At his core, Bruce Arians will forever be a football coach.
But as the NFL offseason unfolds and the Buccaneers gear up for the 2023 campaign, the former Tampa Bay coach is still finding his way in the transition to senior football consultant and dealing with the franchise’s front office personnel.
Arians retired in March, more than a year after leading the Buccaneers to a Super Bowl victory. With Arians no longer in the day-to-day duties of looking at X’s and O’s or breaking down schemes from opposing teams, his new role provides him with a new outlook for the franchise.
And for Arians, his decision to step into a new opportunity was not a hard one and was one that presented more gratification than winning another Super Bowl.
“It meant the world to me to make sure 34 families had jobs beyond February,” Arians said on the Eye Test For Two podcast. “The Super Bowl wasn’t guaranteed, there’s nothing guaranteed, but now our guys [coaches] have 5-year contracts… and…are…set for the future.”
On the podcast, Arians described his new role as a “what do you think” job that allows him to share different layer of his thoughts about the franchise while also getting the chance to watch the team practice, “change” and maximize on this year’s draft class.
“…I know a lot of people think the Hall of Fame is the end-all, be-all and if it happens, that would be the most unbelievable thing to be able to wear a gold jacket,” Arians said, per the podcast. “But this meant more to me personally.”
The 69-year-old coached Tampa Bay for three seasons. The Buccaneers went 13-4 last campaign and were eliminated from the playoffs by the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams in the divisional round. Before coming to Tampa Bay, Arians spent five years as the Cardinals head coach.
