Warren Sharp: Revolving Door At Offensive Coordinator Puts Pressure On Todd Bowles
June 24th, 2026
Pressure.
Yesterday was Christmas in June for Joe.
Normally, there is a Christmas in July: No, not sales at Walmart. But July is when Warren Sharp’s Football Preview annual comes out. It’s loaded with strong analysis and really, really deep-diving stats.
But Santa came yesterday when Sharp published his preview earlier than usual and Joe can’t wait to dive in.
Here is an opening salvo:
Sharp is not a big Todd Bowles fan. First, Sharp doesn’t believe Bowles is an elite defensive mind.
Second, Sharp explains that to have sustained success with a defensive head coach, that team must consistently have a top-five defense. Why? Because with any type of offensive success, the offensive coordinator will get plucked as a head coach or get bounced if he struggles.
Sound familiar?
And Sharp’s hangup with Bowles is his defenses. Since he took over as head coach, they have not been very good.
So with a defense that is often average and a change at offensive coordinator annually, Sharp said the Bucs cannot build any sort of consistent winning ways.
And offense wins more games than defense, so to win in the playoffs and possibly a Super Bowl, it’s vital that the defense is elite if the offense is very unlikely to be elite for a sustained period of time. That’s because, if the offense is good, the offensive coordinator will be stolen and hired as a head coach for another team. If the offense is bad, the offensive coordinator will be fired.
Unless Bowles builds an elite defense, Sharp types, it is going to be Groundhog Day for the Bucs each season: Have a decent offense and maybe win a game in the playoffs, then the OC leaves for a head coaching gig. Or, a new OC comes in, doesn’t do well, the team misses the playoffs and he gets run.
The only way for the Bucs to break this cycle, Sharp points out, is for Bowles to build a top-shelf defense (think Father Dungy).
The point being, the consistency for an offense is not going to be there when you don’t have an offensive guru as the head coach. Without consistency, it’s hard to turn an offense into a winner in just one season. So the defense had better be elite so that the offense doesn’t need to be perfect.
And that’s the problem with Bowles.
The only thing Joe can add is the Bucs play in the NFC South landfill, thankfully, where teams can be mediocre and skate to the playoffs.
Only the NFC South landfill can make Bryce Young a top-100 NFL player in 2025.
Elite mid-June rage bait from the league https://t.co/ZWSnQQadRo
— Football Insights 📊 (@fball_insights) June 23, 2026
June 24th, 2026 at 12:20 pm
“So the defense had better be elite so that the offense doesn’t need to be perfect.
And that’s the problem with Bowles.”
1000% Correct. Todd Bowles is completely inept at the one thing he’s supposed to be a guru at doing.
His record as a HC has been nothing short of an abysmal failure.
Good thing we resigned him for three more years!!! Thanks Glazers, Licht, and BA.
June 24th, 2026 at 12:24 pm
When you have a bottom 10 pass defense year after year in a passing league it’s spell doom for your Head Coach/defensive Coordinator who continues to call a passive sad defense
Once Todd is gone the team will improve
June 24th, 2026 at 12:25 pm
You gotta give credit to Todd for one thing. He’s certainly grown while in this job .
June 24th, 2026 at 12:25 pm
Todd’s defenses aren’t even average. They consistently rank in the bottom third of the league.
He’s not a defensive guru, not a good in-game manager, and is not an emotional, charismatic leader of men (he openly states that’s not his job, it’s up to the players to lead and coach.)
He literally brings nothing to the table. Blows my mind he has any advocates left.
June 24th, 2026 at 12:43 pm
Inept? Did you become a Bucs fan in 2022 or something? I ask because it seems you don’t remember Todd Bowles’ defense holding the Chiefs to 9 points in the Super Bowl.
Watch the last episode of the Raise the Flags documentary when he’s talking about what he really said to Baker when trying to get Mike Evans the yards he needed to break 1000 yards. The producer asked him to show us the real Todd Bowles. The real Todd Bowles is very emotional and charismatic. He won’t show that during press conferences.
