A Different Team Is Coming
January 18th, 2023
Roster turnover coming.
Joe spoke to, texted and communicated on social media with several people yesterday who all seemed to ask the same question.
“Has Byron Leftwich been fired yet?”
Fans are incensed at the pathetic job Leftwich, the Bucs failed offensive coordinator, did this year with so much talent. And rightly so! The embarrassment to open the playoffs on national TV Monday night in the wild card round against the Cowboys sent people over the edge.
(Many were also outraged at Bucs coach Todd Bowles due to how the team seemed fully unprepared to play the Cowboys. Based on what Joe heard yesterday — which included some very colorful language that Joe cannot repeat on this here site — in the eyes of Bucs fans, Bowles will begin the 2023 season very much on the hot seat in Bucs fans’ eyes.)
Yesterday in his season-ending press conference, Bowles all but promised a new-look Bucs in a few months.
“You can’t afford everybody,” Bowles said of the many Bucs free agents. “So we’ll try to make the right decisions going forward.
“I thanked everybody for their efforts and when you come back here, we’ll see a different culture, different chemistry and camaraderie.”
Joe thinks the National Weather Service has issued a Firing Watch for Leftwich covering the Tampa Bay region through the end of the week. As Joe pointed out, given a chance to support Leftwich yesterday, Bowles passed.
Joe simply cannot fathom the team bringing Leftwich back after the atrocious job he did this past season.
How on earth is the team supposed to sell tickets or hope if Leftwich returns? How is the team going to lure free agents after the Bucs week in and week out demonstrated they couldn’t score in a rural Nevada roadside cathouse?
This is all you need to know about the Bucs offense this year: A team with a healthy Tom Brady, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Tristan Wirfs, Julio Jones, Shaq Mason and Playoff Lenny was outscored by the NFL’s worst team with a runaround quarterback.
Is this you today, Bucs fans? pic.twitter.com/6bcFUyF1BB
— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) January 18, 2023
January 18th, 2023 at 12:04 am
Has Byron Leftwich been fired yet?
January 18th, 2023 at 12:06 am
Has Byron Leftwich been fired yet?
January 18th, 2023 at 12:09 am
Duh we are 43 million over the cap of course there are going to be many players leaving
January 18th, 2023 at 12:13 am
The Glazers can sell NO tickets and still make an obscene profit plus double digit percentage increase in unrealized gains in the market value of the Franchise. And I would sat they are less than five years away from demanding a new stadium.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:17 am
Is Shaq Mason good any more? Seems like we were bad up the middle all year. I question if Mason will return. We need two giant guards to protect Brady next year. Let go find them.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:21 am
“you just said Glennon and it almost came up…”, hilarious.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:23 am
I suspect that we’ll find out that TB12 was playing with a shoulder or hand injury almost the entire season. That would explain the disappearance of the long ball.
Brady has always had a superior oline. This year, for the 1st time, he had a sh*t oline. Cappa being let go, Marpet retiring, Jensen injured and terrible coaching left Brady out a limb.
I suspect if he can heal up in the offseason, and the Bucs can rebuild the line, then Brady will be back at full power next year (assuming Lefty is fired)
January 18th, 2023 at 12:25 am
…oh and Stinnie injured too…a perfect spit storm on oline
January 18th, 2023 at 12:30 am
Joe: How on earth is the team supposed to sell tickets or hope if Leftwich returns?
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That’s why the Glazers made people buy 2-years of season tickets this year.
I’m not on the Glazers are cheap bandwagon, I remember the Culverhouse days very clearly, but the Glazers aren’t dummies. The team faces legit cap hell next year and it’s almost certain that Brady isn’t back.
If Brady doesn’t return, and Trask is your starting QB, this is a 3-14 team with these two dummies running the team.
Why fire anyone? Use 2023 to clean up the cap and go for the #1 pick in 2024. Then clean house, fire everyone, and start over. We all knew that keeping Brady around meant the Bucs were mortgaging the future, that was part of the deal, once we left, it was rebuild time.
Now, with that said, the Glazers should do any and everything possible to keep Brady – but still, it’s an extremely low chance he’s back, but anything should be on the table including trading a 1st rounder and more to the Saints to get Payton if that means Brady comes back. But that’s just not going to happen, so it’s Tanking with Trask ™ and these two idiots running the team are the best guys for that job since they’re born losers.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:32 am
Obviously Leftwich didn’t fair well running Bowles’ version of offense and will be the Scapegoat, but if there is a new look Bucs team coming then it should start with a new coaching staff starting at the top with Bowles
January 18th, 2023 at 12:35 am
Vlad The Impaler Says:
January 18th, 2023 at 12:23 am
I suspect that we’ll find out that TB12 was playing with a shoulder or hand injury almost the entire season.
