Life With A Defense-First Head Coach
March 27th, 2024
Bucs co-owner Joel Glazer.
Listeners of the Brooks and Beckles podcast know that Hall of Fame Buccaneers linebacker Derrick Brooks feels badly in his football heart for Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles.
Simply stated, Brooks aches knowing Bowles is now incorporating his third offensive coordinator in three seasons. That’s a difficult grind.
Joe went there with Team Glazer yesterday in a courtyard of the Ritz-Carlton Orlando (where Joe almost bought a $5.00 pack of gum but decided to save the money to stream the inevitable first NFL game on Boomerang).
JoeBucsFan.com: Joel, do you have a thought on how difficult it is to have sort of a defensive-minded head coach that now has a third offensive coordinator in three years, that challenge?
Buccaneers co-owner Joel Glazer: Well, like I said before, consistency is kind of key. But, with change comes new ideas and new freshness; it can be invigorating sometimes for players. So it’s always a challenge when you change. But, you know, I think Todd does a great job of handling change and adapting. That’s also a key component: being able to handle change. Some people can’t quite handle change and I think Todd has been in a lot of different environments and his temperament is such that he handles change well, and there’s a consistency with him that I think the players appreciate it.
Great point by Glazer, and it’s a key for any head coach that isn’t an offensive guru. You better be able to handle major change smoothly.
As Bucs fans saw over the past year, Dave Canales was a one-and-done offensive coordinator in Tampa. New Bucs playcaller Liam Coen likely will be the same thing if he has a good 2024 season.
Bowles has had nothing but change since he surprisingly was anointed Tampa Bay head coach not quite two years ago when Bucco Bruce Arians retired two months after the 2021 season ended.
March 27th, 2024 at 2:34 pm
Bowels hasn’t changed his zone bust coverage schemes though. He hasn’t corrected his players repeatedly making the same mistakes over and over. So that hasn’t changed and in fact is getting worse.
March 27th, 2024 at 2:38 pm
If u are defense first then build the number one defense.
March 27th, 2024 at 2:54 pm
Todd would have to simplify his schemes so the players could actually know what they’re supposed to do and play fast. He’s too stubborn. Too smart for his own good and for the good of the Bucs.
March 27th, 2024 at 2:56 pm
Give it a rest Dave Pear!
March 27th, 2024 at 3:02 pm
When Bowels actually has a winning record as a Bucs head coach and reverses the regression of his defense, I’ll happily rest. Until then, woodsman, give yourself a good sanding.
March 27th, 2024 at 3:12 pm
Dave if you aren’t a fan, and keep complaining and double-guessing our team and staff, it would be better for us all if you would GTFO of here and disparage another team’s fan base.
March 27th, 2024 at 3:20 pm
I will be OK if Bowles can build the number one defense in the NFL
March 27th, 2024 at 3:30 pm
You got this guy constantly on here bellyaching about zone coverage like he has some type of revelation.
Every NFL team, and I do mean every single one, currently has their bread-and-butter defense as some type of zone coverage.
But this dude is not complaining about some particular flavor of zone coverage. Nope, he is moaning about zone defense like it is a crime against NFL humanity.
Now maybe he knows more than the 32 defensive coordinators from last year and that by running man-toman coverage most of the time you will succeed. Maybe these defensive coordinators have nothing on his knowledge base.
I myself, think that if man is the base defense, these NFL defenses will be torn up like well a lady of the night.
But maybe he is just blowing hot air up those ladies skirts or something.
March 27th, 2024 at 3:31 pm
“Great point”. Lol
March 27th, 2024 at 3:35 pm
I’m hoping we can hang onto Coen at least 2 years. I don’t really doubt he’ll be successful. I think he’s an upgrade over Canales except in the rah-rah positivity department.
Glazer always delivers predictably bland and not very insightful responses. Nice guy, but boring, and doesn’t usually inspire confidence that he really understands issues very well.
March 27th, 2024 at 3:36 pm
As wide receiver has become more and more recently, a position with the premiere athletes in college coming out year after year, the tendency has been to utilize zone coverage some of the time and in some cases, most of the time. This isn’t necessarily due to preference, but necessity. It’s not that complicated. Now if a coordinator prefers to play man, then those players should be chosen to utilize that strength. But even those players need to play zone a percentage of the time. And yes, every defensive coordinator in the NFL knows more than any keyboard pundit on JBF or other blog forums. Let’s be real.
