Bruce Arians offers prediction to Pat McAfee as to whether the Bucs will fire Todd Bowles after the season

The former Tampa Bay head coach made his opinion clear about whether the Bucs will move on from Bowles.

Craig Smith — College Football & NFL Trending News Writer
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are now in dire straits regarding their ability to claim their fifth consecutive NFC South title. Now, after the Atlanta Falcons defeated the Los Angeles Rams 27-24 on Monday Night Football, the Bucs no longer control their own destiny to the division crown.

All eyes will be on Tampa Bay and Carolina on Saturday afternoon, when the two will duke it out on national television with the aim of trying to claim the NFC’s final playoff spot and a home playoff game.

If the Bucs lose or otherwise fall short with the Falcons beating New Orleans next week, it will wrap up one of the worst slides in recent memory. The Bucs entered their bye week at 6-2. They now sit at 7-9, and if they lose Saturday, they would have lost eight of their last nine games.

Is that enough to put an end to the Todd Bowles era that many fans on social media are demanding and many in the media are musing about? His predecessor doesn’t seem to think so.

Bruce Arians went on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, and he does not see a change happening this offseason in Tampa.

Former Bucs head coach Bruce Arians says he doesn’t think the team will fire Todd Bowles

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Arians said to Pat McAfee about what went wrong this year. “All of a sudden, we can’t make a play to win a game. We’ve got veterans busting coverages, giving up eighty-yard touchdowns in critical moments. Baker (Mayfield), I don’t think, is totally healthy, and all of a sudden, the interceptions are back. So, those things lead to a really bad play. But I don’t think they’ll make a change, and I don’t think the Falcons will make a change.”

It’s hard to make a good argument for why the Bucs should keep Bowles after this season. The Bucs are currently 34-33 in the regular season in his four years and 1-3 in the playoff. If they lose, they’ll be an even .500 in his time in Tampa. In a division as weak as the NFC South has been for years, that’s peak mediocrity.

And it’s not just the record, but more so it’s been the mid-to-late season slides that have happened on his watch. The Bucs lost five of six in the middle of 2023. They lost four of five in the middle of 2024. Now, they’re in the midst of the mother of all slides throughout the entire second half of the season. That goes beyond simple execution. That’s a long and disturbing trend that ultimately has to fall on the man leading the franchise.

Arians is pretty well plugged in, so that’s not a great sign for Bucs fans seeking a change. However, the Glazer family often plays things pretty close to the vest. So, we’ll find out soon enough if this franchise will be heading in a new direction once the 2025 season is officially in the rearview mirror.

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