Todd Bowles Explains Josh Grizzard Firing
February 24th, 2026
No more bonding at Bucs practices between Josh Grizzard and Baker Mayfield.
Last month, Todd Bowles fired 2025 offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard, a guy Bowles handpicked.
Today, in an exclusive sitdown with Joe, Bowles explained why.
“It was my call. I thought ‘Grizz’ was about maybe two or three years from putting it all together,” Bowles said.
So it seems Bowles didn’t have the time to burn so Grizzard could develop into a top-shelf NFL playcaller.
Another reason Bowles decided to move on was that too often Grizzard crafted strong gameplans that worked in practices but he didn’t use those plans in the actual games.
“I don’t know; he came up with some good schemes and we had some good things, but we didn’t kind of call them all the time,” Bowles said. “We would run them in practice, we didn’t run them in a game.
“And I thought from a head coaching standpoint, there were certain situations that we probably could have done better. And it just felt like we were stagnant and we were not where we needed to be.”
Bowles suggested he got the vibe Grizzard wanted to wave a white flag due to injuries.
“Granted, we had a lot of offensive line injuries,” Bowles began. “I get that part of it. But we have to win with backups because they’re on the team for a reason; injuries are not an excuse.
“I just didn’t think we progressed offensively the way I thought we were going to progress.”
Joe asked Bowles if veteran Bucs felt the same way and if that was the feedback he got from players after the season.
“I’m sure [players felt like I did] about certain plays,” Bowles said. “I don’t want to say all the way around they felt that way. We did some good things. I’m not going to say we didn’t.
“And Josh has some good schemes and he’s a good coach, I think, and I think his time is coming. But I thought we needed a change there, and as a head coach it’s my job to do it.”
Joe also asked Bowles if anyone higher up the food chain at One Buc Palace influenced or nudged Bowles to let Grizzard go. No, Bowles said, the move was 100 percent his call.
But it seems Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht was on board with Bowles flipping from Grizzard to Zac Robinson. Licht said in his press conference today that having a Liam Coen-like offense coordinator should be “beneficial” to several Bucs players.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:09 pm
Wow, great job Joe – I think that’s the most interesting comments I’ve ever heard from Bowles, and that’s not a backhanded compliment.
Nice job from Bowles too, actually explaining why he made the move instead of giving the generic coach talk answers we get 99% of the time.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:14 pm
RIP to Ronyell Whitaker. He started out as a feisty defensive back and had a good game against the Saints. Passes away at 46. Way too young.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:15 pm
You are right the backups are on the team for a reason-because Jason Licht selected them to be on the team-Jason Licht better ball out in the draft and Free Agency, because if the ship sinks again this year it will not be just Todd’s azz on the firing line.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:18 pm
The offense got worse as it got healthier last season. I understand Mayfield may have been less that 100%, but c’mon. We should have been better on offense (defense, too) down the stretch.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:20 pm
let me guess, Grizz is going to turn into Baker and want revenge because BUCS did him so wrong lol….
well, i will say, the 1st first i saw white and bucky both in the backfield vs philly, i thought Grizz was about to get innovative and unleash a potent rushing attack because that play gained 11yards if im not mistaken….then it got shelved due to bucky being hurt
Grizz threw the 2RB set out again vs the PATS with White and Tucker in the backfield and Tucker gained 10yards…never saw the 2RB set again
Grizz was in over his head but keep it real, he was scapegoated…
GO BUCS!!!!
February 24th, 2026 at 4:22 pm
Wow! Did joe ask what the head coach thought of the defensive play calling and why he chose to keep the defensive coordinator,injuries were not nearly as much a factor on that side of the ball. Did this scheme work in practice because I’m sure this offense would have lit up this defense with recievers and backs running wide open in practice and Baker getting zero pressure.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:24 pm
TBBucs1976 Says:
February 24th, 2026 at 4:18 pm
The offense got worse as it got healthier last season. I understand Mayfield may have been less that 100%, but c’mon. We should have been better on offense (defense, too) down the stretch.
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If your QB can’t accurately throw a 4 yard pass with the game on the line (vs NO), then what exactly are you supposed to do — in particular when you can’t run because you’re missing both your starting guards and don’t have good backups.
If Baker played even as well as a very low-end starting QB down the stretch, the Bucs win all four of those games they lost that cost them the playoffs. But Baker was terrible when it mattered most, and that tanked the season.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:26 pm
Of course it worked when they ran them in practice, he was facing Bowles defense. Hey-yo !
