The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have suffered losses in back-to-back weeks now. First against the Baltimore Ravens, now against division rival Atlanta Falcons. The second time this season the Buccaneers have lost to the Falcons in a one possession game. Head Coach Todd Bowles has come under intense scrutiny for his handling of the Ravens game one week ago. Mainly the ending of the game, leaving star receiver Chris Godwin in the game when Tampa Bay was down double digits. Only to watch Godwin go down with a season ending injury.
The Buccaneers were impacted by a number of injuries in this game, also to fellow stand out receiver Mike Evans. Now, this week against the Falcons another receiver for the Buccaneers would fall to a hamstring injury. Sterling Shepard would go down and was unable to return in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ loss to Atlanta. Shepard’s status is uncertain going forward, making Trey Palmer the most experienced receiver on the Buccaneers. Palmer is only in his second year in the league. Rakim Jarrett looked good in his time against the Falcons, hopefully Jarrett can build off of that and help Baker Mayfield create the production needed until Mike Evans can return from his own hamstring injury.
HC Todd Bowles Trying to Rebuild and Stay Competitive
Tampa Bay Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles has taken fire any time the Buccaneers have struggled since he took over. Bowles took over under unusual circumstances, right after then HC Bruce Arians led the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl title with Tom Brady. Arians would announce his retirement from coaching suddenly and hand the job over to his Defensive Coordinator at the time, Todd Bowles. Bowles had served under Arians once before as his Defensive Coordinator when Arians was the Head Coach for the Arizona Cardinals. Bowles would leave that position to take the Head Coach job with the New York Jets in 2015.
Coach Bowles and General Manager Jason Licht have been trying to do something not many teams can successfully do. They are trying to rebuild a team while being competitive and chasing a championship. Usually, it’s one or the other for a team. It’s a win-now mentality or rebuilding and trusting the process.
What many people forget is the Buccaneers have had a lot of turnover on the defensive side of the ball. Stars like, Carlton Davis, Sean Murphy-Bunting, Devin White, and Ndamukong Suh are no longer there. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had to navigate the cap situation in the post-Tom Brady era. The Bucs are finally reaching the end of the dead money Brady left with them when he retired after the 2022 season. This next off-season we should see Bowles and Licht dive into really building this already promising and contending team back up.
Bowles has already made great strides in getting the most out of his younger talent, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Christian Izien has come out of nowhere to become a really talented safety and corner fill-in for the Bucs secondary. Linebackers Yaya Diaby and Chris Braswell have also flashed the potential pass rush they can provide. The Tampa Bay defense has a lot of speed, now they just need to get the experience and a few missing pieces to truly excel.
Todd Bowles Needs Fan’s Patience
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Just ask the New York Jets after they fired HC Robert Saleh. GM Jason Licht is familiar with this situation as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made a similar move not too long ago. Firing then HC Lovie Smith in favor of Offensive Coordinator Dirk Koetter. The idea was to keep Koetter in Tampa to continue to work with former first-overall pick Jameis Winston. The result of that decision was Koetter often appeared to be in over his head and led the Buccaneers to nothing but losing season after losing season.
One thing to keep in mind as well is, the staff and players love playing for Todd Bowles. Firing a coach for being imperfect is insane to even consider. Bowles will get this defense on track; they need to have more depth and be healthy first. Tampa Bay fans can’t be calling for Bowles to be fired after every single loss. Some things are just out of his hands.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are still true contenders for this season, sitting at (4-4) they control their own destiny. HC Bowles and QB Baker Mayfield can still lead this team to the playoffs for a fifth consecutive year. The Buccaneers currently hold the record for NFC teams with the most consecutive playoff appearances four years in a row. Out of those four seasons, the Buccaneers were crowned NFC South Champions three years in a row. This goes to show the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had recent success, and now need everyone to be patient with HC Todd Bowles while he and his staff rebuild the core of this talented franchise.