Shaun King Believes Bucs Made The Right Call On Todd Bowles
January 22nd, 2026
Defends Bucs coach.
Based on fan polling in the weekly “Todd Bowles Confidence Poll” the final few weeks of the season, Bowles is the most unpopular Bucs head coach since Joe started doing the weekly in-season poll during the lousy Lovie Smith reign of terror.
At one point, some 95 percent of respondents voting in the poll had little or no confidence in Bowles. That’s bad.
It seems former Bucs quarterback Shaun King was not among the angry majority.
King, one of but four quarterbacks in franchise history to lead the Bucs to the NFL title game, recently spoke to Kyle Odegard of ESportsBets.com. There, King explained why he believed the Bucs made the smart move retaining the embattled Bowles.
“I noticed a thing with Todd,” King said. “He never gets any credit. Ever since he’s gotten the job, the narrative around him is: that’s not good enough.
“This is the first year they haven’t made the playoffs since he took over. This is the first year they haven’t won the division since he took over. It’s not like they haven’t been successful. But nothing he seems to be doing is enough.
“A lot of pressure in the upcoming year, but I did not think moving on from Todd Bowles would have been the right move.”
King made an interesting point. While no one is content with Bowles not getting past the division round in the playoffs, most coaches who won their division three years in a row would be loved. Not Bowles.
So why did the Bucs falter this year for the first time since Bowles took over in 2022? King thinks one reason was Bowles needed to sweep out all the holdovers from Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians’ staff.
“One of the things with getting the job was keeping a lot of Bruce (Arians’) assistants,” King said. “It looks like there are some changes going on there, so it’s the first time we’ll see him get his group of guys in totality.”
Joe can’t buy that. Joe is confident if Bowles didn’t want certain assistants, they wouldn’t have lasted this long. And some from Arians’ days are still here, including outside linebackers coach Larry Foote.
King added one problem with the defense is simple: The Bucs do not have enough studs to carry out Bowles’ assignments.
“Schematically, I like [Bowles],” King said. “I just don’t think we have the personnel right now to do what he wants to do. We’ve got one of the most mediocre secondary groups in the entire league, in my opinion. I was appalled at the amount of breakdowns we had, specifically late in games. Guys weren’t covering, guys weren’t contesting throws.
“When you want to be aggressive, play man and disguise, your secondary has to be of high intelligence and high in talent. I don’t think he had that. We’ll see if they get it fixed. I love Todd and I hope he gets it fixed. I hope it goes well this year, but it’s a lot of pressure.”
Joe sees King working here but whatever happened to a coach developing a defense based on the skillsets of the available personnel? Joe never has liked fitting a square peg in a round hole.
If the only way a defensive coordinator can be successful is to have 8-10 Pro Bowlers, well, hell, Team Glazer could save a lot of money and just hire high school coaches. Good, well-rounded coaches put guys in position to make plays highlighting their skillsets.
And for crying out loud, quit trying to turn defensive ends into safeties and safeties into defensive ends.
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:21 am
Why is Foote still coaching OLBers?
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:24 am
Joe’s right: if your players can’t execute your scheme, maybe you try to replace some players, but unless/until that happens you need a new scheme.
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:26 am
Hmmm so he doesn’t have the players to run his scheme yet he still tries to run his scheme unsuccessfully. Zero flexibility. That’s a fireable offense and dumb coaching. Thank for clarifying that for us Shawn. It’s a Bucs life!
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:30 am
A good leader maximizes the abilities of the people they have available to them. A species either adapts, and evolves to survive, or becomes extinct. Todd has shown that defensively he will not adapt or evolve his scheme to fit the personal available, and instead continue to run the same scheme his players clearly aren’t grasping and expecting improvement. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. I’m sure he’s a great human, that doesn’t win football games.
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:31 am
shawn shawn shawn , love you Man !!!
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:31 am
If you put the Bucs from the last 4 years in any other division there is no way they win it.
Bowles shiuld not be given credit fir the other 3 teams in the division sucking more than his team sucks.
Bowles can’t/ won’t adjust his scheme to fit the players he has.
And with every other year except his first year as head coach, the staff is on him. He could have moved away from any assistant coach that he wanted to.
This dumpster fire of a defense is completely on Todd Bowles.
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:39 am
but clearly Shawn you can’t have Indiana putting on a technical disciplined defensive clinic and Todd bowls can’t get people in the right positions or understanding the scheme in three years. Shawn the jock initiative, but please there are so many signs to bulls in ability to communicate or teach. We can write about it in a 300 page book with small font……… we gotta understand there’s knowledge and then there’s teaching the knowledge and then there’s teaching caring out the knowledge. Balls is another chalkboard genius that only has one of three traits…………… how do I know this, well it can’t be argued the results over the past three years are the results over the past three years……… Shawn grab Ian , put on a matching day set , head down to the clothing store and have a cocktail.
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:41 am
Bowels wouldn’t even get a DC job if he was on the market this year, so how can he be good enough to be our DC and head coach?
