What’s the plan?

Joe was actually wrestling in bed last night, thinking about why the Bucs showed interest in former Buffalo coach and long-time NFL defensive guy Sean McDermott.

Yesterday it was learned that the Bucs reached out to McDermott to gauge his interest in joining the Bucs’ staff in an unspecified role on the Bucs’ staff.

Joe has to believe Bucs coach Todd Bowles was on board with this. Joe’s pretty sure Bowles, as most head coaches do, has the final say on his coaches. And it just seems wild to Joe that Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht would try something like this behind Bowles’ back.

That would be the height of meddling.

Now previously when it was learned Bowles was coming back for the 2026 season, he let Greg Auman of FOX Sports know that he would retain play-calling duties on defense.

Did something change in the past week or two? Or did the Bucs just want to bring McDermott in as a consultant or “analyst” where he sits with the general manager on gamedays, drinks free Coke Zeros, and then tells both Bowles and Licht what’s wrong with the team?

And if the Bucs were interested in bringing in McDermott, would they not be interested in lassoing a top-shelf defensive mind like Jim Schwartz if McDermott wants to take a year off?

If not, why not? Apparently, someone, including Bowles, thinks they need a veteran defensive guy to help out or they wouldn’t have approached McDermott in the first place. And watching the Bucs defense, yeah, there are problems.

The trick here is, McDermott and Schwartz are 4-3 defensive guys. Bowles is 3-4 through and through. Are the Bucs thinking about flipping to a 43 defense?

If you think about it, outside of Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey, the entire front seven needs an overhaul. Yes, bring back YaYa Diaby. He’s a nice defensive end/outside linebacker. Not great, but he’s solid.

So if the Bucs were to flip to a 43 defense this would be the time to do it. The Bucs have a bunch of holes on the first two levels of the defense. So it shouldn’t be much of a problem to go to a 43 since the Bucs need to add so many bodies as it is.

And if the Bucs did go to a 43 defense, it seems unlikely Bowles would be calling the shots on the defense.

This is all very interesting to Joe.