Bruce Arians‘ stint on the sidelines has come to an end. Peter King of Football Morning in America reports that the Buccaneers head coach is stepping down and will take a front office role with the organization. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles will take over in Arians’ place. The Buccaneers have announced the move, adding that Arians will take on the role of “Senior Football Consultant.”
“[S]uccession has always been huge for me,” Arians told King. “With the organization in probably the best shape it’s been in its history, with Tom Brady coming back … I’d rather see Todd in position to be successful and not have to take some [crappy] job. I’m probably retiring next year anyway, in February. So, I control the narrative right now. I don’t control it next February because [if] Brady gets hurt, we go 10-7, and it’s an open interview for the job … I got 31 [coaches and their] families that depend on me. My wife is big on not letting all those families down.”
Arians also admitted that he considered retiring following the Buccaneers Super Bowl-winning 2020 season. Now, with Bowles still with the organization and Brady returning for another season (despite a brief retirement), Arians thought this was the appropriate time to step away from the sideline. As Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times tweets, Brady’s return helped “cement” Arians’ decision, as he wanted to hand over a championship-caliber team to his defensive coordinator. Arians said that his decision wasn’t health-related.
“It hit me after the Super Bowl,” Arians told King. “I thought really hard about going out on top. Then it was like, nah, let’s go for two. [The 2021 season] was a grind with all the injuries but still winning and getting to where we got. Immediately after, two to three weeks afterwards [I thought] … if I quit, my coaches get fired. I couldn’t do it then.
“Tom was kind of the key. When Tom decided to come back … and all of these guys back now, it’s the perfect timing for me just to go into the front office and still have the relationships that I love.”
While Arians is saying all of the right things, it may be tough for some to take these statements at face value. Before Brady reversed his retirement decision, there were reports that the QB and his head coach didn’t see eye to eye regarding the offensive game plan. Citing those issues, some pundits were stunned when Brady decided to return to Tampa Bay for another season. While we’ll never know one way or the other, it’s easy to wonder if Brady’s return was connected to Arians’ “decision” to step 
down. As King notes, today’s news will “increase the influence of offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and Brady on game plans and play-calling,” so the future Hall of Fame QB will get his way, after all.
Arians, who will turn 70 in October, will finish his coaching career with a 80-48 record, including a 6-3 postseason record. Four of those playoff victories came during that Super Bowl season in 2020. Arians also had stints as the offensive coordinator with the Browns, Steelers, and Colts.
There were previous rumblings that Arians wanted Bowles to take over as head coach, but the accomplished defensive coordinator still flirted with head coaching vacancies around the NFL. Following an up-and-down stint as the Jets head coach, Bowlers was hired as the defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay in 2019. He has helped turned the Buccaneers’ defensive line into one of the best in the NFL. The Bucs ranked first in rushing yards allowed in both 2019 and 2020, and the defense has been top-10 in points allowed since the beginning of the 2020 season.
Today’s move will now open a hole at defensive coordinator. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport (on Twitter). the likely scenario is that inside linebackers coach Larry Foote and defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers will split defensive coordinator duties.
Enjoy retirement!
technically he’s not retiring yet
Technically, your comment should begin with a capital letter and end with a period.
Probably was a requirement for Brady returning.
My absolute first thought….had to wait a little bit so it didn’t “seem” obvious.
Could have been. It seemed like there wasn’t any love affair there. But then, Tom never had one with Bill B. either.
Did Tom Brady make this decision?
So when does AB re-sign with the Bucs?
Makes a lot of sense all the way around. Tom wanted complete control of the playcalling so now we’ll see what he does with that control. Bowles gets another HC gig too.
He’s a 69 year old cancer survivor who finally got a ring and seems like he knows how to enjoy life. He also clearly cares a lot about his assistants. So he can spare himself another year of headaches, go enjoy himself, and leave Bowles with an actual good head coaching job. Well played, sir. Hope it’s a fun post-coaching life.
Well, at least that’s what he wants everyone to think…funny how he even lets slip that his wife is concerned about his coaches and their families-as if it’s not really something he’d think about otherwise.
His statement is blatant propaganda in hopes of shielding his legacy from whatever is said or won after he leaves.
Don’t buy his version of events in which he paints himself as a saint…he’s already shown that he’s not that mature
If you’ve read or watched anything related to Arians you’d know he cares deeply about his coaches. He treats them like family. Listen to him rattle off his resume of places he’s been fired from and you’d understand why he’s creating stability for his coaches. He’s a great dude.
I guess Bwady won the battle of the wills for control of the team.
Precursor to the rumored Brady trade??
Always seemed like a fraud to me.
Weird way of saying “Brady got me fired after his fake retirement didn’t lead to the trade he wanted.”
The moron yinzers who ran Arians out of Pittsburgh only to see him win Coach of Year Awards and Super Bowls will no doubt call 93.7 tomorrow to say “see, we were right all along.”
I’m not longer worried about the bucs. Bowles is a horrible coach
But you forget who his Qb is. Not like he had a terrible team
He was poison to New York on two occasions. 2011 as interim HC in Miami when the Dolphins completed a late-season Jets collapse. 2015 when the Jets lost a win-and-in game in Week 17, thus missing the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
Something kind of smells a bit off about this whole thing.
Brady won, got rid of the coach
Arians is a class act.
If that smells funny to some of you, it’s because it’s the rare exception not the rule.
Anyone who would threaten to fire coaches for missing family functions for work is an anomaly.
GOAT mandate!
“I’m probably retiring next year anyway”
Duh…you’ve just been retired Bruce old chap but at least the organization did it in a way that lets you save face and pretend to be an executive.
I don’t know but why Todd Bowles over byron leftwich ?
I don’t keep up on the bucs .
If nothing else, seniority. Bowles has been coaching a lot longer, he’s been a head coach before, and he’s been at coordinator level since around the time Leftwich retired. But there could also be some sense of letting Bowles be the face of the team and leader of the defense while Brady is de facto in charge of the offense.
Ok thanks I was wondering
Ok thanks I was wondering why
Bruce seem like a hard coach to play for but glade you did when it’s all over with.
Players love him. You might get the occasional ass chewing but you know he cares.
Ok thanks