Todd Bowles Shoots Down Notion Bucs Weren’t Hungry In Final Weeks
March 30th, 2026
So Joe is hanging out with NFL Coaches, GMs and media at the NFL annual meeting today in Phoenix.
Before breakfast with Todd Bowles, Joe was able to have an on-the-record and off-the-record session with the Bucs’ head coach and another media type.
It was there that Joe asked a question per the request of Ira Kaufman, the Sage of Tampa Bay Sports, the venerable JoeBucsFan.com columnist:
“Why did it seem like teams were more hungry to play than the Bucs were the last four weeks of the season?”
“I don’t think teams were more hungry to play; they beat us,” Bowles said. “That doesn’t mean we weren’t hungry to play. We made physical mistakes, but effort-wise, our effort was outstanding. We didn’t play smart at times. We didn’t coach smart at times. But as far as from a ‘hungry’ standpoint, I would not use that word.”
If the Bucs were hungry down the stretch, Joe didn’t see it, but perhaps “stale” is a better word. As Bowles said today, “our mentality’s got to be different.”
With the all the coaching changes and free agent blood on the roster, it’s clear the Bucs were seeking changes to more than just talent.
“If you stay the same, sometimes you get the same results,” Bowles said. “So we thought we had to make a few tweaks, coaching-wise and playing-wise. We thought we got better. We got different, and we got better.”
March 30th, 2026 at 1:34 pm
Barring injuries and of course after a successful draft, I like our odds of being a successful team this year. Certainly few teams have the caliber qb, offensive line, and wide receivers top to bottom we have.
March 30th, 2026 at 1:35 pm
Todd’s always hungry.
March 30th, 2026 at 1:38 pm
The Bucs were playing like a team that was afraid of losing
Not as a team that was playing to blow teams away
They lacked confidence, they lacked discipline
They were a team that was fearful, and not feared
In other words ….they stunk
March 30th, 2026 at 1:40 pm
Play it better and coach it better. Sounds pretty stale to me. Mistakes yes. In all phases. Other teams outplayed and out coached us. We will have some good days but ultimately we will be mediocre with this guy at the helm. It is what it is.
March 30th, 2026 at 1:43 pm
Ive tuned him out i read what he says but goes into one ear and out the other ive lost confidence in this coaching staff and this team prove to me you can win im not saying a superbowl because we all know they won’t sniff the playoffs panties for a while
March 30th, 2026 at 1:45 pm
teams were very hungry to play the bucs!!!!
baker was turning the ball over left and right the final month of the season!!!….
teams wanted a piece of Bake lol!!!!…and baker delivered lol
GO BUCS!!!!
March 30th, 2026 at 1:45 pm
So…mentality needs to be different but hunger all good? Ok. What I want to hear is that team will be firing out the gate this season to kick some a$$. Tell me it’s all fixed (SP check, OC check..thanks, Joe). How about that D, Todd. No need for platitudes just tell me you got this.
March 30th, 2026 at 1:46 pm
i sure hope the Personnel on this team is vastly improved on the Defensive side of the ball because Todds Putrid Pass Defense needs a lot of Help. With Baker and a healthy O-Line with all the skill players we should be fine with an OC that knows what he’s doing. Getting off the field on 3rd down has been this Team’s problem on D.
March 30th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
“hungrier” may be the wrong word….
BUCS weren’t Thirsty enough….
isnt that what cottonmouth baker, licht and bowles said, other teams have more “juice” than the bucs lol… which is why we signed JPP…more juice!!!
all this BS about brunch, lunch hungry and thirsty but no one is saying anything about urgency or accountability….
GO BUCS!!!!!
March 30th, 2026 at 1:52 pm
this is what are coaching has come down too…. OMG
March 30th, 2026 at 2:03 pm
A bit random, but does anyone know why this off-season we are seeing rules proposals being submitted and then withdrawn? The Rams. The Browns.
You have plenty of time to think about if you wanna submit them or not in the first place. Then days/weeks later withdraw the proposal. What’s the point of doing that?
It’s almost like some Tony’s (or Jerry’s) walked into the teams’ buildings after the proposals were submitted and said “it’s a nice place you got here, be a shame if something happened to it” situation, hahaha
March 30th, 2026 at 2:04 pm
….I mean Bowles would never admit to that because there isn’t any one thing that would be a greater reflection of the head coach then effort. There is no greater indictment on the head coach. Players checking out would be damning, and Bowles is smart enough to know that so admitting as such wouldn’t be a good look, but we all have eyes and a brain. The glazers brought him back because well….golly…they really really like him…
March 30th, 2026 at 2:04 pm
Didn’t coach it smart? Like not kicking the ball out of bounds against Buffalo? What a loser this guy is. Remember when Baker called out the team for their effort then he threw 4th qtr ints in like 3 straight games and lost. Good times.
