Todd Bowles Surprisingly Invokes The “C” Word
January 18th, 2023
With the great Tom Brady on the team, a coaching staff with a Super Bowl pedigree and many players with Pro Bowl on their résumés, Joe is stunned that head coach Todd Bowles is talking about making a specific major change.
Buccaneers officials and players have spoken many times about how Bucco Bruce Arians arrived in 2019 and changed the culture of a losing organization. And then Tom Brady showed up in 2020 and kicked it up a full notch when it came to setting the bar for a winning culture.
All through the 2022 season Todd Bowles praised his team’s effort, including on Monday night, and he and players talked about how hard the team worked in practice.
However, on the Buccaneers Radio Network yesterday, Bowles did not hesitate to say he wants to change the culture of the team next season.
Joe has found that the “C” word, culture, is held in high regard among NFL teams. So it’s significant that Bowles thinks something isn’t good enough within the current Bucs culture — with Brady on the roster.
“Those who come back, we gotta create new culture, new chemistry and new camaraderie,” Bowles said. “We’ll have new people coming in, if you’re lucky enough to come back or privileged enough to come back, be ready to work.”
Again, “create new culture,” whaaaaaattt?
Was Bowles unable to create the culture he wanted this season? If not, why? Coaches usually establish their own culture on Day 1. And how (or why) is the Bucs’ culture not good enough with legendary culture-maker-in-chief Tom Brady on the roster?
Something is very suspect about Bowles’ culture line. And it wasn’t a one-off, Bowles mentioned establishing a new culture in his season-ending news conference, as well.
If “culture” is the current code for new offensive playcaller, well, Joe is down with that.
January 18th, 2023 at 3:57 am
It sounds like buzz word bingo to me. I can remember people using the word synergy in conference calls when they didn’t know what to say.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:07 am
Is Leftwich fired yet? Also fire Todd. Good lord.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:13 am
Change the culture back to winning by terminating the coaching staff.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:14 am
The Bowls Culture Club is here. How nice.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:28 am
Just thought of this. Rumor was Gronk may have come back and Bowles said meh, have a bad feeling he won’t want Brady back. Just a bad feeling. I know some of you are ready to move on from Brady. Idk about me. Either way, I feel like Bowles is going to be stubborn and it’s his team now.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:29 am
Arians really put him in a difficult spot by bailing last minute. I’m wondering if Arians created a culture that catered to vets but Bowles ended up with a lot of guys going through the motions, not adapting to Bowles way of doing things. We definitely have several guys that aren’t playing up to their paycheck. $7 million a yr for tap dancing Lenny….he can hit the road, he’s no longer hungry and it shows in his on/off effort. Donovan Smith got super comfortable killing drives with perpetual holding. Devin White seems convinced if the Bucs don’t extend him, another team will. He’s content on being a blitzing LB. Carlton Davis isn’t a number 1 CB, yet we paid him like he’s shutting down half the field. Whenever vets get comfortable with being good but not exceptional, that they can just show up and still start….it’s a problem. I’m not a Bowles fan, would love to see us go after Payton but I do see the challenges Bowles faced. Guys got super comfortable.
January 18th, 2023 at 4:51 am
*****
1. You should have established your culture day one
2. As the season progressed…and youckept losing against bad teams……you should have established your culture then……WHY WAIT TILL THE END OF THE SEASON and a blowout game against a team…you should hv beat to NOW talk about culture.
You are a good DC…but you are a TERRIBLE DC/HC….
You can’t get your players motivated and they don’t respect you.
The Bucs offense could have won ugly but the defense only looked good for first two Dallas drives…after that…the players looked out of place confused and unenthused………that’s on the HC/DC
Bowles….YOU ARE THE PROBLEM
January 18th, 2023 at 5:03 am
Bowls is a good D coach when the offense is scoring 35 pts a game. Pffft.
January 18th, 2023 at 5:07 am
So coach is saying trying to say that this season never happened. And only next year will he start to coach with his new culture. Is culture established by slipping a bunch of papers with some empty words on them in players lockers before the big game? Sorry coach but it’s getting stacked pretty high around here, and people are smelling it quite clearly.
January 18th, 2023 at 5:30 am
hc grover………..man you nailed it. 18 games later your defense gets humiliated by a team that was humiliated by a humiliated team lol
January 18th, 2023 at 5:31 am
run tom run and don’t look back
January 18th, 2023 at 5:33 am
for the new Bradyless team; just watch all the Bowles and leftys film and do the opposite
January 18th, 2023 at 5:39 am
I think Bowles is perfectly comfortable with having Gabbert as his starting QB next year. That’s actually my prediction. Bowles loves Gabbert
January 18th, 2023 at 5:40 am
Ownership allowed this to happen. They hired a guy who let the Rams go off. Bowles is unfit to coach flag football.
