Fighting Against A Losing Narrative
March 28th, 2023
Todd Bowles speaks.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles seemed to indicate this season, all of his coaches and players will have to earn their daily bread. At least, more so than last year.
When you have Tom Brady, well, he was the ultimate. Bowles seemed to say that all you needed to do was roll the proverbial ball out on the field and (stuff) would get done.
Now the Bucs cannot depend on Brady bailing them out. Brady’s gone. he ain’t walking through the front door of One Buc Palace.
So at today’s the coaches breakfast at the NFL gathering in Arizona this morning, Bowles was asked what Baker Mayfield brings to the Bucs. Bowles spoke of Mayfield’s attributes and noted that this is a different era of Bucs ball. No more free rides.
“It gives us competition,” Bowles said of Mayfield. “It gives us another warrior.
“It gives us a guy who has been to the playoffs before. At least you have a proven guy, a guy who can go against Kyle [Trask] that will make sure we haven’t taken dips too low.
“You lose the greatest quarterback of all time, everybody just assumes you will be bad. At least that’s the narrative. It takes a team to win the Super Bowl but it also takes a team to play ballgames.
To bring in guys who can challenge and win, you have to prepare differently.”
Maybe Joe is reading Bowles fully wrong here, but it almost sounded as if dudes last year just thought they could snap a chinstrap and thought they could win. Remember how Brady unloaded on his teammates at San Francisco trying to motivate them?
Joe got the vibe from Bowles that competition at quarterback, and maybe a couple of other positions, will rub off on other players and perhaps light a fire under them as well. Or at least, that may be the hope.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:21 am
Go Bucs!!!
March 28th, 2023 at 11:27 am
Bowles heaped more praise on Brady today than he did all of last year. SMH
March 28th, 2023 at 11:29 am
Sooooo, per Toddy, he had the Greatest Quarterback Of All Time…..and still managed to have a losing record………
Speaks volumes……
March 28th, 2023 at 11:32 am
Joe wrote:
…..” but it almost sounded as if dudes last year just thought they could snap a chinstrap and thought they could win. Remember how Brady unloaded on his teammates at San Francisco trying to motivate them?”
Take a look at the photo in the upper right hand corner of the page. There’s the reason that was the attitude. Like others have said, Bloweszo is too old and set in his ways to change. Expect the continuous and steady decline in all phases until he notches his fifth loserville in a row.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:32 am
Anyone know when they’re finally reintroducing the creamsicles? I believe they’re supposed to be back this season!
March 28th, 2023 at 11:33 am
There were a lot of factors at play in that losing record. Can’t blame it all on Bowles.
March 28th, 2023 at 11:34 am
How did Bowles ever become a head coach?? He really has no clue on how to motivate a team!!! Just sayin’
March 28th, 2023 at 11:40 am
Hope Springs Eternal at Ray Jay
March 28th, 2023 at 11:41 am
to fix anything, one must first deal with the root/heart/source of the matter…
In this case, the source of losing is a terrible HC!….
Its impossible for a good roster and even coordinators to overcome putrid Head coaching!
March 28th, 2023 at 11:59 am
The Glazers are trying to sell Manchester United with Bowles at the helm the Glazers will trying to sell the Bucs in a couple of years
March 28th, 2023 at 12:14 pm
I do think the players thought they could just win and Bowles attitude didn’t quite help. Everyone was used to BA yelling but now you got Todd who is different. I think Bowles is a good coach and will be our HC for a while and do amazing things for us
March 28th, 2023 at 12:16 pm
Players who underperform are like rotten fruit, leave rotten fruit with good fruit, you will rot the good fruit. Overachievers will play through the whistler are winners.
March 28th, 2023 at 12:18 pm
Ohhh Nooooo! Mr. Bowles
March 28th, 2023 at 12:27 pm
It’s been over nine seasons since the Bucs had any kind of QB competition. This year will be a welcome change. One of the things Pete Carroll has been known for are tough practices, and training camps. His teams have been fined for doing to much, far cry from us last year. I think Canales will bring that everyday with his offense. This will also help our defense being better prepared. If our weekly opponents knew what was coming with Leftwich think how bored our defense must’ve been. Let the best men win.
