Todd Bowles Addresses Rueben Bain Goal
October 7th, 2026
Bucs rookie first-round pick Rueben Bain will play tomorrow night at Dallas after two games on the shelf with shoulder and groin issues.
Todd Bowles made it official today and noted he expects/hopes Bain will play like the August version of himself.
“Hopefully we get in and he can knock the rust off and we’ll see the Bain we saw in spring and in training camp,” Bowles said of the Miami Mauler edger rusher.
Joe is very intrigued to see how Bain responds. Is Bain finally healthy, as in 100 percent? Did the team keep his confidence up and did Bucs coaches work with him on the NFL nuances he experienced in Weeks 1 and 2 against grown-men left tackles?
Bowles is right to hope Bain looks like he did in training camp, including joint practices. He was that good.
October 7th, 2026 at 1:06 pm
I don’t see the needle moving much with his return. This ship is gonna sink with or without him
October 7th, 2026 at 1:07 pm
Cool we got more depth at safety gonna need it since awj is out wonder if they let him play fs or if they will move tykee there.
October 7th, 2026 at 1:09 pm
When will Joe(s) realize “Training Camp” is like the practice tee in golf……LOTS of guys look great hitting spectacular shots — but when the gun goes off and you have to put a number in a box……it’s a different tale……..Bain was hyped so loudly (and both Joes were beating their own Bain drums) — yeah, he looked great against blocking dummies etc. But he looks damn small against some of these massive tackles with quick feet……guys blocking him make HUGE money to do just that and some unproven rookie isn’t going to show them anything they haven’t seen before.
October 7th, 2026 at 1:10 pm
How come I don’t look good on practice tees or the green?
October 7th, 2026 at 1:14 pm
I consider this a red shirt season for Bain until he gets real coaching by the next staff
October 7th, 2026 at 1:17 pm
I still believe Reuben Bain will be in the running for DROY
I’m expecting a good game from Bain against Dallas
October 7th, 2026 at 1:19 pm
Just let us know when they are gonna fire the head coach. Bain is garbage.
October 7th, 2026 at 1:21 pm
Bain needs to breakout for his team against them Cowboys !! Hopefully he’ll drive Dak crazy !!
Go Bucs !!
October 7th, 2026 at 1:21 pm
Or did he look great in training camp because he was going against a flat & lifeless oline and a highly predictable play caller?
October 7th, 2026 at 1:27 pm
Don’t you mean the”Overwhelmingly Good” Bain? Lol.
I never want to buy game tickets, or seasons tickets again.
I want to go watch the practices.
Because our players are all All Pros in practice. You know, the one place that we can’t see the team?
Bain was OVERWHELMING! Logan Hall was a DIFFERENCE MAKER! Joe Tryon was DISRUPTIVE! Haason Reddick forced offenses to SCHEME AROUND HIM!
Noah Spence was a PHYSICAL PRESCENCE! Jameel Dean Was a GENERATION CORNERBACK. Emeka Ebuka was THE TOP WR IN HIS CLASS. Calijah Kancey has UNSTOPPABLE SPEED. Etc. etc. etc.
So many fantastic and dominate players in practice. Yet they are 0-4, and SUCK when the play at Raymond James Stadium.
Do You think we can start playing home games on the practice fields at OneBuc?
I’d pay a fortune to watch games there, because our entire team is made of Hall of Famers!!!
But only when we can’t see them.
October 7th, 2026 at 1:34 pm
Not too late for Bain and Trotter to have great rookie seasons. Good luck to both.
October 7th, 2026 at 1:43 pm
Bain will be too busy dropping into coverage to get anywhere near Dak Prescott. Dak will have enough time to order a pizza while sitting in the pocket. Of course he won’t have to because Mr Defensive Genius will have his DBs giving Lamb and Co. 10 yard cushions.
On a side note – anyone who plays fantasy football needs to start Jake Ferguson. I’m sure he’ll have a big night – like literally every other TE in the league does against coach toilet.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:02 pm
I really do hope we see a more measured approach to training camp notes after many seasons, this one in particular, of seeing things in practice that we don’t see on the playing field during real games. I’m not saying to not note when players look amazing. Just to add the requisite grain of salt. Because as the captain noted above, we’ve all read those notes before which then set our expectations. Which results in disappointment being more bitter than it might be otherwise.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:02 pm
Bain spent lots of time since the end of camp working with the energy draining head coach who absolutely worked to regress him as a ferocious pass rusher.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:13 pm
Todd leave him alone. You’ve ruined enough young careers and stunted the growth of enough talent already. STOP IT!
October 7th, 2026 at 2:14 pm
To be honest.
You really can’t blame Bowles for this season.
His defense is top 10 even though we are near the bottom of the NFL in sacks.
Defensive category
Bucs rank
Total defense 🟢 4th: 282.8 yards/game
Rushing defense 🟢 3rd: 78.5 yards/game
Passing defense 🟢 9th: 204.2 yards/game
3rd-down defense 🟢 6th 32.7% allowed
Red-zone defense 🟢 T-5th: 45.5% TD rate allowed
Points allowed 19th: 24.0/game
Bucs sacks through Week 4: 6 sacks: * 26th in the NFL
So you guys really need to calm down with your Bowles hate.
It’s our offense that’s the problem.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:18 pm
Offensive rankings on the other hand
Bucs
Total offense: 278.3 YPG: 27th
Passing offense: 190.8 YPG: ~25th–26th
Rushing offense: 106.0 YPG: ~20th
Scoring offense: 19.0 PPG: ~22nd
First downs: 16.5/game: around 25th
3rd-down conversion: 34.5%: around 25th
Red-zone TD rate: 30%: 30th
Sacks allowed: 16: 32nd
October 7th, 2026 at 2:20 pm
It’s clear Bucs fan.
