North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick – Photo by: USA Today

INTRO: Pro Football Talk rumor mongers were at it again, this time with Mike Florio suggesting that the Bucs could still be in play for former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who is now the head coach at the University of North Carolina. Sigh. The odds of Belichick staying at UNC past this year aren’t good, yet the Bucs are fully committed to Todd Bowles. I detail why there’s no truth to the rumor that just won’t die in my latest SR’s FAB 5 column. Enjoy!

FAB 1. Bill Belichick To The Bucs? Nope.

There was a time when I participated in the rumor that former Patriots legendary head coach Bill Belichick might replace Todd Bowles as the Bucs head coach.

That time, which has now come and gone, was when Tampa Bay lost four games in a row for second straight season and were 4-6 heading into the 2024 bye week. Chris Godwin, the team’s 1,000-yard slot receiver who was on a Pro Bowl pace, was lost for the season to a dislocated ankle in a Week 7 loss to Baltimore. Future Hall of Fame receiver Mike Evans didn’t even have 400 receiving yards at the bye week and missed three and a half games with a hamstring injury at age 31.

Things looked bleak for Bowles.

Until he once again rallied his troops for another furious finish down the stretch, as the Bucs went 6-1 to compile a 10-7 record in 2024 and capture a third straight NFC South division title under Bowles as a head coach.

With a one-win improvement over the previous year’s 9-8 record, I even speculated that Bowles might need to once again advance to the NFC Divisional playoff round to be safe and keep his job. When the Bucs were upset at home by a spunky Commanders team led by rookie sensation Jayden Daniels, 23-20, I wasn’t sure Bowles was going to return for a fourth season. Especially after Bowles’ defense didn’t force a single Washington punt or turnover the entire game.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and former OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Adding another layer of intrigue was the fact that Jacksonville was courting Tampa Bay’s hotshot offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who eventually took the Jaguars head coaching job after initially agreeing to become the league’s highest-paid offensive coordinator to stay with the Bucs – for a minute.

The Glazers had the opportunity to keep Coen, their shiny new toy, and replace Bowles, and there were some Bucs fans that wanted that to happen. After all, Coen’s offense was the team strength last year from Week 1 on, while Bowles defense, which had been riddled with injuries, was the team weakness.

But that didn’t happen. The Glazers and general manager Jason Licht agreed to choose Bowles over Coen and hire a new offensive coordinator, the team’s third in as many years.

I bring all of this up because … there is a man who keeps bringing this up – Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

On June 5, Florio wrote a column on PFT called, “Would Any NFL Team Hire Bill Belichick? One Possibility Stands Out. That team of course is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Of course the Bucs could’ve replaced Bowles with Belichick, too. But they didn’t.

Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick – USA Today

Florio seems to forget that as he continues to associate Belichick to the Bucs. That association continued on a recent appearance with Big Cat and PFT Commenter on the “Pardon My Take” podcast.

“Allow me to weave my fan fiction,” Florio said on “Pardon My Take.” “Belichick’s consigliere, Mike Lombardi, who is basically his unofficial mouthpiece, has been very quiet since all of the Jordon Hudson (Belichick’s 24-year old girlfriend) stuff hit the fan, which is hilarious. Lombardi wouldn’t shut up until this Hudson stuff happens, and now you can’t find him anywhere. But he was putting out this idea that Todd Bowles would retire, possibly after the 2024 season.”

Of course Bowles didn’t retire after the 2024 season. That was a baseless rumor.

“So I feel like Belichick has been eyeballing the Bucs,” Florio continued. “Maybe Lombardi was trying to speak it into existence that there would be a vacancy there because that’s one of the teams where they’ve got the talent Belichick needs. You give him the talent, he’s the best game day coach that football has ever seen. He’ll take that talent, he’ll get them ready, and they’ll go out there and they’ll find a way to win games. He’s not so good at developing and drafting and acquiring talent, but if you give him talent, he can make it happen.”

It’s easy to see why the Bucs would be very attractive to Belichick. Florio is absolutely right about the level of talent in Tampa Bay – thanks to Licht and Bowles, who have been sensational when it comes to drafting over the past three years, especially.

But this scenario isn’t even in the cards right now. Bowles enters the 2025 season not on the hot seat.

It would take a tremendous fall from grace for the Glazers and Licht to consider firing Bowles after he became the only head coach in Tampa Bay to win three division titles right off the bat in his first three seasons. And keep in mind, it took seven years for Jon Gruden to win three NFC South titles with the Bucs.

Let’s not forget that Belichick is 73 – a dozen years older than Bowles – and his last four seasons in New England without Tom Brady consisted of 7-9, 10-7, 8-9 and 4-13 records. Belichick could never find Brady’s replacement. That’s not to tarnish his reputation. That’s just stating the fact that without Brady, Belichick couldn’t win.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick – Photo by: USA Today

Florio finished by bringing up the Glazers’ track record with head coaches from the past.

