When Bruce Arians shifted to a senior football consultant role after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with Tom Brady, the obvious choice to take over the head coaching job was defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.
After previously showing potential with the New York Jets, his defensive excellence seemed like a recipe for success for the franchise. Since taking on the role, he has delivered in terms of results for the organization. But, the defense hasn’t been up to scratch. Unfortunately, with expectations rising among the fan base, a brutal showing against the Los Angeles Rams paved the way for fans to call for his dismissal.
Fans Blast Todd Bowles As Struggles Continue for the Buccaneers
In the three seasons Bowles spent alongside Arians on the Buccaneers’ sidelines, the defense was an outright stellar unit. Ranking in the top five of PFSN’s Defense Impact each year, it became a genuine strength en route to their Super Bowl victory.
However, since he’s elevated to the role of head coach, the unit hasn’t found nearly the same level of success. Consistently ranking as a middle-of-the-pack team on that side of the football, they are 14th this season, too.
With the offense decimated by injuries, that has resulted in a 3-0 start quickly vanishing into a 6-4 slide. Unfortunately, what many thought could be a chance to get back on track against another contender in the Rams turned into a rout against Tampa Bay.
Trailing 31-7 in the first half, the defense offered no resistance, as Matthew Stafford continued his march to potentially winning the first MVP of his career. With defense his supposed specialty, fans had had enough of the work Bowles had done so far.
Taking to social media, their complaints were loud. As one fan lamented, “Perpetually stuck in 1983 style playing cause thats all Bowles knows,” it was hard to look at their defensive output against Los Angeles and argue against him.
Another, though, had a harsh reality check for the rest of the fan base. Ripping the head coach to shreds, he wrote, “So sick of this idiot’s defense! Please fire Bowles. We will never be better than a 4 seed with him.”
Hot knife through butter. I’m done with Bowles. We struggle anytime we come up against someone decent, and thrived off the weak division. That’s not even a guarantee this year.#GoBucs
— Adrian (@AyJayL) November 24, 2025
One fan went into detail about the many mistakes Bowles was making, beyond the struggle of the offense, as he explained, “Bucs will never take the next step to being an elite team until we fire Todd Bowles and get an offensive mind like McVay as our HC. This is a superbowl roster that’s playing mediocre due to poor coaching and talent utilization.”
Some placed a bit of the blame on the front office and ownership as well, who they believed had grown complacent. “The front office is okay winning the worst division in football with 9 wins and a first round playoff exit every season. Fire Bowles.”
With the other team in Florida, the Jacksonville Jaguars, making a change at head coach this offseason, fans believed Liam Coen could have been a better choice for the Bucs as well. “I was right. Liam would have this team 8-2 at worst. Fire Bowles.”
Ya they gotta fire bowles after this right….no way each year we have these terrible slides and barely win an easy division and that’s cool with everyone right, can we all agree finally that we should have had a better coach by now
— TAMPBUKAS (@fishslayerx54) November 24, 2025
As the struggles of the team continued, fans also increased their vitriol against Bowles, with one fan writing, “Leave Bowles in LA. No reason for a defensive minded coach’s defense to regress this badly. He’s constantly costing us games. Looking like the East Bay Bucs out there.”
Tampa Bay has been to the playoffs in each of the last three seasons. But they’ve come out with a 1-3 record in the postseason, while the defense has shown no signs of improvement. Add in some blatant clock and game management issues, and the problems are continuing to pile up for Bowles.
Unless things take a dramatic turn in the second half of the season, the wishful thinking for a section of the fan base could turn into the norm, or even the reality, in short order.
