Todd Bowles Shoots Down Notion Bucs Weren’t Hungry In Final Weeks
March 30th, 2026
So Joe is hanging out with NFL Coaches, GMs and media at the NFL annual meeting today in Phoenix.
Before breakfast with Todd Bowles, Joe was able to have an on-the-record and off-the-record session with the Bucs’ head coach and another media type.
It was there that Joe asked a question per the request of Ira Kaufman, the Sage of Tampa Bay Sports, the venerable JoeBucsFan.com columnist:
“Why did it seem like teams were more hungry to play than the Bucs were the last four weeks of the season?”
“I don’t think teams were more hungry to play; they beat us,” Bowles said. “That doesn’t mean we weren’t hungry to play. We made physical mistakes, but effort-wise, our effort was outstanding. We didn’t play smart at times. We didn’t coach smart at times. But as far as from a ‘hungry’ standpoint, I would not use that word.”
If the Bucs were hungry down the stretch, Joe didn’t see it, but perhaps “stale” is a better word. As Bowles said today, “our mentality’s got to be different.”
With the all the coaching changes and free agent blood on the roster, it’s clear the Bucs were seeking changes to more than just talent.
“If you stay the same, sometimes you get the same results,” Bowles said. “So we thought we had to make a few tweaks, coaching-wise and playing-wise. We thought we got better. We got different, and we got better.”
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"Our Mentality's Got To Be Different"