Why Todd Bowles Has Earned A Hot Seat
October 24th, 2022
Todd Bowles
Every NFL head coach says the same thing: his team will face adversity each season and how it responds will reflect its leadership, character and toughness.
Well, the Bucs faced adversity after a shocking upset to Pittsburgh two Sundays ago and responded with the complete and total collapse seen yesterday — to arguably the worst team in the NFL in a key division game.
A back-to-back implosion should sound the fire alarm at One Buc Palace. It’s a clear sign of a coach in danger of losing his team.
Before opening day, the Bucs were on a 22-5 run that included a Super Bowl win. The franchise was in great hands with Pro Bowlers Lavonte David, Devin White, Antoine Winfield, Jr., Vita Vea and Shaq Barrett on defense with an experienced but young secondary. On offense, the Bucs had Tom Brady and more talent than most teams.
But somehow, with a healthy Brady at quarterback, head coach Todd Bowles has transformed the Bucs into a soft, disjointed club that has franchise standouts blasting the team’s effort and and disinterest.
That’s hard to do, but Bowles managed to pull it off.
The mighty Bucs have lost four of five games to teams with a combined record of 15-20.
Tampa Bay’s underachievement through seven games, Joe believes, rivals the historic Bucs coaching messes by Raheem Morris (2011), Greg Schiano (2013) and Dirk Koetter (2018). Each of those coaches were fired after those seasons, ones in which they could no longer claim to be rookies themselves.
Unlike those three, Bowles took over the Bucs with far more experience — and far better talent.
Joe’s main point is that Team Glazer knows what its smelling right now, and it’s not something that a couple of Lysol sprays will extinguish.
Bowles has time to fix the broken Bucs this season and he certainly has the tools with which to work.
If Bowles can’t steer the 3-4 Bucs to a winning record and a division title, then he has no business continuing on a Bucs sideline.
Team Glazer and general manager Jason Licht know it, whether they have the courage to accept it is another story.
October 24th, 2022 at 3:56 am
Despite a short week, Leftwich must go. Now. This level of offense is unacceptable. Too drastic to fire Bowles during this season. Bowles must demonstrate everyone’s accountable.
October 24th, 2022 at 3:59 am
Lay off bowles. He didnt even pick his coaching staff. Plus licht never replace leadership in marpet. Suh. Jpp. Gronk. Bowles defense carry us 3 W. Imo bowles needs to give up playcalling to foote. And leftwich to Harold. Something like that.
October 24th, 2022 at 4:01 am
I wouldn’t leave Licht blameless Joe. His FA’s haven’t panned out, and his draft choices aren’t vying for rookie of the year honors. Licht doesn’t coach. The talent is there, proven talent, especially when you compare it to other rosters. Not saying Licht is up for GM of the year but the cupboard is better than its record. And certainly Joe can’t fault Licht for the team not playing hard. –Joe
The Glazers are the ones who let Arains pick their next HC so they’re kinda to blame too. How the Glazers decide to clean up the mess will be interesting, but they move slow. I see at least one more year of Bowles whether he deserves it, or not. Once you believe your coach isn’t Super Bowl material, then you have to abandon ship, especially when you’re facing a quarterback change. The Glazers know that. Joe believes its just a matter of whether they have the stones to act if Bowles doesn’t turn things around, and he certainly has time this season to do that.–Joe
October 24th, 2022 at 4:08 am
Absolute disaster atm. Honestly, how many coaches would love to trade with Bowles rn? 25+ I’d imagine. This performance is unacceptable.
October 24th, 2022 at 4:36 am
Cameron Brate went down the last game.
Antonion Winfield went down this game.
No fiery camaraderie to rally around their fellow teammates…
Something seriously wrong about this team makeup
October 24th, 2022 at 4:44 am
Joe the cupboard isn’t bare, it’s just filled with FA’s who are injured. This team is far from loaded with talent. Evans, Godwin two good receivers, after them garbage. It’s not garbage. How many teams have a No. 3 receiver better than Russell Gage? Not many at all.–Joe Lenny decent back, after him, eeh. Tight ends? Nope. Joe will give you the tight ends, but it’s obvious Otton can catch and it sure seems like he’s not being maximized in the passing game. –Joe Misconception this roster is loaded. Lacks speed, heart, and you are right coaching has been god awful. Everyone has a hand in this disaster including Licht, and the Glazers. I think no matter what, right, or wrong the Glazers won’t change coaches next year.
