“I Don’t Know How Todd Bowles Deals With That”
February 7th, 2026
Do the Bucs have systemic issues?
If one listens to Buccaneers Ring of Honor head coach Jon Gruden, the Bucs have a built-in problem. It’s the revolving door of offensive coordinators.
Todd Bowles is on his fifth in five seasons.
“I don’t know how Todd Bowles deals with that,” Gruden told The Rondé Barber Show. “You know, you gotta be the head football coach and call the defense, and you got your own issues. Then you don’t even know your offensive coordinator. And you might have to control his playcalling in certain situations. And you have no experience whatsoever to draw from. He doesn’t know Dave Canales; it’s his first year. He doesn’t know Liam Coen. And he damn sure didn’t know Josh Grizzard.”
It’s certainly a great point by Chucky and one Joe suspects members of Team Glazer have thought about this at family picnics.
It is an inherent potential problem for defense-first head coaches. However, look at the Super Bowl coaches tomorrow: each is a defense-first guy.
Rondé Barber went on to rant about how Baker Mayfield is on his ninth playcaller in nine years.
Hmm, perhaps he is the ideal Bucs franchise quarterback for this era.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:12 pm
That starts with the man charged with running the team.
Bud Licht is a fraud.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:16 pm
The Eagles have had 7 OCs the past years and have been to 2 SBs and won one. Its not stopping or hindering them. More and more excuses for Bowles who isnt good at his job. They had a chance to keep Coen but nope, they stuck with the guy who’s defense couldn’t force a punt in a playoff game.
Right now the owners obviously want to lose, plain and simple.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:19 pm
C’mon, we all know, it’s everyone’s fault but Todd’s. Thank god the Bucs fired everyone else except Todd.
Super Bowles.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:35 pm
If our coach is a defense first guy, then why does our defense suck year after year? The coaches in the Super Bowl actually know how to coach defense, that’s the difference.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:39 pm
You can look at every angle and see SO MANY ways as to why IBS is such a terrible HC!
Owners still would rather lose with him than to win with someone else…
Makes NO sense to continue to employ one of the worst HCs in the NFC but yet here we are…
February 7th, 2026 at 12:42 pm
He actually knew Josh Grizzard. He joined the staff the year before.
As to the revolving door, I still feel contracts should be honored for a minimum of 2 years, and teams can’t poach until then.
I realize many feel this would be unfair because of opportunities…but teams would adjust and make offers regardless.
Liam Coen would have been offered a job the following year if he’d stayed. No denying that. If he had stayed two more years, he’d be our new head coach.
Or…if a team poaches a coach before their second year is complete, they pay a 4th rounder to the team.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:45 pm
Tye Says
“You can look at every angle and see SO MANY ways as to why IBS is such a terrible HC!
Owners still would rather lose with him than to win with someone else…
Makes NO sense to continue to employ one of the worst HCs in the NFC but yet here we are…”
Unless the Glazers are just waiting for after the Superbowl on Sunday, Bowles is staying. May as well accept it for the year and move on. Nothing you say will change anything…but it will stress you our thinking about it. And that’s not good for your health.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:49 pm
Josh grizzard coupd have fcking watched film from last year and ran the same damn thing. Im not even close to a oc but I know exactly what worked for baker and what got him off schedule. Quicj short rhythm passes followed by hurry up amd play action for big chunk gains with crossing routes. The screens with bucky irving in space. But hey what do I know.
February 7th, 2026 at 12:58 pm
What Bee said.
February 7th, 2026 at 1:09 pm
What JohnQCitizen said.
February 7th, 2026 at 1:14 pm
The wild part is the worst of the 3 (Grizz, Dave & Liam) was the one Todd probably knew the most….as he had gotten to know Grizz for a year at OBP working on Liam’s staff before getting promotion to OC. Now Dave & Liam, Todd didn’t know whatsoever and those 2 ended up being the 2 best OC hires of the nunch. Maybe Todd knowing more about them before they become OC ain’t all that good anyways.
Either way. He’s hit on 2 of 3 OC hires though and that’s pretty d@mn good no matter how you slice it. But it’s imperative he goes 3 for 4 in a make or break season.
