The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were easily the most disappointing team in the NFL during the regular season. They began the campaign as potential Super Bowl contenders, with many in the media ranking the Bucs as a top five team in the league, overwhelming favorites to challenge the Philadelphia Eagles for the crown in the NFC. And Baker Mayfield was getting huge MVP shouts, too.
In the end, though, the Buccaneers did not even make the playoffs, and as they lost consecutive games to real Super Bowl contenders - and to downtrodden franchises in their own division - it became clear that Bucs fans were out on Todd Bowles as head coach.
And after the way he melted down when the Buccaneers lost in primetime to the rival Atlanta Falcons and journeyman quarterback Kirk Cousins, you could sense that even the players were done believing in Bowles's cowardice and lack of leadership.
The Glazers are huge fans of Todd Bowles, despite fan outrage
Instead of making the obvious decision to fire Bowles after the regular season collapse, the Glazers inexplicably decided to keep Bowles and then double down on the former New York Jets head coach by firing everyone else.
NFL insider Jay Glazer is just as puzzled as Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans are that Todd Bowles kept his job. In an appearance on WDAE Radio, Glazer said bluntly that it "made no sense" for the Bucs to keep Bowles and fire everyone else. That’s pretty much what every Bucs fan was screaming all offseason as staff changes were made that didn’t involve Bowles leaving town.
However, Glazer then added that Bucs ownership "love" Bowles and that they kept him aboard because they are such big fans of him, rather than not wanting to pay his buyout.
Glazer's comments on the Glazers and Bowles come as no surprise to Buccaneers fans, and while they do not change anything or make things better for the Bucs at all, sometimes it is good to hear a national guy with clout say the obvious out loud.
Buccaneers fans are stuck with another year of Bowles as the head coach, and the Bucs were so bad at the end of the last season that the idea of Bowles being a master of mediocrity like former St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher is becoming a myth, too. Bowles may just be a bad coach holding back a good team, because regardless of the Bucs flaws, some of those flaws are really Bowles's to own, such as the lack of a pass rush or player development on the defensives side of the ball.