It's been a whirlwind start to the offseason for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but the winds haven't necessarily blown in the change fans were hoping to see.
Rather than satiating a fan base that has grown tired of Todd Bowles, the Bucs decided to keep him for at least one more season. The trade-off was that Bowles needed to make significant changes to his coaching staff, which he did by firing offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard and a handful of his own defensive assistants.
Keeping Bowles was never going to be a popular decision, but the fact that it came on the heels of John Harbaugh becoming available didn't make things any better. Couple that with a report that the Bucs did at least some homework on bringing Harbaugh in, and it makes the latest twist in his coaching candidacy elsewhere in the league even harder for fans to deal with.
John Harbaugh is rumored to be eying the Falcons as his next job
According to SNY's Connor Hughes, the belief around the league is that Harbaugh will choose between two teams: the Giants and the Falcons. That's obviously bad news for the Bucs, who could go from potentially being in a position to hire Harbaugh to watching him go to a division rival.
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Harbaugh instantly became the top coaching candidate as soon as the Ravens fired him. He's a future Hall of Fame head coach who established over the last 18 seasons that he knows how to build a winning culture, with a Super Bowl title to prove it.
That's why he made so much sense for the Bucs, a team that has all the pieces to be a Super Bowl contender but at times lacks the proper coaching. He's the sort of candidate teams fire their head coach to hire -- something the Miami Dolphins might have done, but the Bucs reportedly refused to do.
There's still a chance he ends up in Miami, especially with the Packers apparently deciding to keep Matt LaFleur, but the inclusion of the Falcons this late in the game is troubling. It's one thing to pass on Harbaugh but it would be something else entirely to watch him do for the Falcons what fans wanted to see happen in Tampa Bay.
To be fair, this could happen with just about any head coach still on the market. Klint Kubiak was perhaps the most popular name among fans throwing candidates at the wall, and the Falcons have shown an interest in him as well.
If Nate Scheelhaase interviews -- or even gets the job in Atlanta -- there could be a full scale meltdown on our hands in Tampa.
Of course, there's a flip side to the Harbaugh coin that is getting largely ignored, but could point to the Bucs making the right call by passing on him. He reportedly wants a $20 million contract, full control over roster decisions, and essentially zero oversight from the front office.
He's earned the right to demand those things, but it's also a recipe for disaster. Knowing the Bucs' luck, he'd come to Tampa under those circumstances and things would crater without the checks and balances that helped make things work in Baltimore.
If that's what the future holds, then perhaps it's not the worst thing in the world that he ends up in Atlanta.
It still feels like the Giants will be where he ends up, which would then leave top candidates like Kubiak or Kevin Stefanski for the Falcons to hire. The point is, alongside a Panthers team that nearly upset the Rams during Wild Card Weekend, the NFC South is getting better and these rumblings about the Falcons job is further proof the Bucs can't waste this pivotal offseason that lies ahead of them.