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Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles doesn’t see quarterback Tom Brady retiring as the end of the road.
Bowles believes the Bucs can keep winning without arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. The second-year Bucs head coach said as much at the Annual League Meeting.
“When you replace a player of that magnitude, first of all, you don’t replace him,” Bowles told NFL Network’s Judy Battista via NFL.com. “You lose aura. You lose the expectation of being great. That doesn’t mean you can’t be great. You just have to do it more as a team. We did it as a team when he was there, but he was such a great player and a great person that you focus all on that. And now that that is gone, the perception is that everything else is gone when really it isn’t.”
Tampa Bay recently re-signed key defensive players such as linebacker Lavonte David and cornerback Jamel Dean. The Bucs also retooled the offense with new offensive coordinator Dave Canales on board amid cuts of former offensive starters tight end Cameron Brate, running back Leonard Fournette, and tackle Donovan Smith.
“We have a lot of good players on our team on both sides of the ball. We have some pieces to fill, but we have a lot of good football players on our team,” Bowles told Battista. “And we just have to understand that and not go with the so-called outside narrative and do what we have to do to win ball games.”
Bowles Acknowledges What Went Wrong in 2022
The Bucs did anything but shine in Brady’s final season with an 8-9 record and abrupt Wild Card playoff exit against the Dallas Cowboys. Bowles fired former offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and made massive changes to the coaching staff after the season.
“We didn’t score enough points and we didn’t run it well, and at times we didn’t throw it well,” Bowles told Battista. “You want continuity from that standpoint. From a team standpoint. And what we were doing last year really caught up with us a little bit. It’s not all coaches, it’s players, as well. It starts with me. And when you see something wrong, you have to try and fix it. I’ve been with those guys a long time, so it was a tough decision. But I felt the change had to be made, and I made the changes that way. And we’re working on the player aspect of it to make it better.”
Bowles: ‘the Goal Hasn’t Changed’ After Brady
The Bucs worked around a dire offseason salary cap situation at $58.5 million over the cap, and the franchise could secure a few more key players in free agency and the draft to stay competitive. Tampa Bay already brought in potential new key players in quarterback Baker Mayfield, defensive tackle Greg Gaines, and running back Chase Edmonds during free agency.
“The goal hasn’t changed,” Bowles added. “Success is obviously winning the division first and doing damage in the playoffs and trying to win a Super Bowl.”
Tampa Bay couldn’t get close to either in the decade before Brady arrived in 2020. The Bucs missed the playoffs 12-consecutive years and endured a 13-year NFC South title drought. Things took off with Brady with a Super Bowl-winning season in 2020 followed by a division title and Divisional Round appearance in the 2021 season.
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