Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette thinks this might be Todd Bowles’ last season as the team’s head coach. On his “4th and South” podcast, Fournette shared his brutally honest assessment of Bowles as a coach and what it was like to play for him.
The Bucs dropped to 1-5 and last in the NFC South after Sunday’s 26-19 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tampa Bay entered the fourth quarter with a 16-3 lead, but collapsed down the stretch.
Leonard Fournette Calls Out Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles
Bowles was Fournette’s head coach with the Bucs during the 2022 NFL season; prior to that, Bowles was the team’s defensive coordinator under Bruce Arians, and they all won Super Bowl LV together in Tampa Bay.
“I can say this from being there and playing under Coach Bowles: he’s not very vocal. He’s not a vocal coach,” Fournette said. “If you mess up, he might yell, but it’s not one of those yells that you take serious.”
“When B.A. (Bruce Arians) got on your [expletive], he got on your [expletive]… Like, I hope he don’t chew my [expletive] out again like that.’ You know what I’m saying?”
Fournette also took issue with how Bowles treated the offensive players.
“I think Bowles being a defensive-minded coach, he don’t pay attention to the offense as much,” Fournette said. “So, I don’t know, maybe [it’s] favoritism, but I can remember certain days where he’d be a little more [lenient] on the defense than the offense. I ain’t respect it, but [expletive] it, he’s our coach.”
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Fournette’s co-host, former NFL wide receiver Jarvis Landry, pointed out that if the head coach doesn’t have the respect of his players, he better have a staff that demands respect, and he speculated that Bowles may not have that.
Finally, Fournette predicted that Bowles’ days in Tampa Bay are numbered: “Wholeheartedly, I think it might be his last year. I think it might be his last year. And that’s all I can really say about that.”
This isn’t the first time that Fournette has made a prediction like this. After the Bucs’ 0-2 start, Fournette said on his show, “To me, I just feel like maybe the time is up. Maybe it’s time for Coach Bowles to wrap it up.”
Tampa Bay lost its next two games to fall to 0-4. Then, the Bucs beat the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 on the road on Oct. 8 before the Week 6 loss to the Steelers.
The Glazer family, who own the Bucs, has never fired a coach midseason. Bowles has a 36-38 record in the regular season since becoming Tampa Bay’s head coach. He won three straight NFC South titles from 2022 to 2024, but the team missed the playoffs last year. He has a 1-3 record in the postseason.
Bowles entered this season on the hot seat due to last year’s second-half collapse. The Bucs have lost 12 of their last 15 since starting 6-2 last season. Tampa Bay is now 0-4 at home this season, and they led in the fourth quarter in three of those games.
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Baker Mayfield has missed three straight games with a thumb injury. Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels started in his place and threw two interceptions in the fourth quarter that set up Steelers field goals, and Aaron Rodgers won the game with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Germie Bernard in overtime.
Tampa Bay’s defense ranks fifth in yards allowed and fifth in PFN’s Defense Impact Score (with a 77.9 grade), though its 23 points allowed per game sit closer to the league average. Offensively, the Bucs rank 30th with a 69.2 grade in PFN’s Offense Impact Score.
“We’ve done some good things defensively, but you’ve still got to finish the game. They’re playing well. Obviously, we’ve got to do a little bit more. Offensively, we’ve just got to catch up a little bit,” Bowles said Monday.
In Week 7, the Bucs will face the Carolina Panthers (3-2), who lead the NFC South, on the road. Then, they host the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 1. Mayfield is expected to practice Wednesday, but Bowles said the team won’t know until later in the week whether he can play against Carolina.
Bowles made it clear that these two divisional games are crucial for getting the season back on track.
“It’s critical. It’s a step to trying to get back in it,” he said. “The guys that you’ve got to play are ahead of you right now, so it’s going to be critical that we win these games.”
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.