Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to the Bucs Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: I know everyone is going to be calling for Todd Bowles to be fired here (myself included), but what would be the reasons to keep him as head coach going into next year if any?

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: To answer this question based on its definition I would point to Todd Bowles’ very modest improvement in the win column each season. He’s stair-stepped this team from eight wins in 2022 with a much older team in transition to a much younger nine-win squad in 2023. This past season the Bucs got back to double-digit wins with a 10-7 record, and he’s the only head coach in franchise history to win a division title in his first three seasons. And Bowles is also tied with Jon Gruden for the most division championships in Tampa Bay history.

Bowles has also had a hand in hiring two good offensive coordinators in back-to-back seasons in Dave Canales in 2023 and his successor, Liam Coen, in 2024. The Bucs players love playing for Todd Bowles, who treats them with respect, and the team generally plays hard. Bowles’ teams have developed some mental toughness in overcoming slow, 4-6 starts in each of the last two seasons to finish with a flurry down the stretch in December and January.

Bowles is a steady leader and a very good man. He has a team that is full of model citizens, and he and Tampa Bay general manager Jason Licht have drafted many high character players over the last three seasons that have formed the nucleus of a team that should have Super Bowl aspirations in 2025 and beyond. Those are the reasons for keeping Bowles, per your question.

I’m not necessarily advocating that the team do so, but I wanted to answer this question because despite the defense’s shortcomings over the last two years – and especially in 2024 – it certainly hasn’t been all bad with Bowles as the head coach in Tampa Bay. The Bucs are far better positioned for success in 2025 right now than Carolina, New Orleans and perhaps Atlanta. I discussed Bowles’ future even more in-depth in a Monday morning column I authored that is titled Do The Bucs Think Todd Bowles Can Win It All? I’m Not Sure on PewterReport.com. Check it out.

QUESTION: Do you think Liam Coen is ready to be a head coach? Todd Bowles shouldn’t be fired, but changes are clearly needed. If the Glazers were to make a move, do you think promoting Coen would risk the Bucs regressing next year? Curious to hear your thoughts.

Bucs DL coach Kacy Rodgers, head coach Todd Bowles and OLBs coach George Edwards – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: I have no idea if Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen is ready to be a head coach at age 39 – in Tampa Bay or anywhere else. Like Dave Canales a year ago, Coen was a first-year play-caller in the NFL this past season, although he had two years worth of play-calling experience at the University of Kentucky in 2021 and 2023 sandwiched between stints on Sean McVay’s Rams coaching staff. The only way to find out if someone is ready to lead a team is to put them in charge and see what happens.

Sometimes brilliant play-callers are just brilliant play-callers and not necessarily leaders of men. Sometimes a gifted play-caller can turn into the next Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan – a coach who can take a team to the Super Bowl.

The Bucs replaced defensive-minded head coach Lovie Smith with offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter in 2017 because the team wanted continuity on offense with Jameis Winston entering his third season in Tampa Bay. Koetter had previous experience as a head coach at Arizona State, but couldn’t get the team to the playoffs after going 9-7 in his first year and was fired after a pair of 5-11 seasons.

I do think this Bucs team lacks an edge and a killer instinct on defense. Could an offensive-minded head coach like Coen bring that to the table? Offensive-minded head coaches like Jon Gruden and Bruce Arians certainly were, and it should be noted that both of those men were the only ones to win a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.

You mention some changes are clearly needed even if Bowles stays and you are correct. If I’m the Glazers and general manager Jason Licht I am demanding that Bowles make some changes on his defensive staff. I would tell Bowles he needs to move on from outside linebackers coach George Edwards, cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross, who was Bowles’ college teammate at Temple, and safeties coach Nick Rapone, who was Bowles’ position coach back at Temple.

I know Bowles said on Monday that those were the same coaches that have helped this team get to the playoffs in each of the last five seasons. But these are also some of the coaches whose units really let the team down this year. Tampa Bay only had seven interceptions on the season, including six from the secondary. The sack production from the outside linebacker room plummeted and no safety played well this year in Bowles’ defense.

QUESTION: Scott, heard you talk about our zone blitzes and dropping Yaya Diaby and Anthony Nelson in the coverage on the Pewter Report Podcast. Would the Buccaneers be better served just to have a 4-3 defense rather than a 3-4 with true edge rushers and true linebackers, or am I being too old school? Thank you for a great year of coverage.

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby and Commanders RB Austin Ekeler – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: Just because the Bucs run a 3-4 defense under Todd Bowles doesn’t mean that teams that run 4-3 blitzes don’t drop an edge rusher in coverage on fire zone blitzes. Legendary Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin would occasionally do it with Simeon Rice back in the day. I think Todd Bowles does it too much, especially with his current group of outside linebackers.