October 24th, 2022 at 4:46 am
There is so much of a mess, so many heads that should roll, it’s not a matter of any simple firing or replacement mid-season.
A top to bottom change in leadership and culture shouldn’t be out of the question. Something like that would happen after a completed losing season. Unless they forfeit this season altogether.
The inability to get a team with this level of talent (it’s overrated but good enough to compete) humming, the terrible attitudes of many veterans who should be absolutely setting the tone and leading right now—is all on the coaches and Bowles.
October 24th, 2022 at 5:38 am
I give Todd a pass due to injuries and departures. This team is not nearly the same as last year
October 24th, 2022 at 5:38 am
Motivation problems come from a lack of respect. Players do not respect leadership right now. Coaches obviously a big part of leadership, but so are the team captains (Brady, Lavonte, Evans, Vea, White). Not trying to take heat off of BL, he is a level of awful I cannot ever remember seeing before. But coaches are not the beginning and end of motivation problems right now.
October 24th, 2022 at 5:40 am
It is sad to say that I envy the panthers. Their fans know they are in total rebuild mode. They are all in on the future. We are stuck fruitlessly trying to squeeze out one more winning season before a full implode needs to take place, but I’m not sure we realize this run is over. We may try to hand on to 6-11 for the next three years. We
October 24th, 2022 at 6:06 am
The schemes are trash and that’s on coaching.
Playing old school ball works when you’re dominating. But this team isn’t, and just beating your opponent into submission doesn’t work if all you have is the hammer and nothing else. There’s no creativity, no savvy, nothing modern it’s just all vanilla. Opponents see these schemes coming from a mile away.
October 24th, 2022 at 6:10 am
With great power comes great responsibility. It’s time for our team captains to start calling out bad coaching. Publicly if necessary.
October 24th, 2022 at 6:20 am
Let Brady play behind a decent o-line before you start trying to bury him. Sure, that selfish witch he’s married to isn’t helping matters. The guy has not forgotten how to play and you guys throwing him under the bus are bordering on comical.
October 24th, 2022 at 6:20 am
The team doesn’t believe in the system. They’re not buying what the coaches are selling. Sure, they’re going through the motions because that is what they are paid to do. It’s tragic.
October 24th, 2022 at 6:23 am
“Clueless” Todd strikes again. Complete failure with the Jets and trending that direction with the Yucs. Who called a clown game last year in LA? That would be Clueless Todd. So what did the Yucs do? They rewarded the inept coaching with a massive promotion to head coach!
October 24th, 2022 at 6:27 am
Disconnect between players and coaches
October 24th, 2022 at 6:44 am
DungyDance Says:
“With great power comes great responsibility. It’s time for our team captains to start calling out bad coaching.”
.
.
Oh, come on. What “great power” do you think comes with wearing a “C” on your jersey? It’s just a formality. It doesn’t make you what you aren’t already, if you are not a natural leader.
It would be cool to hear someone call out the sorry coaching, but that can backfire, and it would take some stones.
October 24th, 2022 at 6:46 am
Hopefully heads roll today..
October 24th, 2022 at 6:58 am
Who’s going to stay up late and watch this garbage team play Thursday night? Lol.
I’d rather go to the dentist.
October 24th, 2022 at 7:11 am
He is a statue on the sidelines with zero ability to adjust to game time issues. His embarrassing run D and third down is alarming. Zero adjustment to fix these issues. His comment regarding left which last night is the most alarming. The office of coordinator doesn’t have the ability to scheme guys open very simplistic routes too many guys in bunches end up in the same area , too many routes short of the stick. And the statue just standing on the sidelines unwilling or even worse not understanding that what he’s seeing isn’t working. There’s no question the talent on this team is overrated but there’s no they should be three and four. I don’t think you can make changes during the season that will result in a new system. But I don’t see anything changing.
October 24th, 2022 at 7:19 am
As far as I’m concerned Licht has only hired one coach and that was BA. Lovie was here before him and IMO Koetter and Bowles were sorta forced upon him to hire.
October 24th, 2022 at 7:40 am
With the greatest QB of all time, at the helm of the ship, why do we need an OC anyways? This makes no sense. I can understand this if we had any other QB. But, we do not need an OC at this time.
