Last week the Jaguars interviewed both Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich for Jacksonville’s head coaching vacancy. Bowles interviewed on Monday and Leftwich interviewed on Friday.

Now another team wants to interview both of Tampa Bay’s coordinators, according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Chicago has plans to interview Bowles, who is the league’s highest-paid defensive coordinator, and Leftwich for its head coach position. Matt Nagy and general manager Ryan Pace were fired on Monday after the Bears finished 6-11. Tampa Bay beat Chicago, 38-3, earlier this season at Raymond James Stadium.

Per NFL rules, teams with head coaching vacancies cannot interview coaches on teams that are in the playoffs this week. Teams will have to formally request an interview next Monday following the first round of the playoffs, and those interviews cannot take place until next week.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, OC Byron Leftwich and QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Bowles has previous head coaching experience in New York where he coached the Jets from 2015-18. He was fired after four seasons with a 26-41 (.338) record. His best season was his first in 2015, guiding the Jets to a 10-5 record but missing the playoffs. After a pair of 5-11 seasons, Bowles was fired after finishing 4-12 in 2018.

Bowles was also an interim head coach in Miami in 2011, finishing with a 2-1 record.

Leftwich has no head coaching experience. But he has directed one of the league’s most prolific offenses since taking over the play-calling duties in 2019.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians has been openly supportive of both Bowles and Leftwich interviewing for head coaching opportunities at the NFL level. He said that it’s not a distraction from Tampa Bay’s playoff preparation.

“Those guys are pros and they both took different times during the day where there is downtime for them,” Arians said. “I have all the confidence that it’s not a distraction whatsoever and I’m pulling for both of them.”