June 24th, 2026 at 12:46 pm
The game has passed him by in several areas. You can start with the part he can’t control: 1) the game is offensive now. The last SB participants not withstanding, look at the last decade plus. Bowles can’t do anything to control the way the league is moving/has moved. This is a problem the glazers have to first acknowledge. I realize our franchise was founded on defense but it’s time to get with the times.
The part he can control is simplifying the defense, letting the players react rather than think too much, figure out game flow and momentum which also means clock management, when to kick/when to keep the offense on the field. He is so far out of his depth in these areas.
It’s so frustrating.
June 24th, 2026 at 12:51 pm
Well good thing we have a good defense coming this year.
I don’t think with Baker at an impasse the Glazers wanted to get a new coach and totally turn the page on both sides of the ball.
Zac is a band-aid although a good one.
I’m not concerned about this year really at all and don’t have much expectation.
I want them to be good because I’m a fan and they could make some noise.
Regardless of who coaches next year we have freaking BAIN.
June 24th, 2026 at 12:57 pm
Any coach who makes Kirk Cousins look like the best QB who ever took the field for 2 years in a row shouldn’t be an NFL coach anymore. Bowles probably had Cousins on his Fantasy Football team, or is his agent.
June 24th, 2026 at 1:00 pm
The real Todd Bowles is a loser who even loses the players on his team. Warren Sharp is spot on.
And please, the “holding Mahomes to 9 points” argument is
1. As stale as six year old bread but more obsolete, Bucs had a real head coach
2. His offensive tackles were cocktail waitresses the month before.
3. Bucs got lucky that Mahomes receivers dropped at least five balls that hit them in the hands or clonged off their face masks, each would’ve been a critical play including two touchdowns.
Hey the Bucs had a winning season in 2016, too.
🤡
June 24th, 2026 at 1:04 pm
Bowles coaches the players that Licht gave him.
June 24th, 2026 at 1:17 pm
Bowles may not be *that* emotional (and Joe applauds him for that). But Joe is fortunate to see Bowles much more behind the scenes than most fans do and he’s borderline gregarious.
No, Joe’s not been drinking. Bowles has a much bigger personality than he shows in public. But at the end of the day, that doesn’t mean a damn thing with X’s and O’s (did Bowles’ emotional unloading on his players last year make any sort of difference?).
June 24th, 2026 at 1:21 pm
find a way to make more stops on 3rd down
find a way to field a team that hold a lead in the second half
management had cause for making a HC change and didn’t — hopefully this most recent reprieve will result in a fun season, but fans aren’t holding their breath
June 24th, 2026 at 1:22 pm
Duh…he’s intolerable to me. It’s so obvious that he is not a capable HC. Can he and the Glazers not see how his antiquated scheme gets shredded by any decent QB? I know he’s a nice guy and everything, but C’mon Man! Open your eyes.
June 24th, 2026 at 1:25 pm
No but benching the offending players did. Conveniently, the same players that were injured late last season are also no longer with the team. He did them a favor calling them injured. I wouldn’t have, but they keep their value in case they got traded.
June 24th, 2026 at 1:57 pm
Joe Says:
June 24th, 2026 at 1:17 pm
not an emotional, charismatic leader
Bowles may not be *that* emotional (and Joe applauds him for that). But Joe is fortunate to see Bowles much more behind the scenes than most fans do and he’s borderline gregarious.
No, Joe’s not been drinking. Bowles has a much bigger personality than he shows in public. But at the end of the day, that doesn’t mean a damn thing with X’s and O’s (did Bowles’ emotional unloading on his players last year make any sort of difference?).
That out-of-character expletive-laden tirade was the definition of “too little, too late.” Of course a 2 minute outburst directed at the media didn’t turn the season around.
His team quit on him. I don’t care how gregarious he is when no one else is watching. His players start games unprepared more often than not. Whatever personality you want to label him…it doesn’t work.
And my point was he’s not good as an emotional leader, and he’s also not good at the X’s and O’s. He’s not good at anything.