February 24th, 2026 at 4:37 pm
813bucboi Says:
February 24th, 2026 at 4:20 pm
let me guess, Grizz is going to turn into Baker and want revenge because BUCS did him so wrong lol….
well, i will say, the 1st first i saw white and bucky both in the backfield vs philly, i thought Grizz was about to get innovative and unleash a potent rushing attack because that play gained 11yards if im not mistaken….then it got shelved due to bucky being hurt
Grizz threw the 2RB set out again vs the PATS with White and Tucker in the backfield and Tucker gained 10yards…never saw the 2RB set again
Grizz was in over his head but keep it real, he was scapegoated…
GO BUCS!!!!
You really did cave to the pressure of the trolls. Scapegoatedfor what?? His offense sucked and was way to predictable
February 24th, 2026 at 4:42 pm
Are you kidding me? Bowzo is slippery and blames others for his failures. What a snake.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:46 pm
HC Grover Says:
February 24th, 2026 at 4:42 pm
Are you kidding me? Bowzo is slippery and blames others for his failures. What a snake.
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Bowles actually provided a reason for what he did – actually answered the question instead of blowing it off.
Comments like this is why coaches and players never say anything interesting and just give generic responses to everything.
February 24th, 2026 at 4:46 pm
Let me give you the short version of the story:
The Bucs offense lit up the Bucs Defense in practice.
Bucs offense against a real defense on game day Sh!t the bed!
End of Story!!!
February 24th, 2026 at 4:50 pm
Todd is either blaming someone else or throwing up old excuses.
February 24th, 2026 at 5:01 pm
I remember when El Serpiente left and Grizzard was the choice for OC the majority of the media and Bucs fan (and most comments on this page) were talking about a seamless transition and the Offense wont miss a bit.
Like to be an OC is like playing Madden and just call plays.
I know this Offense had injuries especially in OL and WR but it didnt have any rhythm ever, was too predictable and with no imagination or anticipation.
Seems there is more to be an OC than just have the same scheme and calling plays, who would have thought that? Not many as we saw this time last year.
The problem is we will probably see the same Defense which was as worse as the Offense.
Go Bucs
February 24th, 2026 at 5:04 pm
So the positive is we got an upgrade at offensive coordinator. So now we need an upgrade on defense. It will have to be player upgrades since we kept our confusion causing, lack of communication, over complicated DC. All we have is hope.
February 24th, 2026 at 5:16 pm
Let’s not forget that Coen wanted to take Grizzard with him to Jacksonville and the Bucs brass denied him the move. Then TB starts controlling game plans so if it was me I would have been a little unhappy too
February 24th, 2026 at 5:26 pm
True leaders don’t blame others for their failures.
As a HC you take on the responsibility of the entire team dynamic.
Everyone was fired except for Bowles. Including the DC.
But we are now supposed to jump on board and hand over our money and time?
This guy is an absolute fraud that continues to fail upwards.
Great work if you can get it!
February 24th, 2026 at 5:36 pm
Josh Grizzard should have gotten a second year. We started last season looking incredible, this was all new to him it takes time. Wish him nothing but the best!
February 24th, 2026 at 5:41 pm
What the best head coaches do is wait until the season is over before taking any corrective action that might have helped a rookie coordinator improve. Todd knew that interceding with performance improvement feedback during the season was a bad idea. While it might have helped the Bucs make the playoffs, Todd plays the long game. We fans are lucky to have him.
February 24th, 2026 at 5:42 pm
““And I thought from a head coaching standpoint, there were certain situations that we probably could have done better. And it just felt like we were stagnant and we were not where we needed to be.”
“Granted, we had a lot of offensive line injuries,” Bowles began. “I get that part of it. But we have to win with backups because they’re on the team for a reason; injuries are not an excuse.”
“I just didn’t think we progressed offensively the way I thought we were going to progress.”
Todd evidently didn’t bother to apply those same critiques to himself. If he had, he’d realize he should’ve been beside Griz walking out the front door. Due is such a waste.
February 24th, 2026 at 5:46 pm
Wow, this is really cool intel. Excellent reporting, nice job Joe!
February 24th, 2026 at 5:48 pm
So why did he hire a guy to call professional offensive football who is my god! 3 TO 4 years away from being competent. That is yet another horrible mark on Bowles. WTF is going on? This is insane to me. Take accountability and fire yourself Todd that’s how you improve rhis team. His desicions are consistently terrible. This is just looney
February 24th, 2026 at 5:48 pm
“Joe asked Bowles if veteran Bucs felt the same way and if that was the feedback he got from players after the season.
“I’m sure [players felt like I did] about certain plays,” Bowles said. “I don’t want to say all the way around they felt that way. We did some good things. I’m not going to say we didn’t.”
Rachaad White to name at least one
“Grizz was in over his head but keep it real, he was scapegoated”
Scapegoated? Give me a break, he was terrible. Not feel for pacing, talked about the hot hand, barely showed dedication to it and his offense was stagnant. You can point out examples of that stagnation from week 1 to the season finale.