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I go back to that first Falcons game. He played great the first half of the game, but hit his hand just before the half. He never shows that he’s hurt, but he was clearly hurt and shaking his hand, etc, for the rest of the game, and played terrible in the second half, off on his passes etc. After that Falcons game, we saw Brady missing passes all year that he has never missed before. Not that Brady was anywhere close to bad, he just wasn’t Brady. Yet at times, you did see Brady, you saw he clearly could still throw the ball with velocity, etc – but just on some passes the accuracy was all over the place.
In any case, time will eventually catch up with Brady, I think – but the Bucs should do everything possible to ride out this window as long as possible.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:36 am
BrianBucs Says:
January 18th, 2023 at 12:32 am
Obviously Leftwich didn’t fair well running Bowles’ version of offense and will be the Scapegoat
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There are really Leftwich groupies out there? Who knew that was a thing? LOL!
January 18th, 2023 at 12:40 am
Lol. This is hilarious!! Joe, I nearly fell out of my seat when I read that Brady threw the ball 66x times yesterday! It was already reported that he had injured his shoulder earlier in the year. I don’t care if Brady thinks Alex Guerrero is some miracle worker. That’s just not sustainable. We had no run game, so we resorted to predictable screens to Godwin. Parsons knew which routes were coming and immediately threw his hand up to deflect the pass. Brady was a tough son of a gun, but now he just doesn’t want to take a big hit. He’s 45 who can blame him. He had the most attempts in the NFL. That’s means he had more opportunities to get hit.
For people who think Leftwich is some scapegoat, please look at his numbers when he was OC in AZ. Poor Brady is being ripped to shreds on the talk shows about Leftwich’s potential firing. They’re calling him a racist.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:47 am
@Vlad Brady has not always had a superior line. That’s a false narrative spun by people who want to diminish his accomplishments. When you keep spinning this false narrative, remember that he’s played 23 years and that Google and YouTube are free. You’re acting like he was playing behind John Hannah and Jon Morris his entire career. He’s had good, average, and below average lines most of his career. He really didn’t have what you would call a great OL until last season.
January 18th, 2023 at 12:50 am
@Rod. He also tore his rotator cuff against KC. He took a nasty shot from a blitzer. I think that’s another reason he was hesitant to take big hits
January 18th, 2023 at 1:08 am
‘A Different Team Is Coming’
AS LONG AS BOWLES IS THERE, it won’t be a winning one!
That is all but certain….
January 18th, 2023 at 1:14 am
Bowles is going to go through the motions of an “evaluation” as he will with all his coaches. It’s a formality that’s unnecessary as the outcome is virtually certain – Leftwich is toast.
January 18th, 2023 at 1:38 am
Bruce SCREWED The Bucs. Sweet talked the Glazer’s into handed the keys to BOWELS of Leftover Sandwich and that’s exactly what we got. PISS POOR PERFORMANCE do to poor coaching. I don’t wanta here it’s the same staff that
Won the SB. ITS NOT! Bruce ran that shit. Bowels wants a old school ground and pound offense. That style is outdated and doesn’t put asses in seats.
His Defense got toasted in the NFC championship by the Rams and Looked far worse this year. Bowels of Leftover sandwich toilet spackling performance is in the record books and not for good reasons. I hope we move on from both.
Hell I’d take Ol Chuckie back at this point.
January 18th, 2023 at 1:41 am
Tell me who thought the bucs would win the superbowl after week 4???
I been waiting on the draft since number 7 came to camp outta shape.
This team took a step back two years straight!!!!
Special teams coach has to go immediately!!!!!!
Offensive coordinator is old school and he has to go immediately!!!!
The bucs need a defensive coordinator immediately!!!!!
The bucs need a wide receiver that can take the top off a defense every down immediately!!!!
The bucs need another safety like jordan whitehead, because Mike Edward’s is garbage nobody is scared to run by him, thru him, over him. Near him, and dak showed that immediately.. the bucs need to let there head coach be a head coach immediately bucs win super bowl in Vegas 2024 trust me
January 18th, 2023 at 1:48 am
END the BOWELS OF LEFTOVER SANDWICH EXPERIMENT
January 18th, 2023 at 2:14 am
If the different team that is coming is headed by Bowles, then the team will not be different enough. “Hot seat”? Bowles’ rear end is comfortable and cool, and OneBuc deserves scorn for every wasted second that the non-leader remains in place, and the complacency deepens throughout.