Zac Robinson and the offensive line are to blame.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:21 pm
Joe … ‘Bowles is right to hope Bain looks like he did in training camp, including joint practices. He was that good.’
It was all vanilla. And scripted. And it was also mostly going against the same guys over & over & over.
In the first 2 games Rueben got 76 def snaps (62%). And in that he gets ONE tackle. The few times I remember focusing on him, he didn’t look anything like a Miami Mauler. I’m not convinced that he was ready for that much field time.
Same with Trotter & Scott though. Trot ended up getting 86% of the def snaps in the 3 games he played, and Keionte has been in there for 59% in his 4 games. THREE rookies out there on close to 2/3rds of the defensive plays. What could possibly go wrong?
October 7th, 2026 at 2:35 pm
The defense is pedestrian. The best offense they’ve faced was a middle of the road cincy offense.
Browns, Vikings and Packers offenses are crap. Green Bay’s offense is rated worse than Tampa’s and they suddenly looked good.
The Cowboys and Dak are going to eat that garbage defense for lunch.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:36 pm
Wake me up when they hire a new coaching staff and GM!!!!
October 7th, 2026 at 2:37 pm
Teacherman … ‘So you guys really need to calm down with your Bowles hate. It’s our offense that’s the problem.’
Nice try, but we both know that’s not gonna fly. Todd Bowles isn’t JUST the DC; he’s also the Head Coach, and as such ‘The buck stops here’. I have zero doubts that Todd understands that better than any of us. He’s probably laughing his butt off inside every time he answers a media question with ‘Yup we gotta coach it better and play it better’.
Bowles has painted himself into a no-win situation by being dual-hatted. If he spends too much time wearing his HC hat and focuses on the offense, the defense falls apart. If he instead spends too much time wearing his DC hat trying to ‘save’ ballgames via defense but spends too little time on the offensive side, then the offense continues to struggle.
I for one feel somewhat badly for Zac Robinson because he didn’t get to ‘pick his staff’ and certainly didn’t get to ‘pick his players’. I think I figured out though what he needs. He needs … BA’s Red Pen. Leftwich apparently created gameplans & called played, but BA pretty much had the final say, and that kept us out of trouble in 2020 & 2021. But when BA retired in 2022 (and took his Red Pen with him), Leftwich’s offense went from #3 in 2020 and #2 in 2021, all the way down to #25 in 2022.
The difference was … No Red Pen.
Simple solution: Bring back the Red Pen.
October 7th, 2026 at 2:51 pm
“Leftwich apparently created gameplans & called played, but BA pretty much had the final say, and that kept us out of trouble in 2020 & 2021.”
“Impregnable…
Couple things Rich. Spent two years every day with Tom Brady, Byron Leftwich and BA. Arians took the job on the condition of not game planning. There was no figurative red pen. It was ALWAYS Leftwich and Brady and was collaborative. They had a top 2 and 3 offense…”
-Rick Stroud
October 7th, 2026 at 3:54 pm
Let’s be excited to see all the other things coach wants him to do, rushing the passer and sacks aren’t everything.
October 7th, 2026 at 4:00 pm
Thank you @Teacherman
Still waiting for Joe to say his repeated “I’m not concerned with the offense, they’ll be fine” was wrong and give the defense more credit. You (joes) posted dozens of times about the friggin defense and pass defense specifically but barely acknowledge the improvements on D across the board.
Some of us predicted this. We saw a top 10 D as being likely. And an offense with no real identity or consistency since mid 2024
October 7th, 2026 at 4:08 pm
Teach, Bowles is the HC. So both offense and defense are on him. Zac will take the hit, but Todd has hired two idiot OC’s in a row.
October 7th, 2026 at 4:13 pm
the bucs have been playing marginal offenses so stop your slurping. if they hold the cowboys under 30 they’ll shock the world. they dont have a pass rush, almost no sacks and continually get burnt over the middle.
i hope the best for bain jr but so far he looks like a jr compared to the players he is going up against.
October 7th, 2026 at 4:19 pm
Sports are in one word, entertainment for the fans. When an owner’s offering starts to stink the fans look elsewhere to spend their money.
When the stands aren’t filled up and the $$$ aren’t coming in, the Glazers might actually act.
The perennially good, winning teams in the NFL all have good ownership, solid to excellent GM and head coach, and a QB who can read, decide what to do with the ball, and physically make his part of the play work. The Bucs have a bad HC and staff. The GM seems competent. Ownership does not put much emphasis into knowing and hiring the personnel that are needed to be successful at NFL HC level.
October 7th, 2026 at 4:46 pm
I absolutely believe that Bain comes around when Joe stops calling him the Miami Mauler! That name SUCKS!
October 7th, 2026 at 4:49 pm
Looks like Tarzan…..”Plays like Jane Bain”
October 7th, 2026 at 5:00 pm
Let’s hope he’s all healed so he can drop back in coverage…. that’s why we drafted him right??
October 7th, 2026 at 5:01 pm
Dude is probably scarred for the rest of his career under the tutelage of Todd
October 7th, 2026 at 5:58 pm
Bain probably has PTSD, from all the disgusting things Boweles wants him to do outside of his position. Bain don’t listen to this septic tank, stand up and play your position. Suh stood up to Boweles the feces machine.