Tuned out?
Joe’s got interesting words from two men who very much support and admire Bucs head coach Todd Bowles.
Former NFL MVP quarterback Rich Gannon was a teammate of Bowles with the Redskins in 1993. He also spent time with Bowles preparing for Jets games on CBS when Gannon was a color analyst and Bowles was New York’s head coach.
On Friday, Gannon spoke on SiriusXM NFL Radio about how Bowles’ profanity-laced rant on Thursday night told him a lot.
And it’s not pretty.
“So I’ve known Todd, great respect for him and his body of work. Todd’s very, I would say he’s very guarded. He’s very controlled in press conferences and in production meetings, at times can be very monotone. But the message is usually heard loud and clear by the players,” Gannon said.
“I got the sense listening to that press conference, that he and the coaching staff are really annoyed at the players lack of accountability, lack of attention to detail.”
If a head coach is losing it because players are not on details in December, doesn’t that mean the roster, collectively, is non-responsive to the staff?
Again, it’s December for defensive coordinator who took over the job in 2019.
Gannon also talked about glaring Bucs defensive screwups against the Falcons and referenced a pattern.
“I just see it too often, these teams are too soft in coverage. They’re not dialed in, attention to detail, communication, breakdowns — and we just saw too much of that last night from the Buccaneers,” Gannon said. “And it’s not just any one player. You know, Baker Mayfield was beating himself up [in his news conference] about the interception to Dee Alford in the left flat, you know, just unexcusable. But he misses a third-down throw to [Emeka] Egubka, you know, there everybody has to play better.”
Joe heard Gannon and thought of Bucco Bruce Arians, a Bowles mentor, on The Rich Eisen Show two weeks ago.
Arians was talking about the Steelers and in a very reserved tone said he thinks it’s best for Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin to move on.
“Sometimes the message gets a little stale,” Arians said.
Does that apply to Year 7 of Bowles coaching the Bucs defense?