Todd Bowles takes over for the retiring Bruce Arians
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playing for super Bowles after a surprising Floridian football development.
Tampa Bay announced on Wednesday evening that former New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles will become the 13th head coach in team history after Bruce Arians stepped away from the role after three seasons, opting to take on an advisory role in the front office. The transition from Arians to Bowles was first reported by Peter King of NBC Sports.
Congratulations, Coach Bowles! pic.twitter.com/uyU4hHIs8d
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) March 31, 2022
Bowles’ new opportunity in Tampa is his first at the helm of a team since his four-season tenure with the Jets, where he amassed a 24-40 record. Ten of those wins came in his first season in 2015. Though infamous for its Week 17 heartbreak in Buffalo, which cost the Jets a playoff spot, that slate currently stands as the Jets’ most recent winning season.
Though Bowles failed to bring the Jets to the promised land of the postseason, he reclaimed the narrative of his NFL career through defensive coordinator duties in Tampa Bay. His service with the Buccaneers is perhaps most famous for the effort set forth in Super Bowl LV, which saw Tampa Bay roll to a 31-9 victory in its own stadium after they held the high-powered offense of the Kansas City Chiefs in check.
It marked the first time that the Kansas City offense scored less than 10 points in a game quarterbacked by Patrick Mahomes, who took over the Chiefs’ starting role in 2018.
Despite the lack of wins in New York, Bowles left a sizable impact on his metropolitan players.
“He’s a great person, great coach,” former linebacker Avery Williamson said after Bowles was ousted after the 2018 season. “I feel like he definitely helped get my game up to another level this year. He definitely taught me a whole lot of plays.”
“Don’t get too high, don’t too low, especially in this business,” receiver Quincy Enunwa said of the finest lesson that Bowles taught him. “He kind of showed that on the field, really, with his ability to stay, I guess you could say, stoic. A lot of people looked at that like a negative, but I think it’s huge for a player to see a coach not get too down when bad things are happening so you kind of know there’s always good times ahead.”
Prior to his arrival as the head coach of the Jets, the Elizabeth, N.J. native spent eight years as a defensive back with Washington (1986-90, 1992-93) and San Francisco (1991), winning Super Bowl XXII with the former in 1988. Bowles then spent 15 years as an NFL assistant (his first professional job coming as the Jets’ secondary coach in 2000), which included an interim head coaching stint while he was the Miami Dolphins’ secondary coach in 2011 (going 2-1 after taking over for Tony Sparano).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
