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

QUESTION: Todd Bowles is a defensive-minded coach. Will Byron Leftwich have more or less exclusive control over the offense or does Bowles see a role for himself there?

ANSWER: New Bucs head coach Todd Bowles trusts offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and quarterback Tom Brady to run the offense. At the same time, Bowles was asked if he was going to leave Leftwich alone or if he was going to sit in on offensive meetings.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“It’s early on that, but I’m the head coach – I get to do whatever I want,” Bowles laughed. “I’m not going to go in there and call plays. I understand that. And I don’t intend to or act like I’m going to. I’ll have input in how defenses are trying to attack them. I’ll have input on certain situations going into the half or two-minute, or third-and-1s, or going for it or not going for it and those types of things. That’s my job. I have the freedom to do that. At the same time, I understand and respect Byron and Tom a great deal.”

Bowles is not going to meddle or interfere with the offense. But I think where Bowles will be able to help Leftwich and Brady is looking at plays through a defensive perspective. The defensive-minded Bowles can tell Leftwich and Brady how a defense might defend a certain play, or what blitz might threaten Tampa Bay’s protection scheme the most.

That type of perspective might be really valuable. Bowles won’t interfere with the offense. He’ll just help it with some occasional input is the guess here.

QUESTION: Let’s say Byron Leftwich gets a head-coaching job and Tom Brady retires after this year. If they want to continue the same offensive philosophy, who in the Bruce Arians tree meets that criteria?

ANSWER: This is the downside of having a defensive-minded head coach, right? They are charged with the responsibility of always having a bright offensive mind calling plays. And if that person leaves it creates a vacancy that must be filled. Offensive coordinator candidates are en vogue right now for head-coaching hires. So when Byron Leftwich leaves – and I expect him to get his opportunity next year after a third season with Tom Brady – who will replace him?

The Bucs have a few candidates on the current coaching staff. Wide receivers coach Kevin Garver is someone who Bruce Arians is very fond of and might have replaced Leftwich this year had he landed a head-coaching job. Does Bowles hold the same opinion of Garver that Arians does? I’m not sure, but there’s a good chance that’s the case.

Assistant receivers coach Thaddeus Lewis is another candidate. Arians is also high on him after Lewis did a coaching internship in 2020. Lewis was hired as a full-time assistant in 2021 and made a strong impression on Arians. Again, does Bowles hold the same opinion of Lewis that Arians? I’m not sure. But those are the two in-house candidates that immediately come to mind due to their experience in the Bucs passing game.

Assistant head coach and run game coordinator Harold Goodwin is also a possibility. Bowles thinks highly of Goodwin and might want to help him get a head-coaching job. That will probably only come if Goodwin ends up calling plays at some point.

QUESTION: How exactly is co-defensive coordinators going to work? Will one call plays? What is they disagree?

ANSWER: Todd Bowles named defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers and inside linebackers coach Larry Foote co-defensive coordinators. Bowles will be calling plays with Rodgers and Foote helping with the game-planning during the week. Here’s what Bowles had to say when asked about the co-defensive coordinator roles in Tampa Bay this year.

Bucs co-DC Kacy Rodgers – Photo by: USA Today

“When I’m on the offensive side of the ball at practice we go through phases of run periods and pass periods,” Bowles said. “Sometimes they are at the same time. Kacy excels in the front seven and Larry excels in the back seven. When I’m over there, to be co-DCs, they’ll be handling the same situations, but one is in the run game and one is in the pass game, so I know I have it covered over there.

“I think our DB coaches do an outstanding job. Coach [Nick] Rapone taught me everything I knew, and Coach [Kevin] Ross I played with. Having that dynamic with both guys over there that I trust – along with the two DB coaches – I think it helps a great deal in practice when I’m on the other side of the ball. I’m going to install in the spring, because we have new things even they don’t know about yet. And I’ll call it on game day, but I think from the day-to-day operations and understanding the players and going into training camp they’ll be in front of the room a lot more.”

So Bowles will call the defense on the sidelines as the head coach in 2021. Rodgers and Foote were both on the sidelines last year in their assistant roles. But one of them could be up in the booth next year for a bird’s eye view of the field to help Bowles.

QUESTION: Assuming that Rob Gronkowski and Ndamukong Suh are re-signed, do you believe the Bucs will take a true best player available approach to the draft, or will they be looking to target specific needs?

ANSWER: Yes, the Bucs very well could take the best player available. Most of the team’s needs have been filled in free agency. In Pewter Report’s latest 2022 Bucs 7-Round Mock Draft we have Tampa Bay drafting Georgia strong safety Lewis Cine. The reason is because the Bucs have yet to adequately replace Jordan Whitehead, who departed for the New York Jets in free agency.

Tampa Bay did sign free agent defensive back Logan Ryan, but his role has yet to be determined. New head coach Todd Bowles wants to see Ryan on the field during OTAs before he decides exactly what role he’ll play in Tampa Bay’s defense. The guess here is that Ryan won’t be an ideal replacement for Whitehead. Ryan excels as a free safety and also in the slot as a cornerback.

So the Bucs will draft a safety – either in the first round or at some point. The team also didn’t re-sign Andrew Adams, so Tampa Bay will need another safety on the depth chart. Other options at No. 27 would be a guard – if Boston College’s Zion Johnson or Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green are available. Wide receivers like Arkansas’ Treylon Burks or Ohio State’s Chris Olave could also be possibilities.

QUESTION: Is Bruce Arians the greatest coach in the history of the Bucs?

ANSWER: Great question. The greatest Bucs head coaches in Tampa Bay history were Jon Gruden, Tony Dungy and John McKay prior to Bruce Arians’ arrival. Gruden has the most wins in franchise history with 57, in addition to winning the team’s first Super Bowl in 2002. Gruden’s Bucs teams also won three NFC South titles in seven years.

Dungy keyed the Bucs’ turnaround with his arrival in 1996. He led Tampa Bay to the playoffs in four years out of six years. Dungy also won a division title in 1999 and took the team to the NFC Championship Game. He had a record of 54-42 in Tampa Bay.

Bucs senior football consultant Bruce Arians – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

McKay was the team’s first head coach and led the Bucs to a division title in 1979 and took the team to the NFC Championship Game. That was quite a feat in the franchise’s fourth season of existence without the benefit of free agency at the time. McKay had a record of 44-88-1 in Tampa Bay.

Arians only coached in Tampa Bay three years and finished with a record of 31-18. He won the franchise’s second Super Bowl in just his second season with the Bucs after going 7-9 in his first year. After an 11-5 record and winning Super Bowl LV, Arians led the Bucs to a 13-4 record last year. Tampa Bay also won the NFC South for the first time since 2007.

Arians’ .633 winning percentage is the best in franchise history. While Arians coached half the time that Gruden, Dungy and McKay did in Tampa Bay, he very well could be considered the best coach in Bucs history. Two playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title is quite a run in a three-year time frame. Not to mention helping to lure Tom Brady to Tampa Bay.