Heavier Hand In Defense Expected For Todd Bowles
January 11th, 2026
The Joe typing here thinks it would be moronic to keep Todd Bowles as head coach and strip him of defensive playcalling duties at the same time.
The logic is simple.
Bowles is known for being very hands-off with his offense, and this year he proved he’s no taskmaster or problem-solver on special teams. So if Bowles is stripped of primary defensive responsibilities, then what would be the point of keeping him as head coach?
Actually, this Joe is confident Bowles will take a heavier hand in the Bucs defense in 2026. Why? Because Bowles said in July that he planned to give assistants more influence and power in the defense.
His comments came on the world-renowned Ira Kaufman Podcast. (Poor Ira; some fans are clobbering and insulting him relentlessly for not calling for Bowles’ scalp.)
Here’s the July exchange with Bowles.
JoeBucsFan.com: After all the offseason studying and all the steps you take, what’s the difference, however subtle, in Todd Bowles this year?
Todd Bowles: Probably turning more over to our defensive coaches as far as what we want to do. We’ve been heavy run-conscious on a lot of things and we get easily 2-to-1 pass to run. Obviously, we want to stop the run but we want to get more aggressive in the passing game.
So maybe Bowles gave assistants too much power this season and they proved incapable?
Three defensive assistants left the building last week: cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross, safties coach Nick Rapone and defensive line coach Charlie Strong.
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