Being $43 mill over the cap is a disaster unless something drastic is done.
I agree that Brady will eventually admit that he was hurt for much of the season. That hit in the Falcons game was Oct. 9. You could see that his mechanics were affected by that, plus the ridiculous adjustments he had to make because of the OL. For all the noise about him being unable to throw anymore, it was just a week ago that he threw those long dimes to Evans. Because he had time.
This is far from the first time that he’s had to play behind a questionable OL. The difference is, he did not have Dante Scarnecchia and Bill Belichick, or the support of telepathically close teammates like Edelman, Gronk, etc. to help him through this ugly season.
I don’t see any good options for him. Retire on a bad note. Play for a new team at 46 that will take time and a lot of effort, and a move to a new geography, with no guarantees of success. Or stay in Tampa and this mess, just to be here.
January 18th, 2023 at 2:41 am
“I thanked everybody for their efforts and when you come back here, we’ll see a different culture, different chemistry and camaraderie.”
this statement is actually quite scary because there are 2 types of cultures in sports…winning cultures and losing cultures…
last time i checked we flipped to a winning culture…
he sounds like he’s preparing us to get ready for a losing culture…scary talk right there
January 18th, 2023 at 2:52 am
the o-line problem was it hit brady like a triple whammy…
first cappa flys the coop…
2nd marpet retires…
and the 3rd strike was jensen done for the year…
what do you expect after that…
then goedeke struggles and mason (even tho familiar with brady) is new to the line and his line mates…
brady’s protectors were a hot mess long before game 1…
imagine being 45 and kinda frail looking this year – and not mobile – and all of a sudden your entire line in front of you is in sham
January 18th, 2023 at 2:55 am
Buc fans are going through the five stages of grief. Brady is long gone. This team is terminal. it has Perkinitis. back to the 2 tight end up the gut game plan. lefty can handle that and Bowls will be happy.
January 18th, 2023 at 2:55 am
the o-line problem was it hit brady like a triple whammy…
first cappa flys the coop…
2nd marpet retires…
and the 3rd strike was jensen done for the year…
what do you expect after that…
then goedeke struggles and mason (even tho familiar with brady) is new to the line and his line mates…
brady’s protectors were a hot mess long before game 1…
imagine being 45 and kinda frail looking this year – and not mobile – and all of a sudden your entire line in front of you is in shambles…well the unthinkable did happen this year, but somehow they squeezed their way into the playoffs
January 18th, 2023 at 2:56 am
Bucs are not winning the Super Bowl in 24 without Brady. Not happening, I’ve been a Bucs fan my whole life I’m 46 and this season was the most disappointing ever, because myself and most of the other fans had such hi expectations.
January 18th, 2023 at 3:36 am
The bottom line the Bucs are gonna be bad for a while as they will have to rebuild the team and get a quarterback enough said
January 18th, 2023 at 5:01 am
Bucsfan13 Says:
January 18th, 2023 at 12:50 am
@Rod. He also tore his rotator cuff against KC. He took a nasty shot from a blitzer. I think that’s another reason he was hesitant to take big hits\
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But the thing about that Falcons game is that it’s a line in the sand, before that he was nailing people in stride, making all the normal throws, then after that, he was little throwing balls into the dirt and didn’t look like he knew how to throw the ball. After that game, he really struggled with accuracy, at times. I’m convinced he hurt his hand, which probably caused issues with grip, which can make people inconsistent.
Again, it’s just a thought. But go back and watch that game, before and after, and it’s night and day. Before the injury, he’s #12 Tom Brady, after, he’s #12 Trent Dilfer. Not saying he was like that all year, just talking about that game, but I think it’s something he dealt with all year to some degree. At his age you don’t heal nearly as fast. I’m nearly his same age, and stuff, in the past, that would be 1 or 2 day injuries can turn into a week or 2 week, it’s really amazing.
January 18th, 2023 at 6:05 am
Why wasn’t the “culture” changed this year, Todd? You leave us nothing to be optimistic about.
January 18th, 2023 at 6:11 am
Bowles … “You can’t afford everybody, so we’ll try to make the right decisions going forward. We’ll see a different culture, different chemistry and camaraderie.”
