The Buccaneers have given Todd Bowles opportunity after opportunity to fix what has gone wrong in Tampa Bay. If the Bucs fall to 0-4 against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, the organization may finally have to ask whether there is any reason to keep waiting. Tampa Bay is already 0-3 after Sunday’s 23 to 16 loss to Minnesota. The Bucs have now lost 10 of their last 12 games and are just 3-11 over their last 14, dating back to last season.
Bowles was already fortunate to return after Tampa Bay collapsed in 2025. The Bucs finished 8-9 after entering the season with playoff expectations, and the organization responded by changing almost everything around its head coach. Five assistants were let go, including offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard and special
teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey. Quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis, cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross, and defensive line coach Charlie Strong were also dismissed. Bowles remained.
Now the Bucs are right back in the same position. The offense has struggled. Special teams have been an issue. Communication problems continue to show up, and players continue to make costly mistakes. The defense, which is supposed to be Bowles’ specialty, has not consistently been good enough either. At some point, changing assistants while keeping the person overseeing everything stops making sense. The most concerning part might be how familiar Bowles’ answers have become. After losses, some variation of needing to coach better, play better, communicate better, and execute better keeps coming up. After Sunday’s loss, Bowles was directly asked to explain Tampa Bay’s extended run of losing. “I don’t have an explanation,” Bowles said. “We just have to do more and play better.” That answer becomes harder to accept five years into his tenure.
The Packers game could bring everything to a head. Tampa Bay will likely be without Baker Mayfield because of his dislocated throwing thumb, which certainly gives Bowles a legitimate obstacle. But the Bucs cannot allow Mayfield’s injury to erase everything that happened before it. This team was losing before Mayfield got hurt. If Tampa Bay loses Sunday, Bowles would be 3-12 over his last 15 games. The Bucs would also be 0-4 before traveling to Dallas just four days later for Thursday Night Football. The Glazer family has never fired a Buccaneers head coach during a season, so making a move after Green Bay would represent a significant departure from how ownership has traditionally operated. But how bad does it have to get before precedent stops mattering?
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Would a loss to the Packers mean clearing house for Bucs?