January 18th, 2023 at 5:48 am
Start with a new HC!
January 18th, 2023 at 6:01 am
The string of excuses continue… huge red flag: a true competent leader does not grab any and every excuse he can to dismiss his own responsibilities! Todd Bowles is not the answer, he does not have what it takes!
January 18th, 2023 at 6:03 am
Arians put Bowles in a spot with a built post season team that had the talent to go to the Super Bowl This team had pro bowlers, all pros and hall of famers at every position except TE and pass rusher after Shaq went down. Special teams was another area, but this team was stacked to win. Coaches would sell their souls for this type of talent. Fire em all!
January 18th, 2023 at 6:15 am
If they can’t stay healthy, all of this won’t matter.
January 18th, 2023 at 6:24 am
Bowels not a leader, nothing wrong with that as most people are not leaders, thing is a head coach is a leader and Bowles who is a fine coach is neither a head coach or leader.
Please wake up from this WOKE nightmare
January 18th, 2023 at 6:41 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 years.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:02 am
Every time Bowles opens his mouth he looks and sounds like a moron. This organization is pathetic.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:04 am
Being outcoached on a weekly basis is the issue. When the other team KNOWs what you are doing you have little chance to succeed.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:06 am
are people forgetting how zombified things got this year at times…or most of the time…
coach did create some new culture this season…
a “zombie culture” of some sort…
it’s hard to pinpoint, but there was definitely some zombie type sh!t going on with the bucs this year that wasn’t going on under a more rah rah BA
January 18th, 2023 at 7:14 am
I guess change the culture back as before 5 win seasons.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:16 am
bowles defenses have been up and down all year…
there have been some stellar performances and sometimes they get flat run over for a whole game…
they rank pretty high on a grand scale for the season, but they have also been quite inconsistent…
you really don’t know what type of performance you’ll get from them on a week to week basis…
but overall they were pretty good and that’s a reason we played somewhat .500 ball this year…
on the other hand the offense flopped out the entire year, with brady pulling about 3 games out of his hat…
and it’s amazing that tommy b’s 45 year old arm didn’t fall off or look lethargic throwing more balls then all the young guns…
#TommyBeeAndLethargy
January 18th, 2023 at 7:16 am
66 passes on monday night…what the heck
January 18th, 2023 at 7:27 am
Hire Sean Payton.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:43 am
He should had said Todd Bowles is stepping down as Bucs head coach. Then said the “C” word now the culture can change. He a great defensive coordinator, he just can’t manage being a head coach. Of course this is my opinion based off of history I’ve seen.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:44 am
SB~LV … Interesting perspective (ie, Bowles is a fine coach but not a HC or a leader). I assume by ‘fine coach’ you mean DEFENSIVE coach.
Been in leadership roles for more years than I care to remember, and one thing I’ve learned … LEADERS come in many different shapes & sizes; no two are the same. Some are demonstrative (Chucky?); some are seemingly much quieter but manage to get their point across (Dungy?). The great ‘evaluator’ IMO is PERFORMANCE (both of those HCs won a Super Bowl). Good leaders have a track record of good performance. Bad leaders … you guessed it, the reverse is true.
Todd Bowles has a good track record as a DC. As a HC? Not so much. Being a HC isn’t just being ‘in charge’ of the players; each HC is also the face of the organization by default (well, except for Dallas where Jerry Jones believes he should be the face of the organization). Ultimately that’ll be Bowles’ undoing IMO.
BA didn’t do Todd Bowles any favors by waiting until 30 March to ‘retire’. If BA had still been HC this year, we might’ve won 1 or 2 more games, but the end result would’ve been the same: bounced from the playoffs in the 1st round. Bowles’ 2022 team passed MORE & ran LESS than any of BA’s 2019-2021 teams … and we ended up 8-9. Fact is we didn’t have the horses to do much better than 8-9. Time for a major ‘reloading’. But we won’t call ‘reloading’ HALF the team a big deal. Ya right. Major changes on the way.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:44 am
Good take Bobby M.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:44 am
If the culture changed, it was because of the leadership change. Bowles needs to look into a mirror.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:56 am
Please fire him. And stop hiring defensive minded head coaches.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:00 am
Bowles already changed the culture. It went having fun and accountability to being bored and disinterested.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:02 am
The Cowboys exposed Bowles, and his so called Defensive Genius by simply picking up all his blitz packages.