Much ado about nothing? All Todd Bowles really said is …
o ‘We can’t afford everybody’ … We’re already $54.8 mil OVER next year’s projected $225 mil salary CAP with only 45 players under contract (5 others are on voided contracts, costing us a total of $52.7 mil next year even though they’re NOT under contract). Those 45 players however include at least 10 practice squad players just signed yesterday, most of whom will never make the team. So yes, Todd’s right … ‘We can’t afford everybody’. Duh.
o ‘We’ll see a different culture, different chemistry and camaraderie’ … My guess is that almost half the team will be new next year, to include a new QB. Means new team leaders will have to step forward. So much turnover always means different ‘camaraderie’ and different ‘chemistry’ and probably ‘culture’ revisions. I’m not even sure that most of us even know what ‘culture’ means, except in the very generic sense of establishing a ‘winning culture’. Who knows, maybe all Bowles is talking about is that he intends to work them a lot harder in preparing for games. Heck, maybe they’ll even start tackling better.
January 18th, 2023 at 6:26 am
Leftwhich might be a better head coach than Bowles , maybe we have it backwards
January 18th, 2023 at 6:34 am
Not a fan of Leftwich but Bowles is the problem. It’s obvious. Season tickets since 1977 coming to an end!
January 18th, 2023 at 6:44 am
In all fairness, Bowles had Leftwich thrust upon him, and it was the offense that was the primary failure. Bowles deserves a shot with his own coaching staff – 2 more seasons.
January 18th, 2023 at 6:47 am
He is going to bring the same losing culture he had with the Jets
If they don’t fire this clown show staff entirely, we are destined for a top 5 pick and more visiting fans than Bucs fans at all home games
The fan base showed their confidence by selling half the stadium to cowgirls fans, it was disgusting
January 18th, 2023 at 6:54 am
“How on earth is the team supposed to sell tickets or hope if Leftwich returns?”
How on earth is the team supposed to sell tickets or hope if BOWELS returns?!
I’m pretty sure I won’t be watching. Old school defensive football is losing football. It’s also boring AF.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:25 am
This team is old and slow, especially on offense. Outside of Wirfs and Jensen, the rest of the O Line should be a wide open competition. Outside of Evans and Godwin we should be overhauling the WR corp. The RB room still isnt right no matter draft capital we use or FA money we spend. It’s time for a rebuild.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:33 am
ClwJB Says:
January 18th, 2023 at 6:47 am
The fan base showed their confidence by selling half the stadium to cowgirls fans, it was disgusting
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Season ticket holders are not obligated to buy playoff tickets. A lot ticket holders didn’t even buy them. So there were a ton of tickets released to the general public for anyone to buy. So essentially half the stadium was for sale.
Going forward I believe the Glazers are tweaking that policy for playoff games. But likely won’t have to worry about that for awhile.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:42 am
Fire Lefty ask the eagles permission to talk to Brian Johnson the eagles QB coach. Hes worked with Kyle Trask and Dak Prescott. Hes done an excellent job with Jalen Hurts.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:47 am
Different team?
As long as Bowles is in Tampa, it will be the same old spit.
I enjoyed the last 2.5 seasons as a life-long, since-the-beginning Bucs fan (and not a casual fan.)
I do NOT enjoy being an angry, cynical fan, like in the Radio and Toes-on-the-Line days.
But if Bowles is retained, I am fearful that is what the future holds.
Please, Glazer Spawn, do the right thing for your fan base and pull the plug on these excuse-making losers.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:16 am
How can ANYONE get sucked into poor Bowles didn’t get to hire his own OC? That is a lame excuse for our HC sucking. I believe that BA had Leftsuck as an OC and brought this team to a Super Bowl. It wasn’t Lefty who called a cover 0 last year and knocked us out of the Super Bowl. It wasn’t Lefty that liked to go home with timeouts in his pocket. It wasn’t Lefty that refused to go for it on 4th down so many times this year at critical times. It wasn’t Lefty that refused to go hurry up until the game was out of reach. Every decision that Leftnut made or didn’t make had to be approved by Bowles. Bowles could nix any play he wanted. It wasn’t Leftnut that refused to adjust the defense during a game- Like maybe having someone cover TEs when they were tearing us apart. Maybe having corners not set up 10 yds off the line on almost every snap. Bowles was, allegedly, running this team and proved repeatedly that he was unable to. Leftnut sucks and needs to go. Bowles is just as bad, if not worse as a HC. Order up an Uber for both of them! We are doomed with Bowles returning. Period
January 18th, 2023 at 8:18 am
Bowles failed miserably this season ! Don’t fire him or Byron…. Let players walk and take your medicine this year coming through cap hell ! Then rebuild ! It can’t be any worse than what has transpired since ‘76 !
