Managing your family’s wealth means more to Amuni Financial than simply allocating your assets. It means legacy planning, brokerage & advisory services, retirement accounts, college savings accounts and insurance services. With 40 years of experience, let Amuni Financial help you plan ahead and stay ahead.

Call Amuni Financial at (800) 868-6864 or visit Amuni.com.

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

QUESTION: If Todd Bowles is fired, what next? Could that put us in a worse situation, or are we at the point where it can’t get worse than him?

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: No, it can get much worse than Todd Bowles, who is firmly on the hot seat after Sunday’s loss at Houston, as the Bucs have already found out. In 2009 the Glazers fired head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen and promoted Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik to replace them. The Bucs went 3-13 that year, followed by a smoke-and-mirrors 10-6 season, and then a 4-12 season, which featured 10 straight losses to end Morris’ tenure.

Greg Schiano was fired after starting the year 0-8 in 2013 en route to a 4-12 finish that also prompted the firing of Dominik as the team’s general manager. Lovie Smith was hired to replace Schiano and was actually worse. Smith went 2-14 in his first season as head coach before a 6-10 record, which featured four straight losses to end the year, sealed his fate. So yes, it can get worse in Tampa Bay.

Not saying the Bucs shouldn’t fire Bowles at the end of the year, especially if he can’t get the team turned around. After an 8-9 record last year, plus a playoff loss to Dallas, Bowles is now 11-15 as Tampa Bay’s head coach, including that postseason defeat. If Bowles can’t get this team to 9-8 or better, and into the playoffs, he will likely be replaced. And he should be if he can’t get to nine wins, especially given a couple of inexcusable losses so far against beatable opponents in Atlanta and Houston.

QUESTION: Todd Bowles likely won’t get fired midseason because that’s not what the Glazers do. But if they did, who would become the interim head coach?

Bucs OL coach Harold Goodwin – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: The Glazers have given every head coach they’ve hired at least two full seasons to prove they are worthy. Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden coached for six and seven years respectively, and are the top two coaches in team history in terms of wins. And of course Bruce Arians went out on his own terms, retiring after three years in Tampa Bay with the best winning percentage in team history.

Raheem Morris and Dirk Koetter each got three years after each posted a winning season during their tenure. For Morris it was a 10-6 record in 2010, and for Koetter it was a 9-7 record in his first season as head coach in 2016. Neither coach made the playoffs, however. Todd Bowles made the playoffs last year, as the Bucs won the division with an 8-9 record. But technically it was a losing record and Bowles’ team ultimately finished 8-10 when factoring in the playoff loss to Dallas.

Even when the writing was on the wall in Morris’ final season, which saw a 4-2 start turn into a 4-12 finish, the Glazers didn’t fire him until the end of the season. Morris and the Bucs endured 10 straight losses to end the 2011 season.

To answer your question, if the Glazers decided to change protocol and fire Bowles midseason, the guess here is that assistant head coach Harold Goodwin or co-defensive coordinator Larry Foote would take over as the interim head coach. Either Foote or co-defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers would take over the defensive play-calling duties. Rodgers, who coaches the defensive line, has experience doing it in New York.

QUESTION: Clock management is poor. No reason to call a timeout to avoid 10-second runoff. Hindsight is 20/20, but we were gifted with 10 seconds and instead we burned a timeout for the Texans. Defensive strategy/play-calling is also bad. Todd Bowles is actively hurting the team.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: There is no doubt about it. That certainly seems correct. The refs didn’t help the Bucs by putting more time on the clock after Trey Palmer’s fumble. That still doesn’t forgive Todd Bowles for actually using the timeout.

The play that was reviewed – a catch-and-fumble by Trey Palmer and a fumble recovery by Mike Evans – starts at the :53-mark. Palmer catches the ball and fumbles at with :49 left, but the ball isn’t cleanly recovered until :44 remaining. The refs got the ball ready to play at the :39-mark and then stopped play to review the catch and recovery.

Bowles elected to use the final timeout and not run the clock down to :29. The refs should have left the clock at :39 or even :44 as a result of the timeout, but instead added :10 to the clock by mistake to make it :49 left, which was the time of Palmer’s fumble. Yet Evans didn’t even recover the fumble until :44 left.

Why is this important? With :10 left, CJ Stroud threw the game-winning TD pass to Tank Dell, who caught with :06 left. This doesn’t excuse Bowles, but the refs wound up aiding the Texans with 10 extra seconds that they shouldn’t have had.

QUESTION: I want Ben Johnson as Bucs head coach. Very, extremely badly.