Once they nullified our pass rush, it was open season on our poorly coached secondary.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:09 am
Brady has to leave tampa. I am going to write it one last time. Now I was fine with Brady with the bucs this year. But as a Brady fan this season was ruined when Gisele left Brady. He lost 27 pounds and was upset. Before the divorce Brady begged Bucs to let him leave. Brady didnt want to come back to Bucs. Brady felt he did enough for Tampa and wanted Tampa to pay it forward. Bucs held him hostage and this was exactly like 2019 patriots. He didnt want to be there. Gisele hated New England and that season was a disaster. 2019 patriots season with Brady was worse than 2022 Bucs season.
Brady should not be judged by this season. Brady’s life was falling apart from day 1 of training camp. Brady had the FTX disaster. Gisele is running around with the Karate kid. This past Sunday Rapaport reported all the these teams want Brady. All last week on Get up they debated were Brady was going. Diana Russini was saying lot of teams want Brady, Now Brady should retire. You know who needs to get hand surgery this off season is Godwin and Evans. Between all the drops and fumbles from them 2
January 18th, 2023 at 8:14 am
He wants a tougher and more disciplined team. That’s the culture change he’s looking for. He wants Bullies who will physically dominate the opponent but also be in their gaps and win their matchups on both sides. I want that too, except I also think he wants to run the ball more, which may or may not be a good thing. Now I hope we can run it better for sure, but not necessarily turn into a “running” team.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:20 am
This is what I have to say about that Joe 🤮 he needs to go
January 18th, 2023 at 8:25 am
“Buccaneers officials and players have spoken many times about how Bucco Bruce Arians arrived in 2019 and changed the culture of a losing organization”
Change the culture??? We were still a 7-9, losing team that year LOL
January 18th, 2023 at 8:30 am
so let me get this straight. We changed the culture a couple years ago. The culture changed last year and the HC couldn’t stop it. But now he wants a better culture. So where will that come from? Certainly he couldn’t do it last year. Many old FA’s from the previous good culture will be leaving in FA. Good teams don’t let those guys go, if they are still in their prime. So do we expect Hardy Nickerson to suit up again or is it mostly BS?
January 18th, 2023 at 8:33 am
Sorry guys. It is just talking point BS. We know what this team will be next year, between Brady bolting, Salary cap cuts, and the same problems we had last year on D, and a better play caller? But let’s not forget Brady could still opt out of plays. Crazy to think we will see substantial change in the right direction. Crazy man.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:36 am
So is he going to install the NY Jet culture he had during his last years there? Oh man. Can’t wait. Just the kind of thing that would make some poor but hard working five figure earner drop down a few grand on season tickets. LOL.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:55 am
This team isn’t going anywhere with Todd in charge. I better get a breaking news notification within the next couple days.
January 18th, 2023 at 8:59 am
Arians was the difference. It’s Arians’ culture NOT Bowles and the two don’t mix apparently. Just polar opposite in styles.
It makes you wonder what it would’ve looked like with BA at the helm.
Bring back the “bullies”!
January 18th, 2023 at 9:03 am
This guy is a loser
January 18th, 2023 at 9:07 am
Yes, the culture of the ‘15-18 Jets is just what we need.
Please fire this fool before he breaks this team any further.
January 18th, 2023 at 9:08 am
I think the 49ers embody a very good running game and a great passing game. There isn’t any team in the NFL as good at both as them.
The Cowboys will be competitive but I don’t think they will stop SF.
As much as they run, they still have explosiveness in their offense.
I really think the Bucs havn’t drafted enough speed on offense. Antonio Brown was their last receiver that could take the top off of a defense. They have the best 2 possession receivers in the NFL but need a burner who has smooth moves and body control, unlike Scotty Miller who has no moves and no hands.
January 18th, 2023 at 9:17 am
The new culture is a losing one. Here comes the Jets south.
Beanblo, Bowels could have fired Leftnut any time he wanted to. This should be one happy locker room. Free agents, Run Forest Run!!!
January 18th, 2023 at 9:20 am
So they won a SB and two division titles despite of this dbag. He is getting a little uppity isn’t he?
January 18th, 2023 at 10:08 am
It was a common thought that this would be a transition team, but it had a working culture when Bowles cleaner was promoted.
That culture fell apart and there was blame enough to make a ground cover, starting with Brady’s vacation and wedding date.
A new culture will have to built from the ground floor.
Hopefully it is not a political thing because the defense fell apart in slow motion already.