“The Bucs have done some crazy ass shit when it comes to head coaches,” Florio said. “Over the years, they fired Jon Gruden abruptly. They elevate Raheem Morris, who nobody had ever heard of. He was a defensive backs coach who goes all the way up to head coach. They hired Greg Schiano – for crying out loud, in 2012. He was on no one’s radar screen as a potential head coach. They fired Lovie Smith and promoted Dirk Koetter because they were afraid Koetter was going to parlay his one season with Jameis Winston to a head coaching job somewhere else.

“And then when Tom Brady unretired, they kind of gave Bruce Arians the unofficial nudge out the door. So the Buccaneers are willing to do kooky things if they think it’s going to make them better. The Bucs have a history of doing unconventional things. It would definitely be unconventional at this point for the Buccaneers to go after Belichick, but it would make sense, if you can hand him a talented team in a weak division where he could cobble together enough wins to get to the playoffs. We know he wants to be back in the NFL.… The Bucs are the one team that would make sense out of all 32 franchises for next year.”

All of that is true, but all that coaching shuffling did was lead to a decade of darkness from 2008 to 2019 where Tampa Bay didn’t make a single playoff appearance. Granted, the Bucs have way more talent now than they did back then, but the Glazers – and Licht – have learned some valuable lessons along the way.

Yes, the Bucs have hired an elderly coach before in Arians, who was 67 back in 2019, which was his first year in Tampa Bay. But they did so because Arians had a talented staff of assistants, one of whom, Bowles, wound up being his successor in 2022.

Belichick will turn 74 in April and none of his former assistants have proven that they can consistently win outside of his orbit. Even if the bottom fell out in 2025 and the Glazers did decide to move on from Bowles because the defense didn’t show improvement, or if Bowles retired after the season at age 62, I don’t think the Bucs would turn to Belichick at this point.

There was a time when Tampa Bay would have considered Belichick, but I think that time has since passed.

FAB 2. Mike Florio Fails To Connect Some Important Dots

Mike Florio’s fixation on Bill Belichick possibly replacing Todd Bowles in Tampa Bay doesn’t allow him connect some other meaningful dots. The Glazers did hire a relative unknown in Raheem Morris to succeed Jon Gruden as head coach in 2009. They could certainly do that again.

Assuming Bowles would depart after the 2025 season either due to getting fired or retiring, and assuming Josh Grizzard proves to be a more than competent offensive coordinator this year, I would think the Glazers would promote 35-year old Grizzard instead of hiring Belichick, who would be 74 next year.

After all, the league-wide trend is to hire the young, hotshot offensive coordinator to pair with a talented quarterback.

Doesn’t that seems like a more plausible scenario? It certainly does to me.

Plus, Florio doesn’t properly connect the dots regarding Jason Licht, the team’s woefully underrated general manager. He thinks that because Licht worked for Belichick in the past in New England that Licht would be on the campaign, stumping for Belichick.

Quite the opposite. Why would Licht, who has total control over the draft, free agency and the 90-man offseason roster in Tampa Bay (he does welcome and value Bowles’ input) want to cede control to Belichick?

He wouldn’t.

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

After all, Licht is the architect of the Bucs’ talented roster. Even though Belichick has had his share of general managers in New England they have been figureheads that worked for Belichick – not the other way around. Belichick has called the shots when it’s come to free agency, the draft and roster construction. That’s the way he would demand it if he ever coached the Bucs.

Even though Belichick proved to be lousy at that from 2020-23 in his final four seasons without Tom Brady.

And Belichick would want to bring in his own coaches – his own cronies – to Tampa Bay. Why would Licht want to bail on this current Bucs staff of really talented assistants like offensive line coach Kevin Carberry, outside linebackers coach Larry Foote, and running backs coach Skip Peete among others?

He wouldn’t.

My track record is not perfect covering the Bucs. I’ve had quite a few hits over my 30 years on the Bucs beat, but certainly a few misses along the way where I haven’t read the tea leaves correctly or have reported on some information that wound up being untrue.

But my track record covering Tampa Bay is certainly better than Florio’s over the last three decades. All this Belichick-to-the-Bucs stuff is strictly fantasy football.

FAB 3. The Bucs Have Total Faith In Todd Bowles

Here is one thing I learned at the NFL Annual Meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla. this offseason.

The Bucs have complete and total faith in head coach Todd Bowles entering the 2025 season – whether you do or not, Bucs fans.

Not just general manager Jason Licht, who, like me, has been impressed with everything that Bowles has said and done this offseasonk and said so in a recent SR’s FAB 5, but also the Glazers. And for the record, how the Glazers feel about Bowles matters even more than what Licht thinks – and certainly more than what I think.

It’s their team. The Glazers can fire and hire anyone they choose.

They are in lock-step as a family about this too, and here’s why.

Bucs co-owner Darcie Glazer-Kassowitz and head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

First, they value Bowles as a leader of men. Todd Bowles is a great man. He is in the upper echelon when it comes to character and class and he leads his team in that manner.

