How Bad Was The Bucs’ Special Teams Coaching?
February 19th, 2026
Fun fact: among NFL kick returners with at least 10 returns last season, Bucs returner Kameron Johnson ranked 41st in the NFL in yards per return while Sean Tucker ranked 56th.
That was inexcusable.
The Bucs’ poor special teams cost the team a couple of wins. Todd Bowles fired special teams chief Thomas McGaughey and his assistant, Keith Tandy, the former Bucs defensive back (2012-2017). Joe thinks it’s worth noting that McGaughey and Tandy did not find new NFL jobs.
The Bucs were so bad covering kickoff returns that they stopped trying, ordering kicker Chase McClaughlin to kick the ball out of the end zone.
On their own returns, well, the stats above tell the story.
Joe assumes the Bucs will secure better special teams players through free agency. That may lead to a few surprising signings. But Joe is more intrigued by how new Bucs special teams coach Danny Smith will be able to coach up players in his 30th season as an NFL special teams leader, the last 13 with the Steelers. He’s got to represent an upgrade to McGaughey.
At kickoff returner, Joe doesn’t get why Tez Johnson couldn’t win the job.
Perhaps it was tied to Johnson falling off the map in the second half of the season. In the final 8 games, Johnson had just 9 catches for 67 yards, despite making four starts at receiver.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:11 pm
This is what happens when a HC hires “friends “ instead of best possible candidates. Seems like if you surround yourself with poor coaches they won’t question what you are doing. These hires alone are reason TB should not be a HC anymore.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:14 pm
As bad as the head coaching. IOW awful.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:14 pm
It’s not Bowles fault that he stuck with Magoo. Don’t blame Todd for that.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:17 pm
The kickoff coverage should drastically improve. The Danny’s Steelers were #5 in kickoff coverage compared to the Bucs at #30. If the kickoff return blocking improves under Danny Smith, then the return game will be good.
Tez caught the ball well, he just needs to get better in his routes to complete with Evans, Godwin, EE, and JMac for targets.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:23 pm
“At kickoff returner, Joe doesn’t get why Tez Johnson couldn’t win the job.”
Are you serious? Because he’s not bigger nor faster than Kam Johnson, who I recall having a few big returns for us starting in wk1 @ATL.
Funny though, no mention of the blocked punts/FGs, nor any mention of the frequency we punted with throughout the season.
Buc fans know the value of punting when it comes to wanting more from the defense, but its peeps on our offense being a top-10 unit punting the ball away.
I’d prefer to be a top-10 team kicking the ball off after a score, instead of punting it away because we couldn’t score.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:24 pm
It’s time for a defensive coordinator. It’s cut and dry!
February 19th, 2026 at 1:32 pm
It’s a tossup between who was a worse unit. Every time we scored a TD last year and the following Kick off being returned to the 50 yard line at least or was it every time the Putrid Pass Defense that we have had now for a few years needed to make a stop-say on 3rd downs for example-that made last year punishing to watch play out after such a Hot Start. Just a Bad Memory of a season. And why did Todd keep his job again? Anybody?
February 19th, 2026 at 1:33 pm
When Bowles came out and said we cant fix the coverage so we are going to kick it in the endzone and give it to them at the 35…. that should have been the end of the Todd Bowles error, i mean era.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:35 pm
Funny though, no mention of the blocked punts/FGs, nor any mention of the frequency we punted with throughout the season.
BINGO!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
February 19th, 2026 at 1:36 pm
That starts at the top (Bowles). He talks about coaching these guys up, but you don’t do that with walk throughs and soft practices. Soft coach, soft team.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:42 pm
Also tells you why Bowles should be out of a job. Has any coach we let go in the past 4 years gotten another job?
Canales and Coen instantly got HC jobs cause people in the league saw what they did with the Bowles anchor and were impressed.
What’s his name got a job with the Lions but no one else wants to touch our coaches and I guarantee if Bowles was on the hiring line no one would touch him. When Bucs finally wake up and let him go, he will retire to save face.
February 19th, 2026 at 1:46 pm
we love the tandy man…other dude – not so much !
February 19th, 2026 at 2:11 pm
Bowles should have been let go. I don’t see how anything will change as long as this guy is HC/DC. He should have done everything possible to fix Special Teams last season and it isn’t just kicking the ball out of the end zone. Even when the Bucs were winning, I voted no confidence for Bowles. Nothing will change my mind. The best he will ever do is the NFC South division winner which in reality is just a constellation prize.
February 19th, 2026 at 2:48 pm
Special Teams. Just a warmup for the real clown show.
February 19th, 2026 at 2:51 pm
You get what you pay for….2 UDFA returners……
February 19th, 2026 at 4:43 pm
Tez had a couple great returns in preseason, then he made a mistake (wasn’t a fumble) and they never put him back there again
February 19th, 2026 at 5:07 pm
Bowzo….is there any other HC/DC or HC/OC in the NFL??? When I first saw that it was the tell of foreboding this disaster of Blunderbucs.
February 19th, 2026 at 5:31 pm
guess what the buck stops with bowles/ he hired all of them/ he should be gone
February 19th, 2026 at 6:33 pm
@Joes
That is right, Bowles did, eventually tell Mclaughlin to kick it out of the end zone.
However, I remember someone in the pen and mike club asking Bowles in an after game press conferences if that option had been explored and Bowles said “we talked about it”.
In my very humble opinion this is the problem with Coach Bowles. He’s slow to adjust on everything.
February 19th, 2026 at 7:10 pm
Maybe Bowles should have fired him midseason to show the team no excuses. The Rams fired their ST coord late in the season. Thats the difference between winners and losers, winners make the tough calls and know when mediocracy is unacceptable. Losers fail to adapt or too slow or scared to make changes/ take chances. Bowles is and always will be a loser with his losing mentality.
February 19th, 2026 at 7:14 pm
It was about as bad as the head coaching.
February 20th, 2026 at 2:27 am
The obvious fact is, Bowles had nothing to do with the 2-7 finish. He was and is, after all, both head coach and defensive coordinator. So he had no time to focus on something like a losing streak when he had things to do, excellence to be envisioned, mastermind blitzes to be concocted.
We are lucky Licht and the Glazers saw this.
February 20th, 2026 at 6:26 am
Bad enough to wake you at night with the cold sweats.
February 20th, 2026 at 9:05 am
McGaughey was a strange hire from the start The Giants special teams he coached didn’t look to have good stats… so his track record was mediocre at best.
February 20th, 2026 at 11:58 am
And Bowles just let this happen
February 20th, 2026 at 12:05 pm
On the bright side, Bowles is so good at hiring offensive coordinators, they get stolen virtually every year.
February 20th, 2026 at 1:02 pm
I dont remember a worse ST unit for this franchise. Special teams, outside of CM, was AWFUL… worst in NFL. Cost us a few games for sure. In all honesty, it was embarrassing. Dude should have been fired after the Bills ST debacle. But not Bowles. Ridiculous. How does that dude still have a job?
February 20th, 2026 at 1:14 pm
Bowles hired a special teams coach who was HORRIBLE with his previous team! Then proceeded to keep him for the entire season even though he cost us 3 games at the very minimum. Friends or not, he should have been sent packing early in the season.
February 20th, 2026 at 10:33 pm
How does Bowles hire him and keep him and not be held accountable with his own head. In what world do we call this accountability?