Every Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach in team history
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had 13 head coaches since joining the NFL in 1976. The most well-known names are Jon Gruden, Bruce Arians, Tony Dungy, and John McKay, but the Bucs have unfortunately had their fair share of bad head coaches too.
Let's take a trip back through time and revisit every head coach for the Bucs.
Every Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach in team history
Name (Tenure with TB) | Record with TB (Winning Percentage) | Playoff record with TB (Winning Percentage) |
|---|---|---|
John McKay (1976-1984) | 44-88-1 (.335) | 1-3 (.250) |
Leeman Bennett (1985-1986) | 4-28 (.125) | N/A |
Ray Perkins (1987-1990) | 19-41 (.317) | N/A |
Richard Williamson (1990-1991) | 4-15 (.211) | N/A |
Sam Wyche (1992-1995) | 23-41 (.359) | N/A |
Tony Dungy (1996-2001) | 54-42 (.563) | 2-4 (.333) |
Jon Gruden (2002-2008) | 57-55 (.509) | 3-2 (.600) |
Raheem Morris (2009-2011) | 17-31 (.354) | N/A |
Greg Schiano (2012-2013) | 11-21 (.344) | N/A |
Lovie Smith (2014-2015) | 8-24 (.250) | N/A |
Dirk Koetter (2016-2018) | 19-29 (.396) | N/A |
Bruce Arians (2019-2021) | 31-18 (.633) | 5-1 (.833) |
Todd Bowles (2022-Present) | 17-17 (.500) | 1-2 (.333) |
John McKay
The first head coach in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history was John McKay, who had experience as a college football coach before the Bucs hired him. Wins didn't come under McKay early in his Bucs tenure, as the team failed to win a single game during their inaugural season and won just seven games by the end of his third year.
By Year 4, McKay had a winning product on the field but was only able to post two winning seasons during his nine years on the job. He stepped down as the Bucs head coach following a 6-10 season in 1984.
Leeman Bennett
The second head coach in Bucs history was Leeman Bennett, who had experienced success as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 1977 to 1982. The Bucs brought him in to hopefully replicate that success but unfortunately, it didn't pan out. Bennett's Bucs won just four games in a two-year span and he was relieved of his duties following the 1986 season.
Ray Perkins
The Bucs lured Ray Perkins away from Alabama to be their third-ever head coach, hoping that he could turn them into a winning team. Perkins had previously been the head coach of the New York Giants from 1979 to 1982 and had an overall losing record there and while he finished at Alabama with a winning record, he wasn't the dominant head coach that Crimson Tide fans were accustomed to.
Perkins' Bucs squads failed to collect more than five wins in any of his four years on the job and was fired near the end of the 1990 season.
Richard Williamson
After Perkins was fired with three games to go in 1990, offensive coordinator Richard Williamson was bumped up to interim head coach. The Buccaneers went 1-2 under Williamson's guidance and the front office saw enough potential that they removed the interim label and let him show if he could replicate that potential.
Williamson wasn't up to the task. Tampa went 3-13 during Williamson's first full year as the head coach and that ended up being his only year as the head coach, as he was dismissed when the 1991 season came to a close.
Sam Wyche
After the Cincinnati Bengals decided to move on from Sam Wyche, the Buccaneers swooped in and brought him to Tampa Bay hoping he could take the Bucs to a Super Bowl, much like he did with the Bengals. Unfortunately, that magic did not follow Wyche to Florida and the Bucs never had a winning record under him. He was fired at the end of the 1995 season.
Tony Dungy
The Buccaneers hired Tony Dungy, a defensive-minded head coach, in 1996 and he was able to turn the team around in just two years. Dungy was the Bucs head coach for six years and the team had a winning record in four of those years. He was fired at the end of the 2001 season after the team failed to get to the Super Bowl under Dungy.
Dungy was snatched up quickly by the Indianapolis Colts and never had a losing season while at the helm in Indy. Dungy and the Colts won the Super Bowl during the 2006 season.
Jon Gruden
The Bucs swung for the fences and traded for Jon Gruden, who had been an incredible coach for the Oakland Raiders. Gruden immediately led Tampa Bay to great things with the team going 12-4 in his inaugural season and going on to win the team's first-ever Super Bowl.
Unfortunately, the Bucs wouldn't get back to the big game under Gruden and never hit that 12-win mark again over the next six years. The Bucs, despite going 9-7 in back-to-back seasons in 2007 and 2008, fired Gruden following the 2008 season.
Raheem Morris
Raheem Morris had some big shoes to fill in Tampa Bay but the front office hoped that he was up to the task. Morris was the Buccaneers defensive backs coach for two seasons prior to being hired and had spent four other years in various roles with the team in the early-to-mid 2000s.
Morris' first year did not go well with the Buccaneers winning just three games. While they improved to 10-6 in his second year, the team just missed out on a playoff berth. The team regressed in 2011 and Morris was fired.
Greg Schiano
The Bucs went a different direction with their next head coaching hire, bringing in Greg Schiano from Rutgers football. Schiano had spent a few years in the NFL serving in various roles with the Bears but this was his first NFL head coach job.
In his first year on the job, the Buccaneers went 7-9 under Schiano. In his second and what turned out to be his final season with the organization, Tampa won just four games and Schiano was canned when the season concluded.
Lovie Smith
After Lovie Smith had so much success with the Bears, the Bucs wanted to try and get him to turn their team back into a winning organization. That did not happen, as Smith's Buccaneers won just two games during his first year with the team and won only six games in his second year. He was fired at the end of the 2015 season.
Dirk Koetter
Tampa Bay pried Dirk Koetter away from the division rival Falcons after he had success at the offensive coordinator spot there. That magic looked to be going in the Bucs' direction after Year 1 with the team going 9-7, posting their first winning season since 2010.
Unfortunately, that's where the fun stopped. After Tampa had two straight 5-11 seasons under Koetter, he was shown the door following the 2018 season.
Bruce Arians
The Buccaneers lured Bruce Arians out of retirement, signing him to a lucrative contract and hoping that he'd be the guy to lead them back to the Super Bowl. Fortunately, in the second year of Arians' Bucs tenure, exactly that happened. The Buccaneers secured their second Super Bowl title and Arians went down in Tampa Bay history.
The team put together an even better record during the 2021 season at 13-4 but it would be Arians' last year on the job. He stepped down from the head coaching job and slid into a consultant role instead.
Todd Bowles
Following Arians' retirement, the Bucs promoted defensive coordinator Todd Bowles to the head coaching spot. Bowles had previous head coaching experience in the NFL, having held that title with the New York Jets from 2015 to 2018.
In Bowles' first year on the job, the Bucs finished with an 8-9 record, which was still enough to get them the NFC South title. They petered out of the playoffs with a whimper and Tom Brady retired in the offseason.
In the first year post-Brady, Bowles and the Bucs went 9-8, won the division, and won a playoff game. They came close to making it to the NFC Championship Game despite no one giving them much of a chance in the 2023 preseason.
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