“Hey, I Gotta Go To Work Here Now”
April 27th, 2026
It smells like the Bucs were too comfortable on defense last year, if you listen to the words of one of the fired Bucs defensive coaches.
Last year’s affable Bucs defensive line coach Charlie Strong was launched in January. He’s not bitter and still is pulling for the Buccaneers, so he’s told The JP Peterson Show multiple times.
On Friday, Strong was a show guest and talked about how the addition of A’Shawn Robinson in free agency after losing Logan Hall, and the drafting of edge rusher Rueben Bain in Round 1, will change the attitude along the Bucs’ defensive front.
“It’ll be so much different than last season because of what you’re adding to the room,” Strong said. “Even you added it inside, when you got Robinson inside. You’re getting some guys now.
“You know, there’s going to be a lot of competition. And guys are going to be really feeling like, ‘Hey, I gotta go to work here now.'”
Think about that for a moment: a coach noting how players will now feel like they have to work hard.
That says a lot — either about Strong or the Bucs’ 2025 defensive culture. Or both.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:22 am
Capehart is going to be better than Logan Hall
April 27th, 2026 at 9:22 am
It says a lot about someone who wasn’t fired.
Arians would never have tolerated a complacency.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:25 am
Right! 3,28
April 27th, 2026 at 9:35 am
Well it sure can’t be the scheme or the coaching. We know that!
The front seven should be much improved. Hopefully Bain will be up on the line.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:38 am
Too many Choir Boys in the team last year
Now we’re bringing in physical football players with high football IQ
No more Ice Cream trucks at training camp
April 27th, 2026 at 9:41 am
“”on the team*”
April 27th, 2026 at 9:50 am
So many people just think Bowles if an awful coach and is not a developer of players, schemes or make adjustments. Maybe they are right, but i am sure of one thing! Bad players can’t be coached up or motivated! You have to draft or trade for players that love playing and are going to give you all they have. We have some dogs on our offensive line and if we can stay healthy we will very good. Our focus has been on building the offense. Roughly our spending on offense has been around 2/3rds of our cap and defense 1/3rd. You wonder why our defense is not good? Parcells had it right (it’s about the Jimmies and the
Joes)! We will see what Bowles can do with some good players then we can determine if he can coach. Until then give him a chance.
April 27th, 2026 at 9:57 am
Good Food for thought here Joe. In other words, Starters on Defense felt like their jobs were secure no matter what. No competition, so I can just play at my speed. Why exert myself when my backup sucks? Now, D linemen gotta play hard. Good stuff.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:02 am
Bucs DLine wasn’t big enough or nasty enough last season. It really is as simple as that. Fully expect our revamped DLine to do a much better job at both Run Defense AND Pass Rushing. And THAT should let our OLBs feast.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:03 am
Don’t remember anyone on defense losing their job because of poor performance. Why fire Strong when the Bucs basically admitted they didn’t have the right horses in the race?
April 27th, 2026 at 10:04 am
“”We will see what Bowles can do with some good players then we can determine if he can coach. Until then give him a chance.””
Bowles has had more chances than he deserves. This coach lost the team last year. Nobody is going to tell me different. That’s the ultimate FAILURE for a HC.
Coaching matters in the NFL. Ask the Chicago Bears if that’s true. I expect this team will flounder around .500 again. It’s the Bowles way.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:07 am
gotta compete now!!!
NO GIMMES
GO BUCS!!!!
April 27th, 2026 at 10:09 am
Babygrace
Whos responsible for picking the bad players? Who has control over who makes the team? Who hires the coaches to coach up the players?
Its definitely Bowles fault because if the players were good and playing well you’d give Bowles credit for that.
April 27th, 2026 at 10:31 am
None of these dudes have so much as strapped on a helmet for the Training of Todd, and people are anointing the team as much improved.
Must be swoon syndrome.
We lost Mike, Dean, White, Izien and Hall. Hall even mentioned that how he was being used was in a flaccid role, non-attacking.
