Hot Seat Talk For Todd Bowles
March 22nd, 2023
Head coach Todd Bowles.
It’s March and Joe already is hearing more than a passing whisper of talk that Todd Bowles is on the proverbial head coaching hot seat.
This is what happens when you finish 8-10 with Tom Brady and team honchos make win-now moves like re-signing Lavonte David, breaking the bank for Jamel Dean, and keeping stud players on the roster rather than trading for draft picks.
And then there’s signing Baker Mayfield, a revived young quarterback, winner of 45 percent of his starts without playing for great teams.
CBS game broadcast analyst Charles Davis, formerly of NFL Network, a guy who was at Bucs training camp last season mingling with key Bucs folks, has a lot of confidence in Mayfield but knows he’s under extreme urgency to play well immediately.
Davis talked about that on SiriusXM NFL Radio this week and threw Bowles in that urgency cauldron.
“By the way, [Mayfield’s] got something to prove, and I don’t think we’re saying anything out of school, Todd Bowles has got to have something to prove this year, as well, like right out of the gate,” Davis said. “OK. I mean, it’s just going to have to happen, and maybe the two of them collaborating can get that done.”
Davis is one of the nicest dudes in #NFLMedia and is the opposite of a hot-take artist, so Joe gives his take on Bowles more attention.
In a recent Ira Kaufman Podcast episode, Sage Ira said Bowles needs a nine-win season to be sure he has a job in Tampa in 2024. Davis appears to be in the same ballpark.
Given the Bucs’ division and talent, and Bowles’ vast experience, 8 or 9 wins is a very reasonable goal without Byron Leftwich leading the offense.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:14 pm
8-10 with Tom Brady & several were directly attributable to Todd Bowles’ incompetence.
He needs to turn it around quickly……the best way to do that is to delegate all responsibilities for the offense and concentrate on his defense.
10-7 and a NFC South Championship will get it done.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:19 pm
We suck
Coach is clueless
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:20 pm
Seat should be on fire…..
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:23 pm
At this point, Mayfield and Bowles are tied at the hip. They both need to do well.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:23 pm
Four consecutive losing seasons in a row, and choked in the most pivotal moment of the Bucs opportunity to host the NFC Championship Game. I mean, call an all out blitz that no one does, but at least no one covered Cooper Kupp, the best receiver in the NFL.
The fact that this clown even has a job in football is a bit of a shocker, so, hot seat? Hell yes.
But verily, his best chance is to evaluate the quarterback position (because obviously he’s never fairly evaluated Kyle Trask) and make it a FAIR COMPETITION. Alas, we will see more evidence of the Trask Suppression Comspiracy. The head coich is in on it, in fact he may be at the center of it.
Everyone hates Trask. Sad.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:26 pm
Unlike many posters here I believe that Bowles absolutely deserved to keep his job going into this next season.
I also believe he deserves to have a hot seat as well. 😉
It’s not JUST about wins though that will determine whether or not he still has a job here for a third year. I’m sure that the Glazers want to see the young players being developed as well. That will have a major impact on how good the team can be going forward.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:29 pm
He never should have been retained in the 1st place….how can an organization that was expected to be a SB contender put a coach with a 37% winning percentage in charge of a team ready for a SB run? Blame Arians? Blame the Glazers, blame BUD Lyght? This was a collective effort to make Arians happy….not a good way to retain league wide success. He was horrendous as a head coach who is living off a reputation as a defensive genius mainly due to our SB victory over a team with a non existent offensive line….a top shelf organization does not make those mistakes.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:34 pm
Why is Todd Bowles in a do or die position? Just look at his head coaching record! He puts himself there!! Then he makes up all kind of excuses for his progress or lack thereof! No more excuses Bowles!! It’s your time to sink or swim!! Bowles is a good to great defensive coordinator. He showed us that in KC a couple years back. As a head coach he has shown us nothing!!!! As a fan, I root for your success! As a realist, I just don’t believe you are capable! You haven’t shown me anything which would make me believe otherwise!
