“The Effort Is There”
January 10th, 2026
Effort not an issue?
Interesting if not strange words from Bucs coach Todd Bowles last week in his season wrap up.
Joe could be wrong but a lot of the consternation on the Bucs this year — Lavonte David unloading on the team twice, Bowles twice and Baker Mayfield once, all in a span of six weeks — Joe thought was because the Bucs weren’t giving effort. No killer instinct. Not giving enough of a s(p)it.
Bowles suggested, in discussing the decision to bring in Jason Pierre-Paul — which screamed “desperation” — was not related to player effort. But when JPP returned, outside linebackers coach Larry Foote said he thought it was to add needed “juice” to the defense.
“I think we evaluate differently every year based off what we didn’t see from the year before in our team,” Bowles began. “We try to evaluate differently and bring guys in that are a little different from the guys that we have.
“I think the juice factor … It’s probably not a juice factor. The effort is there. That’s not saying they don’t have juice, but certain guys have a different type of energy when they come in and, probably more from an energy standpoint [or] from an energizer standpoint, probably more of that fact that I think [Larry] Foote was talking about.”
So, why were players and the head coach himself unloading on the team then if effort wasn’t an issue? Iconic Bucs receiver Chris Godwin himself said players needed to compete “harder” and “strain” more on the field.
Strange message from Bowles.
Maybe a lack of sleep from having to prepare for exit interviews had a hand in this?
January 10th, 2026 at 10:04 am
Some things never change…
January 10th, 2026 at 10:11 am
I want call him by his name😉 but every single time this coach open his mouth he digs deeper and deeper 😏🙂↔️
January 10th, 2026 at 10:14 am
Yaya Diaby states that ….sometimes he feel like he’s the only one rushing the QB.
The effort may be there, but the Bucs Edge Rushers has a low win rate
They have a problem getting to the QB with 5 Rushers
Every NFL analyst, every fan, everyone says we need better Edge Rushers
When these Edge Rushers leaves Tampa, they disappear
Out of the league in a few years
Most of our defensive players disappear after leaving Tampa
January 10th, 2026 at 10:18 am
Not effort? So it’s coaching? His own words Bowles-loving @Lakeland
January 10th, 2026 at 10:21 am
Let’s get a go fund me billboard going, what is better?
A) Bryan Glazer’s face in Hugh Culverhouse’s signature creamsicle coat and hat that reads, “Bryan Glazerhouse”?
B) A picture of a glacier that reads, “Thanks, Team Glaciers”
We need to publicly shame the owners
January 10th, 2026 at 10:22 am
zero self awareness.
i am so jaded and bias against him after all the double speak and TOTAL COLLAPSE OF HIS DEFENSE towards the end of the season that its impossible to actually listen to him for me.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:24 am
This guy can’t give a straight answer if his life depended on it. Apparently his job doesn’t.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:25 am
Lakeland Question???
How is that True we have a Defensive Guru for a HC
Can’t he develop players
January 10th, 2026 at 10:26 am
“The team has not quit on me” is the message meant to save his job. Clearly they did, during the bye.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:26 am
Bowles’ statements in print are like reading Chinese. It’s just jibberish.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:27 am
Ok, great the effort is there. Good to hear. Is the talent there? And I mean talented coaching and talented players.
This team has terrible leadership and it starts with Bowles and his handpicked staff and players. I could go out there on the football field and 100%, play hard and say all the right things and still suck. That describes the HC, many of the coaches and many of the players.
Too many try hard, 100% effort guys who just aren’t good and haven’t been good for years. But hey, change the date and add a few coaches, a few FA and some rookies and the Bucs will have what the media calls a “Superbowl Roster”.
The Bucs are a bad joke.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:28 am
“The effort is there.” I’m calling BS Todd. We all saw the lack of effort. As the saying goes, “Don’t pee on my foot and tell me it’s raining.”
