One of the biggest moves the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made this offseason didn't involve signing a free agent or drafting a franchise cornerstone. It was giving general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles extensions to keep them in charge of the team for the foreseeable future.
Licht coming back isn't much of a surprise, as he's widely regarded as one of the best GMs in the league. Bowles getting a new deal was more of a surprise, which isn't to say it's not completely justified or somehow a bad deal.
Bowles took over for Bruce Arians back in 2023 and hasn't missed a beat since. While the Bucs have yet to return to the Super Bowl, Tampa Bay has yet to lose its NFC South crown. The team enters Bowles' third season as head coach with a chance to win the division for a fifth straight season, which is absolutely unprecedented territory for the franchise.
Internal reactions have been mostly muted over Bowles' extension, but that has more to do with the team's scattered nature right now than anyone not being a fan of the deal. That's something Yaya Diaby made abundantly clear recently when breaking his silence about the Bucs keeping Bowles around for the foreseeable future.
Yaya Diaby sets the record straight for anyone unhappy with Todd Bowles' extension
Spoiler Alert: Diaby is saying the quiet part out loud about how much players love Bowles even if he rubs fans the wrong way.
“First of all, shoutout to everybody that went into giving him that extension because he’s definitely that coach that all the guys buy into,” Diaby said, via JoeBucsFan. "“He’ll tell you how it is, and you love a coach like that, somebody that’s also going to push you to the limit.” I’m super-excited for him to get that extension. And it’s time to get him another Super Bowl, but this time, him being the head coach.”
That sentiment clashes with how some fans feel about Bowles, those who haven't been shy about letting it be known just how little they care for him. In back-to-back seasons Bowles has navigated the team out of losing streaks to then win the division, but it's the fact that those slumps happened that some have zeroed in on.
It's one of the reasons a small portion of the fan base was apoplectic about the team not firing Bowles to promote Liam Coen last season, even though we saw how that situation ultimately did play out.
To be clear, there are plenty of things Bowles deserves criticism for but the overall job he's done with the Bucs has been nothing short of tremendous. We've seen teams with good rosters crater in positions Tampa Bay has been in, yet neither of the objectively awful losing streaks the last two seasons proved to be fatal.
At the time it felt like leadership in the locker room was the biggest factor for keeping things from going entirely off the rails, and the Diaby's comments confirm Bowles is at the center. It's a good reminder that even when times get tough, the some of the best parts about the Super Bowl-winning season are still in place -- and more impor
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