When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take the field against the Carolina Panthers in their Week 18 regular season finale, head coach Todd Bowles could very well be coaching for his job.
Win and get some help from the New Orleans Saints by beating the Atlanta Falcons in Week 18 … and Bowles’ job still might not be secure. On the outside chance Bowles does keep his job, he’ll have a reckoning with his own roster this offseason.
The more likely scenario is the Buccaneers lose — either to the Panthers or in the NFC Wild Card Round — and Bowles gets his walking papers after 4 pretty average seasons.
Bleacher Report’s Brad Gagnon ventured a guess as to who might replace Bowles and the first name that came to mind was Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, the son of former NFL quarterback and former Super Bowl winning head coach Gary Kubiak.
“He might still win the division title for the fourth year in a row this weekend,” Gagnon wrote on January 2. “However, this will also mark the third consecutive year in which his defense would rank below the league median. If he does fall short of the playoffs and the Bucs end the season with eight losses in a nine-game span, it might be time for a change. I’d love to see what a fresh, rising name such as Klint Kubiak could do with that Tampa offense.”
What Bucs Offense Might Look Like in 2026
While the defense has been hard to watch for the Buccaneers this season, the offense hasn’t been much better, although the difference is we can blame those struggles more on injuries than on lack of talent.
Here’s a rundown of the projected offensive starters before the season along with how many games they’ve missed with one game remaining in the 2025 regular season:
- RB Bucky Irving (7 games)
- WR Mike Evans (9 games)
- WR Chris Godwin (8 games)
- WR Jalen McMillan (13 games)
- TE Cade Otton (1 game)
- LT Tristan Wirfs (5 games)
- LG Ben Bredeson (5 games)
- RG Cody Mauch (14 games)
- RT Luke Goedeke (6 games)
Add quarterback Baker Mayfield playing injured but not missing games for the second half of the season and you start to see a bigger picture of how the Buccaneers wound up 7-9 overall.
With what seems like an elite wide receiver in rookie and first round pick Emeka Egbuka (62 receptions, 930 yards, 6 TDs), what someone like Kubiak could do with a healthy lineup could be a real cause for excitement.
Former OCs Leading Turnarounds Arouund NFL
One look around the NFL shows success for formerly terrible teams who brought in offensive coordinators to fix things as their head coaches; Ben Johnson with the Chicago Bears, Liam Coen with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Dave Canales with the Carolina Panthers and Shane Steichen with the Indianapolis Colts.
Canales and Coen are both former Buccaneers offensive coordinator.
Kubiak, 38 years old, has put his name in the conversation for head coach openings this season — the Seahawks are 13-3, still in contention for the No. 1 seed and second in the NFL in scoring offense at 29.4 points per game. It’s Kubiak’s third stint as an offensive coordinator following one season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2021 and one season with the New Orleans Saints in 2024.
Bucs Urged to Replace Todd Bowles With Son of Former NFL Head Coach