Bucs GM Jason Licht and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

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

QUESTION: You have players speaking out against Todd Bowles, saying he should find a defensive coordinator. What are the Glazers doing when the public now knows Bowles is not providing answers? How dysfunctional does the organization look to potential offensive coordinator candidates? This just screams disaster.

ANSWER: You’re not alone in your thinking. I’m not quite sure what the Glazers are doing keeping a head coach who has 9-8 and 10-7 records sandwiched between a pair of 8-9 records. Todd Bowles’ defense has been sub-par the last two years, and the weaker side of the ball when compared to Tampa Bay’s offense. The Bucs can’t rush the passer effectively nor can they play a single game without two or three catastrophic busts in coverage.

But the Glazers absolutely love Bowles – despite what the fans think. And they will be giving him the 2026 season to make amends for a 2025 campaign that saw a 6-2 record at the bye week disintegrate into a 2-7 finish, losing the NFC South division to Carolina in the process.

It’s not just running back Rachaad White saying that Bowles should hire a defensive coordinator and surrender the play-calling duties to someone else. Yaya Diaby and other Bucs players have been critical of Bowles’ reliance on too many walk-through practices after the bye week due to injuries, feeling that the defense is not adequately prepared for game days without more challenging practices. There is no doubt that the Bucs defense has gotten softer as a result, which is something a defensive player never wants to hear.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Then Bucs Hall of Famer Rondé Barber has gone and criticized Bowles on his podcast, on the Pewter Report Podcast and in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, suggesting that his defensive scheme puts too much on the players with its complexities. Every play has its own pressure package, and there is no base defense to fall back on as a result. I don’t think Barber is wrong at all, and I share that opinion.

Throw in the fact that the defense has been poorly coached, especially in the secondary, and I’m not quite sure that Bowles is going to get this unit fixed this year. We’ll see later this week if Bowles being on the hot seat in 2026 will deter the team from hiring a quality offensive coordinator or not. If Tampa Bay can’t land Todd Monken, Mike McDaniel or Zac Robinson, then look out.

This upcoming season could be a disaster, especially if Bowles and the Bucs have to rely on hiring yet another unproven offensive coordinator without play-calling experience. If that happens, the Glazers may ultimately regret keeping Bowles instead of moving on from him.

QUESTION: Any indication that Jason Licht realizes he’s relied too much on Todd Bowles and his coaching staff to develop talent and needs to go after proven top-end production more aggressively in both the draft and free agency?

ANSWER: This is a great question, and one I’m not really sure about. Lately I’ve thought about this scenario. Jason Licht and the front office drafted cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III in the first round of 2016, and two more cornerbacks in the second round in 2018 in M.J. Stewart and Carlton Davis III. When Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles arrived in 2019 those three players were on the roster. Then Licht drafts two more cornerbacks in Sean Murphy-Bunting and Jamel Dean in the second and third rounds, respectively, in 2019.

That’s five cornerbacks drafted with either Day 1 or Day 2 picks that Bowles and his defensive coaching staff worked with – although Hargreaves and Stewart were released in the 2019 season. Then the Bucs drafted a trio of Day 3 cornerbacks over the next few years in Chris Wilcox, Zyon McCollum and Josh Hayes before selecting two more Day 2 cornerbacks in second-round pick Benjamin Morrison and third-round pick Jacob Parrish in 2025.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and GM Jason Licht – Photo courtesy of the Buccaneers

That’s now 10 cornerbacks, including seven cornerbacks drafted in with either Day 1 or Day 2 picks that Bowles and former cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross have had a chance to develop – seven premium picks! None of those cornerbacks have sniffed a Pro Bowl, although Dean was an alternate this year at age 29 in his contract year. That’s kind of damning, isn’t it? Sure, Licht may have drafted a bust or two, but what would better coaching have produced from that group?

Now it is true that Tampa Bay did win Super Bowl LV with the “Gravediggers” secondary, which featured Davis, Dean and Murphy-Bunting at cornerback. But the Bucs also had a front six that included edge rushers Shaq Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul, defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea, and inside linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White. All six of those players went to at least one Pro Bowl. That defensive front would make even an average secondary look good.

I always say that coaching matters – because it does. Just ask Hall of Famer Rondé Barber, who has gone on record to say that former Bucs defensive backs coach Mike Tomlin took his game to new heights when he replaced Herm Edwards in 2001. It was time for Ross and safeties coach Nick Rapone to go given the constant busts in coverage in the league’s 27th-ranked pass defense.

Bucs assistant DBs coach Rashad Johnson and CB Josh Hayes – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

We’ll see who Bowles hires to replace them. My guess says that Bowles promotes assistant defensive backs coaches Tim Atkins and Rashad Johnson to replace Rapone and Ross, respectively. Time will tell if they are any better.