In my three decades of covering this team, I have never found a more tight-knit locker room than the one heading into the 2025 season under Bowles. There is absolutely no division and no defectors in the ranks now that Devin White is gone. No bad apples. It wasn’t even this way under Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden or Bruce Arians.

Bowles has the best locker room – bar none. And the players on both sides of the ball simply love playing for him – and the Glazers know it.

Second, instead of looking at the second straight year that featured an unfortunate four-game losing streak as a weakness, the Glazers view Bowles’ ability to bounce ball as a strength. Tampa Bay went 5-1 down the stretch in 2023 to finish 9-8 and 6-1 last year to finish 10-7. Bowles never panicked and neither did his team despite dipping below .500 in each of the last two seasons.

The Glazers also realize that those three of those four losses came without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin – and to really good teams in the Falcons, Chiefs and 49ers. Not to mention the loss to the Ravens on Monday Night Football where the team lost both Evans and Godwin to injuries. In other words, the Bucs didn’t lose to a lowly team like the Saints or the Giants during that stretch.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and safeties Antoine Winfield Jr. and Mike Edwards – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Glazers chalk the fall of Bowles’ defense in 2025 to a rash of injuries, particularly in the secondary. Losing playmaking All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr. for half the season was a mighty blow, as was losing starting cornerback Jamel Dean for seven games. And no one realized how devastating the loss of up-and-coming middle linebacker SirVocea Dennis was at the time in Week 4. Tampa Bay started five different players at safety last year, including Mike Edwards, who was added off the waiver wire, and even re-signed Ryan Neal, too.

With more talent and experience added to Bowles’ side of the ball this offseason, the Glazers anticipate Bowles’ reputation as a defensive mastermind to be restored in 2025.

As for the defensive letdown in the upset loss to the Commanders at home in the Wild Card round, the Glazers saw how it took a last-second field goal to upend the Bucs, 23-20. That wasn’t a fluke win for Jayden Daniels and Co. over Tampa Bay either, as Washington traveled to Detroit to take out the No. 1 seed in the NFC on enemy turf, 45-31.

The Glazers also saw the Bucs offense that had averaged nearly 30 points per game under-perform and only score 20 versus the Commanders.

There was no doubt that Bowles needed to make some changes after the quick postseason exit, and he did. He reshuffled his defensive coaching staff, decided to keep the offensive assistants that worked so well under Liam Coen last year, and promoted Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator.

Perhaps just as important, he hired Zach Beistline to serve as his game management/clock management assistant on gamedays to bolster an area that needed to be fixed after some questionable calls by Bowles last year.

All of this is incredibly impressive for a 61-year old coach. Bowles is an old dog willing and eager to learn some new tricks.

Bowles is not Lovie Smith 2.0 as a head coach, and with some changes coming on defense, such as the cornerbacks playing much tighter coverage in 2025 and not allowing as much cushion, he’s not Mike Smith 2.0 as a defensive coordinator, either.

All of these reasons give the Glazers – and Licht – plenty of optimism that Todd Bowles is the man who can take the Bucs to the Super Bowl and win it.

FAB 4. Bucs Homegrown Talent On Defense Is A Sight To Behold

I came across a stunning statistical graphic about the Bucs defense this week from @TheWenzelPerspective Instagram account.

This graphic pretty much speaks for itself when it comes to how the Bucs defense is homegrown – built through the draft.

The one gaffe is having Christian Izien, who was an undrafted free agent that Tampa Bay signed in 2023, at safety instead of Tykee Smith, who will be replacing Jordan Whitehead at strong safety. Smith was a third-round pick in 2024 and would be the 10th Bucs draft pick – out of 11 starters – to start on defense this year.

If you want to switch out defensive tackle Logan Hall in base defense for a nickel defender, rookie Jacob Parrish, the team’s third-round pick this year, will likely be the starting nickelback. So that would still give Tampa Bay’s 2025 defense 10 homegrown starters on defense with the lone exception being new outside linebacker Haason Reddick, who was imported in free agency this offseason.

The benefit to all of this homegrown talent is the fact that these players have grown up playing alongside each other for better team and unit chemistry. And they’ve all learned Todd Bowles’ defense from the start, rather than having to unlearn a previous system with different terminology elsewhere. That gives Tampa Bay an advantage over its NFC South counterparts, which show defenses cobbled together through trades, the draft and free agency.

This graphic details a tremendous job by both general manager Jason Licht and Bowles in building and rebuilding this defense. With more experienced depth and more talent via the draft, expect Tampa Bay’s defense to rebound in a big way in 2025.

FAB 5. Here’s Another Amazing Bucs Stat From @TheWenzelPerspective

To conclude today’s SR’s FAB 5, here is another interesting stat from @TheWenzelPerspective Instagram account.

Right off the bat you can feel some pity for Jacksonville Jaguars fans, right?

When it comes to the Bucs franchise, all that’s missing is winning Coach of the Year, NFL MVP, Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Rookie of the Year. Can Tampa Bay scratch one – or perhaps two – off this list with a super season? We’ll find out in January 2026.