March 27th, 2024 at 3:44 pm
HC Grover … ‘If u are defense first then build the number one defense.’
Dave Pear … ‘When Bowels (?) actually has a winning record as a Bucs head coach and reverses the regression of his defense, I’ll happily rest.’
HC … That’s a pretty tall order when coaching the 2nd youngest team in the league. Since rebuilding this defense in 2019, Bucs defense has ranked in the Top-10 for 3 of the last 4 years in terms of Points Allowed (POINTS ALLOWED is still more important than Yards Allowed IMO). And oh ya, our #7 ranking last year, where we allowed 325 points (19.1 PPG), was the LEAST PPG our defense has allowed since 2008. THAT’S quite an accomplishment in its’ own rite.
Dave … I know this’ll come as news, but the Bucs finished with a 9-8 regular season record last season, won the NFC South, and went 2 games deep into the playoffs. Not all that bad IMO for having a brand-new OC, a new QB, and oh ya, 14 rookies on our 53-man roster, several of whom (5 by my count) became starters (Kancey, Diaby, Izien, Mauch & Palmer). But hey, complain on (but please, at least turn on your spell-checker so you can spell Todd Bowles name correctly).
March 27th, 2024 at 3:44 pm
Hope this team does more to finally become a top 5 defense. The D line is pathetic.
March 27th, 2024 at 3:54 pm
Joe … ‘As Bucs fans saw over the past year, Dave Canales was a one-and-done offensive coordinator in Tampa.’
I still think it’s rather fortuitous for us that a brand-new Offensive Coordinator (who’d never called an NFL game before) and coached our offense to a #20 ranking in Points Scored (a meh 20.5 PPG average) was rewarded by being made Head Coach of one of our NFC South competitors. I’m expecting Liam Coen to be a significant upgrade.
March 27th, 2024 at 4:05 pm
We were 4-7 and on the verge of losing to the Falcons that would have completely changed the course of this franchise. No Bowels, Mayfield, Evans might have been gone etc. Wild how things work out sometimes
March 27th, 2024 at 4:05 pm
Excuses don’t change results. Specifically, it’s cover 3 zone bust if specifics are warranted. But it’s fine, maybe Todd will change his practice regimen or somehow implement corrective action.
Meanwhile, best to acquire players who understand zone rather than drafting press man experts and forcing them tonplaybtontheie weaknesses.
March 27th, 2024 at 4:31 pm
So even though Bowles base is a cover 3. By the way, the same as the New England Patriots pretty much these last 10 years.
Stats have continued to show that he mixes his coverages more than most DC’s.
In fact, the NFL itself did an analysis that you could find.
Put in search bar: “Which NFL teams mix up defensive coverages the most week-to-week” that showed at the time that Tampa Bay was 7th highest out of 32 teams on mixing coverage.
You would guess that based upon someone’s comments here that Bowles has no clue what he is doing even though he and his defensive scheme are a primary reason why we won the Super Bowl.
By the way, find me the college cornerback any year that has played the zone concepts the way they are run in the NFL. My guess is zero.
March 27th, 2024 at 4:31 pm
Consistency at the coordinator positions only comes on losing teams, When you start winning and going to the playoffs regularly, it’s inevitable that other teams will come in and raid your coordinators for new head coaching positions.
March 27th, 2024 at 4:37 pm
I remember the lost decade as Joe puts it.
It was about the 7th or 8th game of Arians (and of course Bowles) first season here. You could see the difference in our defensive line. We used to for years get blown off the ball on almost every down. You could actually see a difference of our team maintaining ground and it being hard for teams to just run on us easily. Bowles or Arians changed that culture in about 1/2 of a year.
I won’t forget that ineptitude on stopping the run.
March 27th, 2024 at 5:38 pm
The zone thing was problematic–it was all to cover up for Ryan Neal, who couldn’t play man coverage any better than I can
March 27th, 2024 at 6:05 pm
Its not a zone problem. its a lack of SUh,JPP, and a healthy Shaq to apply pressure on the QB. Then in the secondary No Whitehead or Edwards. Its a lack
of quality starters to make the defense click like it did in our last SB year. The latter two created holes in the secondary that even Bowles struggled to coverup.