October 24th, 2022 at 7:43 am
Sean Payton
October 24th, 2022 at 7:54 am
How you let #34 on panthers a cb just called up from practice squad and you dont go at him is all coaching
October 24th, 2022 at 8:03 am
Sb-lv
Yes . but it will never happen. At this point we are stuck with these two
October 24th, 2022 at 8:12 am
Joe I think what you said here is an accurate perspective of the overall dumpster fire that has reignited after a 2.5 year hiatus.
” But somehow, with a healthy Brady at quarterback, head coach Todd Bowles has transformed the Bucs into a soft, disjointed club that has franchise standouts blasting the team’s effort and and disinterest”
Bowles comes off at least publicly with an uninspiring approach. I am not in the lockeroom, so I cannot make any factual statements as to what Bowles is like without any cameras around, But SOFT is a good description of this painful to watch 2022 version of the Bucs that Uncle Softy Bowles is Coaching. He either gets a clue fast or his Head Coaching opportunity in the NFL is going to be over, and he will never get another shot again.
NFL = N-ot F-or L-ong is about to be stamped on Bowles Head Coaching file.
I hope by some miracle it changes, but it looks like a full blown train wreck with a burning dumpster fire in the engine car.
GO BUCS!!!!!!
October 24th, 2022 at 8:22 am
I go back to Arians. It was obvious his 1st year here that the offensive and defensive lines started to regularly win the line of scrimmage (accept against New Orleans and the LA). That continued every season when he was head coach.
Everyone wanted to give the credit solely to Brady when we went on to win the Super Bowl. I am as big a Brady fan as anyone but said that you cannot win the Super Bowl without good coaching.
Where is that good coaching now? Especially on offense.
You see the same thing for New Orleans offense. Pete Carmichael was the offensive coordinator when Sean Payton was there and continues to be the offensive coordinator now.
Whether either Leftwich (with Arians there) or Carmichael (with Payton there) called plays the last couple of years, they both needed their head coaches there to whisper in their ear about certain plays during the game or take out their red pens (if such existed) on Friday afternoons.
October 24th, 2022 at 8:23 am
This is not a personell problem. This is an incompetence problem. This whole staff is incompetent top to bottom and led by an incapable HC. Bowles has built upon his Blunder against The Rams that cost us the Super Bowl last year. Blunder after Blunder and he has the gall to pronounce NO COACHING CHANGES. He does not accept any responsibility for this calamity. The only solution is to fire them all and restart this week. Otherwise it is Head Bagging time for the fans.
October 24th, 2022 at 8:23 am
Bowels has proven for the third time he cannot lead a winning team. Many of these players are too good to turtle and they are. This is a direct call out from the players that Bowels is NOT their guy and BL certainly is under qualified for his position. If the Glaizers and Licht aren’t seeing who is out there as the interim coach and OC then they are failing this team as well. NO PASSION, NO EXECUTION!!!
October 24th, 2022 at 8:24 am
Sean Payton!
October 24th, 2022 at 8:30 am
Losing the locker room is just as bad and signals he’s about to lose his job. Can’t ball out on one side of the ball. He should have stayed a coordinator
October 24th, 2022 at 8:33 am
Todd Bowels has taken Cadillac and turned it into a Yugo in 6 months
October 24th, 2022 at 8:35 am
A team with this much talent on the roster looking the way it has for consecutive games is unacceptable. PERIOD!
That flame ought to be white-hot.
October 24th, 2022 at 8:39 am
Lovie Smith 2.0
October 24th, 2022 at 8:42 am
Yes the offense is very much stagnate and it’s own worst enemy.
We can’t run the ball effectively which in turn makes Brady a check down artist scared to let it fly.
I think something else is more important to address.
This defense is a complete joke.
Shaq Barrett is getting payed top dollar and hasn’t preformed to his contract or past history play.
White isva bone head who can’t get his life teammates on the same page david is being misused completely.
Vea looks like he takes plays off a lot.
Goholston is done…
Tryon fit the white description he’s just not clicking between the ears and hasn’t shown a mean side at all.
Secondary has been ehhhh Logan Ryan looked smart on the field when wevhad him.
Winfield has been our best player on defense…
Mike Edward’s proving why he was better as a back up.
Noches was playing with heart.