January 10th, 2026 at 10:29 am
For real, is Bowles watching other games than the ones he’s coaching? Like he has a little handheld TV and he’s watching some other team that knows what they’re doing? Either he’s LYING or DELUSIONAL, neither of which will help for this season. Some of the players quit, some didn’t care.
Bowles scheme doesn’t work, it was figured out, and he’s not a good enough coach to figure out how to adapt. I think he said at one point he didn’t know what the problem was. Later he said he did know, but it seemed the defense stayed the same.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:29 am
@Lakeland (i.e., RodButtMunch) calls us all idiots while he disagrees with his own “logic.”
January 10th, 2026 at 10:33 am
It’s simple,
We need players that can ACTUALLY play football
Especially on our defensive front
Changes are coming, I’m not concerned
January 10th, 2026 at 10:35 am
Barf?
January 10th, 2026 at 10:38 am
Such clarity with his words. Shocking his players on defense get confused as to what he wants from them lololol
January 10th, 2026 at 10:39 am
Saw a post that was like a news report: Buccaneers miss the 2027 playoffs!
whole heartedly believe that will prove true…
The other 3 nfcs teams looked to be improved while the Bucs embrace mediocrity just to keep their ‘buddy’ destroying the Bucs team…
January 10th, 2026 at 10:43 am
It doesn’t matter who the HC is in 2026 or beyond
We need better players on our defense
I’ve been saying this for years
We need two quality starting ILB
We need another Edge Rusher opposite Yaya Diaby
We need better Corners
We need a better Free Safety ( AWJ( is not consistent
We need better players on the DLine
Kancey is always hurt, Hall is inconsistent, Vita is slowing down
January 10th, 2026 at 10:43 am
Todd should just stop talking if this is the garbage that’s going to come out. Or he should try to keep his stories straight.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:51 am
Arthur Blank has made it official
Matt Ryan is the President of Football
The GM and HC will be reporting to him, after he hire them
January 10th, 2026 at 10:54 am
FIRE THIS CLOWN NOW.
Every time he opens his mouth and babbles something I want to smash my head with a hammer.
January 10th, 2026 at 10:57 am
He’s a clown! Hopefully, he will be gone after leading this team to a 6-win season.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:03 am
The lack of self-awareness with this guy is amazing. Every statement more damning than the last.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:04 am
Unless they bring in an OC we can get excited about, ‘26 is likely to be a bust and hoping for a high draft pick. I know that sounds negative but I think a lot of us feel flat lined by what we have seen and are seeing and hearing. If we feel it, the players certainly do.
I agree Landland and others, we need a big infusion of talent on the D, especially the front 7. But the scheme and lack of “effort” leave major doubts.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:08 am
Bowles believes what he wants to believe. He deems himself to be far too good of a coach and leader to have lost a locker room. He lacks the courage to confront any harsh realities about himself. Something he and the Glazers have in common.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:11 am
Lakeland … You nailed it perfectly, with 1 exception, You need to be just as critical of THE SCHEME and how it’s taught. Any draft picks chosen in the Top-3 rounds SHOULD be able to perform at a reasonable level in ANY NFL defense. Ours aren’t.
McCollum for instance gave up 6 TDs as 1 of our starting outside CBs. Admittedly he was a 5th Rnd pick, but he’s got excellent measurables (6’2″, 199 lbs, 4.33 speed) to excel. His Career Completion Percentage Allowed (59.9%) is excellent, but at times he just looked lost out there.
It’s not just him though. Jamel Dean also has great measurables (6’1″, 206 lbs with 4.30 speed) and has a great Career Completion Percentage Allowed (57.4%) to with those, but he’s not the leader we need back there.
And the 2 rookies (Morrison & Parrish) have me shaking my head. Morrison posted a nice Completion Percentage Allowed (58.5%) this year, but he allowed 3 TDs in just the 10 games he played in. Jacob Parrish did better IMO in that he only allowed 2 TDs in a full 17 games, but his 71.4% Completion Percentage Allowed is too high for me.
