Todd Bowles Talks About Bucs “Just Taking Plays Off”
June 18th, 2026
The jury is back.
The verdict is guilty, if you heed the fresh words of Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, a man who chooses his words carefully.
YaYa Diaby saw it, and Bucs fans moaned about it late last season: the 2025 Bucs were soft and/or displayed some level of quit on the field.
Bowles stunningly confessed as much this week during his sitdown with Sports Day Tampa Bay. The head coach talked about getting ready for the regular season and acknowledged the Bucs weren’t wired to fight consistently in games last season.
“If we can prepare and we can execute, and we don’t look at the names on people’s helmets, and we can play the same every week and learn how to finish off games and close games out — instead of getting a lead and just taking plays off, or not having a lead and having to come back late,” Bowles said.
“You just want to play four quarters and you want to go out there. And I think we have those types of alpha dogs on our team right now that will make this team to elevate to that. When they start coaching themselves and don’t need too much coaching on the sideline, that’s when you know you’ve arrived.”
So Bowles thinks the Bucs needed new players “to elevate” others to not be “taking plays off.” Damn, that should make every Bucs fan nauseous.
How many times last season did Bowles say effort wasn’t an issue? Eight? Ten?
Team Glazer might want to revise its profound statement about how hard the Bucs played for Bowles.
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