Jason Licht Thinks He Saw Todd Bowles Have An Emotional Moment When Rueben Bain Was Selected
May 5th, 2026
Happy man.
Joe understands many Bucs fans will refuse to believe the following.
A lot of fans are irked at KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles, not so much for what he does or doesn’t do on his headset on gamedays, but for the fact he’s so locked in it appears he’s at church and not at an NFL game.
Many want their Bucs coach to be like Chucky, a Tasmanian Devil on the sidelines because, in theory, that fires up the team. These fans want their coach to at least appear to care as much as they do.
(Joe doesn’t believe it means a hill of beans how a coach acts or doesn’t act on the sidelines. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is full of coaches who were cigar store indians on the sidelines. And Joe has seen spastic coaches who were just brutal.)
Joe sees Bowles away from the camera and his personality is nothing like what he displays publicly. He’s almost gregarious. Almost.
This subject came up last week in a roundabout way when Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht joined popular Adam Schein on “Schein on Sports,” heard weekday mornings exclusively on SiriusXM Radio’s “Mad Dog Radio” channel.
Schein knows Bowles controls his emotions, and he asked Schein what Bowles’ reaction was when Licht pulled the trigger, drafting edge rusher Rueben Bain at No. 15.
Licht is pretty sure he saw Bowles display emotion.
“Well, he was ecstatic as well,” Licht said. “He’s a very stoic person. He keeps a very even keel look.
“But I do think I saw, after we all hugged and gave high-fives around the room and all that stuff, I do think I saw him walk out and give a little bit of a fist pump when nobody was looking.”
That’s like a Gronk-spike for Bowles.
Joe hopes Bucs fans are doing fist-pumps, too, over many Bain sacks this fall.
May 5th, 2026 at 7:07 am
The Putrid Pass Defense can’t help but be better with all the additions this off season. Go Bucs!!!
May 5th, 2026 at 7:26 am
Bain 10 sacks over/under?
I say over.
May 5th, 2026 at 7:30 am
Bain should be on the field on EVERY 3rd and passing yardage and NEVER dropping in coverage. Can Todd change?
May 5th, 2026 at 7:36 am
Joe says: “KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles”. So Joe, I love and eat KitKats so please don’t associate them with Bowles, your’e ruining them for me! 🙂 You don’t have to give every person a phrase (“edge-rush Joe” or ” Irate Ira” ) so please find a new derogatory phrase for Bowles.
I don’t mind Bowles stoicism, just his poor communication during games. He has a headset but rarely uses it. He doesn’t talk to other coaches on the sideline. He doesn’t talk to his defense when they come off the field. The lack of communication is also seen in his defense on the field – the play is called in the huddle and that’s it.
May 5th, 2026 at 7:45 am
Love him, like him or despise him…it doesn’t matter.
This year is 100% make or break.
I heard a poster say Bowles is not on the hot seat. That’s about the most ridiculous take I’ve heard in here.
Bowles has a top 10 offense on paper, he has a hugely upgraded ST unit eith one of the best ST coaches in football and he just a an off-season focused on bringing in FAs and draft picks to improve the defense.
If he fails to get this team back to the playoffs, he’s 100% out. And if they fail to win a game he still may get shown the door.
No more excuses.
May 5th, 2026 at 7:50 am
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
May 5th, 2026 at 8:10 am
There’s 32 teams in the NFL
And each and every team has the same goal every season
That’s to win the covet Lombardi trophy
31 of the 32 teams will fail, and only one will prevail
There’s so many things involved in winning football games
But in the end, it’s the performance of the players that matters the most
You have to have players that’s determined to win, at any cost
May 5th, 2026 at 8:12 am
Jim Bob, yeah, the kit kat shtick is new. Not sure why Joe chose this insufferable label. But at least it’s better than Ozark watching, yam eating as the silly precursor. Those were the days….
May 5th, 2026 at 8:17 am
“But I do think I saw, after we all hugged and gave high-fives around the room and all that stuff, I do think I saw him walk out and give a little bit of a fist pump when nobody was looking.”
You can tell how the draft team was all standing and high-fiving one another they were all clenching their butts watching Bain fall to them at 15. Bowles took time out to “eff yea” to himself in the corridor, which is funny.
May 5th, 2026 at 9:00 am
David Walker slumped in his chair.
May 5th, 2026 at 9:40 am
We gotta stop as a society wanting people who act like the Tasmanian Devil in leadership positions
Lost in the balance is too many these days clamoring for a Tasmanian Devil to lead our ships
Just as was said, that crap don’t mean a hill of beans!
May 5th, 2026 at 9:55 am
Simply put, Bowels knows his job is on the line and if the defense does not produce, he’s gone
May 5th, 2026 at 10:01 am
I don’t care how he acts on the sidelines. It’s more about the horrible decisions he makes and the misguided loyalty he shows to his assistants, who were obviously in over their heads and needed to hit the bricks. Special teams killed this team last year, but for some reason, Bowles stuck with that clown.
May 5th, 2026 at 10:02 am
I don’t care about none of that. He’s not a good HC!! Use your dam eyes and there’s plenty sample size to show he’s not good. 18 games under 500 as a HC.
