A “Non-Excuse Year”
June 28th, 2025
Todd Bowles
Longtime Buccaneers fans have painful memories of LaVar Arrington.
It’s been 19 years since the ferocious linebacker picked off then-Bucs quarterback Chris Simms in the playoffs and returned the ball to the Bucs’ 6 yard line.
Washington scored on the next play and eventually beat the Bucs 17-10 in Tampa. Arrington also had 10 tackles and a forced fumble in that game. Joe still has the occasional nightmare after hearing Arrington hosting on FOX Sports Radio.
Arrington also has a little in common with current Bucs head coach Todd Bowles; they both played in Washington for legendary head coach Joe Gibbs.
Arrington respects Bowles, per his radio comments this week, but he sees Bowles and the Bucs in a “non-excuse year.”
He says Licht and Bowles rightfully were rewarded with new contracts but the team can’t go backwards in the playoffs or in games outside their soft division.
“If it’s an early departure [in the January postseason], I think it’s a loss of a season,” Arrington said. “And you can’t continue to look at the coaching staff and the quarterback and even the GM and give credit due to saying that this is a very well-built team.”
Arrington also says if Baker Mayfield truly is a special franchise quarterback, then this is his year to take the Bucs further in the postseason and more definitively separate Tampa Bay from the pack in a weak NFC South.
Joe thinks Arrington went a little far roping in general manager Jason Licht into the blame game if the Bucs have another one-and-done playoff experience this season. Licht isn’t calling plays and crafting gameplans, and there certainly are enough groceries in the pantry to win a home game in the playoffs.
If the Bucs, football gods forbid, lose again in Round 1 of the postseason, that would push Todd Bowles’ postseason record to 1-4. Joe can’t even stomach the thought of that, not even in June.
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