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:43 am
THE WRONG PLAYERS? THAT SHOULD GET TODD FIRED.
Every def. player, except VV and LVD, has been drafted while Todd has been HC.
Todd has hand selected every player on defense.
Shawn is saying Todd can’t select guys to play his defense.
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:44 am
Does anyone care what Shaun King thinks?
January 22nd, 2026 at 11:54 am
Hey Shaun, it’s a little word known as context.
Here’s the context for a lot of us fans…
-Worst division in football.
-Continually shredded by the corpse of Kirk Cousins and insert rookie or 2nd string QB here.
-Blowing countless games by being ultra conservative.
-Coaching scared (why throw a deep shot to a HoF WR and try to get points when you can take a timeout to half?)
-Mid season losing streaks (consistent as gravity, prepare for another)
-Loss out of the bye (consistent as gravity, prepare for another)
– No defensive player development
What Shaun says is all great minus the context. I’m confident that a legit HC/DC possibly gets the Bucs to the NFC Champ game last year after beating Wash and potentially the Eagles. I’m very confident that same coach would have made the playoffs this season with 11 wins.
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:02 pm
Todd has a 500 record in TB and has the benefit of the worst division in football with a great roster.
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:06 pm
Todd would have Reggie White dropping into coverage.
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:11 pm
bowles is just a figure head for the players to have a coach they like. special teams coach and offensive coordinator will make or break this team because defense will always be bad under bowles unless bucs get crosby and hendrickson in free agency
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:14 pm
King is like the football version of Jim Cramer: take note of what he says and then do the opposite
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:17 pm
The Bucs have 2nd stringers (at best) on the D with a few 1st teamers. Use a system that allows the scrubs to at play and not pull out their tablets to find out what they are to do. TB, it ain’t working. Change or be changed.
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:19 pm
Its all about you know what…..
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Look at the stats this year compared to division rivals, facts of stats do not lie,. Bowels should retire now and step down. Bring McDermott in. Go away Bowels with dignity.
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:39 pm
@obvious one – The Glazers voted for the current Prez bud. You have it all wrong my friend.
January 22nd, 2026 at 12:49 pm
If King is correct in his assessment of players on defense, then BOTH Bowles and Licht should have been fired.
They are both responsible for the defensive roster. Period.
Is anyone else tired of hearing the word hope after endless quotes about Bowles defense?
Hope can drive a man insane.
January 22nd, 2026 at 1:03 pm
Not a Bowles fan. But Licht shares part of the blame. The defense has starting players that should not be starting anywhere in the NFL. No matter the scheme, these guys cant rush, can’t tackle and can’t cover. Would like to see both of these bozos go…. The defense needs about 6 or 7 new starters.
January 22nd, 2026 at 1:10 pm
Don Shula always made his players fit his scheme! Csonka, Kick, Morris? Running team. Dan Marino? Running team.
(Sarcasm, dripping with sarcasm)
January 22nd, 2026 at 1:20 pm
Well, Bowles is the coach. That is not going to change no matter how much some of us don’t like the decision. So, if you know Bowles will not adjust his scheme to the players, then JL is on the clock now to get the right players. Can’t fix these issues through the draft, because another bad season will result in the everyone getting fired. This means the Glazers need to pony up and pay for the FAs. If they don’t, you have your answer.
January 22nd, 2026 at 1:27 pm
Im assuming they stuck with Bowels as they want Kyle Shanahan next year.
January 22nd, 2026 at 1:30 pm
I agree with Shaun somewhat. When Bowles does do things right, he doesn’t really get a lot of credit. But when it rains, it pours. And I think he may even get blamed if it does rain.
Bowles did have a lot of Arians assistants too. Let’s see how it goes this season with new people. The new ST coach sounds great. Zac has some good traits coming in. We need a strong pass rusher, a backup QB, another tight end, and some other areas too. Rebuild it from within and see what happens.
January 22nd, 2026 at 1:43 pm
The Bowles supporters never acknowledge the fact that he has only won division titles because he is in the worst division in the NFL. And that he only won by the skin of his teeth.
January 22nd, 2026 at 2:29 pm
I’m with king here. I know everyone hates Bowles and can’t get past he’s still our coach. For good reason tho his defense has bin trash more than it has bin good. I would like to point out tho. His defense won a SB and didn’t just win it the straight up murdered Mohames one of the best with one of the best TE and one of the best offensive minded coaches to coach. When he has the front end of suh vea Shaq and JPP it was good and after these guys left there have bin a few and it’s very few but they can light it up. They gotta find 2 legit edge rushers to pair with yaya kancey and vea. Also JOE the year we won the SB JPP SHAQ AND VEA dropped into coverage and it worked beautifully. No one was b*tchin then lol
January 22nd, 2026 at 2:42 pm
the year after rams blew up the same bucs defense in the playoffs. chiefs oline was decimated during super bowl vs bucs. bowles is also the type of coach that has to see the same team during the regular season to figure out how to defend them because thats his preparation he doesnt prepare and game plan like a gruden or mcvay