Buccaneers need to clean house after this season

The Buccaneers need a regime change starting at the top with head coach Todd Bowles, to offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, down to the quarterback.

With the Bucs taking on the resurgent Carolina Panthers, who beat them 21-3 in week 7, to hopefully wrap up the NFC South with a win against them at home, is it a bad time to talk about regime change and cleaning house for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Nope.

First: The Head Coach

We saw this coming with Todd Bowles. You remember. That little experiment with the New York Jets a few years ago? If that wasn’t a blatant indicator of what was sailing into the Bay, you may not have been paying much attention.

But if you more avidly follow this team you can’t help but know the Bucs coaching leadership, is anything but. Bowles is a great Defensive Coordinator but not head coach material, as we saw with the Jets. Not much has changed. A new head coach is in order.

How poetic would it be to have the likes of a Sean Payton, the hated rival from New Orleans, coaching in Tampa (providing the Broncos don’t lure him in with the vast amount of loot they can throw his way) and Todd Bowles as your DC? Don’t count on that happening, but you see where this is going.

The Bucs need a fiery leader, a feisty head coach that backs his players, keeps them focused and brings out the best in them each and every game.

Second: The Quarterback.

Tom Brady IS most likely coming back to play football next year.

You don’t turn your (personal) life upside down by retiring, then un-retiring, and end up getting divorced because of merely a strong desire to play football, for what’s ended up being a mediocre best case scenario 9-8 season. NOT the payoff one of the most competitive people in the world was banking on.

As much as it may seem euphorias to have Brady retire in a Bucs jersey, it may be a brutal sting to the hopes and dreams of many Bucs fans that chances are they will be parting ways with TB12 in 2023.

The Bucs have to start looking at other QB options, whether through the draft, acquired as stop gaps, and/or as the next possible franchise QB (in someone like Goff, Carr, Mayfield, Huntley, Brissett, or whomever). It will all be for naught if we don’t get the right (coaching) pieces into place.

Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask are NOT the answers, and you will see a mutiny from fans if that happens.

Third: The Offensive Coordinator

No matter what, beyond the HC and QB, the Bucs desperately need an Offensive Coordinator. To be honest Todd Bowles could stay on as DC, a role that frankly is his wheelhouse. Not in it, but IS it. He could easily thrive in that role here in Tampa and most likely be praised by the owners and fandome alike.

Add a new and inventive OC to this list and the Bucs could have the makings for playoff contention for years to come.

To keep up with the ever evolving game, if the Bucs don’t have a play caller that can take advantage of the talent on the team, and stay creative to keep defenses guessing, we may see much of the offensive talent leave for greener pastures. Not to mention a vast drop in season ticket holders. Not many will want to pay an arm and leg to witness a team on the decline.

To sum it up:

Todd Bowles should be DC. He just is NOT a head coach nor seems to have that mindset and personality.

Unless, and even if, Tampa lands an incredible new head coach in a Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh, Dan Quinn or the next Bruce Arians, among a myriad of potential Head Coach options, it just makes more sense for Brady to want to go out on top with a team and coaching staff better suited to his abilities than the current regime, who have squandered the vast riches afforded them on offense, regardless of injuries. Time to let Tom go.

Lastly, they need to give Byron Leftwich his walking papers and find a talented OC who should’ve been able to make the Bucs a top five offense in the NFL, even with a decimated O-line.

This team and fan base deserve something better.

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