Lions OC Ben Johnson – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: There is no doubt that Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson will be one of the league’s hottest head-coaching candidates after the 2023 season. The Lions are averaging 25 points per game, which ranks eighth in the league. Johnson interviewed for some vacant head-coaching jobs last year, but ultimately wanted to stay in Detroit due to some unfinished business, as the Lions finished 9-8 yet missing the playoffs.

Does he have the “it” factor to be a head coach, though? That’s what the Bucs would have to find out in interviews.

The Bucs defense held the Lions below their scoring average in a 20-6 loss in Week 5. But Johnson’s offense gave Tampa Bay fits as Jared Goff threw for 352 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Johnson has been around Lions head coach Dan Campbell the last three years and has been part of a coaching staff that has been involved in turning around a franchise. Additionally, Johnson has aided in the development of Goff into a Pro Bowl-caliber quarterback in Detroit over the last two seasons.

There will be other candidates for sure, among them will be Baltimore offensive coordinator Todd Monken, who coached receivers (2016-17) and called plays (2018) in Tampa Bay. After winning a pair of national championships with Georgia in 2021 and 2022, Monken interviewed for the Bucs offensive coordinator position this offseason, but instead chose to work for John Harbaugh in Baltimore. The Ravens offense ranks sixth in the league, and is averaging 26.6 points per game.

QUESTION: What’s the Bucs plan with Kyle Trask? Do they even give him a chance or do they let him go?

Bucs OC Dave Canales and QBs Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: Kyle Trask is under contract in 2024 and will be on the final year of his rookie deal. So there’s no reason why he wouldn’t be in Tampa Bay next year regardless of who the head coach will be – even as a possible No. 3 quarterback. If the Bucs keep losing and fall out of the playoff race it seems logical that the team would turn the last couple of games over to Trask to see what he could do as a first-time starter playing an entire game or two.

If there is going to be a head coaching change in Tampa Bay it seems unlikely that Baker Mayfield would return. Mayfield has been solid this year for the Bucs, completing 64.9% of his passes for 1,865 yards with 12 touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s thrown a pair of touchdowns and tossed no interceptions over the last two games.

But it seems like a new head coach would want to draft his own guy, and the Bucs currently have a Top 10 pick with their 3-5 record. I’m not saying that Mayfield wouldn’t be back, but it seems unlikely. Trask is aided by the fact that he’s under contract for one more year in 2024.

QUESTION: Why are Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean labeled as good cover corners when they consistently let receivers run free and get almost no interceptions?

Vikings WR Justin Jefferson and Bucs CB Carlton Davis II – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: Carlton Davis III has one interception in the last 31 games, including three playoff contests in 2021 and 2022. His lack of ability to create takeaways is stunningly bad right now, just as his play was in Houston in surrendering three touchdowns in Sunday’s 39-37 loss.

Jamel Dean has two interceptions – both coming in the same game at New Orleans in Week 2 of the 2022 season – in the past 33 games, including three playoff games. Neither Dean nor Davis have good hands and neither has an interception this season, of course.

Heading into Sunday’s loss at Houston, Dean had a 68 overall Pro Football Focus grade and a 64.6 coverage grade. Davis had a 64.5 overall PFF grade and a 62.8 coverage grade. Both are average grades at best.

Certainly the Bucs should expect better play and more production from cornerbacks they are paying a combined $27.833 million to. Both Dean and Davis are better in man coverage, but have been forced to play more zone defense this year under head coach Todd Bowles.

QUESTION: How quickly can the Bucs get out of their deals with Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean? Neither is worth their contract right now.

Bucs CBs Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

ANSWER: Carlton Davis III signed a four-year, $44.5 million contract in 2022, and is making an average of $14.833 million per year, according to OverTheCap.com. He’s set to have a $20,517,334 cap value next year, which will be among the highest on the team.

If the Bucs want to part ways with him next year they could do so and save $6.448 million, but Davis would have a dead cap hit of $14,069,334. If Tampa Bay released Davis after June 1 they would only take a $6,017,334 cap hit and would save $14.5 million.

Jamel Dean signed a four-year, $52 million deal this past offseason and is averaging $13 million per year, according to OverTheCap.com. The soonest the Bucs can get out of his contract is after the 2024 season. Dean will have a $14.784 million cap hit next year, and a $15.284 million cap hit in 2025.

But the Bucs could move on from Dean after next year and take a $6.852 million cap hit, but save $8.432 million in 2025.

It seems likely that Tampa Bay won’t have both Davis and Dean on the team next year, especially if Todd Bowles is fired. The guess here is that Davis would be gone and Dean would get the chance to have a bounce-back season in 2024.