Nelson n rainbow kid have both been looking unimpressive.
Suh is well missed so is jpp hard leadership.
Love Smith oops I mean Bowles has not put a good defense on the field and has the patience running the mad house.
Brian Leftwich play call is by far the most lame duck calls and predictable.
Honestly calls games like he’s playing madden.
To call Brian’s offense Vanilla is a insult to the flavor Vanilla.
I kinda wonder why Brady came back for this.
To not be able to coax gronk back or Edelman..
Idk a major trade like for njuku te for the browns.
Honestly fournette has looked blah last 3 games.
Orton look aight..
Brate is done..
Godwin- the Winfield of offense..
He has been coming back into his own I’m not concerned about his play only his continuing his progress to get get healthy and stay it
Mike evans- my favorite buc- had very bad drop..tends to look soft after the catch and acts hurt after every catch.
Darden is a soft guy who runs out of bounce any chance he gets.
Scotty- not the answer
Hainsey n godeke- both are back up level and only look decent because Donavan Smith is constantly getting blown by some fast end.
Smith has never impressed me.
Mason n wirf have both been good..
We miss the tone setter Jensen n consistency of Ali marpet.
Gage has been playing hurt its obvious but he has been getting open.
Now brady- he has been checking down out of fear or lack of trust.
Constantly playing to get 3rd n short to not convert.
Red zone deficient.
Looks clocked out..
I feel like he’s on auto pilot.
I respect the goat so I won’t dig to much into him because of this reason alone…
If we had healthy wide receiver room or healthy oline or a smart play caller or a run game or a dominate defense..we would win with field goals alone.
He’s in dink n dunk offense who can’t get yards after the catch which is effort issue.
I honestly could get far deeper into the issues and lack of heart from players who are playing to earn millions of dollars.
I will say the fix is easy tho…
Let David key the rb n blitz..use white on the edge to blitz instead of tryon….
Move Neal to mlb with david..David…
Get suh back in bucs uniform..
Use golhston for rotation..
Get hicks back n have suh vea hicks front 3..
Let Roches n rookie rotate in on passing plays.
Idk how to fix the secondary..honestly those guys are either injured or getting beasted by 4th string qbs.
No one’s creating any turnovers..at all..
Winfield needs to be blitz from the slot corner spot much more..
Edward’s needs to be put in floating ball hawk spot..
Dean has been alright at times prob been the best out the cbs.CBS..
Offense needs to open it up..run no huddle at all times..
Go deep more n stretch the field.
Need run to the right side…
Need to find whose the playmaker.
Godwin typically holds that role..we need someone else to want the ball.
I don’t like the ravens match up..def sucks at running qbs and ate offensevwill look inept against their defense.
So 3 n 5 is highly likely.
Boy could we use Bruce n his red pen…
Also a bye week would be amazing.
I just can’t help but feel this team is not performing but also feel like it’s probably 1 n done in the playoffs if we get there.
October 24th, 2022 at 8:48 am
This coaching staff NEVER had this team!
Wake up Glazer’s!
October 24th, 2022 at 8:49 am
Arians said he stepped down because he wanted to make sure Bowles was set up for success in his second HC opportunity —- and he was.
Bowles proceeded to destroy the championship calibre team in less than 7 months. In his last 57 games as a HC, Bowles is 17-40.
He’s out of chances
October 24th, 2022 at 9:04 am
I believe Lovie Smith was in part fired because he was too stubborn to make changes, loyalty to a fault, Bowles will face the same result if he is too loyal to Brucem in other words, make the change from BL, try Christenson, it can’t be any worse
October 24th, 2022 at 9:11 am
PFR just came out with the game stats & play-by-play. Noticed something very interesting about our defensive performance yesterday. Panthers went almost exclusively after what they perceived to be our weaknesses on defense (and they were obviously right).
Foreman rushed 15 times for 118 yards (7.9 YPC). Of those, only 4 came in the first 3 quarters (he gained 70 yards on those). The other 11 rushes were all in the 4th quarter (to run out the game). More significantly, 14 of his 15 runs were either up the middle or to the right side (his 1 run to the left gained only 3 yards). Kinda tells ya where our DLine weakness is. BTW, that’s the position that Suh would’ve been playing IF JL had re-signed him.
