Many Tampa Bay fans have waited to hear from the Glazer Family about how Bucs ownership can justify retaining head coach Todd Bowles following an 8-9 season and missing out on the playoffs due a 2-7 finish following a 6-2 start in 2025. Bowles has a 35-33 record in four years as Tampa Bay’s head coach and has as many losing seasons – two – as he does winning seasons.

While the Bucs have won three NFC South division championships under Bowles, the fact that they’ve mostly come with less than stellar records does exude much inspiration, especially when expectations were as high as ever heading into last season and the team completely bottomed out, not even reaching the playoffs.

Bucs Co-Chair Joel Glazer Gives Reasoning For Keeping Todd Bowles

Ultimately its up to ownership to decide Todd Bowles’ fate and the Glazers made the decision to have him back in Tampa Bay for another year. Co-Chairman Joel Glazer spoke to Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds and other media at the NFL Annual Meeting on Tuesday and talked about why the team kept Bowles as the head coach even though many fans aren’t happy about it.

“I’d say as a franchise, everybody’s goal is to win the Super Bowl every year,” Glazer said. “That’s your hope, but only one team does win the Super Bowl every year. In any given season you’ve got to look at the season, look at how things went, look at where the franchise is at, look at the totality of the situation as year in and year out. That’s how you evaluate things. Last season started out great – didn’t end so well. Obviously we were disappointed, obviously our fans were disappointed, but there’s a little more to it.

Bucs GM Jason Licht and owner Joel Glazer – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Every team has injuries, but there were significant injuries last year at significant positions. There were a lot of close games down the stretch that didn’t go our way. But we’re trying to build a championship team. You can try and throw a dart every year – or you can try and build a Super Bowl winning team. We feel like we had a great team and we’re constantly building, building, building – adding to the foundations that we have.”

Glazer continued.

“If you look at our roster, if you look at our team, I think we are great in a lot of spots. But like a lot of teams, you have to add,” Glazer said. “So obviously, ultimately the head coach is the one who this falls at his feet, but I know Todd’s very respected in the locker room and nobody wants to win more than Todd.”

Joel Glazer Cites Injuries As The Biggest Reason Why Bucs Faltered

Nobody wants to use injuries as an excuse, but it was constantly brought up as the primary reason why the Bucs’ 2025 season went downhill after the bye week. The Glazers appear to hang their hats on Tampa Bay’s 6-2 start to the season, rather than dwelling on how things ended with a 2-7 finish.

In their mind, a healthy Bucs team is still near the top of the league. There are several factors as to why Tampa Bay didn’t attain its goal of repeating as NFC South champions and making the postseason last season, but the hot start and cold finish cancel each other out in the minds of the Glazers heading into this new season.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Nathan Ray Seebeck

“You saw what this team could do,” Glazer said. “But every story has sub-stories and it’s hard. It’s hard when you start a season and you think, ‘This is what your team is going to be’ and then you get to the season and you’re missing a lot of pieces constantly throughout the season.

“And again, everybody has injuries, but I think we had some significant challenges we had to deal with last year. It was unfortunate down the stretch – frustrating down the stretch – but you see week in and week out, this team plays hard for Todd [Bowles]. Nobody lays down. You have the odd game where things don’t quite go your way, but every game until the final whistle, these players are fighting, fighting, fighting.”

What Is The Glazers’ Expectation For Todd Bowles In 2026?

So what is the expectation level for Todd Bowles going into this year? Is it double-digit wins and another NFC South division title? Does he have to reach reach an NFC Championship game in the playoff? According to Joel Glazer, the reins aren’t too strict on him and Bowles was not given a benchmark he has to hit.

“The National Football League, every year, every coach you see the turnover,” Glazer said. “It’s a tough job, a lot of expectations. But no [there is no stated win total that Bowles has to reach].

Bucs co-chairmen Joel Glazer and Ed Glazer – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“To just set certain goals, you’ve got to look at everything, every situation. You’ve got to look at your team. You’ve got to look where it is in the journey to where you’re trying to get to. After we won the Super Bowl, everyone expected the floor to fall out for this franchise. It’s hard to win the Super Bowl and turn it around real quick and win it again. You got the salary cap and everything you’re dealing with. There’s so much involved – injuries – that come into play.”

Glazer said that the team’s expectations are in-line with Bowles’ own expectations.

“He knows we have the highest expectations, we know he has the highest expectations, that Jason has the highest expectations, so we’re looking forward to this season,” Glazer said. “Look forward to finishing up the offseason with the draft and we’re very optimistic.”

It’s evident that ownership believes building a team with stability through a core foundation with their players, front office and coach. That’s partly why they have not been too quick to pull the trigger on a head coach like they may have been before.

Bucs GM Jason Licht, co-owners Darcie Glazer Kassewitz and Joel Glazer, head coach Todd Bowles and senior football consultant Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Often on the Pewter Report Podcast, we’ve talked about how the “decade of darkness” that the Bucs experienced in playoff-less years from 2008-19 and that the team doesn’t want go back to. Bowles can win enough to satisfy ownership, but they also believe from lessons learned that sometimes change isn’t always better. Sometimes it can get worse if one makes the wrong move for the franchise.

“That’s fair. It’s also a little bit more than that,” Glazer said when asked about being fearful of going back to the days of double-digit losses and not competing for the playoffs. “It’s coaching, it’s players, it’s the organization, it’s a whole group of things that have to work together for success and have everybody on the same page. While the head coach is highly visible, you have to look at everything and all the different pieces – and all the pieces have to come together. And you’ve got to have a plan to ultimately build a championship winner. That is the goal.”

– Scott Reynolds contributed to this report.