…or he’s gotta get HIS defense turned around because the defense has been worse than the offense for a while now and that’s hard to believe with a defensive head coach who calls the defensive plays and has full autonomy there.
February 7th, 2026 at 1:24 pm
Usually a coach gets fired for a collapse the amount of excuses that keep getting made for why Todd bowles is failing is incredible as if he is the only coach to ever face adversity. It’s not like we haven’t seen a downward trajectory with the defense for a while now failures with in game decisions constantly poor gametime management even when they specifically hired someone to help him he is just a bad hc.
February 7th, 2026 at 1:53 pm
Bee Says:
The Eagles have had 7 OCs the past years and have been to 2 SBs and won one. Its not stopping or hindering them. More and more excuses for Bowles who isnt good at his job. They had a chance to keep Coen but nope, they stuck with the guy who’s defense couldn’t force a punt in a playoff game.
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The Bucs won a SB as well. Bowles was responsible for one of the best defensive performances in the Super Bowl in NFL history, holding Mahomes and the Chiefs to zero TDs. Remember that? 😉
I wasn’t in favor of the team retaining Bowles as HC into 2026, but that said, the issues the team dealt with, making them a bad team, were not ALL the fault of Bowles. Licht has had to shop for talent at the Dollar Store for years to get out of salary cap hell. And while the defense was much healthier than the offensive players, losing both Kancey and Walker really hurt the defense badly IMO. When the team can’t get much pressure on the QB, it makes the secondary look worse than it is.
February 7th, 2026 at 1:54 pm
I honestly kind of went numb on the whole Bowles keeping his job thing. I was as p!sed off as most every other fan, but now that I’ve had time to get to the acceptance phase I think maybe the Glazers had an idea that this year was going to be a year of quite a few coaches getting axed? Some of the more successful ones (Tomlin, McDermott) are likely going to sit this year out, so if Todd flames out this year perhaps the Bucs go for one of them (or a different “big splash hire”?) for the 2027 season? Who knows, maybe Todd rights the ship? New assistant coaches might be a fresh voice for the players? Licht hitting on draft picks as well as free agents will be crucial too. The NFC South is still a very unpredictable division considering the other teams all have young QB’s who have shown some moments but haven’t made the leap to franchise QB yet. I guess now that I’m not as emotionally spent/p!ssed over the late season collapse I can kind of understand the Glazer’s decision to keep Todd as not being as insane as I initially thought it was. I still disagree with the call, but I’m going to wait and see how it all plays out vs. constantly being upset over it all off season.
February 7th, 2026 at 2:12 pm
@Jmarkbuc
Think before writing!
February 7th, 2026 at 2:14 pm
But TB won multiple division championships…. But nothing else. Pretty sure he admitted making the run 50 times game plan against panthers. He is not good enough at any of the 3 phases. But he’s cheap on the glazer checkbook so…they love him
February 7th, 2026 at 2:19 pm
“However, look at the Super Bowl coaches tomorrow: each is a defense-first guy.”
The fact that they’re both defensive head coaches means nothing. The quality of the coach is all that matters. Vrabel is light years better than Bowles. MacDonald’s quality is ultimately yet to be determined, we’ll see how he does next year when he has to hire another OC.
I don’t think Bowles stinks because he’s a defensive coach. I think he stinks because he’s a defensive coach who’s defense absolutely stinks and his offensive coordinators who carried his teams to division championships left to become more successful head coaches than him.
February 7th, 2026 at 2:30 pm
Todd Bowles is “defense first” with a terrible defense. He’s also a terrible Head Coach.
February 7th, 2026 at 2:31 pm
Did I miss the article about Bowles pushing his Cornerbacks and Safeties coaches out, only to wait three weeks to elevate the assistant Cornerback and Safeties coaches to the head positions?
Did they interview and find no takers for the job? Why wait that long to just promote from within? For a defensive coaching staff that desperately needed new blood, this isn’t overly encouraging, but I guess it really shouldn’t come as a surprise. Bowles is horrendous at self scouting and self evaluating his side of the ball.