Todd Bowles Feels “Hungrier”
February 27th, 2026
How did the Bucs’ late-season collapse affect Todd Bowles? Did it affect Bowles’ confidence?
The head coach was hit with that question during his visit to the Ira Kaufman Podcast this week.
Bowles said he is unscathed and expects to be better for the experience.
“I don’t think it took anything out of me or damaged [my confidence] whatsoever,” Bowles said. “If not, it made me hungrier. It made me pissed off and more frustrated and you got to look in the mirror. And you get pissed for a while, but at the same time you have to learn from the past and not live in the past. There are days you go on, and you got to go on and you get stronger and you learn how to get better. And I think as a competitor, you need failure sometimes to make you better. You’re just not going to win all the time. And it’s how you come back from what you couldn’t do.”
While Bowles’ confidence came away intact, he sure rushed to shatter his coaching staff, including hurling fall guy offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard out the door and under the bus. “Failure” won’t get a chance to make those guys better; they’re no longer in Tampa.
Joe has no issue with upgrading staff, but it didn’t exactly jibe with Bowles’ December comment that noted, “the coaches have done everything they can do.”
Regardless, Joe is glad that Bowles is steaming with confidence and hungry. It would be troublesome if he wasn’t.