The problem IMO is SCHEME. We used a bunch of young guys and the defensive scheme had them playing too cautiously. Or as Ronde put it … ‘Not fast’. Looks to me like a combination of scheme issues and talent. Both are fixable, but not if Todd stays as our DC.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:20 am
Todd didn’t want to put in the effort to answer the question correctly
January 10th, 2026 at 11:24 am
I have played football from 8 yrs old all way up to my senior year @ Hawai’i where I tore my ACL. want I want to know is what’s so difficult about learning his defense ? Football minds only please 😆 someone color me that🤙🏾🤙🏾
January 10th, 2026 at 11:26 am
The same old, same old.
We need to coach it better…lol
What is the definition of insanity again?
The Glazers are cowards to run it back with Bowles!
January 10th, 2026 at 11:26 am
In particular, one player showed me a Devin White level of loafing. Overall, this team pretty much quit.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:30 am
The whole reason fans are bringing the pitchforks is a lack of effort from EVERYONE in the organization.
This dude is clueless. Thanks BA for saddling us with him and Bud Licht.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:31 am
After reading that Todd Bowles explanation a couple of times it is no wonder the defense doesn’t know where to be. Just a punch of pointless words. TB is coming back only because of the 2024 contract extension. Don’t expect much change in defense performance in 2026.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:31 am
Defense Rules,
The Glazers are not Stupid people
I honestly believe they gave Todd another year , because they need time to find his replacement. They want a upgrade from Bowles, and the only upgrade they seen was John Harbaugh. And they reached out to Harbaugh, but he want total control.
The Bucs has more holes to filled than fans realize
They don’t know what to do with Baker, pay him or move on
I think they will have a clearer picture of the situation in 2027
January 10th, 2026 at 11:33 am
He still has no clue that he as coach is accountable for his team and as a result, he has no answesr for their failure.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:36 am
Lakeland must have city water with a lot of lead and other contaminants in it.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:41 am
We talk about juice, I say go watch the segment of Ben Johnson after a win in the locker room,That’s Juice👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 oh side note McVay and the Rams
As a team mind you
came to Hawai’i to bond. Joes are there any stories I may have miss that this team does bonding actives.
I’m just saying leadership, times get tuff u can lean on each other.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:44 am
Coach Bowles went on a rant a few weehs ago. You all, by now have seen it or at least read about it here on JBF. The jist of that rant was that the players have to care about the job at hand. In other words they have to put in effort to win games.
Now he says they were putting in effort.
It can’t be both. Either they give a spit (as The Joes say) or they don’t.
In my mind this says that Bowles doesn’t know what the problem is. If he doesn’t understand the problems that the Bucs are facing he’ll not be able to fux those problems.
No matter who trots out of the tunnel on game day, without drastic changes to the scheme the results will be the same.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:48 am
I don’t see how this team does well next year. Are we as fans just supposed to hope for a decent season and accept it? I mean we are expecting a strong winning season with hopes of a SB. I don’t know what the glazers plan is here. Mediocre, decent ok season? Make the playoffs and then lose? And go hey we did better than last year.
Weak…..what kind of business are they running?
January 10th, 2026 at 11:48 am
Just imagine if we had traded for Myles Garrett?
We may have won 13 games instead of going on our losing streak.
We need to replace Hall at DE with someone better.
We need to replace Hassan Reddick with someone better at OLB.
We need to replace SVD at MLB with someone better.
We need to add an elite NT/DT to who is better than Gaines.
Our sorry secondary is what we have.
So our front 7 need a complete rebuild.
January 10th, 2026 at 11:52 am
Talking out of both sides of his lying face.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:00 pm
what happened during the bye? effort it was huge collapse of not giving a sh**
January 10th, 2026 at 12:08 pm
Mike Evans needs to sign with the Texans in the offseason.
Better to escape the bottomless pit that is the Todd Bowles defense.
He has zero chance to win a SB in 2026 if he stays here.
And I think he absolutely knows that even if he doesn’t say it.
Houston needs a stud WR to put them over the top.