June 24th, 2026 at 1:59 pm
“did Bowles’ emotional unloading on his players last year make any sort of difference?” – Joe
Answer: Not one bit of difference. It may have created an even bigger wedge.
Mike had enough and bounced. For a lot less money.
That’s all you need to know.
June 24th, 2026 at 2:28 pm
Glazers could’ve made it easier for him by keeping Coen, and firing his arse!
June 24th, 2026 at 2:28 pm
Crazy how when Todd’s cousins/friends/mistress/neighbors defend him and his sorry defense they point to one game from 5 years ago when the opponent had a depleted offensive line
Look at his defenses against Sean Payton, McVay, Shannahan and even coordinators that aren’t elite
Heck even Bryce Young lights up his soft defense
June 24th, 2026 at 2:34 pm
Does anybody who critiques Todd endlessly for the Xs x Os actually know anything about the schemes he runs ?
June 24th, 2026 at 2:45 pm
Simple T Says:
“Does anybody who critiques Todd endlessly for the Xs x Os actually know anything about the schemes he runs ?”
Someone needs to ask Todd that same question.
“Todd, do you know anything about the schemes you run?” – Actual journalists
June 24th, 2026 at 2:46 pm
We know his schemes suck. Does that count?
June 24th, 2026 at 2:47 pm
When your DB’s look lost in zone coverage yearly, it’s on the coaches. Watch the film of other teams and I rarely see the amount of busted coverages or WIDE OPEN receivers that I do with this team. Detroit last year in Primetime had 3rd and 4th string DB’s blanketing our supposed STACKED WR room.
When you see the same results year after year and Todd and the soft scheme are the constant you know where the issue lies. The FILM DON’T LIE!!!
June 24th, 2026 at 2:48 pm
>>> Does anybody who critiques Todd endlessly for the Xs x Os actually know anything about the schemes he runs ? <<<
Can't say I see the intricate schemes Bowles uses but I sure as hell can see the results. Are you saying that Bowles is such a master craftsman at defense that not even Kirk Cousins notices Bowles' wizardry?
June 24th, 2026 at 2:57 pm
By Sharp’s logic, you have to hire an offensive coach you can keep for years as HC. Please inform the Glazers. BA was a fine example. So is Bowles.
June 24th, 2026 at 2:59 pm
Sharp … ‘The point being, the consistency for an offense is not going to be there when you don’t have an offensive guru as the head coach. Without consistency, it’s hard to turn an offense into a winner in just one season. So the defense had better be elite so that the offense doesn’t need to be perfect. And that’s the problem with Bowles.’
I normally like Warren Sharp’s analyses, but this is reaching. I’d say that the most consistent offense this century is the New England Patriots. They didn’t have an ‘offensive guru as their head coach’ (Bill Belicheck’s background was DEFENSE). And there are others (guys like Pete Carroll).
Todd Bowles’ problem IMO isn’t that he’s a defensive-minded head coach, but rather that he’s bullishly stubborn about being BOTH the HC and the DC. Of the 2026 HCs, he’s the ONLY HC who’s also designated himself as the DC. Supposedly 9 of the current 32 HCs have a defensive background, but all except Todd had the good sense to hire a DC. THAT’s stubborness, and eventually that’ll be his undoing.
Having a new OC every year that he’s been our HC certainly hasn’t done Bowles any favors, but the bigger problem IMO is that the talent level of our defense went downhill drastically after 2021 (when we lost Suh, JPP, essentially Shaq to injuries, and several other key players). And we’ve only NOW recognized that as the problem, and started to replace them with some talented players. And because he insists on remaining dual-hatted, Todd Bowles NEEDS very talented players in his defense.
It’ll be interesting to see how this year develops. I’m still ‘cautiously optimistic’ that this defense can be a Top-10 defense. IF our offense can also claw their way back into the Top-10, the Bucs SHOULD be contenders in the division & the conference.
June 24th, 2026 at 3:04 pm
So who do we want coaching in 2027?