March 28th, 2023 at 12:41 pm
“At least you have a proven guy, a guy who can go against Kyle [Trask] that will make sure we haven’t taken dips too low.”
———
To me that sounds like loser talk already, he’s saying we’re not going to be good, but we won’t be the worst. Which falls right in line with the 5 or 6 wins I expect from the team.
March 28th, 2023 at 2:46 pm
The one who has to fight against a losing narrative is Todd Bowles…..
March 28th, 2023 at 4:24 pm
I’d rather have Todd Monken than Todd Bowles
He is the losing narrative- shooting for 5 out of 6 times this season and VERY likely to achieve it
Bowles 34-50 career record
Again, the narrative is Todd Bowles is a poor, poor head coach choice when there were so many other deserving candidates
March 28th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Reading that? He should never have been promoted.
He just doesn’t get it. Probably never will.
He is totally in over his head.
March 29th, 2023 at 1:23 am
It would be better to have Todd Hrmpshter.
March 29th, 2023 at 2:32 am
‘Joe got the vibe from Bowles that competition at quarterback, and maybe a couple of other positions, will rub off on other players and perhaps light a fire under them as well. Or at least, that may be the hope.’
Solid conclusion Joe, and that’s my HOPE for sure. The thing that stood out to me about last year’s team is that it SEEMED that guys were always waiting for SOMEONE ELSE to make big plays. And yet, more times than not it was the other team that made the big plays, not the Bucs.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’m of the belief that at the NFL level, all the teams are reasonably competent, thus it takes BIG PLAYS to win ball games. As the extreme example, Bucs won 4 games last season because of a BIG PLAY made in the final 2 minutes or less (Rams, Saints, Cardinals, Panthers). We also lost 3 games though because the opposing team made a BIG PLAY or we failed to convert on an opportunity in the final 2 minutes or less (Packers, Steelers, Browns).
During 2020 & 2021, it was quite the opposite. It was the Bucs making the BIG PLAYS at critical moments in various games. Yes Tom Brady made a bunch of those obviously (that’s why he earned the nickname The GOAT perhaps?). But he was far from the only one who made those BIG PLAYS in 2020 & 2021. It’ll be interesting to see who steps up to the plate this year, because that’s who guys look to for leadership IMO.
March 29th, 2023 at 3:00 am
Just re-read the comments on this piece about Todd Bowles, and 10 were negative on Bowles versus 7 being positive or at least neutral. And yet really all Coach Bowles said was that there’ll be more competition at various positions this year.
Joe ‘read between the lines’ regarding what Bowles said when he wrote ‘Maybe Joe is reading Bowles fully wrong here, but it almost sounded as if dudes last year just thought they could snap a chinstrap and thought they could win.’ Personally I agree with that observation, BUT … Todd Bowles never said any such thing.
The JBF site has long been an awesome place to share perspectives on all-things-Bucs, but it seems to be becoming much too negative for me (admittedly that kinda flows with what seems to be our national political ‘mood’ at this time in history IMO). Maybe that’s the natural consequence of rapidly restocking a traditionally doormat team with a bunch of elite talent … at great cost in terms of salary CAP … and winning a championship as a consequence.
Guess I just wish that some folks would muzzle the negativity for awhile about past events that we can’t control, and focus instead on what’s right in front of us. This TEAM is in a big time transition, and it could go a lot of different ways. Personally I think it’ll be fun to watch it all play out over the period of the next 2-3 years at least. And as part of that, I don’t think that Todd Bowles is going anyplace.
March 29th, 2023 at 1:49 pm
I will muzzle my negativity, but it won’t change the facts.
Bloweszo has 4 consucitive losing seasons as head coich.
Bloweszo will make it 5 in a row in 2023.
Bloweszo is the worst head coich in the NFL today, based on performance and demonstrated results.