January 18th, 2023 at 10:20 am
What’s the hold up? When are the heads gonna roll? Culture, Pride, Chemistry, Moxie, Gusto…… whatever the word is, these coaches need to shake their asses out of town on a flying pink slip pronto. If Brady jets who’s gonna craft a young QB? Who will have the confidence of a vet QB? I’m waiting…….
Still waiting…… I have your answer, no one on our current staff!!!
Time clean house. And if Brady leaves, a full on nuclear sterilization needs to happen. Make cap room so you don’t ruin the careers of the next two years of potential playmakers.
January 18th, 2023 at 10:28 am
There’s no fire and no winning edge because Todd Bowles is not a good head coach. Just how that takes shape internally is yet to be revealed it seems. But the players (Devin White e.g.) just don’t look and play and act like they believe in him.
January 18th, 2023 at 10:31 am
Bowles isn’t going to change a culture. The man doesn’t even have a pulse.
January 18th, 2023 at 10:57 am
This is another case of Joe isolating a word in one context and critiquing in another. Bogus.
“Those who come back, we gotta create new culture, new chemistry and new camaraderie.” –Bowles
It’s clear he was talking about the year to year changes of personnel and how the culture changes with an influx of new players and coaching changes, adjustments to different roles, etc… That kind of culture changes every year.
The larger culture, that you hope stays and was established with Brady, is the work ethic, accountability, and expectation to go out play well, play as a team, and win. It’s also not a me-first culture, which is why they value players like Godwin, Evans, and Lavonte…
Sorry this has to be explained, J03. Seems obvious to anyone who knows there are subtle differences in words depending on context.
January 18th, 2023 at 11:03 am
Toad’s culture is like that of sour cottage cheese. Large curd, though.
January 18th, 2023 at 11:27 am
Anything but blame himself.
January 18th, 2023 at 11:28 am
Sounds to me like the team lost respect for him due to lack of game prep.
My take is that game prep to him was practicing his scheme as opposed to scouting the opposition and prepping based on their strengths and weaknesses. It seemed to me that every game plan was identical to the last, making us very predictable and easy to defeat.
Square peg -vs- round hole.
Top to bottom the players knew the insanity of said game planning, thus, loss of respect and the resulting playing for the end of the season. We even had a free agent sign, stay two(?) weeks, retire, then unretire to sign with a contender (Bills).
He wants a team that will be all in on one, strict, game plan for the entire season.
Definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
I’m sorry, but IMO it’s time to cut bait.
January 18th, 2023 at 11:40 am
I’m sacred to think about the culture Todd Bowles wants. He destroyed a Superbowl winning culture in one year
January 18th, 2023 at 12:24 pm
What a joke. It was criminal that GM didn’t dump Bowles mid season. If I was owner I’d clean house beginning with GM.
January 18th, 2023 at 1:52 pm
Todd is what he is; it is wishful thinking to hope that with a few staff changes things will improve. Can anyone honestly say that he is going to lead the team to the Super Bowl with his approach and demeanor. He has had two chances, let’s just let him be a good defensive coordinator and get real.
January 18th, 2023 at 2:02 pm
The C word he meant is not culture but rather circus. Led by the head clown.
January 18th, 2023 at 3:03 pm
That pretty much covers the way I see it, GP. And poor in game decision making, or feel for the game the flow, along with the inflexibility. And never accepting any personal responsibility for his part in the problem. A toxic cocktail.
January 18th, 2023 at 3:21 pm
Send Bowles packing. Bring Bruce back !!!
January 18th, 2023 at 3:56 pm
Maybe if the bucks could get Sean Payton to come here Brady would stay. One thing is for certain he’s not dumb enough to waste his last year or two playing for one of the losing his coaches the NFL has produced over the past decade.
January 18th, 2023 at 5:52 pm
I suspect he’s wanting to institute a culture of don’t take risks… Conservative play calling
January 18th, 2023 at 5:53 pm
New culture? Yes! Fire Leftwich. Fire Bowles! Let Brady find greener pastures as an immobile, stat-padding, misfiring, way-over-the-hill 46-year old QB. Bring in Sean Payton, and give him what he needs to succeed. Go Bucs!
January 18th, 2023 at 6:22 pm
Guy gets a team 2 years removed from superbowl win and 1 year removed from an almost NFC championship game (lost cause of defensive call) and he has a culture problem? Ya it is you! You inherited a winning culture and turned it into a losing one. What culture do you want? The one you had with the Jets! Take TB record this season and add it to his jets career and that is his culture.