I know the likes of Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett each came away with some interceptions for Bowles while doing it at times, but more often than not, the Bucs are getting exposed by dropping guys like Anthony Nelson and Yaya Diaby into coverage this year. And it also hurt the team’s pass rush by not having their most effective pass rushers going at the quarterback.

On Washington’s final drive of the night quarterback coming out of the two-minute warning at the Tampa Bay 45, quarterback Jayden Daniels found running back Austin Ekeler in the left flat for an 18-yard gain on second-and-10 down to the Bucs’ 27-yard line with 1:41 left. Guess who was in coverage on the play? Diaby, who has never deflected a pass in coverage – let alone picked one off.

I just don’t understand the personnel deployment in that situation to defend one of the best third-down backs in the game with a 6-foot-4, 270-pound edge rusher. Diaby was the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his work at the line of scrimmage last week versus the Saints, not his ability (or lack thereof) in coverage.

QUESTION:  What do you think the Bucs do with Jamel Dean?

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and CB Jamel Dean – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: I think there is a very real chance that Jamel Dean could have played his final game in red and pewter on Sunday night. I know that there is some real consternation within the organization about Dean’s ability to stay healthy, and his inability to make plays. Dean has just one interception over the last two seasons, and that came this year at Los Angeles. He also missed four games in 2023 and five more this season, in addition to missing the second half of Sunday’s 23-20 playoff loss to Washington.

Dean surrendered a 35-yard catch to Terry McLaurin in the first half. But after he left, Dean’s replacement, Josh Hayes, failed to break up a 5-yard touchdown to McLaurin on fourth down, as well as a 21-yard catch by Dyami Brown to convert a third-and-6 on Washington’s final drive. Losing Dean proved to be costly in that playoff loss.

But that doesn’t necessarily speak to Dean’s importance to the team. Instead, it refers to how the Bucs can’t trust him to stay healthy, or make plays on the ball in the passing game. We saw Tampa Bay move on from previous starting cornerback Carlton Davis III for those exact same reasons last offseason: not enough plays on the ball and the inability to stay healthy. Davis was traded to Detroit for a third-round pick, but I’m not sure there will be a similar market for Dean this offseason – or any market at all, really.

Dean, who turns 29 in 2025, has two years left on his deal and a salary cap value of $15,136,941 this year. That might make him hard to trade. Because of that, and the lack of talented depth at the position, Dean could return for the 2025 season, but may have to compete for his job. A lot will depend on who the head coach is and who is calling plays on defense in Tampa Bay in the coming year.

QUESTION: Biggest question is will the Bucs finally get a big-time edge rusher and will they significantly improve the defense for next year? How many players in the next draft will be at cornerback and linebacker?

Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo courtesy of the Buccaneers

ANSWER: There is no doubt that the Bucs’ Super Bowl window is open. Bucs general manager Jason Licht and his front office have built a Super Bowl-caliber offense and found a top-tier play-caller in offensive coordinator in Liam Coen. The team wants to retain Coen and hopes other teams looking for candidates to fill their head coaching vacancies find help elsewhere. Even if Coen should depart, there is plenty of talent to attract an upper echelon play-caller in the offseason to replace him, although that could be easier said than done.

But everyone knows that Tampa Bay’s defense needs to be rebuilt, retooled and reloaded this offseason. In addition to finding some better position coaches, general manager Jason Licht needs to find an impact pass rusher. He’s done that before with the trade for Jason Pierre-Paul in 2018 and by striking gold in free agency with Shaq Barrett in 2019.

Licht has tried to draft an elite pass rusher before but 2016 second-rounder Noah Spence and 2021 first-round pick Joe Tryon-Shoyinka were busts. Yaya Diaby and Chris Braswell are two young, talented pass rushers that the team shouldn’t give up on, but neither can be relied upon to instantly develop into a double-digit sacker in 2025. The Bucs need to be in position to go all-in for a Super Bowl run in 2025 and find a pass rusher through free agency or the draft.

Tampa Bay could also use a veteran linebacker and cornerback to bolster the defense. Lavonte David may or may not be back in free agency. Free agent K.J. Britt shouldn’t be back. We’ll see what the future holds with Jamel Dean, but he can’t be relied upon any more to be a starter on defense. Licht must use a two-pronged approached and look to upgrade edge rusher, inside linebacker, cornerback and safety in both free agency and the draft – just in case he misses in one particular element of team-building this offseason. Even picking up a couple of defensive free agents, this should be a heavy draft on defense in Tampa Bay.