TAMPA, Fla. — So, let me get this straight:

The offensive coordinator and the quarterbacks coach did a lousy job in Tampa Bay in 2025.

But not the guy in charge.

The defensive line coach, the cornerbacks coach and the special teams coach were also complicit in the disappointing season.

But not the guy in charge.

Apparently, around here, the Buc stops somewhere shy of the head coach’s office. Just days after saying he deserved to stay on the job because of three consecutive division titles, Todd Bowles decided that some of the assistant coaches who also shared in those NFC South championships did not deserve the same courtesy.

I’m sorry, but this feels wrong. Instead of a careful examination of job performance, it has the whiff of scapegoats and fall guys. Along with two other coaches who retired, that’s a total of seven assistants who will not be returning in 2026. At best, it’s a collective case of sudden onset incompetence. At worst, it’s a reflection of the head coach who hired the staff in the first place.

Now, it’s possible this bloodletting wasn’t entirely Bowles’ call. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that the Glazer family demanded a head coach fire his offensive coordinator. And considering the Bucs took a huge step backward in scoring in 2025 under first-year coordinator Josh Grizzard, there is some rationalization for a change.

The issue is that it seems like a haphazard arrival at justice.

If ever an offense had an excuse for underperforming, it was Tampa Bay in 2025. Both starting guards missed most of the season. Three receivers missed significant time and so did running back Bucky Irving as well as left tackle Tristan Wirfs. Quarterback Baker Mayfield did not miss any starts, but he was clearly playing in pain for most of the season’s second half.

Now, is it possible that despite all of that, a forensic examination of the offense revealed that Grizzard did not do a good job of adjusting? Sure, there’s a scenario where that could be the case.

But if the guy in charge of the offense was ultimately responsible for the results, what about the defense? The offense, with all the injuries, was a tad below league average in scoring. The defense, with far fewer games missed due to injury, was even farther below league average.

So why didn’t Bowles announce he was also stepping down as defensive coordinator?

Because this looks like the Bucs are assigning all of the blame to Grizzard. Is that the official party line?

Or are we suggesting the Bucs lost seven of their last nine games because the defensive line coach and the cornerbacks coach had bad seasons? Seems like kind of a stretch, no?

Appearances matter, and this has the look of Bowles ordering a bunch of assistants off the pirate ship plank rather than accepting responsibility. It’s also a sign that job security could be an ongoing question for Bowles in 2026, and that’s not going to be helpful.

Look at it this way:

If you’re an in-demand offensive coordinator, how excited would you be to come work for a head coach who is on the hot seat and just orchestrated a Thursday morning massacre of his own staff? Even more compelling, how excited should season ticket holders be after this abdication of responsibility?

An organization with a strong backbone could have done one of two things this week:

No. 1, the Glazers could say they were bitterly disappointed in the way the season went, but that it was a temporary step backward due to injuries. They could point out that Bowles and general manager Jason Licht had performed exceptionally well in 2022-24 while the team was transitioning away from the Brady/Gronkowski/Fournette/Jensen/Pierre-Paul/Suh/Barrett era and continued finishing first despite enormous salary cap issues. They could say Bowles was the right choice in 2022 and they still believe that today despite obvious missteps in 2025.

No. 2, they could thank Bowles for guiding them through a necessary rebuild but that it was time for a different voice to lead them.

Instead, they chose Door No. 3. Hide behind a curtain while blaming it on the 35-year offensive coordinator and a handful of faceless defensive assistants, all while absolving Bowles and Licht.

Good luck getting anybody to buy that.

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