“Seamless Transition”
June 30th, 2023
Todd Bowles
It’s safe to say the Buccaneers wanted a clean handoff when Bucco Bruce Arians shocked the NFL and quit his head coaching gig in late March of 2022.
Arians wanted one, too. He wanted his Super Bowl staff to keep working in Tampa and the best way to accomplish that was to leave when it was too late for major change. Well played, Bruce.
In came Todd Bowles as head coach. Bowles was the natural choice, and Tristan Wirfs says everything about the Bowles regime was comfortable, Wirfs told the Vikes Verifed podcast.
“I feel like it was a very seamless transition when it went from B.A. to Coach Bowles. Nothing really changed,” Wirfs said. “You know, we were running the same offense. The schedule was pretty much the same.”
Joe wonders if things were too comfortable last season. Perhaps that’s nitpicking.
Wirfs went on to say Bowles and Arians had very similar philosophies, as well as coaching styles.
Joe was intrigued hearing that from Wirfs because here comes the 2023 edition of Bowles and the offense has changed radically. Last year it was “similar,” and this year Bowles adds a handpicked playcaller wanting to pound the rock and planning on a less-vertical passing game (unless receivers are running wide open.)
It really is Bowles’ team now in many ways, though that doesn’t take Bowles off the hook for the Bucs’ losing record last season.
Wirfs added that one big change/development of the Bowles takeover was him becoming close to Bowles and building a relationship that didn’t really exist previously. “I feel like we’re really close. It’s been really cool,” Wirfs said.
June 30th, 2023 at 2:59 pm
rut ro the bucs are comfortable. not a good thing.
June 30th, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Take the under
June 30th, 2023 at 3:17 pm
Guys its more about the players/talent on the team then the coach in many ways.
We have 5 win talent
June 30th, 2023 at 3:20 pm
“We were running the same Offense”?????????????
Then Which Bucs games was I watching??
June 30th, 2023 at 3:25 pm
wanting to pound the rock and planning on a less-vertical passing game (unless receivers are running wide open.)…
Really, the part of the statement that says that… unless the receivers are running wide open.
1. Duh.
2. But in all of Arian’s years here did you ever see his quarterbacks throwing vertical passes to guys who were covered. I mean most of Jameis interceptions were on crossing routes and shorter passes, not vertical. Just my opinion.
June 30th, 2023 at 3:31 pm
Seamless outside of 4 less wins and a blowout in the first round where we looked absolutely out-classed
Yeah, it went great
Wow
June 30th, 2023 at 3:32 pm
I respect the heck out of Wirfs. Dude is All World and a class dude. But I really, really question, …”we were running the same offense.” Highly suspect.
June 30th, 2023 at 3:52 pm
“You know, we were running the same offense. The schedule was pretty much the same.”
Most teams use training camp to innovate and add new wrinkles, between having to find a replacement for Jensen, replacing Cappa, Marpet and being in limbo when Tom left for vaca there wasn’t much time to get to the drawing board and add tweaks to the system. If you aren’t tweaking your system annually, you’re just making your side of the ball easier to figure out for the opposition.
June 30th, 2023 at 3:53 pm
I’ll do some nitpicking. Bowles could’ve had a winning record last year but pulled his starters. Perhaps too it wasn’t the offense Bowles didn’t care for, but the guy, Leftwich who he didn’t like. Offense worked fine when BA ran it.
June 30th, 2023 at 4:36 pm
And every opinion stated is why I pined “heavily” for a dynasty level qb ASAP.
Once apon a time pre-empted, Not so much now.
June 30th, 2023 at 4:37 pm
The offense was probably the same just the play calling sucked
June 30th, 2023 at 4:48 pm
We’re 2-3 SB wins from becoming a dynasty. I would really like to hit that mark before I leave this world.
June 30th, 2023 at 5:19 pm
I certainly thought there would be any easy transition.