Grizz was lucky enough to have the talent at his disposal injuries included and still couldn’t make this offense look competent from a drive to drive basis. Players made him look bad at time, sure but Grizz was too wet behind the ears. Had Coen not left us at the alter and we were able to do a proper OC search, chances are Grizzard wouldn’t have gotten that chance to be “scapegoated” foh
It’s alright to call a spade, a spade y’all
February 24th, 2026 at 5:53 pm
Bowles is about 20 or 30 years from putting it together, when it will be flag football.
February 24th, 2026 at 5:57 pm
Does Bowles think the defense progressed? He should’ve fired himself for his own “logic”. If he really said that he was too busy “helping” the offense to fix the defense, he should be fired right now, for saying something so stupid. What a CLOWN! 🤡
February 24th, 2026 at 5:59 pm
AK – well done.
So, Todd saw this for 17 games and did what about it in season?
February 24th, 2026 at 6:00 pm
I wonder how the defensive players felt about having “pass rushers” in coverage. Did that ever work? It’s no wonder why some of those guys quit, with the clown show that is a Bowles defense.
February 24th, 2026 at 6:08 pm
Offense didn’t progress due to line injuries. Having both guards out destroyed our offense. No time for anything and couldn’t run or step into a pass anymore. Pocket collapsing instantly on the snap. Without the guards, they would have had to throw away about 95% of the playbook. Anything that takes longer than 2 seconds to develop!
February 24th, 2026 at 6:13 pm
Turtle Todd Bowles isn’t above a CYA move, but this was a legitimately logical decision, explained quite well. The man from Lizard Lick, which I’ve been to more than once, could show up for another team in a few years and do well. Just not here, not now. Anyone who didn’t see the regression wasn’t looking.
February 24th, 2026 at 6:32 pm
Once again, Joe must have just forgot to ask him about how far away his defense is….
How ironic the Joe only wants to ask a defensive guru about the offense
February 24th, 2026 at 6:42 pm
Bowles said Grizz is 2-3 years from getting it
This from Bowles are you kidding
THIS GUY IS LAUGHABLE
When will Bowles be ready ????
February 24th, 2026 at 6:44 pm
Bowles has always passed the blame. Never owns anything. So all the scapegoat got canned while retaining the general of the toxicity. Makes sense I guess
February 24th, 2026 at 6:56 pm
I hope there are some upcoming questions and answers from this ‘Defensive Genius’ about his great defence core and his own play calling. His D gets worse every year since Cooper Kupp
February 24th, 2026 at 7:03 pm
The pot calling the kettle black. Bowles talks about Grizz like we talk about Bowles! He’s clueless. Felt like we got stagnant on offense. He won’t admit his defense is just as bad. Hard to root for this guy.
February 24th, 2026 at 7:34 pm
Sounds like we are tanking for a young quarterback this year?
February 24th, 2026 at 7:46 pm
Lucky for Bowles the Glazers arent trying to win a super bowl anytime soon or else they would have held him accountable for hiring someone who wasnt ready to be a coordinator for the next 3 years and also hiring charlie strong in the same offseason
February 24th, 2026 at 7:46 pm
Proving that Bowles is just a spectator and not even a good one, if he thought 3rd string OG’s were allowing Baker time to throw, he is just clueless. Those guys allowed Baker to get beat up. To the extent that Bowles still has a job, it is because Baker dug the team out of certain defeats in the first half of the season.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:06 pm
Bowles sucks.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:08 pm
Bowles is a delusional buffoon who can’t see that his defensive scheme is a joke. Grizz first go at calling plays with in camp against Bowles. He thought man, “this is easy”, then the season started and he faced real defensive schemes and reality set in.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:24 pm
Weren’t injuries the excuse for Bowles D in 2024?
Maybe those were just excuses made by media and fans.
Britt replaced by SVD
Funderbunk and Hayes replaced by a mostly healthy Dean, Parrish and a 2nd rounder.
JTS replaced by Reddick
AWJ back to health.
Some youth added up front in Simmons and Roberts.
D doesn’t improve, Bowles retained in 2 roles.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:30 pm
All of you are horrible fans!! There is no reason to bash but that’s all most of ever do. Freaking whiners. Bowles gave an explanation which is way more then he usually does. Give the guy a break. None of you could do any better. Bunch of couch coaches
February 24th, 2026 at 8:34 pm
It wasn’t overly obvious but Grizzard def got the bus here.
He had to go if Bowles was staying, that’s politically understandable. But in those instances you praise him for what he did correct and you state that it just didn’t work out so you had to move on. Everyone would understand that. Shouldn’t have been difficult.
