Can Todd Bowles Reclaim His Reputation?
July 17th, 2026
Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
You hear it. Joe hears it. We all hear it.
In the immediate moments before kickoff when the FOX/CBS/NBC/BSPN/Amazon broadcast crew sets up the game, almost always, Bucs coach Todd Bowles is referenced as a mad scientist with blitzes that are so vast and unique that even the likes of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning would be rattled senseless by the impact.
As Bucs fans know, the past few years, that hasn’t been the case with Bowles’ Bucs defenses. Not when then-rookie C.J. Stroud threw the ball up and down up and down the field on the Bucs’ defense, not when Kirk Cousins regularly looked like Dan Marino in his prime against Bowles’ defenses, not when a rookie seventh-round draft pick like Quinn Ewers looked confident and comfortable facing Bowles and the Bucs in just Ewers’ second NFL start.
Noted handicapper-turned-stathead Warren Sharp sees the same. And in his Warren Sharp 2026 Football Preview, Sharp believes the Bucs could again win the NFC South landfill with eight wins.
But if folks want the Bucs to make any noise in the postseason, a lot of things have to go right for the Bucs, Sharp noted. And one of those things is for Bowles to recapture his status as a feared defensive wizard.
[T]he defense has to be substantially better. Lavonte David is now gone. Jamel Dean is gone. The front-seven needs Rueben Bain to matter immediately. The secondary has to survive without the same margin for error. And Bowles has to prove his side of the ball can finally become a strength again, not just a reputation from a different version of his career.
Yes, the NFC South, until further notice, is a sad division. The Bucs only need to play OK ball and they could win the division.
Look at last year. The Bucs had one of the franchise’s all-time choke jobs after the bye and still finished tied for first place, albeit losing the title in a three-way tiebreaker.
So yeah, could the Bucs win the NFC South landfill? Sure. But if Bowles can craft together a good defense as most defensive-minded head coaches do, it sure would help.