The winning blueprints, were laid out on the table.
With a big sign on the wall, “just don’t screw it up”
I was wrong again.
June 30th, 2023 at 5:32 pm
Just imagine. Taking a very strong team, that was successful. And then changing things.
I would call it genius, if the results were not so pathetic.
June 30th, 2023 at 5:52 pm
What a pathetic take on the coaching transition by Wirfs. It didn’t work, Bowles is not Arians. I hope I am wrong but I think we are in for another season of more stupid coaching mistakes. At least we will get a new HC and QB next season.
June 30th, 2023 at 6:14 pm
Same offense, Leftwich called the same plays, the someone checked out of a play and changed them at the line or prematurely checked down. That someone is gone. 10+ wins. Better offense + better defense = better record.
June 30th, 2023 at 6:40 pm
Same offense yes but playcalling became predictable. Put that on BL. He didn’t have ARIANS holding his hand the like previous years and add in that TB12 was too old to take a hit. He didn’t trust his O-line that was wrecked. Cappa gone marpet gone and Jensen gone. That translates to TB12 throwing dirt balls and a lot of check downs instead of letting the play develop. Go look at the tape and see how many times ME13 was open just to see TB12 throw the ball away or check down cause the defense was closing in on him. I’m not digging him. Once he became a buc and helped win us a SB I become a huge fan of TB12 but honestly his last season with us showed he’s mortal. That’s all not even including the off field stuff he had going on
June 30th, 2023 at 7:09 pm
Brandon … Interesting take on last season (and projection for this season too). Some JBFers obviously aren’t willing to take Wirfs at his word when he said (quote) …
‘I feel like it was a very seamless transition when it went from B.A. to Coach Bowles. NOTHING REALLY CHANGED. You know, we were running the same offense.’
Over the past several months, JBFers have run through every conspiracy theory under the sun regarding Bowles’ impact on the offense. I’ve felt all along that Bowles was TOO hands-off on the offense last year; that he let BL run the show, but without his mentor, BL was in way over his head. Got a hunch that BL & TB12 had a strained relationship (at least at times) out of sight of the media.
I’m not sure that we’ll have a ‘better offense’ Brandon, but I am confident that our OLine will be much improved. But our RBs are too inexperienced, our TEs are too inexperienced, our WRs (once you get past ME13 & Godwin) are thin, and our QBs are … actually I’m not sure yet what they are. We’ll know in a couple months though.
Far as us having a ‘better defense’ goes, that’s gonna be a toughie. Lots of new moving parts, and lots of inexperience on the DLine (once you get past Vea & Gaines). Shaq’s still a question mark, and our Secondary depth is circumspect (not that we ever have any injuries in the Secondary mind you). Other than that, it should be a cakewalk.
June 30th, 2023 at 7:26 pm
It was the same offense and the same play caller for 4 years. It obviously didn’t work as well as it did the previous 4 years and as usual there were probably a lot of factors at play that caused the declining performance.
June 30th, 2023 at 8:41 pm
“pound the rock and planning on a less-vertical passing game”
Has the NFL adopted an 11-yard first-down rule? Correct me if I am wrong yet 3 4-yard plays still equals a first down right. Be they getting 8 yards in 2 running plays, 1 4-yard less vertical pass play. First Down!!! Right? Or vice-versa in any configuration to get to 10 yards in 3 plays.
“(unless receivers are running wide open.)”??
Are we not supposed to throw the ball to those receivers who are wide-open???
GO!!!!!BUCS!!!!!
June 30th, 2023 at 10:17 pm
Yes, seamless transition. There was no seam in the bag, so the team freaking fell straight to the asphalt.
July 1st, 2023 at 4:41 am
Me thinks Wirfs is no dummy and was sticking to the party line.
Go Bucs!
July 1st, 2023 at 4:42 am
zzzz nfl july… how many articles is joe going to write off the wirfs pod cast with the vikings?