“2026 Seems Like A Make-Or-Break Year”
January 31st, 2026
Where does he rank?
Joe has never seen anything like it. Or heard anything like it. Or read anything like it.
Yes, Joe knows that Bucs coach Todd Bowles is an unpopular coach with Bucs fans. Very unpopular.
Late in the season and immediately afterwards in Joe’s weekly in-season Todd Bowles Confidence Poll, Bowles had the worst numbers of any Bucs coach since Joe started in-season polls years ago.
Worse than lousy Lovie Smith in fact. That’s hard for Joe to wrap his brain around.
You turn on local sports talk radio, and if the subject discussed is the Bucs, it is a wall-to-wall tsunami of “Fire Todd Bowles” calls, even though Bowles is very secure until at least January 2027.
Damn near every post Joe publishes, that it turns into a “Fire Todd Bowles” screed in the comments, even if the subject has absolutely nothing to do with Bowles.
Joe’s “For You” TikTok feed is flooded with otherwise reasonable fans who cannot understand how Team Glazer kept Bowles on board.
Again, Joe has never seen a wave of disgust for a coach in the Tampa Bay area like this.
Follicly-challenged Billy Barnwell of BSPN decided to rank all the coaches hired in the NFL beginning in 2021. There, he has Bowles ranked No. 12 (right behind Liam Coen at No. 11). And while Barnwell confesses he’s a fan of Bowles, even Barnwell admitted he can sense how Tampa Bay area natives are restless, hoping someone can inspire change.
After the Bucs blew a 6-2 start to this season and missed the playoffs, though, Bowles has understandably faced some criticism. Tampa Bay fired offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard after one season, meaning Mayfield will have his fourth coordinator in four years with the Bucs. Bowles’ defenses have also struggled to live up to what they were doing while he was focusing exclusively on that side of the ball, as Tampa Bay has ranked 11th, 16th, 18th and most recently 16th in EPA per snap.
I still think Bowles is a good coach, and he has improved his late-game decision-making after being too conservative earlier in his tenure, but 2026 seems like a make-or-break year for his future in Tampa.
Joe really likes Bowles the person but Joe simply has a fundamental, foundational, core belief that he will take to his grave that a quarterback must fear having his ribcage caved in when he drops back to pass, specifically from an edge rusher. Bowles doesn’t believe that.
This always puzzled Joe because when Bowles had his best success as a defensive coordinator with the Bucs, he had two ferocious edge rushers, not just one. That is not a coincidence, boys and girls.
Yes, Al Davis’ famous line, “Somewhere, within the first 5-10 plays of the game, the quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard,” should be engraved on Joe’s tombstone. That’s basically Joe’s 11th Commandment.
While Barnwell may be right and Bowles may have improved as a head coach, Joe has learned, sadly, that whatever win total you think the Bucs should have in the preseason, subtract two wins because Bowles will find a way to blow two games with head-scratching in-game decisions like pulling the ball out of Tom Brady’s hands on a final drive or not going for two late in a one-point game on the road against the defending Super Bowl champs when your top-two receivers are hurt, or constantly banking on his defense to make a play in a tight game and get the ball back to the offense even though his defense is soft, vulnerable and way overrated, or deciding to play ground-and-pound in a key division game despite not having a decent run game and not throwing the ball to perhaps the best foursome of receivers in the league.
Hopefully, everything clicks for Bowles this fall. Unfortunately, Joe doesn’t have a lot of confidence the stars align like that.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:20 am
You are what your record says you are…
The Bucs and their head coach are slightly below average.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:32 am
In past seasons we have had a slump each year but pulled out of it to make the playoffs. After the 2024 season he made some changes that seemed to indicate that he might in fact be adapting as a coach. Then this year we started hot and then we never pulled out of the slump. We appeared to be going out each week and doing the same thing while expecting different results. His job as the HC is to correct course and make adjustments but he is incapable or refuses to make changes when it’s plain for all to see that changes need to be made.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:33 am
Here’s a very succinct answer for all of Bowles failures as a head coach which is the quote from new Ravens coach Jess Minter…” our team will play it’s best when the best is needed “. Bowles teams never do that!!! I could go on and on with numerous other issues with him but that quote says it all to me
January 31st, 2026 at 8:36 am
While Bowels deserves much of the criticism for this season we also need to blame Licht for his lack of action this past offseason and in season to improve the roster. I think that Licht needs to have a huge offseason to save himself from the chopping block if 2026 is bad.
They also need to sit BM if he is injured and save himself for games that mean more.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:38 am
Were there only 13 coaching changes? And, why the hate for Liam, Billy?
They want Todd to be successful. Nobody can make him successful.
Proof is out there; Todd simply cannot make player mix adjustments, scheme adjustments, or coaching adjustments, whether in game, across a month even or for the year.
Todd, quit losing the entire midyear for the next 5 straight seasons, the you will have ‘earned a legit discussion on this topic.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:38 am
Lol let me go ahead and spoil it for you…doing the same thing and expecting different results. What’s that commonly referred to as again?
January 31st, 2026 at 8:42 am
When Todd Bowles reaches a season that demands urgency, clarity, and nerve, he predictably retreats into caution and confusion. His history is a graveyard of moments where assertiveness was required and passivity prevailed, soft game management, defensive schemes that grow timid under scrutiny, and an instinct to protect his job rather than seize control of games. In a make-or-break year, Bowles won’t sharpen; he will shrink, and the margin between competence and collapse will swallow the Bucs team as a whole.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:43 am
It will be more of the same excuses, miscommunications, loafing, penalties, injuries and “having to coach it better”. Really hard to be a Bucs fan with Bowles as HC and DC.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:49 am
Any coach who would say that one of his starters gets “bored” needs another profession. I vote for used car salesman. TB a decent guy but a lousy HC. Don’t know how much more of watching his defense play paddy cake I can stand.