Todd Bowles is a run first HC. WRs are a waste in his system.
Thirty six and Thirty six.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:11 pm
So it wasn’t effort, but energy? He keeps talking about abstract, meaningless filler words because he’s beyond clueless. Just shut up and ruin my team in quiet, clown.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:11 pm
You see what we fans mean, Joe? Bowles says the effort was there. Where? He refuses to look failure in the eye. Certainly not on the Defensive side of the ball.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:14 pm
Lower your expectations to avoid the let down. If you fell for the “Superbowl Roster” media campaign before the season, thats on you. This Bucs team that couldn’t make it out of the WC adding a few rookies and Reddick was never going to compete.
This is tanking season. The Bengals, Bills and other teams had to have a down year before they could get into position to draft a franchise QB and pair him with a young HC. Its the Bucs turn now.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:14 pm
I am not a happy Buc fan!
January 10th, 2026 at 12:19 pm
Does anyone really care what he says anymore?
January 10th, 2026 at 12:24 pm
If he says otherwise the players will turn on him again.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:26 pm
Told You Says
“et’s get a go fund me billboard going, what is better?
We need to publicly shame the owners”
Horrible idea.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:31 pm
Good points, Defense Rules.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:32 pm
Here’s the simple truth:
Bowles has to say that.
He already threw the team under the bus and they turned on him. If he blames them now he will totally lose them.
At this point, I’m thinking he’s talked things over with the players and apologized for his past comments. He doesn’t dare do it again at this point.
In these comments he’s not being stupid…he’s being wise.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:33 pm
Besides…effort WAS there…some some of the players. So he’s not lying.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:37 pm
The Great Glazer Blunder of 2026. This will be one of the GOAT blunders in Buc History. Bring on the JBF comments. They are going to be better than the games or the off season moves. Blunders beget blunders. The Blunderneers!
January 10th, 2026 at 12:39 pm
The Pirate Ship needs a giant GONG on the poop deck. When they blunder GONG them.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:40 pm
HC Grover Says:
“When they blunder GONG them.”
Showing your age there, lol. The Gong Show 😉
January 10th, 2026 at 12:41 pm
Defense Rules and Lakeland Buc, on defense I agree with both but see talent deficiency as 80%, scheme problems 20%. Of the problem. There are big holes at all three levels of the defense. Whether the draft or FA, we needed to add star caliber talent at each level. We didn’t do that and then had big drop off by guys that got paid, Reddick, Winfield, LVD and McCollum. Passing on James Pierce and drafting EE was a mistake. Paying McCollum was a mistake.
Heading into this 2026 season I think the talent hole on D is wider and deeper. Bowles remaining DC – if it turns out that way – would be a mistake.
On offense, some are casting Grizz as a scapegoat. I just think he’s not a good OC and deserved to get fired. The new OC needs to be a younger, veteran play caller that can handle and manage Baker. I’d certainly hold off any extension conversation until we see how that pans out. The depth chart on O needs to be fortified, but mostly just get healthy.
Odds are long for a turnaround in 2026. That said you have to believe that Licht strongly supported retaining Bowles and making these other changes. Gonna be interesting.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:41 pm
Bs ive seen these guys loafing. I know what im watching
January 10th, 2026 at 12:44 pm
Bowzo gets his defense plays from The Weather Channel….Spaghetti Models.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:45 pm
Did anyone watch Indiana last night? Now that’s juice. The only debate about that team is which is better? The offense or the defense?
The championship game against Miami will be over by half time.
January 10th, 2026 at 12:46 pm
@Buccaneer Bonzai, why? We’d waste our money?
January 10th, 2026 at 12:49 pm
It makes absolutely no difference what comes out of his mouth. We know who he is and what the end result will be next year. Either the bottom falls out and we have a chance at manning in April or we hit 8/9 wins.
The only solace we can take is believing that the glazers also understand this, wanted to upgrade but couldn’t and have decided to undertake a year long coaching search so they can identify the right person.