You might even say the zone was busted because of the loss of two players.
March 27th, 2024 at 6:41 pm
bob in valrico Says:
March 27th, 2024 at 6:05 pm
You’ll have to get over that. We let them walk at the right time.
March 27th, 2024 at 6:47 pm
Bob’s on it,{sounds like a kinky girl band?} but he is , no pressure up front puts the backs in a bind. Timing is everything on routes, the more you can redirect for even 1/2 a second gives the line a chance to get home or at least get the QB off his throwing mark. It was a mistake to let Whitehead, Edwards and others leave but is what it is. With him back and the young guys having a year under their belt I think the pressure will be back. Add to it another good draft and it has the makings of a classic strong Bucs D.
March 27th, 2024 at 7:08 pm
sveti ,
Don’t dwell on the first few words. Read the rest of the post and maybe you’ll get
more out of it.
Anyway the post was in response to the repetitive zone bust comments.
March 27th, 2024 at 8:14 pm
An interesting question for us, are the Bucs better off this coming year with Coen – an experienced college play-caller from the McVay tree vs. the Canales offense in year 2?
Joe says Bowles, and the Bucs?, are unfortunate that Canales left and we have another OC. Should the Glazers have offered Canales a big raise to stay with the Bucs? How much is continuity worth?
March 27th, 2024 at 8:14 pm
Bowles and Baker are alike in this respect. Continuity would be great for both. I’m really hoping Coen is a much better playcaller than Canales was… Go Bucs!
March 27th, 2024 at 9:06 pm
The season is over. Yet, still the same know nothing crypusses whining about zone coverage. What a loser. Rah needs you in Atlanta, fruit.
March 27th, 2024 at 9:26 pm
Dave Pear seems the difference between you and Todd is he learned football by actually playing and coaching you seem to have learned football by playing a lot of Madden.
March 27th, 2024 at 11:37 pm
The only way I will let Arians out of the dog house is if Bowles fields a Top-5 scoring D.
I am still not totally sold on Bowles.
March 28th, 2024 at 2:22 am
Vinny from Bottom of East River –
Look at Todd’s win-loss record as a head coach. Look at his defense performance when he has head coach responsibility.
The man can’t handle the big position, especially as he views himself as the defensive genius while his players keep busting.
When he was a pure DC he was better. Overrated but better. Now? Not so much.
Data. Facts. Record. Performance. When any of that changes I’ll stop insisting he look in the mirror and implement something that creates more wins than losses. Otherwise, Todd — ?
March 28th, 2024 at 3:24 am
Cobraboy … ‘I am still not totally sold on Bowles.’
I don’t think that any fan (or the media) is ever totally sold on any head coach. And especially any HC who’s dual-hatted as an offensive or defensive coordinator. EVERY decision an HC makes during a game is time-sensitive; no time for a team meeting so you can get option upon option and pick the ‘best’. Kinda like operating in crisis management mode on national TV with millions of would-be ‘experts’ ready to pounce on every wrong move.
Spent a career in the military operating in crisis management mode & it’s stressful to say the least. Best you can hope for is that you’re right a lot more times than you’re wrong. But not just you; your whole TEAM. Be ‘wrong’ too often (in your bosses’ eyes), and someone else will be doing your job.
I suspect Cobra that being a HC (and OC or DC) is the same thing. If you’re in the business of making split-second decisions, not all of them are gonna be spot-on. And if a HC happens to be dual-hatted, that’s pretty much a double jeopardy. Arians was smart to ONLY be HC; Leftwich ended up being the whipping boy in the media, not BA, the offensive guru and QB Whisperer.
Todd Bowles isn’t perfect by any means, but just within the NFC South who would you rather have as our HC? The Falcons’ Raheem Morris? The Saints’ Dennis Allen? The Panthers’ Dave Canales? For my part, I’ll stick with Todd, although I’ll always wish that he’d hire a true DC.
March 28th, 2024 at 5:48 am
Hopefully we continue to get solid draft picks to replace some very good players
we have lost to cap casualties, injuries, age or declining skills. Bowles has proven
that with the right players he has slowed some excellent offenses.
As for DR’S point above, at minimum he needs somebody in his ear to help with
in game decisions.
Todd did show some growth last year when he had to and I hope he continues
to progress.