No one gets “2-3” years to put it together in an OC role and implying to Joe he wanted to use the injuries as excuses is a bad look. If those are actually true, you don’t say it as a leader or as a professional.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:35 pm
Slacker Says:
February 24th, 2026 at 6:44 pm
Bowles has always passed the blame. Never owns anything. So all the scapegoat got canned while retaining the general of the toxicity. Makes sense I guess
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Since we’re doing the bumper stick talk, like ‘passing the Buc’ and ‘never owns’ — what exactly does ‘owning’ something look like? Is it like when a coach says, “I take full responsibility” and the dopes on sports talk radio act like that’s a noble act? It means nothing unless they immediately resign on the spot and give away their salary. Who does that at the NFL level? Has it ever happened at all?
February 24th, 2026 at 8:38 pm
Jwg813 Says:
February 24th, 2026 at 8:30 pm
All of you are horrible fans!! There is no reason to bash but that’s all most of ever do. Freaking whiners.
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It is amazing that their constant non-stop crybaby routine is non-stop, when they see Bowles their Pavlovian response is to scream and yell the same thing over and over and over, never once saying anything interesting or useless. It’s the sign of inbreeding I’d assume.
February 24th, 2026 at 8:43 pm
JWG, what a stupid thing to say. Sure none of us could have done better. Neither are we given mega-bucks to do so. But, one thing we CAN do is see ineptitude when it happens. Plenty of that to see on this defense.
February 24th, 2026 at 9:35 pm
Gotta coach it better gotta play it better gotcha Todd same sh!t he always says outstanding. So hyped for this upcoming season of gotta coach it better gotta play it better jets all over again.
February 24th, 2026 at 10:15 pm
Leave Todd alone! Hey, he has almost as many wins as losses, and he even won a playoff game once! It’s hard to win in the NFL. Here we have a guy who has two huge jobs to do, so it’s really hard for him to do everything. See?
So, it’s not Todd’s fault and he is almost a winning coach.
February 24th, 2026 at 10:51 pm
All these people still don’t understand that the defense had us in all but two games in the offense could barely score more than 20 points which is an abomination compared to the year before and the makeup of the team we have. Grizzard was just as vanilla and unimaginative as Jagodinski. He wa so predictable that you could literally say down, distance, and place on the field and you could say what they would run before it happened. Are offense went stale once by weeks came about and a real defensive coordinator had the ability to scheme against the vanilla. You never played to our strengths, never tried to hide our weaknesses, and never tried to play to the opposing strengths and weaknesses.
February 24th, 2026 at 11:42 pm
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that answer and what he said seemed to be 100% correct. Especially as the players started coming back from injury, the offense became more and more stagnant. Grizz got extremely gun shy in his play calling.
February 25th, 2026 at 6:28 am
I I recall correctly, Bowles spent as much or more time with the offense this year than with the defense at practices – something he never did before. With no actual defensive coordinator supervising those practices, Bowles’ defense may have suffered a great deal.
Hopefully with Robinson – an experienced O.C. – Bowles will stay on his side of the ball this season and give Zac the freedom to let the offense fly. Maybe the defense will improve with more attention from Bowles.
February 25th, 2026 at 7:10 am
Just more proof that Canales and Coen propped up those teams.
Bowles hired Grizzard, its not like Grizzard was thrust upon him.
If Bowles had any self awareness, he would have answered that question with some “coach speak”, not show his a$$ to the fan bases by basically admiting that he hired an OC in diapers and then didnt help him fix things when the wheels were falling off.
February 25th, 2026 at 7:49 am
Scapegoated? Give me a break, he was terrible.
imo, the defense and special teams were worse than the offense…
if he wasnt scapegoated, why did philly hire him so quickly?
GO BUCS!!!!
February 25th, 2026 at 11:36 am
So whats his excuse exactly on defense? Are we also going to fire the defensive coordinator?
Oh yeah, that’s right OOPS LOL
Funny part is… as bad as the offense regressed it was still better than that defense
February 25th, 2026 at 1:34 pm
im a todd bowles supporter but this interview did not address the key question
did bowles fire his potential interim hc replacement to buy himself a full season?
look, the hassan reddick and special teams screw ups were really bad. the ice is thinner than anyone dare say.
pray that zac robinson etc is enough, but we cant cover at lb, and that was ignored last season too”
if this doesnt get fixed in a hurry we are looking at a housecleaning next year
February 26th, 2026 at 4:56 pm
how did Jason Licht not fire Todd Bowles, or did Bowles not disclose this information on his exit interview with Glazers & Licht? 6 seasons of a declining defense with Todd running the show.
February 26th, 2026 at 5:00 pm
Todd spent more time with the offense last season because he understood that HIS defense was useless at stopping any team, and he needed a strong offense to outscore his porous defense. How can the Glazers & Jason Licht allow Bowles to have no defensive coordinator on staff? We need as many coaches as the NFL will allow to teach the players one-on-one if necessary.
March 2nd, 2026 at 4:04 pm
What happens when you run out of scapegoats? We are about to find out this coming season.