Shelton Quarles Has A Todd Bowles Message For Fans
March 17th, 2026
Todd Bowles gets a powerful endorsement.
Newer Tampa Bay fans probably don’t realize that Shelton Quarles was a Buccaneers starter (1999-2006) at linebacker for the one of the greatest defenses the NFL has ever seen.
He’s worked in the Bucs’ front office ever since his six-month retirement from playing.
Soft-spoken Quarles is not one do interviews since his playing days. The team’s senior director of football operations, however, sat down with The Sports Web over the weekend and fielded a question about Todd Bowles.
Quarles, with affirming nods of his head, acknowledged that Bowles is unpopular with fans when host Peter Blake brought up the subject. Quarles soaked in the question about Bowles and responded with a powerful endorsement of the Bucs’ fifth-year head coach.
“He is the most prepared person that I’ve been around,” Quarles said of Bowles. “… He is the most intelligent person from the defensive perspective.”
Bowles is a master of knowing defensive players capabilities and not calling defenses that stretch beyond their abilities, Quarles said, especially backups filling in for starters.
“Like he’s unbelievable,” Quarles continued. “I enjoy the conversations that we have at 4:30, 5 in the morning before everybody else gets in. So, just stick with him, believe in him, trust in what he’s doing, trust in what he’s building. He’s unbelievable in regards to football knowledge.”
After the past couple of seasons, Bowles’ defense has a lot to prove. And fans are going to want to see results in a hurry, considering the injection of new defensive talent in free agency and what seems likely to be another couple of premium defensive picks in the draft, in addition to Calijah Kancey returning healthy.
The Bucs must at least produce a defense on Day 1 of the 2026 season that is capable of beating the likes of Kirk Cousins, Tyler Shough and Quinn Ewers.