No one is going to attack and do all this macho stuff when they are coached to “read and react” aka stand around and wait. We shall see.
smh
April 27th, 2026 at 10:36 am
We lost a bunch of soft, cream puff Diva’s
April 27th, 2026 at 10:37 am
There’s a few more that has to go
April 27th, 2026 at 10:52 am
3,28, Evans nailed it!
April 27th, 2026 at 11:06 am
Bowles any culture or mindset Tom Brady brought to this team. Those guys are polar opposites. Winning those nfc titles made this team lazy and complacent
April 27th, 2026 at 11:12 am
The defense was soft last year: physically and mentally. In my opinion a couple of the culprits were Jamel Dean and Logan Hall. If it was up to me, Zyon would’ve been traded also.
April 27th, 2026 at 11:19 am
I think they want to trade Zyon
But there aren’t any takers for him
He has too much dead cap on the books
If he don’t get it together this season
He’s definitely gone after the season
April 27th, 2026 at 11:31 am
I just think he means that there were no real quality players, so some players knew their spot was locked. They were the starters and that was that. There was a clear lack of talent below who was marked as a starter. Now, there are nastier, hungrier and younger guys coming in, no slouching, no taking plays off, the next guy is just as good or could be better and will take your spot. That’s how it should be. But I can see when you have the players you had last year, that there may be some complacency.
April 27th, 2026 at 11:34 am
We now have two Todd Bowles on staff coaching defense.
What could be better than that?
Good thing every other coach was fired except for the one leading the charge.
Make it make sense.
April 27th, 2026 at 1:26 pm
Bowles has fired two DL coaches in a row and hired a DL coach from the Bills, where the Bills had one of the worst run game defenses. The Bucs let Hall go and Hall later complained of playing two-gap instead of one gap – it was boring. Sounds like McCollum to me… So we now have 1/2 of the bored guys gone, it’s time to get rid of McCollum and maybe get a little value from a trade.
Bowles now has Licht picking up two-gap guys like A’Shawn and DeMonte. They are great run stoppers but not pass rushers. Bowles is still playing run-first, and drafting run-first, instead of recognizing this is a passing league and picking up interior pass rushers.
No way should Vita, A’Shawn, and Demonte be playing on long yardage plays – make sure Elijah Roberts and Kancey are in there with AQM and Bain.
April 27th, 2026 at 1:41 pm
Defense rules. Absolutely. Couldn’t have said it better
April 27th, 2026 at 2:01 pm
Defense Rules is the man. Period. One of my favorite fans.
Logan Hall got pushed around. Elijah Roberts was a rookie with a young man’s body. He will be great though.
Elijah Simmons has a giant Neanderthal head. He’s huge. I hope he worked hard this off season. He looks legit. Physically.
Capeheart was the backup to the Chiefs first round pick.
Capeheart is a run stuffing machine who runs a 4.85 40 at 313 pounds.
I have high hopes for Capeheart, Elijah Roberts and Elijah Simmons.
Bain will start at OLB. And move inside on 3rd down.
Mohammed can rush from the OLB spot on passing downs.
I really like the depth going into training camp.
April 27th, 2026 at 2:05 pm
Man we’re reAlly reaching to keep the mob fed.
“You know, there’s going to be a lot of competition. And guys are going to be really feeling like, ‘Hey, I gotta go to work here now.’”
——————
Joe says:
Think about that for a moment: a coach noting how players will now feel like they have to work hard.
“That says a lot — either about Strong or the Bucs’ 2025 defensive culture. Or both.”
——————-
Says more about the writer of the article and the read between the lines “journalism” some are so fond of than it does anybody/anything else.
It was typical coach speak from Strong. It was only a knock on the team or coaches to those looking to forward a narrative. Smh 🙄
So glad you live inside Strong’s head and were able to enlighten us. Opinion has been part of written “journalism” since the 1800s.–Joe