The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' season ended on Sunday with a 23-20 loss to the Washington Commanders. Head coach Todd Bowles is going home for the year, but capped off 2024 with his third NFC South division win and playoff appearance — in three tries.
He's never not made the playoffs as head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So why is everyone clamoring for him to be fired? And could the Buccaneers actually do it this offseason?
We'll do our best to explain the first one. That second one is a bit more complicated.
Tampa Bay's loss on Sunday night was almost a microcosm of the team's problems across the season. The team wasn't disciplined — a miscue on a jet sweep by Baker Mayfield caused a turnover that led to a touchdown against the Commanders, center Graham Barton snapped a ball too early on 3rd & 1 to make the Buccaneers kick (some believed they should have gone for it there) and Tampa Bay had seven penalties accepted for 65 yards and more declined. These issues have cropped up for Bowles' Buccaneers as of late — in fact, the Buccaneers had 12 penalties for over 90 yards against the New Orleans Saints in Week 18 last week. These are typically considered to be coaching problems and, well, Todd Bowles is the team's head coach.
There's also his coaching, in the purest sense of the word. Bowles is a defensive mind with a reputation across the league as being one of the NFL's most vaunted defensive coordinators. That hasn't shown up this year — Bowles' defense (battling through injuries, to be fair) was No. 19 in the league in yards per game and No. 16 in points per game — but it was particularly lackluster in the team's playoff game when it mattered most. The Buccaneers got bullied in time of possession, losing out to the Commanders by 11 minutes and eight seconds, and they gave up 350 net yards of offense on the day. Despite two big fourth down stops, the Buccaneers couldn't get off the field when it mattered, and it cost them their season. Bowles' time management has also come under fire by fans and pundits alike, most recently cropping up when he let almost 10 seconds off the clock before calling a crucial timeout at the end of the game.
All these issues have been there before, and they continue to show up. To some, this will be Bowles' tenure at head coach each and every year, preventing the team from playing championship-caliber football. But do the Bucs and general manager Jason Licht believe that? Could they really fire Todd Bowles this offseason?
We'd say it's pretty unlikely. There will probably be conversations about it, but at this stage, it would be tough to do.
It's tough to fire Bowles after he's won the NFC South and made the playoffs three years in a row. It hasn't always looked pretty — Bowles is just barely over .500 as a Buccaneers coach at 27-24 — but he's done it, and he kept things close with the Washington Commanders. He's also won one more game each year he's coached, which quite literally showcases exponential growth in that area. His defense, while having been lacking for a few years now, also battled a comical number of injuries this year, so he may get some grace for that.
There is also the matter of who would replace him. Many have proposed elevating offensive coordinator Liam Coen to head coach and firing Bowles, and although Coen led a top-five offense in the NFL this year, we have no idea what he'd be like as a head coach. That's a big risk to take for a team that has made the playoffs every year. If they want to hire someone else, they're already behind the eight-ball there — most teams have already requested interviews with premier head coaching candidates, so unless the Bucs have someone specific in mind, they wouldn't be able to hire who they want.
That makes it difficult to fire Bowles, so it likely won't happen. But given that his shortcomings as a head coach aren't going away, there certainly be some tough conversations at One Buc Place this offseason, and his coaching will be under a microscope in 2025.
