Are Bucs playing for Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield’s jobs?
Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano, senior NFL writers Frank Schwab and Charles Robinson discuss if the Buccaneers are playing for Todd Bowles and Baker Mayfield’s jobs on Saturday when they face the Carolina Panthers. Check out the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Yes, of course Todd Bowles should be on the hot seat.
You know, I was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers and I watched them give away that division with a one in eight record down the stretch with a pretty healthy team full of a lot of really good players.
I would be like, "No, we're not running this back.
I'm sorry.
This isn't happening."
Yes, they've won three division championships in a row, but they've done so with a mediocre record every year.
They just happen to play in the worst division of football.
So this whole idea that, like, how dare you say Todd Bowles is on the hot seat, Todd Bowles should be on the hot seat if they lose.
Why wouldn't he be on the hot seat if they lose eight of their final nine games and lose to the Carolina Panthers from the NFC South?
Are we kidding now?
Are we, are we really kidding about this?
Well, no, no- That we'd be so incredulous?
Not only that, Frank, I mean, consider if, if they lose this game, who's he losing to?
He's losing to Dave Canales who's a really good coach in Tampa, right?
Well then who does Dave Canales get replaced by?
Liam Cohen.
Yep.
Who's a damn good coach, who's done really well in Jacksonville and who they- I think he's done okay this year.
I haven't really checked in on him, but I think he's done okay.
Yeah, yeah.
They, you know, the- I think they desperately wanted to keep Liam Cohen and I, I think they wanted to keep Liam Cohen to the point where if they had known how it was going to go and they were gonna lose him to Jacksonville, they might have fired Bowles last year and said, "You know what?
We're just gonna promote Liam Cohen because we wanna keep the synergy between he and Baker Mayfield and the offense.
That's what's important to us."
They did it once before when they fired Lovie Smith to, you know, encapsulate the offense around Jameis, uh, Winston.
I, I mean, I look at right now the Buccaneers and what's intriguing to me about this idea with Todd Bowles is there, there's an element of Baker Mayfield being tied up into this because Baker Mayfield's contract, it has one more year left on it in 2026 and you have to decide are we gonna pay him?
And they have to have this conversation this off season- He's been awful.
He's been terrible.
... do we do this extension?
Particularly in the last s- like seven games, Frank.
I mean if you go back to November 16th- It's been brutal.
... when they lost to the, the Buffalo Bills.
He's got 10 interceptions this year.
Eight of 'em are in the last seven games and I think he's got a- Mm-hmm.
... he's got a few fumbles in that expanse too.
It's, you know, some people are calling him like a check down merchant over the last like two months of, of the season.
Um, and yeah, as you said, now they're f- they're healthy to the point where the weapons, eh, the suite of weapons that they wanted on the field where they really thought they could, you know, take the roof off, roof off the offense, um, all the sudden we'd see it and instead that has not happened.
It's certainly concerning, but I think if y- the problem is if you fire Todd Bowles, what, what are you now staring at with Baker?
Like are you saying to the next ch- next coach coming in, "We're hiring you because we wanna get the most out of Baker.
We wanna extend Baker this off season"?
Or are you saying, "We keep Todd Bowles one more year.
We ride Baker out through 2026 and if this does not fix itself in 2026, if we can't figure out how to realign these pieces, we say goodbye to Todd Bowles and maybe we say goodbye to Baker Mayfield as well."
