Todd Bowles' ranking among NFL coaches is a total insult

It's safe to say that despite everything the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did last season, they're not getting nearly the type of respect they deserve.

The Bucs were picked to be among the worst teams in the league after Tom Brady retired, and were mocked when the solution to their quarterback problem was Baker Mayfield. Tampa Bay got the last laugh, though, winning the NFC South for a third-straight season and reaching the Divisional Round in January.

Not bad for a team whose season was supposed to be over before it even started.

The same lame takes are being lazily lobbed out by most experts this offseason. Atlanta overpaying for Kirk Cousins and the Saints simply existing has bumped the Bucs back to everyone's third choice in the division. Baker Mayfield is predicted to take a step back, the team apparently didn't make enough additions in the offseason, and Todd Bowles has once again found himself at the center of more hot seat fodder.

Todd Bowles ranked No. 21st in latest head coach ranking

A recent ranking of head coaches placed Todd Bowles No. 21, which feels way too low given everything that he's done. There's a fair amount to criticize about the way he's handled things, but it's undeniable that the Buccaneers have succeeded under his rule, and last year was an example of the team getting better.

Despite this, he's lumped into the same range as first-year head coaches (and guys like Matt Eberflus and Dennis Allen) as being ranked outside of the Top 20.

Cody Benjamin from CBS Sports wrote:

“Bowles, who also went 2-1 as the Miami Dolphins’ interim in 2011, isn’t entirely dissimilar from his NFC South counterpart Dennis Allen in that his physical defense tends to mask more conservative game-management calls for a borderline wild-card contender. Still, in the last four years, he’s won a Super Bowl ring and led a playoff win of his own, giving him a touch more authority.”

Bowles has been far from perfect, but it's hard to argue that he hasn't been impactful as head coach. He makes some mind-numbingly frustrating decisions, like his end-of-half-clock management, but it's clear that players believe in him as a leader.

Mike Evans could have easily left in free agency, but chose to come back. Jordan Whitehead spent two seasons with the Jets and chose to return to Tampa Bay. If Bowles was that bad of a head coach, it'd be easy for those guys to use it as an excuse to go elsewhere.

That didn't happen, nor did the Bucs season flame out when all of the ingredients were there for it to happen last season. Tampa Bay navigated out of a 1-6 stretch in the middle of the season to win the division; it's a perfect storm for a coach who isn't respected and doesn't know what he's doing to let things get out of control.

Bowles deserves to be critiqued for some of the stuff he does, but his role in helping the team get out of that slump speaks volumes. He's not the best coach in the NFL, but he's far from the worst and deserves way more credit than he seems to be getting.

More Tampa Bay Buccaneers news and rumors