January 18th, 2023 at 7:25 pm
I’LL TELL YOU THE NEW CULTURE WE NEED..FIRE TODD BOWLES LOSING ASS & REPLACE HIM WITH SEAN PAYTON, LET SEAN BRING HIS OWN COACHING STAFF IN THERE MAKE TOM BRADY THE STARTING QUARTERBACK/QB COACH POSITIONS..WE NEED TO KEEP BRUCE ARIANS AT HIS POSITION UPSTAIRS, TODD LIGHT SHOULD REMAIN OUR GENERAL MANAGER..TOM BRADY NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE THE PLAY AT ANY GIVEN TIME WHEN THE OFFENSE HAS THE BALL..HE NEEDS MORE INPUT AS TO WHO WHE DRAFT AT WHAT POSITION, HE NEEDS TO BE INDUCTED INTO THE BUC’S “RING OF HONOR” ASAP..THE GLAZERS NEED TO SELL MANCHESTER UNITED & PUT MORE MONEY INTO THE BUCCANEERS ORGANIZATION..THEY ALSO NEED TO OFFER BRADY 10% OWNERSHIP OF THE TEAM WITH HIM EVENTUALLY BECOMING OUR OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR,UNDER SEAN PAYTON..HE RECOGNIZES TALENT &READS DEFENSES BETTER THAN ANYONE TO EVER PLAY THE GAME..OPEN UP YOUR PURSE STRINGS GLAZERS & MAKE ALL OF THIS HAPPEN ( BEFORE WE LOSE THE GREATEST FOOTBALL PLAYER TO EVER PLAY THE GAME..AS BRUCE ARIANS SAYS ” NO RISK IT,NO BISCUIT ! “
January 18th, 2023 at 9:25 pm
DEAR MR. ALL-CAPS,
PLEASE STOP YELLING!
Also, you haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.
January 18th, 2023 at 10:14 pm
I think it started with shock, because of BA stepping down, a little complacency because of a two-year stretch where they were awesome. Maybe they got a little cavalier thinking they can just show up because their leader, Brady, did that all year. He wasn’t there at training camp, took off for a wedding, distracted by divorce rumors and then a divorce, a lawsuit etc. etc. etc.
Why they went the whole season without realizing that they needed to be more focused and have more practice is beyond me. I mean after every game we overheard Bowles saying he will see them Wednesday… Maybe they needed to be there Tuesday, sure could not hurt.
January 18th, 2023 at 11:33 pm
Culture is code for values—rights responsibilities ethics esp work ethic.
But also pecking order. Do the players expect miracles from TB12
Does Bowles resent his status– on the team and as celeb?
Often you work to please superiors++if you respect them. But
You can’t just order that like French fries.
January 19th, 2023 at 9:50 pm
Todd Bowels can’t coach. Bucs will be the new york jets
January 19th, 2023 at 9:52 pm
So they fired the entire coaching staff except Bowles, seriously?
Good luck with this team minus Brady
January 21st, 2023 at 9:44 am
So they fired Leftwich and most of the Offensive Coaches, why in God’s name would you keep Bowles, the decision making of the Head Coach this year was absolutely abysmal, afraid right before halftime with almost a minute left to run the clock out when you’re down points with the absolute best Quarterback ever in the 2 minute offense cause you were afraid that he might throw an interception, to actually think his defense is so good wrong, the amount of penalties on a team directly points to the lack of discipline of the head coach. The most conservative Coach I’ve ever seen especially when you have a Quarterback with Brady’s ability. He never even tried to fix the biggest problem with the Bucs which was the Offensive line because he actually thought his defense is that good. He Should have been fired with Leftwich!!! He doesn’t have to worry about Brady because there’s a zero chance that Brady will sign with the Bucs especially after Evans checked out almost every game this year. BUCSNEED TO REBUILD STARTING WITH A NEW COACHING STAFF AND DRAFTING OR TRADING FOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN THAT DON’T HOLD AND GO OFFSIDES EVERY BIG PLAY AND CAN ACTUALLY BLOCK AND BOWLES IS NOT THE GUY TO DO IT!!!!
January 23rd, 2023 at 9:38 am
Fire Todd Bowles Brady need a.good coaches too be also a player and a player coach and signal caller as well Todd Bowles made Tampa for down fire my qb won’t be back if he does play it will be with a better coach and staff
January 23rd, 2023 at 9:39 am
Fire Todd Bowles Brady need a.good coaches too be also a player and a player coach and signal caller as well Todd Bowles made Tampa for down fire my qb won’t be back if he does play it will be with a better coach and staff and team