There were a few different ways to frame this piece, but most of them veered off into negativity. A lot of that is going around the fandom these days as there hasn't been much to be cheery about with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; the team is coming off a four-game losing streak and the season is teetering on the brink coming out of the bye week.
Almost all of the blame seems to be getting placed at the feet of one man, and a lot of it is valid.
Todd Bowles is in his third year as head coach and he's managed to do a lot of good in that time. The Bucs have yet to finish without a division title under his rule and last year made their deepest playoff run since 2021 by reaching the NFC Divisional Round.
That game, and so many others, featured the flipside of the coin with Bowles. While Tampa Bay has continued to have textbook success, the team has also failed to grow in several areas, often becoming its own worst enemy with things that should have been coached out by now.
All of this has collapsed onto itself as the Bucs sit on the cliff of an abyss that would send the team to its first losing season under Bowles and potentially its worst record of the decade. The defense is a liablity, mental errors are still being made, and fans have moved beyond being frustarted to being so hot under the collar that it's seemingly heating up Bowles' seat.
The season, however, is far from over and there are more ways that Bowles saves his job over the next seven weeks than he loses it.
Todd Bowles is in a prime position to prove he still deserves to be the Buccaneers head coach
Frustration has turned almost flippantly juvenile, with terms like 'malpractice' bizarrely being used to describe the Chris Godwin injury and every piece of news being met with the same negative response toward Bowles. Even the team's birthday tweet had comments filled with 'Fire Bowles' reactions, but that's what happens when a team that shouldn't be struggling so much is underperforming.
All of that can change over the next seven weeks, and Bowles is in prime position to right the ship and prove he belongs where he is.
Last year the Bucs fell into a 1-6 slump that almost threw their season down the drain. It was Bowles' leadership and control that kept the locker room together and helped empower guys like Baker Mayfield and Antoine Winfield Jr. to step up and fuel the turnaround.
What happened was a total 180 from what we saw out of the team, and it was a ride that almost carried them to the NFC Championship Game. The odds are stacked against the Bucs this time around but a similar outcome is still on the table.
Tampa Bay's next three opponents have a combined record of 7-23 and each one has benched their starting quarterback at one point this season. The Giants will be starting third-string quarterback Tommy DeVito on Sunday which is less of a trap game than it's being made out to be, despite how flimsy the Bucs tend to be against backups.
After that the Bucs get a game against old friend Dave Canales and the last place Panthers before closing out the stretch with a matchup against Gardner Minshew and the 2-8 Raiders. If the Bucs play the way they did during the hardest part of their schedule, then there's no reason Tampa Bay can't get to 7-6 for the home stretch.
Week | Opponent | Record |
|---|---|---|
12 | at New York Giants | 2-8 |
13 | at Carolina Panthers | 3-7 |
14 | vs. Las Vegas Raiders | 2-8 |
Tampa Bay lost its last three games by less than a touchdown to teams with a collective record of 21-11, and nearly mounted an epic comeback against the Ravens on national television. Baker Mayfield had back-to-back games against top ranked defenses where he led touchdown drives to tie the game, which is exactly the type of grit and fight this team has tattooed onto its soul.
If Bowles can get them to tap into that, it's the first step toward him keeping his job.
That objective -- Bowles proving he's the right coach -- is pretty simple to achieve. We know the Glazers don't like regression, so anything less than a 10-win season, a division title, and a trip to the playoffs will raise questions. If the Bucs continue to slide and lose to bad teams, the argument against Bowles gets a lot more ironclad as the evidence is easy to pile up.
Even in that situation there's still a chance he comes back since the Bucs have been ravaged by injuries this year and Bowles isn't coaching with a full deck. Still, the easiest way out of this mess is to lose no more than one game the rest of the way.
If the defense starts to turn around and the team starts winning, Bowles will be sitting pretty. Anything less than that -- or if we see more of the same -- then it gets a lot harder to defend him. Until that happens, though, it's best to let this thing play out and see if Bowles has what it takes to right the ship before we force him to walk the plank prematurely.
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