January 18th, 2023 at 8:25 am
More excuses from Bowles. Now its blame the personnel. He took the job, and now he wants a reset. This guy did nothing to right a ship slowly sinking all season. He should not get another season. He could not produce with the roster he was given, and you want him to pick that roster for next year into this franchise’s future? Other teams were wise enough to jettison first year coaches when it was obvious that it would not work, where are our wise people? He already had on the job training in New York, and the roster he had this year was still better than any he had up there, and the current division his team plays in was garbage. He is what he is, and there are very few chances he sees the light, or even gets a clue. Was he even the best or second best coach in this division?
January 18th, 2023 at 8:38 am
Why does Joe overlook the incensed Fans with Bowles not being Fired
Does anyone actually think Bowles can put together a winning team??
He didn’t in NY. He had all pieces in Tampa and couldn’t
If Leftwich was a problem then he should have fired him HES THE HEAD COACH
LOSING IS ALL HE HAS DONE IN 5 SEASONS
January 18th, 2023 at 9:04 am
It will be a different team. Without Brady or a good QB…no journeymen or yet to look decent in any game guy, and good luck with fitting him under the cap… the loss of some good players to make the cap hit, mid round draft picks, and a coach that doesn’t seem to be a leader of men, I expect another losing record, and this time likely a third place in our division, as NO gets a QB and already has a better D, and Carolina will continue on the rise. But a different team next year, I agree. In many ways that aren’t good. And in the bad ways, mostly the same.
January 18th, 2023 at 9:07 am
Roc.. I think anyone in the business has to deal with the reality that the Glazers might very well keep Bowles. And one can’t burn the bridges. I think they go about as far as they can go without torching the thing.
January 18th, 2023 at 9:23 am
I just wish I could hear the Big Dog do a “the Bucs are great” monologue or dialogue, except now doing a “Bowles is great”. Just once more.
January 18th, 2023 at 10:37 am
“We lost to somebody named Desmond Ridder… is that even a real player?”
lollllllllll
January 18th, 2023 at 11:03 am
BOWLES IS TALKING ABOUT PARTICULAR PLAYERS …
D. Smith, D. White, & 4Net got fat, happy, and distracted by success. They weren’t hungry. They stopped fighting.
January 18th, 2023 at 11:25 am
We can only hope to draft stetson Bennett. It would be foolish to pass on him
January 18th, 2023 at 12:04 pm
Bowles should get canned. just blame everyone else… Bucs have fired coaches late into the process before. I they will again and should. He is a stubborn ass
January 18th, 2023 at 12:06 pm
todd should be fired to , he is the one who is the coach , he is just as much to blamr as lefty is , if todd is the coach in 2023 i will not renew my tickets and i have 14 tickets …. that was an imbarissment to all of the fans , the secondary i thin was in the stamds with the fans because they dam sure wasn’t on the field playing , dallas recievers had no buc around them for miles when they caught the ball , they had to stop and make sure it was real then walk in to the end zone , what a joke , sae thing happen last year in the play off’s with the rams , a reciever at the end of the game had no buc around him for miles , they couldn’t believe how open they was , so if this is todd no balls defence , they suck , and he needs to go too…….predition for 23 if todd is still with the buc , last in the eivision and 4-13
January 18th, 2023 at 3:12 pm
OL this, OL that…Come on guys…The OL was not that bad.
TB12 had 799 pass attempts & took 22 sacks. Basically the same # as 2020/2021.
The difference was a declining 45yr old mid-life crisis TB12 & Bucs moving to the NE Dink&Dunk to accommodate an old QB1 not wanting to take hits anymore.
.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:03 pm
Maybe if the Bucks could get Sean Payton, Tom Brady would stay. But he’s certainly not gonna waste the final year of two of his career playing for one of the losing his coaches the NFL has produced over the past decade. I would like to know if Bowels is coming back because when I go to Las Vegas, it will be a 100% guarantee bet that the Bucs will do worse next year than they did this year. because when I go to Las Vegas, it will be a 100% guarantee bet that the Bucs will do worse next year than they did this year. Sure, bring him back let’s have more embarrassingly pathetic performances like we had listen to you gets the Cowboys.
January 18th, 2023 at 6:24 pm
C2, moron extravaganza. Could the Bucs run in 2020-2021? Dead last #32. You’re such an idiot. I’m sorry but ANY D that goes into a playoff game and let’s up 27 first downs and a 80, 90 & 96 yard scoring drive is NO WAY prepared and that is on TOILET BOWLS. Smoke and mirrors BS talk. Jets south season 1.