Defensive guy talks offense.
Joe nearly fell over hearing this.
Joe knows a lot of Bucs fans are really going bananas because head coach Todd Bowles [hired a clock management assistant](https://www.joebucsfan.com/2025/04/bucs-ownership-appreciates-todd-bowles-hiring-game-clock-management-guru/). “This Joe” thinks this is the most overblown Bucs story so far this offseason.
Bowles had one of these last year; Jackie Davidson is one of Jason Licht’s treasured assistants in part for her knowledge of math. So all of a sudden people think she couldn’t read a clock and had to be replaced?
Valued JoeBucsFan.com columnist Ira Kaufman confirmed last fall that Bowles had final say when it came to calling timeouts, no matter what Davidson advised. So has Bowles has given up his liberty to call or not call a timeout? No. So what really has changed?
However, “this Joe” was blown away when Bowles, speaking yesterday at the NFC coaches breakfast at the owners meetings held at the swanky Breakers resort in Palm Beach, made a startling confession. It’s a confesson that has much more significant impact than someone on Bowles’ headset telling him what he can already see: a clock.
Bowles, a defensive guy, said he has learned that to win games you gotta score points.
For a defensive guy like Bowles to say this in such a public forum, Joe cannot begin to explain how the ground shook under Joe’s feet. Joe learned of Bowles’ epiphany when the head coach was talking about where he is leaning in the draft.
> “Being a defensive coach, I learned that you win by scoring points,” Bowles said. “I don’t ever want to bypass a very good offensive player. I can figure things out enough on defense to keep us competitive.
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> “I would like to have some defensive players if that presented itself, but by no means will I bypass a very good offensive player just to satisfy my needs on defense.
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> “We can figure out how to keep the score down, but you can’t figure out a way to keep scoring points, especially if your horses go down. You can never have enough horses on offense. “
This is monumental in Joe’s eyes and Joe is so happy to see the evolution of Bowles as a coach.
The Bucs’ pass defense last year was horrible, yet even with that awful pass defense with zero edge rush, Bowles found a way to keep the Commandos and young superstar quarterback Jayden Daniels to 23 points.
In a playoff game, holding a team to 23 should not be an insurmountable hill to climb. Guess who else held the Commandos to 23 points in the playoffs? The big, bad Eagles defense.
No matter how well one thinks Jalen McMillan or Sterling Shepard played last year, the Bucs missed Chris Godwin terribly.
So “this Joe” was beyond surprised and proud of what Bowles said about offense. Maybe, this Emeka Egbuka really is in play for the Bucs? Egbuka is the Chris Godwin clone from Ohio State.
Bowles’ confession/redemption/epiphany impresses “this Joe” far, far more than Bowles hiring some dude who can tell time.