The Buccaneers have a new head coach to follow up Bruce Arians.
The Buccaneers have been a completely different team over the last few years under Bruce Arians. From the lowly days of an offense that didn’t quite fit with the personnel to winning a Super Bowl, a huge portion of that success stems from Arians and his vision for Tampa.
Tampa can always look back at that decision to sign Arians as the one that changed the franchise. Without him, who knows if Tom Brady would have helped carry the team to the Super Bowl?
Unfortunately, the Bruce Arians era in Tampa will come to a close without a second Super Bowl victory as news broke tonight that Arians is stepping back as head coach and moving to a role in the front office.
🚨 BREAKING: Bruce Arians retiring from coaching, moving to @Buccaneers' front office, reports me and @LATimesFarmer.
— Peter King (@peter_king) March 31, 2022
Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles picked to replace him. Staff being told the news at this hour.
Full story: https://t.co/g4gKTBsKtT pic.twitter.com/c9IhdXw2fA
The Buccaneers have a new leading man
This gap will lead to Todd Bowles taking over as the new head coach for the Bucs, and while this is far from a bad decision, it is still not as good as handing the franchise over to offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.
The pairing of Bowles and Leftwich should still work wonders this year as the Bucs still try to make the most of Tom Brady’s likely final season, but choosing to tie your franchise to a defensive-oriented coach does not seem like the popular trend right now.
The Bucs had a young, popular, offensive coordinator on their roster that helped elevate Tampa’s offense to one of the best in the league (even before Brady arrived), and the choice to pass on Leftwich, who is a hot commodity, is a mistake.
This has nothing to do with Bowles and everything to do with the changing nature of the NFL. Offense is king. Defense is an afterthought, no matter how much it may pain some fans to hear, and promoting Leftwich would’ve shown that the Bucs were committed to focusing on the more important part of the game going forward.
Still, Bowles absolutely does deserve a shot at leading this roster and has a mountain of respect from his players, so this shouldn’t change much in the grand scheme of things as long as Bowles always finds way to keep a good offensive coordinator in Tampa.
On way or another, congrats to the new coach. Bowles absolutely deserves it.
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