Is it time to draft a defensive playmaker or is it time to roll the dice in the playoffs where weird things happen? [read more]

Welcome to your Morning Cup of Joe, an eye-opener to help Joe’s readers ease into their busy workday with a few football links, wacky news and a pleasant distraction. [read more]

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Sage Ira and Joe close the year with spirited analysis.

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Has good vibes for old friend.

Make that two Bucs insiders/employees that don’t seem to believe Todd Bowles will be the ex-Bucs head coach next month. [read more]

Todd Bowles during his Jets days.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles spent four years coaching the New York Jets (2015-2018). His teams in New York got progressively worse and there were many credible reports that his defense quit on him. [read more]

Before last week’s game, Baker Mayfield was completely off the official injury report.

Now he’s back on it with two injuries. [read more]

Bucs coach Todd Bowles.

So we all saw it last night. A team that had nothing to play for and would have been much better off tanking than winning, the Dixie Chicks, came out against the Rams with passion and fire and equally as important, physicality, and upset Los Angeles. [read more]

Chris Godwin

What is going to snap the Bucs out of their horrible funk?

What will get them to play focused and with their hair on fire in front of a national TV audience on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.? [read more]

There is still hope.

While most Bucs fans appear resigned to shovel dirt in the Bucs’ faces this week, thinking the 2025 season comes to an end at The Licht House on Saturday, one prominent national NFL scribe is thinking the opposite. [read more]

Team Glazer is lurking.

Bucs ownership and management have not confirmed Todd Bowles will coach the team next season, despite a firestorm of distractions before a key game in the form of fans screaming from rooftops for his job. So Joe assumes Team Glazer is still assessing whether Bowles is worth keeping. [read more]

A family-owned Tampa icon since 1960, one mile north of the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.

Bucs coach Todd Bowles.

Are the Bucs going to resort to only working on fundamentals this week in practices leading up to their final game of the 2025 NFL regular season, Saturday? [read more]

Freefall.

Joe is just going to throw this out there: If the Bucs miss out on the playoffs this weekend (not only do the Bucs have to win to make the playoffs, so too do the slimy Saints), is this the biggest collapse in franchise history? [read more]

Needs more touches.

Alright, if the Bucs are going to win Saturday with the hope and a prayer they can make the playoffs — the slimy Saints also must win on Sunday — it might be time to get the running game going. [read more]

“Learn to love me, Bucs fans!”

Joe has a love/hate relationship with the Big Easy, New Orleans. [read more]

Spoiler alert.

Things had gotten so ugly for the Bucs, they were in danger of finishing with a worse record than Atlanta if the Falcons beat the mighty Rams at home tonight.

And that’s exactly what happened. [read more]

The Bucs have developed an edge rusher. [read more]

So how is Baker Mayfield feeling? [read more]

Chin music.

Once upon a time two decades ago, there were loud rumblings/rumors that Team Glazer was hunting former Steelers Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Cowher to lead Tampa Bay. [read more]

Former Bucs receivers coach and playcaller Todd Monken, the Ravens offensive coordinator.

So who will coach the Buccaneers in 2026? [read more]