a stroke of genius? Guys from the Parcells tree, of which Lombardi is a member (Mike Tannenbaum of BSPN is another).

Joe is not saying hiring Bowles is a bad move. And maybe Bowles was roadkill for working in a lousy organization like the Jets’. Flirting with the playoffs with rotten Ryan Fitzpatrick as your quarterback is a borderline Hall of Fame coaching job.

Yes, Belicheat was a much better coach his second time around. Time will tell if finally working with a competent quarterback will demonstrate Bowles is also a top-shelf head coach.

It certainly can’t hurt having Tom Brady.