Todd Bowles will be the first NFL head coach to lose his job this season, and I think the Tampa Bay Buccaneers know it. No coach has been fired through Week 4, and no outlet I read reports that a decision has been made. But the 0-4 record and the way the Bucs are losing make this the clearest hot seat in the league.
Why Bowles goes first
Tampa Bay lost 17-14 to Green Bay on Sunday, its first 0-4 start since 2013. Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels made his first NFL start with Baker Mayfield out, completed 19 of 27 passes and threw two interceptions that Green Bay turned into 10 points. The Bucs have now gone 3-12 over their last 15 games, a stretch that has buried the three straight NFC South titles Bowles won earlier.
His postgame message did not help. He said “We know what the problem is. It’s on us,” then added that the team keeps getting close and not winning. Fans heard excuses. I heard a coach with no new answers.
The timing is the next piece. Tampa Bay plays Dallas on Thursday and then gets a mini-bye. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk wrote that the Cowboys game could be Bowles’ last stand and that the extra time would give the Bucs a longer runway to search for a successor. That is Florio’s read, not a team report.
The ownership problem
There are real obstacles. One report notes the Glazer family has never fired a coach in the middle of a season, and ownership’s stated position in September was reportedly to wait until the end of the year. Florio also pointed out that the staff has no obvious interim candidate.
Those are reasons the move might be delayed, not reasons Bowles survives. If Tampa Bay loses to Dallas and drops to 0-5, the case for waiting gets very thin. The Glazers do not need a mid-season firing to make a change. They can simply decide in January, and Bowles would still be a lame duck the whole way.
The rest of the list
Jim Harbaugh is second, but a distant second. The Chargers are also 0-4 after a 30-23 loss at Seattle, where Justin Herbert completed 5 of 15 passes for 36 yards in the first half. Harbaugh publicly backed offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, saying his job is not in jeopardy. The issue in Los Angeles looks more like the offense than the head coach, and Harbaugh carries far more credibility than Bowles does.
Nick Sirianni is third and, in my view, overrated as a candidate. The Eagles are 2-2 after losing to the Rams 24-20, and the Chicago loss a week earlier was ugly. But Philadelphia has a Super Bowl title on the resume and a stack of wins, and no owner fires that over a bad month.
So the order is simple. Bowles first, probably within a few weeks. Harbaugh only if the Chargers keep sinking. Sirianni stays put. Every one of these coaches is still employed as of Monday, and the Bucs are the team to watch.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