Tell me, if the “leadership” is the same, then what has changed? You mean to tell me a few FAs and some rookie are going to changes the culture and improve the energy of the team? Oh ok…
March 30th, 2026 at 2:06 pm
813
Damn, I forgot they dusted off JPP to bring in the juice. Lol….I keep hearing the QB has juice and energy but meanwhile the Bucs will pay someone to stand on the sideline for emotional support. This team is a bad joke getting worse.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:10 pm
Even in camp cupcake we’ll have a half a dozen starters on IR by game 1.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:11 pm
“We didn’t coach smart at times” Please name me one time you did, Coach.
There’s really no need to rehash the 2025 collapse anymore.
Since the path forward is being forged by the same guy that out us into the ditch.
He has zero incentive to change his ways. He can coast into retirement in three years, or more if extended again. Seven years of .500 football might not be enough for the Glazer kids.
The cigar store Indian is here to stay.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:15 pm
Looked more like quit to me. When you’re losing to backup QB’s there are major issues.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:19 pm
I mean…….just……
It must be nice to have a job where nothing is ever your fault, and you can act completely clueless about what went on and pretend none of the stuff we saw actually happened.
2-7
3rd and 28
4th and 14
Kirk’s Cousin
Mike Evans
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Obviously it was the players’ fault, the other coaches’ faults, Jason’s fault, the Glazers’ faults, and especially us fans. It was mostly our fault.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:20 pm
TB has had a “play not to lose”mentality. When we played the Browns with enough time left to mount a charge, with the Goat at QB, he ran out the clock because he was afraid of a turnover, the Chiefs game when we should have gone for 2 points to win instead of going to overtime in Arrowhead against Mahones. There are five or six other examples where he takes the cautious path.
He doesn’t have a winner’s mentality. Any blind man could see the defense had quit on him last year.
So sick of hearing the same lame excuses from him.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:23 pm
Arians is his best friend but Bowles refuses to adopt the no risk it, no biscuit mentality. The team looked like they had no sense of urgency.
March 30th, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Bee says: This team is a bad joke getting worse.
exactly!!!!…lol…
GO BUCS!!!!!
March 30th, 2026 at 2:44 pm
“Our Effort was Outstanding”
Losing 7 of our last nine and that’s his takeaway.
He’s living his coaching life in a bubble surrounded by his yes men on the coaching staff (yes- even the assistants to the assistants he promoted).
And that’s why we are living in .500 pergatory in the worst division in the league.
March 30th, 2026 at 3:47 pm
In the 8 games prior to the BYE last year, the Bucs’ defense gave up 6 explosive plays for TDs of greater than 20 yds (plus our S/Ts gave up a blocked punt for a TD & a blocked FG for a TD). Our record was 6-2 and we allowed opponents to score at a rate of 22.3 PPG average, while our offense scored at a rate of 24.6 PPG average. And oh ya, our offense made only 5 giveaways while our defense made 12 takeaways (PLUS 7 differential).
In the 9 games after the BYE last year, the Bucs’ defense gave up 10 explosive plays for TDs of greater than 20 yds (plus Baker threw a Pick-6 for a TD). Our record was 2-7 and we allowed opponents to score at a rate of 25.9 PPG average, while our offense scored at a rate of only 20.3 PPG average. And oh ya, our offense made 11 giveaways while our defense made 11 takeaways (Net 0 differential).
It’s really not that hard to figure out why we did better in the first hard of the season than in the second half. Bucs had some significant injuries all season, and I’m sure that those injuries hampered not just game play but also the weekly practices.
I personally don’t think it’s a matter of being ‘hungry enough’ (we had the playoffs on the line for motivation … yet we still blew it). Rather it was a matter of making several costly mistakes in each loss for any number of reasons (injuries hampered some starters, practices weren’t as crisp, etc). Fact is that it’s all water under the bridge at this point. Learn from it and press on.
March 30th, 2026 at 3:53 pm
Defense Rules making it simple. Don’t know about everything else your stats were telling us DR, but the last 2 lines? Simple!
March 30th, 2026 at 3:55 pm
Most of the team stood like wooden Indians on the sidelines at the end of the of last year when big plays were made. No emotion.
It’s one thing to be clueless. It’s quite another to flat out lie.
We can all be the judge on which he is.
March 30th, 2026 at 4:04 pm
We were 8-9 last year. We have only one season. Doesn’t matter what happened the first half of the season, or the second half of the season. We add it all up, and what we were is about a .500 team. Don’t ever see that changing under Todd. He’s a .500 coach.
March 30th, 2026 at 4:21 pm
Everyone has made some great points but that Bills game they let 1 guy beat them. 1 Freaking guy. A running QB. How do you NOT see that coming? The same with the Patriots game. And the Atlanta game. And a few others. They need to go look at that crap and ask some hard questions.
