A lot of Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans were not happy with the organization's decision to retain Todd Bowles after a horrible second half of the 2025 season in which the Bucs totally collapsed as a team, missing out on a playoff lead that seemed like a given midway through the campaign.
Buccaneers stars like Mike Evans were visibly frustrated in the final weeks of the season, particularly in a dreadful Thursday Night Football defeat to the Atlanta Falcons that effectively doomed the Buccaneers to sitting at home in January. A lot of fans point to those frustrations as a key reason for the likes of Evans, Logan Hall, and Jamel Dean choosing to join other playoff contenders in the NFL, rather than staying put in Tampa Bay.
For many Buccaneers fans, the mistake wasn't just sticking by Bowles this year, but it was also about picking the head coach in the first place. Bowles has a major record of mediocrity as a head coach at multiple stops in the NFL, whereas former offensive coordinator Liam Coen was young and exciting. He opted to take the head coaching job with the Jackonsville Jaguars, immediately turning them and Trevor Lawrence's fortunes around, with the Jags ending up in the postseason this year - and Lawrence with a better overall 2025 campaign than even Baker Mayfield.
Former Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen keeps getting rave reviews
Sean McVay used to work with Coen and is one of the best head coaches in the NFL. The Los Angeles Rams' head coach offered some high praise for Coen, which opens up some old wounds for the Bucs fans reading it.
McVay said of Coen on ESPN NFL, via Peter Schrager, "I watched Jacksonville a lot and I'll say this. A lot of the things I saw on tape, I hope the Rams look like that on film."
Seeing a Super Bowl winner and one of the very best coaches in the league talk about the Buccaneers former offensive coordinator like that hurts. Coen is charismatic, innovative, and successful right now, which is all the things Todd Bowles has not been for the Bucs over the years. It hurts knowing that Tampa Bay could've promoted him to head coach to keep him in town, but chose to maintain the status quo under Bowles instead.
It's hard not to imagine how the star-studded Bucs offense would have looked with Coen on board and the numbers Baker Mayfield could have put up with him as his head coach. And maybe Mike Evans would have stayed in Tampa Bay and bought into the direction of the franchise with a leader like Coen at the helm.