To answer your question, if I’m Licht, I am on the lookout for veteran players that have been coached up elsewhere to come in via free agency or via a trade – this year more than years past. The evidence is clear that Bowles’ defensive assistants have not done a great job of developing the players that Licht and the front office have drafted over the years. How do we know this? Well, Bowles just fired half of his defensive staff after the 2025 season ended, didn’t he?

QUESTION: It’s no secret Jason Licht needs to find a legit edge rusher this offseason. Plenty are banging their fists for a trade for Maxx Crosby, which I would love as well. But do you think it would cost less and have just as much potential to add an elite rusher if Licht traded up for Rueben Bain Jr.?

ANSWER: This is a great question. I think it would depend on where Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. ends up falling in this year’s draft. Is he a Top 5 prospect or a Top 10 prospect? Moving up five spots as opposed to 10 spots has a lesser price tag when it comes to draft pick compensation, of course. The Bucs wouldn’t trade up for a player like Bain unless they know they could get him on draft day when he’s on the board.

And the only problem with this approach is that the NFL Draft comes after free agency. Waiting until the draft is a dangerous proposition. I think the Bucs need to try to get a veteran edge rusher either in free agency or a trade. If it takes two first-rounders to get Las Vegas Pro Bowler Maxx Crosby, I think that’s worth doing. Crosby is only 28 and has 69.5 career sacks. He is an alpha leader and an alpha edge rusher who would bring a fantastic edge and demeanor to Tampa Bay’s defense.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and Raiders DE Maxx Crosby – Photo by: USA Today

If the Bucs are thinking about spending a first-round pick on an unproven pass rusher out of college, why not get a five-time Pro Bowler who won’t have the learning curve? The actual real cost would only be that extra first-round pick. And given Jason Licht’s track record of swinging and missing on edge rushers, Crosby would be a safer bet – if he’s available on the trade market.

One last thing on Bain. I think he’s a really good edge rusher, but I actually think Akheem Mesidor is the better Miami defensive end. Mesidor, who is regarded as a second-round pick right now, is expected to play in the Senior Bowl next week and will have the opportunity to boost his draft stock. In fact, this year’s Senior Bowl has a great group of edge rushers, and I profiled six of them in a new Pewter Pulse video.

QUESTION: Watching all these excellent candidates – Kevin Stefanski, John Harbaugh, Mike McDaniel, etc. – become available for head coaching opportunities and the Bucs are rolling with Turtle Todd Bowles is maddening! At this point, remaining status quo with Bowles is malpractice! Please help me understand.

ANSWER: I don’t understand it, and you share the views of a lot of Bucs fans out there right now. I don’t understand why the Bucs wouldn’t seek an upgrade like John Harbaugh, and why the team wasn’t in the mix for his services. And now Sean McDermott is available after being fired by the Bills. Just watch, the Glazers won’t go after him, either – even though McDermott has a 98-50 (.662) record in nine seasons in Buffalo. McDermott only had one losing season with the Bills and is coming off a 12-5 record with seven straight years of double-digit wins.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and former Bills HC Sean McDermott – Photo by: USA Today

But the Glazers sure do love Bowles, which is maddening at this point. Barely winning the NFC South, which is the worst division in the NFL, three years in a row is not a great accomplishment, especially when the Bucs have lost home Wild Card playoff games in two out of those three seasons. I just don’t see the appeal of keeping a coach with a mediocre 35-33 (.515) record in the regular season and a 1-3 mark in the postseason.

I’m not quite sure Kevin Stefanski is an excellent candidate. He had two 11-win seasons in Cleveland where he won NFL Coach of the Year honors, but also had four losing seasons, including back-to-back years with 3-14 and 5-12 records over the past two years with the Browns. We’ll see how he fares in Atlanta, but I’m not as big of a fan of his as others are.

As for Mike McDaniel, I hope either he or Todd Monken get hired as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator. In addition to a having an experienced play-caller, either would give the team an in-house head coaching candidate to replace Bowles in 2027 if he can’t get things turned around this year.

QUESTION: Scott, would the Bucs be in these playoff games with either Mike Vrabel or Ben Johnson? The answer is yes.

ANSWER: Yes, you are correct. Put Mike Vrabel or Ben Johnson in charge of the Bucs last year and they finish better than 8-9 and Tampa Bay is in the playoffs. Vrabel can absolutely coach. He had a 54-45 (.545) record in Tennessee with a 2-3 record in the postseason. In his first season at the helm in New England, Vrabel and a young Patriots team won the AFC East with a 14-3 record and then advanced to the AFC Championship Game on Sunday with a win over Houston.

Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

In his first season as a head coach, Ben Johnson took a young Bears team to an 11-6 record and an NFC North division title. In eight years as a head coach – four in New York and four in Tampa Bay – Bowles has never won more than 10 games in any season.

Johnson brought energy, swagger, confidence and offensive wizardry to Chicago. Vrabel brought toughness, physicality and grit to New England. Both head coaches have quality coordinators and coaching staffs, too. We’ll see how Bowles fares in 2026, which will be a make-or-break season for him as Tampa Bay’s head coach.