March 30th, 2026 at 4:36 pm
Bad players not making plays. Bucs backups are not very talented. Oline was shot, Dline was weak and slow. LB’s were getting pushed around and missing coverages and tackles. Hard to say what the defensive backfield was doing? But they were out of position and getting worked. Baker was getting killed in the backfield and our OC was totally clueless. Special teams was a total disaster, so bad that every kickoff had to be kicked into the end zone as there was no coverage. Todd was in charge of this nuclear meltdown and the fans have seen enough. Based on the FA signings this year, I don’t see the Bucs getting any better. Licht is now hyping players like Walker… JTS or Braswell 2.0? This team is going to get a massive reality check next season.
March 30th, 2026 at 4:51 pm
One thing I hadn’t recognized is the effect that the Bucs terrible Special Teams performance during kickoffs had on our defense during 2025. It was beyond abysmal, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it negatively impacted defensive players’ mindsets when they went out onto the field after each kickoff. How could it not when you’ve just been given a significantly shorter field to defend.
Kickoff coverage was so bad that Bowles started having McLaughlin kick into the end-zone for a touchback (and ball given to the opponent at our 35-yard-line) several games after the BYE week.
o Patriots: 4 kickoffs – 2 touchbacks – 2 returns (45 yds)
o Bills: 6 kickoffs – 0 touchbacks – 6 returns (234 yds)
o Rams: 2 kickoffs – 2 touchbacks – 0 returns (0 yds) Note: McLaughlin’s kickoff to start 3rd qtr was short of landing zone; penalized & Rams got ball at their 40-yard-line.
o Cards: 5 kickoffs – 0 touchbacks – 5 returns (139 yds)
o Saints: 5 kickoffs – 0 touchbacks – 5 returns (138 yds)
o Falcons: 5 kickoffs – 5 touchbacks – 0 returns (0 yds)
o Panthers: 5 kickoffs – 5 touchbacks – 0 returns (0 yds)
o Dolphins: 3 kickoffs – 2 touchbacks – 1 returns (47 yds)
o Panthers: 5 kickoffs – 5 touchbacks – 0 returns (0 yds)
So after the BYE the Bucs made 40 kickoffs (plus 2 onside kicks that both failed). Bowles had McLaughlin kick 21 of them into the end zone for touchbacks (netting our opponents 35 yards on each one). Opponents returned 19 kickoffs for a total of 603 yds (31.7 yds return average). In the last 4 games, Bucs kicked off 18 times … 17 of those were touchbacks. Not really any worse than what was happening when we kicked off short & allowed opponents to return the kick an average of almost 32 yds per return.
To say that our Special Teams was abysmal last year is an understatement. Bucs S/Ts allowed 1090 kickoff return yds in the first 8 games plus another 603 yds in the last 9 games, for a season’s total of 1693 kickoff return yds allowed. We also had 1 punt blocked (returned for a TD), 1 FG blocked (returned for a TD), plus 2 other FGs blocked.
Interestingly, Bucs’ defense gave up FEWER rushing yards (1684 yds) than they did kickoff return yds (1693 yds). THAT’S the definition of abysmal.
March 30th, 2026 at 4:56 pm
The special teams has been bad for a while keep point at this and that this was just a badly lead team and if they didn’t give up sure looked like it.
March 30th, 2026 at 4:58 pm
To think getting ride of a handfull of coaches and players is going to do anything when it’s the same at the top good on you for buying that someone has got to I guess.
March 30th, 2026 at 5:03 pm
buc4evr … ‘Todd was in charge of this nuclear meltdown and the fans have seen enough. Based on the FA signings this year, I don’t see the Bucs getting any better.’
I like your analysis, and yes, Todd Bowles was in charge of the ‘nuclear meltdown’. But I don’t share your pessimism. I have every expectation that, assuming we draft smart, the Bucs will rebound and have a good 2026.
Our offense HAS to be better; it’s too talented not to. Our Special Teams HAS to do better; it looked to be historically bad last season, but thankfully we’ve now got a new S/Ts coach & several more talented S/Ts players. Our defense is obviously undergoing a massive change, but that’s exactly what we need. Last year’s defense was too small, not as talented as many thought & not nearly tough enough. We’ve added some bigger, tougher beasts, with more to come HOPEFULLY in the draft. Cautiously optimistic at this point, because Jason & Todd can still screw up what should be a no-brainer draft.
March 30th, 2026 at 5:37 pm
DR, I just hope Licht drafts for positions of need which the Bucs have a lot and not BAP this year. I would be happy with Allen or Styles at LB , Faulk or Mesidor at Edge. Then a CB in the second round. Licht has been good at drafting Offensive players, but not so good with Defensive players. Will be interesting to see how Hall and JTS do this season. If they ball out, then We will know where the problem lies. lol.
March 30th, 2026 at 5:45 pm
The Bucs were starving for better coaching at all levels. In the Desert of Bowles where they train, they even forget how to do the basics like tackling, taking correct angles, blocking for field goals and how to cover receivers running free.