I’m perfectly ok with that approach and really hoping that’s the strategy.
January 10th, 2026 at 1:06 pm
Wow! No wonder he lost the locker room…he talks out of both sides of his mouth! Glazers are being very foolish
January 10th, 2026 at 1:06 pm
Lol, my “effort” as well as confidence in him this next season is zero-zilch-nada….this is a scrubbed season coming up guys, you’ll see.
January 10th, 2026 at 1:07 pm
Please stop with his stomach turning photo in the headline of each story!
January 10th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
‘26 best case scenario:
17-0 or 1-16
Worst case:
8-9
You’re either first or last. Might as well be way last and get some serious draft help and new coaches. As of today, we all know 500 Bowles isn’t gonna get us a ring.
January 10th, 2026 at 1:33 pm
This guy is so full of it. Every week he spews his BS and says nothing.
January 10th, 2026 at 1:33 pm
Nick Herbig please, 3rd to the Steelers.
January 10th, 2026 at 1:40 pm
On fire the cannons brooks said gruden pushed buttons dungy never could, the bucs are probably at that point again though this team is nowhere near as talented as that team was in 2002… 5-12 is a probable outlook for 2026 unless they bring in some big guns not likely
January 10th, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Lakeland – Why wait a year? Your assessment of the needs on D are correct. Bowles and Licht have whiffed on nearly every defensive player drafted relatively high. White, Kancey, JTS. Hall, Braswell, Britt are all nonstarters on any other team. That’s 5 or 6 of the 8 guys we need. We might as well get the new guy in here now to help pick some winners of his own for the future. 3 in the draft and 2 or 3 FA could go a long way in rejuvenating this team. Bowles claims he hasn’t lost the locker room. I say BS. Defense is not on board anymore. Not sure about Evans either. Bring in the new blood now. Who is to say what will be a better choice in 27?
January 10th, 2026 at 1:45 pm
Btw, go Panthers….represent the south division fellas! I took them -10.5 (crazy spread) I think its gonna be a lot closer than that. I’ll miss half of it in order to sleep for 3rd shift though.
January 10th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
I’m all in to contribute to GoFundMe for a billboard.. they don’t face the fans with their decisions so deliver a message to the Glazer family loud and clear.
Bonzai must a leftist loser to object to such a thing.
January 10th, 2026 at 2:01 pm
I hear you Lakeland and DR.
Changes are coming but not to the scheme which equals to the same result. This is another RINSE AND REPEAT YEAR. SMH
Licht will probably add more talent to the defense through the draft. The problem with that is that it takes more than 17 games for rookies to adapt to the scheme.
This is why Todd seems to understand that rookies are going to look slow out there. When they have to think about what to do since is a complex scheme they will look confused, lost and sometimes plain bored. So Todd is ok with their efforts. It takes time.
This defense will be top 10 in about 5 years. SMH
January 10th, 2026 at 2:02 pm
@Lefty, I used chat gpt to put Bryan Glazer on Hugh Culverhouse’s body. It came out great! It’s meant to be. Needle these soccer-loving jokers!
January 10th, 2026 at 2:04 pm
Maybe there will be change on the infamous WALKTHROUGHS. SMH
January 10th, 2026 at 2:07 pm
Translation:
Most of my assistant coaches sucked and most of my non-starters sucked
January 10th, 2026 at 3:07 pm
Lakeland … ‘The Bucs has more holes to filled than fans realize.
They don’t know what to do with Baker, pay him or move on. I think they will have a clearer picture of the situation in 2027.’
I agree with your initial statement Lakeland that the Glaziers are probably just buying time to find the best long-term solution. I don’t think they like any of the alternatives available right now, so their approach has become ‘give Todd another year and let’s see what shakes out’.
And I think you know that I agree with you that the Bucs have a LOT of holes to fill, especially on defense (and to improve DEPTH). But to me it STARTS with SCHEME; if that stays the same, it almost doesn’t matter what new personnel we put in there … the SCHEME IS FLAWED. Bucs (nor any team) have enough salary CAP money to players good enough to make it work.
