The Tampa Bay Bucs are now 3-5 on the season and mired in a four-game losing streak after a stunning, 39-37 loss to the Texans in Houston. With just nine games left in the 2023 campaign, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles probably has to go 6-3 down the stretch to have a chance at keeping his job in 2024, otherwise there will likely be a head coaching change in Tampa Bay in the offseason.

Bowles went 8-9 in his first season as the Bucs head coach last year. Although his team won the NFC South title with a losing record, the Bucs also lost in the first round of the playoffs, a 31-14 home defeat to the Dallas Cowboys at Raymond James Stadium in the Wild Card round. So essentially Bowles went 8-10 in 2022.

If Bowles and the Bucs can’t turn their season around the team will likely finish with a Top 10 draft pick in 2024. Right now if the 2024 NFL Draft were to be held today, Tampa Bay would have the No. 8 pick, according to Tankathon.com.

Washington QB Michael Penix Jr. – Photo by: USA Today

A new head coach will undoubtedly want to draft his own quarterback, and this is the year to do it. As many as 20 quarterbacks could get selected next April in what Pro Football Focus’ Trevor Sikkema calls a “mega-QB draft class” in an interview with Pewter Report earlier in the year.

USC quarterback Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye have been talked about as the top two quarterbacks in the 2024 draft class, but as many as five QBs could go in the first round. Oregon’s Bo Nix, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., who hails from Tampa, and LSU’s Jayden Daniels could also find themselves in the first round.

So there is a chance that the Bucs may not need a Top 5 pick to grab a franchise-type quarterback with the talent and depth at the position next April. Buffalo’s Pro Bowl quarterback Josh Allen was selected with the No. 7 overall pick in 2018, and Kansas City’s two-time Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes was the No. 10 overall pick in 2017. Baltimore’s MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson was selected with the 32nd overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

How Will The Rest Of The Bucs’ Season Play Out?

Kentucky QB Will Levis – Photo by: USA Today

Speaking of quarterbacks, one of the QBs that the Bucs passed on – Tennessee’s Will Levis – comes to Tampa Bay to play the Bucs on Sunday. Levis undoubtedly would like to show Tampa Bay what it missed when the Bucs passed on him with the No. 19 overall pick this past April. Levis is 1-1 as a starter with a win over the Falcons in his first start and a loss to the Steelers on Thursday Night Football.

After signing veteran quarterback Baker Mayfield in free agency and still having 2021 second-round pick Kyle Trask on the team, the Bucs weren’t really in the market for another QB, which is one of the reasons why the team didn’t draft Levis in the first round. Levis also had some question marks coming out of Kentucky, which caused him to slide to the top of the second round.

For Bowles to avoid being fired and sticking around in 2024 he has to win at least six of the next nine games. With more talented teams like San Francisco and Jacksonville on the schedule that will likely beat Tampa Bay, Bowles has to find at least six victories in the other seven games.

That’s a tight window to crawl though, especially with the Bucs already losing two winnable games to beatable opponents in the Falcons (16-13 loss) and Texans (39-37 loss).

The Bucs’ remaining schedule looks like this.

vs. Tennessee – 3-5
at San Francisco – 5-3
at Indianapolis – 4-5
vs. Carolina – 1-7
at Atlanta – 4-5
at Green Bay – 3-5
vs. Jacksonville – 6-2
vs. New Orleans – 5-4
at Carolina – 1-7