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:38 pm
Richard – I like the blunt truth, although it does scare some people who’d rather fantasize about college stats and future draft picks who have a lower probability of success than Bloweszo does winning his next game.
March 22nd, 2023 at 1:42 pm
lol… DMW
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:02 pm
I’ll say this once I’ll say it again ,” if Bowles can win 10 games with the Jets with Fitzpatrick as his QB, he can do it again with Mayfield. Give him a chance and for those of you saying we suck, you can walk the plank we don’t need fake fans here in The Bay! If Licht and Bowles can knock this draft out of the park we are in great shape after this year an this year should still be fun to watch. I have us winning the division for the 3rd year in a row. Go Bucs!!
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:03 pm
licht,bowles & mayfield should All be on the same Hot seat.. they’ll be lucky to get 7 wins ; but will Glazers pull the trigger ???
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:07 pm
If I wasn’t so challenged with the phone I would copy and
Paste my moderated comment from 2 hours ago
Loser Bowles is squarely on the hot seat
This will be his 6th losing season out of 7 as the head guy
We are toast with him in charge
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:09 pm
Todd makes Leeman, Ray, Richard, and Sam all seem pretty solid
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:09 pm
I think Bowles lost the locker room last year. Not sure he can get the players motivated this season based on his poor game time decision making history.. The guy is not a motivator or leader, just excuses. Probably a much bigger issue than who the new QB is going to be.
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:09 pm
Hahahahahahaha Joe jail!!!!
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:10 pm
Voice of Truth Says:
March 22nd, 2023 at 12:43 pm
the HC doesnt have time to waste and he knows it. His seat is so hot!!! The veteran will get the nod unless Trask just blows him away through offseason, camp, and preseason.
Todd knows if he has another losing season, it will be 6 out of 7 years with a losing record as a HC, with one Play-off game where he got seal clubbed after backing in….
Todd Bowles is a loser and so are we as long as he is the HC, period
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:11 pm
JL purposely signed Baker to ensure Bowles buries the high draft pick QB on the bench and goes 3-14
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:17 pm
Did Leftwich get a job anywhere since the Bucs fired him?
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:19 pm
see this is why i don’t want the team competing this season. If the Bucs absolutely suck this season. Todd Bowles is fired. We get a very high draft pick. We get a REAL offensive minded HC. We become a desirable location that a coach will want to be in and we can actually get good coordinators instead of bums in the bargain bin.
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:22 pm
Vast experience of the Bowles cleaner? I don’t think digging holes for a team to fall into experience, not by NFL standards.
He doesn’t even have enough experience to hire a DC, because even smart coaches can’t be HC and DC.
If we get past 500 one the win column it will be because Canales offense has more charisma than Bowles cleaner can overwhelm.
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:30 pm
Again, and I seem to be the only one bringing this up….Im not a fan of the guy, but can we at least get him a competent DC so he can be a true HC? Unless thats just something he’s not willing to relinquish.
I dont know….struggling double hatted is handicapping a situation that I think could be resolved by going out here and finding a DC. At least we could say we tried giving him all the tools…WTH Licht?
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:34 pm
When you’re literally handed a SB roster, one picked by Vegas to go represent the NFC in the SB – and you turn that into a 8-10 season …. and you were already a loser sub-500 coach before that, well, there’s not much of a reason he should even be back this season.
It’s too bad since he’s a good DC and should have been kept in that position. As a head coach, he’s a total failure, and he’s had plenty of chances to prove otherwise, and hasn’t.
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:56 pm
It’s a talent issue
Hot seat should be for gm
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:58 pm
@MadMax
Larry Foote and Kacy Rogers are the co-DCs, it’s been that way since last spring. Even if we were to go out and get a DC, who’d we get? The only name I could think of with a defensive background that would mesh well with Bowles’ defensive identity would be Gary Patterson.
March 22nd, 2023 at 2:59 pm
If Bowles don’t smell the set up he more stupid then I thought.