January 31st, 2026 at 8:51 am
Why do I keep getting put in Mod Jail?
No bad language
Only criticism is Bowles
January 31st, 2026 at 8:54 am
Dang it! I stopped reading the headlines, every time I see a toilet bowls pic, I just click on the article hoping to read that the fair and just event has occurred…alas
January 31st, 2026 at 8:56 am
I thought for sure he’d be gone if we didn’t win the division. I hope 2026 is not a waste of a season.
January 31st, 2026 at 9:00 am
“Again, Joe has never seen a wave of disgust for a coach in the Tampa Bay area like this.”
Love you Joe so I’ll try to help you understand the disgust. Where to start? I guess go back to Bowles days with the Jets. Average at best – that is being generous. Bowles comes to Tampa. His defense was dominant in the Superbowl against an beat up Chiefs offensive line. Bowles eeks out winning the crappy NFC South. Mismanages the clock constantly and plays not to loose weekly. At Carolina he goes vintage Bowles…he finally has his full complement of world beater wide receivers on the field. Bowles tell Grizz to just run the ball a lot. We all know that was to keep his gosh awful flailing defense off the field. Etc…Etc…Etc. Who would you rather get in a back alley fight with? Bowles or a dude like Dan Campbell?
January 31st, 2026 at 9:01 am
Problem is the Todd has been average or below with defense and he’ll go turtle with the offense because that’s who he is. If you want a coach that can make an 11 or 12 win team go 9-8,8-9 or 7-10 then he is definitely your guy! Other than when he was the DC and defense kicked KCs butt have you ever seen him out coach the other teams HC ???
January 31st, 2026 at 9:03 am
2025 should have been a make or break season. Think the Glazers gave Bowles a mulligan because of all the injuries. Even if Bowles improves as a DC, his chances of success are limited unless wholesale changes are made to the defense.
We are not just talking about one edge rusher.
January 31st, 2026 at 9:04 am
“Suckers, 2024 and 2025 should have been too. I have you right where I want you.” – Hugh
January 31st, 2026 at 9:08 am
For me, “2025 Was The Make-Or-Break Year”
January 31st, 2026 at 9:09 am
If they don’t hire a new DC and let Bowles play CEO, this D is doomed. The book is out on Todd’s D and teams have been exposing it when it matters most at the end of games. If he remains in charge of the D Bowles will need to start from scratch with a new concept, perhaps a 4-3. The time is now for an overhaul philosophically. Let’s go Todd, show us some innovation. Take it on as a challenge and go out the way you came into the league with a respectable, innovative and ferocious D. Find the common denominators of how teams expose you and eliminate them. Lfg Todd!
January 31st, 2026 at 9:31 am
At best Bowles should be a corneback coach in this league in my opinion. Has he improved anyone’s skill set as a player, regardless what LVD may say. I think he probably has retarded players growth but who am I to say. I just can look at the results and he scores a D- as a DC and maybe a C as a HC since assuming both roles.
January 31st, 2026 at 9:32 am
Morning joe. I’ve dropped my comment(s) regularly for several years now. In fact I go on record making my prediction for the bucs record prior to the season. Joe will notice that my comments stopped shortly around game eight or game 10. I doub seriously if I will make another comment until Bowles is no longer the head coach. I do not like calling for someone’s job. In this case it’s glaringly obvious that Bowels defensive ideology and scheme are not winning formulas. In my 61 years of life I have never seen any coach get lit up by as many rookie or unknown quarterbacks as this man’s defense have over the years. To me it got to where if we faced a second string quarterback or a rookie or an unknown then that particular quarterback would have career days. I would bet if Joe would go back and do the research he would find out that Todd Bowels defenses have lost to more rookie quarterbacks than any other defensive coordinator in NFL history. To be a good leader you have to be open to change. You have to look yourself in the mirror and change if necessary. This man is very hard-headed and he has to prove that his defense works—- Yes his defense is work to give opposing quarterbacks huge contract extensions…
Sorry Joe. I’ll stop in regularly as I do and keep up with my Bucs news yet I doubt seriously if I’ll make another comment until I see real change in Tampa. And making such a commitment truly hurts me to the heart… Thanks Joe for your informative covering of this team and I hope to be back as a regular commenter in the future….take care
January 31st, 2026 at 9:33 am
Seems like Todd Bowles wasn’t nearly that disliked when the bucs were 3-1 then 6-2 at the start of this past season. Actually seems like JBF’s confidence polls showed him hovering around 90% Confident or Very Confident (close to a Likeability poll). IOW, all you have to do is win baby and the world will tolerate any of your foibles. But lose and you’re toast.
What’s amazed me throughout this past 2 years is that Jason Licht has escaped relatively unscathed when the reality IMO is that our defense is ‘poorly stocked with starting talent’ and the entire team lacks DEPTH. Seems to me that if Todd Bowles is ‘guilty’ of not being able to satisfactorily adjust his defensive scheme to fit the talent level, then Jason Licht should be just as guilty of not supplying an adequate level of talent. Talent & scheme IMO go hand-in-hand.