8 seasons as a HC only 3 winning out of the 8. No accountability see ST defense is bottom tier every year supposed to be his strong suit best years came under coen as the OC. Midseason collapses every single dam year!!! Seems like a great person but a$$ HC
May 5th, 2026 at 10:07 am
Floormatt is hilarious. Over 10 sacks of burgers, maybe. Coach is hungry.
May 5th, 2026 at 10:09 am
Bowles may not be on the hot seat
You and the media and the rest of sane fans may think he’s on the hot seat but the Glazers have shown their cards
They’re sticking with their investment and don’t care at all about fans imagined pressure to win – they’re in it for going through the motions and remaining profitable
The Bengals showed more spunk this offseason trading a top 10 pick than the heralded round table of Glazers who were penny pinching while their puppet kicked tires and waited till the combine to address anything Bowles
May 5th, 2026 at 10:17 am
It was probably just those 4 Whoppers he had moments before causing some indigestion issues.
May 5th, 2026 at 10:20 am
Thanks Joe for sharing the fist story about Todd Bowles
May 5th, 2026 at 12:57 pm
Final 6 games of the season…
Bucs were 10th in points allowed
Bucs were 28th in points scored
The narrative that the Bucs defense cost them the playoffs is literally fake news.
May 5th, 2026 at 1:17 pm
I don’t know about you. But I watch the december games.
Those games got us to 8-9 record. Here are some infamous contributions by the defense:
3-28, 4-14, Patriots nailed us with two it runs for scores. And those were some of the highlights of the great Charmin soft defense. SMH
May 5th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
Patriots HUGE RUNS BY ROOKIE RB for scores^
May 5th, 2026 at 1:38 pm
“Those games got us to 8-9 record. Here are some infamous contributions by the defense:
3-28, 4-14, Patriots nailed us with two it runs for scores. And those were some of the highlights of the great Charmin soft defense. SMH”
Offense:
5 turnovers in the first 8 games
11 turnovers in the last 9 games
we went from averaging .625 turnovers before the bye week to averaging 1.2 turnovers per game after the bye week.
Defense:
12 turnovers in the first 8 games
11 turnovers in the last 9 games
We went from averaging 1.5 takeaways a game before the bye to averaging 1.2 takeaways per game after the bye.
Offense had at least 1 turnover in 10 of 17 games
Defense forced at least 1 turnover in 11 of 17 games
Good try though.
May 5th, 2026 at 2:26 pm
Baking with Robinson.
Henderson and the Patriots just out muscled the defense on those two plays.
The team was lined up correctly for both plays.
I think that 2nd run, they had their 5 OL, 3 TE, 1 FB, QB and Henderson as their 11 on the field. Those guys put hat to hat, and it seems like LaVonte David was the only guy that had a chance.
I hope they are stopping that with their pickup of guys this year between free agency and draft.
May 5th, 2026 at 2:26 pm
Truth be Told Says:
May 5th, 2026 at 7:07 am
The Putrid Pass Defense can’t help but be better with all the additions this off season. Go Bucs!!!
—————–
Here’s hoping the even more putrid offense can carry their weight instead of being the weakest squad on the team AGAIN.
May 5th, 2026 at 2:37 pm
He should be ecstatic. He has the talent to execute his scheme now. This scheme requires players that can stop the run and put pressure on the QB consistently to create more opportunities for turnovers. Bowles is probably thinking he can now do what he wants. It’s still no excuse for his failures the last few seasons. He should have been adjusting the defensive scheme to fit the players he had. Then again, when someone looks up the term “Definition of Insanity”, his face appears!
May 5th, 2026 at 3:03 pm
Todd Bowles will not be Bucs HC in February 2027. HC will be Zach Robinson after Bucs promote him to HC to stop him from going to another team as their HC.
May 5th, 2026 at 3:03 pm
“Here’s hoping the even more putrid offense can carry their weight instead of being the weakest squad on the team AGAIN.”
6 of our 8 wins came holding teams to 20 points or less.
2 of those 5 games we had to “comeback”
The 2 games we didn’t hold teams to 20 or less and still won
The Jets game where the defense was responsible for 7 of our 29 points.
Just because we’re talking numbers, 9 games on offense last year we threw for <200 yards
and the Seattle game, in which a defensive turnover closed the door in a shootout.
May 5th, 2026 at 3:11 pm
I don’t care how much fans say it. The Bucs loss of Mike Evans will be heavily felt this season. Sucks Mike Evans will be wearing another uniform. Mike is irreplaceable.
May 5th, 2026 at 7:45 pm
Exactly what position is Bain going to play for us? Besides the short arms, he’s too short and light to be a 3-4 Defensive End against run fronts. And I struggle to believe that Bain will be successful having to drop into coverage 30% of the time, like TB did with Reddick last year, and what will be expected from him in the OLB position. Outside of situational passing downs, where does TB play Bain?
May 5th, 2026 at 9:07 pm
Its the team that stays the healthiest..The Todd has no control over!
May 5th, 2026 at 9:28 pm
I really doubt Bain breaks double digits in sacks, I would love it if he did but if he gets five or more with a lot of pressures that will be twice the number we got from Swaggy Bakers twin from last season.