March 22nd, 2023 at 3:12 pm
Bowles will deliver mediocre as he’s always done dating back to his days in NY. He’s a solid coordinator but can’t lead a team, particularly in clutch moments. He’s literally the only coach in history who would take the ball out of the hands of Brady to position for overtime. His all out blitz against the Rams cost us a trip to NFC championship and possibly a 3rd SB. Nobody on that play call looked remotely ready.
March 22nd, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Yawn…Wow Joe…What an amazing dig to find the guy to say Bowles on the hot seat. About 99% of JBF posters have been saying this since the end of the playoffs, yet Bowles won division as first year HC. Don’t care how crappy our division was, that’s still noteable.
March 22nd, 2023 at 3:29 pm
The Trask Suppression Conspiracy might suggest that the Bucs could indeed go 3-14 with any QB, including Mayfield. But they would argue, Trask would go 0-17.
March 22nd, 2023 at 3:53 pm
I totally agree that Bowles is on the hot seat .. that stupid defensive call he made against the Rams in the playoffs is suspect to say the least. He’s had 4 years HC experience and still had clock management issues and real time game decisions that were highly questionable. If it is known in the Team Glazer circle that he neutered Brady and the high power offensive so to play a more Dungy style defensive led team and turned in the record he did … then he’s totally on the hot seat !!!
March 22nd, 2023 at 3:54 pm
May as well fire Toilet Bowles now and save us the pain of having to watch him on the podium after the 10 losses.
March 22nd, 2023 at 4:28 pm
Bowles has been here about five years now and has bee a DC for a long time. He should have someone trained to take over those duties by now.
March 22nd, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Losing with Tom Brady should make Bowels seat the hottest seat of all 32 HC!
Like the heat of a thousand suns…
March 22nd, 2023 at 6:30 pm
So let’s see. Bucs are delaying the rebuild so that wit a little luck, they think they might be able to can squeeze out a mediocre season (which in the NFC south, could mean a mean a division championship). Got me all excited.
March 22nd, 2023 at 6:34 pm
It will not matter who the QB is. Bowles is a natural born loser and he will lose, lose, and lose.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:19 pm
Going to be a few bad years Glazers need to sell the team like they are trying to do in England I don’t care what these Glazers defenders are saying they stink as owners they don’t know squat about football or soccer they just know $$$$$$$$$$ this family needs to sell this team. Jason Licht is one of the worse GMs in the Nfl. Brady just fell in his lap subtract the Bradys years and he is horrible.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:20 pm
No coach caused Brady to have a losing season………until El Grande Bloweszo.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:21 pm
Joe … ‘winner of 45 percent of his starts without playing for great teams.’
Not sure I’d want that on my resume if I was trying to resurrect my career.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:32 pm
Frustrating how few in the media have the stones to honestly address Bowles’ career record as a HC, and inability to lead a team and an organization. He’s been such a disaster that last year’s 8-9 record actually IMPROVED his career mark to a .400 win %. It’s not solely his W/L record either, it’s also his poor in-game decisions (making head-scratching calls that no 5yr HC should be making), as well as his lack of accountability, inability to motivate his team, deflecting that responsibility onto his players instead, etc. He’ll always have his apologists, and while it seems obvious the Glazers are wanting to placate BA since he led the Bucs to another SB, at some point Bowles has to be held accountable for his shortfalls. No question he’s a solid DC, but that’s his ceiling and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. He’s the perfect example of the Peter Principle. If you’re not sure what that is, a simple Google search awaits.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:37 pm
Buc4ever … ‘The guy is not a motivator or leader, just excuses.’
You’ve made that ‘excuses’ statement before, and I’ve asked you to detail 6 or 7 SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of the excuses you accuse him of making. I might’ve missed the response, so please direct me to where you provided those SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of ‘excuses’ that he’s made.