It took me years to figure out what Todd is doing that’s blown up in our faces. He (like Mike Smith before him) believes STOPPING THE RUN IS JOB-1.
January 10th, 2026 at 3:10 pm
I am so sick of hearing him talk. All his stupid platitudes, all his wishy-washy nonsense. I can’t wait until he’s gone.
January 10th, 2026 at 3:12 pm
Told You Says:
“@Buccaneer Bonzai, why? We’d waste our money?”
Lefty Says:
“Bonzai must a leftist loser to object to such a thing.”
No, I have foresight.
Shame the owners and what is likely to happen in the future?
Also, Lefty, your immaturity is on full display. I’m not a Leftist…but I’m not a TRUMPet either. I have a brain.
January 10th, 2026 at 3:13 pm
Told You Says:
“@Buccaneer Bonzai, why? We’d waste our money?”
Lefty Says:
“Bonzai must a leftist loser to object to such a thing.”
No, I have foresight.
Shame the owners and what is likely to happen in the future?
January 10th, 2026 at 3:26 pm
Lakeland … As Paul Harvey used to say … ‘and now for the rest of the story’ (I accidentially pushed the Submit Comment button earlier) …
I think I finally figured out what Todd is doing that’s blown up in our faces. He (like Mike Smith before him) believes STOPPING THE RUN IS JOB-1. That’s the fallacy with this 2024 & 2025 team: it didn’t stop the run. In 2025 for instance Bucs were #2 in opponents rushing the least number of times (396) against them. Yet we allowed 1684 rushing yards … 4.3 YPC average … for a #4 ranking there. Not terrible, UNTIL you look further. Bucs’ defense allowed 16 rushing TDs last year for a #16 ranking. Boo, that’s terrible. Consider the explosive run plays for the year that went for TDs (5 total) and that picture looks even worse. BTW, that’s the most rushing TDs Bucs’ defense has given up under Todd Bowles and the most we’ve given up as a team since 2018, under Mike Smith.
Opponents CHOSE to run a lot less against us because we were so easy to pass against. Ronde nailed it when he said …
‘If there’s one quick criticism I have of Todd, it’s that. They don’t play fast enough because there’s so much confusion play-in/play-out and it leads to big plays — over and over and over guys being open that shouldn’t be open.”
The scheme is flawed. And yes, the personnel manning it aren’t ‘gittin er done’. Some of them need to be replaced. Some of them I think could do considerably better in a different defense with different coaches. As long as Todd’s our DC, we’ll probably never know if that’s true or not.
January 10th, 2026 at 3:46 pm
My Bucs algorithm hates me! Sigh.
January 10th, 2026 at 5:13 pm
Todd needs some LASIK on those eyes, not sure what he is seeing, certainly a weak effort after BYE losing to all those lesser teams.
January 10th, 2026 at 6:24 pm
@Buccaneer Bonzai, isn’t shaming them for what is likely going to happen in the future the whole point…
Glaciers…Glazers move slow (the point)
Hugh Culverhouse made so many bad decisions that hurt the franchise and screwed the fan base…to make himself money (Glazers are doing the same because of their stupid decision to extend Bowles last year after three mediocre years… and please don’t tout winning this bad division. Rondé said as much) (The point).
You know what, just forget it. If you have to explain it…
January 10th, 2026 at 8:56 pm
The last six weeks effort was very inconsistent. In the first quarter against Carolina, they looked like they could beat any team in the NFL, offense and defense. Then they suddenly got hit with a little adversity and the effort disappeared. They looked like they were wondering how they’re going to mess up now.
That comes from coaching and belief, attitude.
I’m still astonished they decided to clean house with the coaches, but keep the head coach, you know, the one that ultimately was responsible for everyone underneath them.
Ridiculous
Next year is going to be a wasted season
January 10th, 2026 at 9:04 pm
Wasn’t he the one questioning the effort in the first place?