Hubbard got all but 1 of his 9 runs in the first 3 quarters, gaining 63 yards (7.0 YPC), while they held Foreman in reserve. He had 4 runs to the left (39 yards) and the other 5 to the right (24 yards). I’d surmise that there was some smart play calling in there to match up certain of their RBs against certain Bucs’ DLineman.
Just speculative, but it also seems that Bucs’ DLine has a number of ‘weak links’ right now. Teams will continue to run against us until we show that we can stop them. Unfortunately DC Bowles can’t teach guys to be nasty or strong, and right now we seem to be lacking both up front.
October 24th, 2022 at 9:14 am
Licht is a trash GM. Without Brady he’d ve sitting with Don.
Amstop protecting Licht. His FA class is a giant F
October 24th, 2022 at 9:17 am
We all know what needs to be done here, however I believe it won’t happen because of other (Politically correct) reasons
October 24th, 2022 at 9:38 am
It sucks this season may have to go in the dumpster just to make it look okay doing what we all already know is going to need to be done.
October 24th, 2022 at 9:53 am
Two quick points and a question. Panther are not the worse team. We know of at least one team they are 18 points better than.
Yes, there is time to right the ship and now is not the time to make a hasty decision. But if the Bucs lose these next two heading into the bye, it would no longer be a hasty decision but rather an obvious one.
What might Arians be thinking right now? As consultant, doesn’t he have input on coaching?
October 24th, 2022 at 10:11 am
Three losses to the Ravens, Rams and Seahawks would signal a bye week firing. Unless we want to challenge for a top pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
October 24th, 2022 at 10:37 am
Bowles was a legit NFL player and assistant coach. He’s clearly not head coach material. He has stated he uses sarcasm vs harsh, real-time feedback. I’m as sarcastic as they come…but it’s no way to motivate NFL players…especially the young ones. Nice of BA to try and set his friend up…but this is an absolute disaster.
October 24th, 2022 at 10:58 am
My Dad always said “be careful what you pray for.” Why does this apply now. Some of you said “heads are gonna roll” Well they are. Thursday night. Caralina’s “J.J.” Walker, (DINOMITE) carves up our secondary exactly like i said he would Saturday and ‘ve never heard of him. BUT I HAVE heard of our secondary hahahha
October 24th, 2022 at 11:20 am
Joe, so Licht is blameless? That’s nonsense
Lichts the guy who signed free agent flops Russel Gage, Julio and Rudolph
Lichts the one who had final say on replacing Suh and JPP with Thing 1 and Thing 2
October 24th, 2022 at 1:20 pm
Now we know why Bowles has never made it as a HC. And its really hard to put into words how bad Lefty is. Except to say he does not belong coaching in the NFL. Glazers wake up & quit listening to BA & Licht.
October 24th, 2022 at 7:51 pm
I will give the coaching staff the rest of the year to see if they can straighten this season out. If we lump some kind away and make the playoff and loose in the first round, I will send the coaching staff packing and start all over. Someone made decision to let real leadership walk out of the door for men who have seen their best football past them by: both WR,S FROM Atlanta, Big DT from Chicago. Now, the players do not have real leadership in the locker room. Look at the last two games, each team defense showed up and out defense could not get out of the on way. The offense look and play like they never played professional football before. That,s coaching my friend.
October 24th, 2022 at 9:54 pm
I think its evident Bowles and Leftwich are clueless. By the time the clock strikes triple zeros in Munich, we will know where this team stands going forward. Glazers need to decide where Brady stands for 2023 and if the team is 4-6 after Munich then either fire the “dumb and dumber twins” or see what Trask has because there is no sense in keeping Bowles for 2023 unless he can use the excuse that he is developing (cough, cough) a young QB. Repeating 2023 with this crap circus of a coaching staff and Brady makes no sense. My prediction is Brady bolts Tampa after the season, Licht, Bowles and Lefty get exposed in 2023 and swept out as pretenders who rode Brady’s fire to a Super Bowl Championship.
October 24th, 2022 at 11:09 pm
Todd is soft, team is soft.
October 25th, 2022 at 9:02 am
He is a diversity hire. Glazers won’t fire him. Leftwich will get fired but not until after the season. The Glazers are as woke as they come. Licht would have to push for it. And he won’t because he’s such good friends with BA. Bowles gets another season regardless of how this one ends.