Todd Bowles Gives Update on Mike Evans & Jalen McMillan | Press Conference | Tampa Bay Buccaneers

I’ve known guys. Want to ask you how you came out injury-wise from the game yesterday, especially some of the newer guys that were playing or guys back. Those guys came out pretty good. A few bruises, but nothing serious. And before the game, there was a report that Jaylen McMillan has been cleared to begin practicing this week. What can you tell us about him and just when you think he might be available if so? He’s been running. It’s just a matter of him putting on the helmet and seeing where he has strengthwise with his neck. Uh he’ll start doing more this week and we’ll see exactly what whether it’s individual or whether it’s certain some more things this week as well, but he will start moving around. Along the same lines, there possibility that Mike could start practicing the team this week. Is that in play or is he still likely farther out? That’s a possibility as well. So, I wanted to ask you about your defense and and you guys got the two big turnovers obviously and the big stop on downs a couple times, but I know it’s not all about statistics. It’s a final score right, but 300 yards passing, over five yards carry, like just what improvement did you see and where do you guys still need to get better? I thought we improved in the run game early on. I think we stopped it. We knew they threw the ball a lot so we knew the passing yards were going to be up. Um, they threw it less against us than the two previous weeks. They threw it 60 plus, they threw it 40 against us, which was still a lot. Um, I think we got to get better with the tackling aspect of it, especially in the second half. I thought we tackled well in the first half. In the second half, we let some plays out. Wasn’t necessarily deep balls, but the five yard passes, especially the one on third and three or four where three guys missed them uh behind the line of scrimmage. We got to tackle and wrap up better. thought mentally. I mean, you took a shut out right to the end of the first half there. You’re up 17-3. Something you mentioned tackling, but just something you’d point to to why why it went from 173 to to 2017 as close as it was at the end. Most of these games were tough in this league. They’re one-sore games. We knew they were going to try to make a run. Uh we couldn’t get the quarterback down before the half. I think he got out two or three times and we had hands on them and we couldn’t get him out. even on one of the touchdowns he scrambled. We had two guys free that we couldn’t get him on the ground and credit to him. He made a play. We knew he was a sneaky sneaky uh scrambler from that aspect of it, but the guys came out in the last series and they closed it out. And you know, considering we lost the last three, that’s pretty good. It seemed like the pass was getting home to quite a bit. Um how would you evaluate their play over the course of the game? And you mentioned yesterday that you had to look at the film to see how Assan Re did his return, but if you have, how how do you do as a pass rush group? I thought we got back there quite a bit. I thought we missed quite a bit of him, but we did get back there and put pressure on him, Hassan included. I thought he did well for his first game back, but we got to get them on the ground. We missed about five of them where we could have had them on the ground. Is is tackling something you can work on? You’re not going to take guys to the ground out here, but you could use I don’t know, dummies, donuts. It’s definitely something we can work on. The defensive line rotation, uh, I don’t know whether it was just a function of expecting a lot of passes, but seemed like you utilized your depth more and had out there a little bit less than usual. Is that just the the circumstances of what they were doing offensively? It’s trying to keep them fresher. Trying to keep them fresher and knowing they were going to throw the ball a lot, we needed the bodies. Todd Bucky had 19 touches yesterday. Was that the plan going in or was just game flow that kind of dictates that? More or less game flow. How did you think overall Baker was able to manage, you know, with that shoulder and go back and watch him? He did. He did make some runs even, but got down, I guess, one time. Anyway, he’s competitive and he did get down and he got out of bounds one time as well. So, I thought he took care of it pretty good. I thought he played uh very well. I thought he moved the ball around. I thought he got out of the pocket a few times. He made some key throws and he didn’t turn the ball over. So, you know, considering how he was coming into the game, I thought he did a good job. Couple of drop passes and maybe a lot of things look different, right? The touchdown and then one over the middle, I guess. Yeah, it’s unfortunate. You know, it’s very unfortunate. We got some plays we like to have back, but we gutted out a win, which was positive to get on the win side and we can work on the other things. And, you know, we understand we got to execute down the stretch. Tom gets the game ball. Good to have him back. It’s great to have him back. You know, he’s been gone for a couple weeks now for some personal reasons, but at the same time to have him back and his advice and for everybody, he helps me out a great deal in the morning as well. And you know, he deserves a game ball. Anything else? Thanks. Appreciate it. Yeah.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles spoke to the media the day after the Bucs’ 20-17 victory against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13 of the 2025 NFL Season. HC Bowles discussed the Week 13 win, continuing to put pressure on the quarterback and QB Baker Mayfield competitiveness.

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31 comments

  1. To be honest with you, Bowles is not the one to blame injuries hurt us this year, Jason Licht needs to find a true pass rusher this off-season, a quarterback under constant pressure will eventually make mistakes, they must upgrade linebackers as well. They also need another NT tackle that can win one on one with Vita is doubled

  3. When is the offensive coordinator gonna learn that we have a running team not the passing team we had last year the guy can’t adjust. It’s just run a play over and over. Hope something happens no design please this guy is terrible.

  6. That defense is absolute trash. I'd keep maybe 4 guys and get rid of the rest. They have 0 killer instinct and no closure on sacks or turnovers… most of the picks are literally handed to them. Vita did good on the fumble turnover but with him and the safety core… these guys are not playoff material.

  8. The whole offense has been injured all year, what is the defenses excuse? These guys are so embarrassing. Close but no cigar is all I see from them. They have nothing to prove.

  14. Defense showed up on that last drive when it counted the most I couldn't ask for anything better to end the game considering their previous drive and what they were doing I tip my hat to him this week passing yards but hey it's the NFL

  17. I am happy to hear Jalen Mcmillan is starting to practice again. Mike Evans and Jalen Mcmillan coming back will be huge, both WR play like star starters even tho Jalen is placed on 2nd stringer.

  19. Uh yea Todd.. this is Kevin with the tired of your bulshit sentinel. This was yet another close win against a team with a losing record. It's very likely we're going to miss the playoffs completely this year playing in the worst division in the entire NFL when we drop two games against Carolina. This is a three-part question. 1st, can you tell everyone why we have one of the worst defenses in the NFL, when you're supposedly a defensive coach? 2nd, it was great seeing Tristan Wirfs get a touchdown, but can you tell Bucs Nation why we're the only team in the entire NFL without a touchdown by a tight end? Cade Otton performs at the highest level in every aspect of his position, so for him to average four targets per game, seems like it's not a skill problem, it's a coaching problem. So why is it that you have failed to get our tight ends involved in pass plays ever since you became head coach? 3rd, when we fail to make the playoffs this year in the worst division in the league, would you be willing to step down from professional football completely? It seems like you're not cut out to coach the most high-powered offense in the league.

  22. Yesterday made it clear that the Bucs should’ve signed Josh Sweat instead of Reddick. A stud Edge rusher makes so much difference in a defenses overall success.

  24. Bowles is so fiery, energetic and bursting with such immense enthusiasm, we just can't keep up with his barrage of canned non-answers and mediocre records year after year. (Dungy 2.0)

  30. We need to get Devin Culp more involved in the offense he has a lot to offer like size, speed, i remember when we used him effectively last yr against the saints. Get Devin involved Grizzard!!!

  31. If we get McMillan or Evans back we could end up with a pretty good record and go deep in the Playoffs. But if we do not get a pass rush pretty soon and better play from our secondary it will not matter.

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