I’d say that Todd Bowles did a pretty damned good job of ‘motivating’ and ‘leading’ our Bucs defense since 2019. We did kinda win a Super Bowl thanks to that very defense that you’re accusing him of not ‘motivating’ & ‘leading’. And he did it on a team that put the vast majority of its salary CAP into the OFFENSE to support Tom Brady.
I certainly don’t agree with all of his decisions as head coach last year, but then again I didn’t agree with all of BA’s decisions either. And Bowles did start out well behind the 8-ball when he wasn’t told until March 31st that the job was his if he wanted it. Add that he ‘inherited’ a coaching staff that was not of his choosing (and was loyal to BA for years); a coaching staff that included Byron Leftwich as his OC & Keith Armstrong as his S/Ts coordinator, neither of whom would’ve been my picks. Add in the fact that we lost a number of key starters to free agency AND injury, and that’s 3 strikes right there.
I’m perfectly willing to give him a chance to show what he can do in 2023, even though I’m less than excited about the roster that they’ve put together thus far (several excellent pieces, just not enough of them, meaning we’ll be relying on a lot of relatively inexperienced starters & key rotational players). If he bombs out, he bombs out. NEXT.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:40 pm
Newsflash — Todd Bowels is the head coach.
March 22nd, 2023 at 7:41 pm
Although scoring nearly 31 ppg had nothing to do with winning a Super Bowl ,
March 22nd, 2023 at 8:28 pm
Why does Todd always look like a battered wife?
March 22nd, 2023 at 8:57 pm
If you want 6 or 7 SPECIFIC EXAMPLES of excuses, go look at his post game speeches from last season…you’ll find at least 6 or 7 from EACH game lost. And as far as motivation, have you not heard one of his so called victory speeches? It’s more like watching paint dry.
March 22nd, 2023 at 9:22 pm
Laugh all you like. But if Todd Bowles finishes at 500 or better with this team? He keeps his job Watch and see..or not
March 23rd, 2023 at 12:25 am
Yeah, and last year ALL of his post-game speeches included statements that the coaching had to be better. It really PO’d me that no reporter queried him on what specifically he was going to do to be better.
March 23rd, 2023 at 1:27 am
Mayfield’s best year…last year. 5 games. 60% losing record. Just saying. If that is his best year, the rest must have been REALLY bad.
My theory is that the fans who wanted to tank are embracing him instead of screaming to draft a QB this year.
March 23rd, 2023 at 1:28 am
I would feel better with Gabbert, if I’m honest.
March 23rd, 2023 at 1:29 am
Mike Johnson Says
“Laugh all you like. But if Todd Bowles finishes at 500 or better with this team? He keeps his job Watch and see..or not”
I think that depends on what the rest of the division does.
And when we draft a QB next year, I really do not want him making the choice.
March 23rd, 2023 at 5:34 am
VOLCANIC that is the Temperature
LAVA HOT
Last turned into a but a weekly endurance test, of watching this team struggle mightily week after week, teams they should have simply beat.
Baker gives some hope, but in the end, will he help them get 9-10 wins??
I like Baker, but I do not think this ragamuffin band of Bucs is going to play with excellence anywhere near as much as is needed to accomplish more than one win in the playoffs off or 1 and done.
Well we have been there and done that with Dallas, and I burned the TShirt already
Baker seems to have his head on straight, at least during his press conference. But we will see what he can do in Tampa. Bottom line is this team is in a big transition, and most likely Bowles is not going to make it to the next Talent Cycle thats needed for the team to actually be a legitimate contender again.
March 23rd, 2023 at 8:27 am
I really think many NFL coaches are of the opinion that they are capable of coaching players to wins, because they are such great coaches. Bowles makes poor head coaching decisions because he is convinced he has coached up and schemed our defense to equal the HOF defense of the Bucs 2002.
Hey Todd! Not even close!
March 23rd, 2023 at 3:02 pm
Bowles is already a dead man walking.
The Bucs are just giving him one more season, to keep from looking like he didnt get a fair shake.
Only a playoff season might save him.
He is a DC. Hes not a Head coach.
Thats ok. Neither are any of us.