TAMPA, Fla. — Bruce Arians held a Zoom call with members of the Bucs coaching staff to inform them he was stepping down as head coach to take a role in the front office only minutes before the news broke Wednesday night.
For Arians, it’s a chance to have an impact on the team in another capacity while handing over the head-coaching reins to defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, one of his long-time assistant coaches and a former player at Temple.
It’s an arrangement Arians may have preferred when he stepped down as head coach of the Cardinals after the 2018 season but that never materialized.
Quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen said it’s the perfect scenario for Arians, who turns 70 in October.
“I think it’s a perfect storm for B.A. that he stays involved in football but he sees his guys,” Christensen said Thursday. “He gets to be like the Godfather of the organization. He gets to see his guys succeed, and he gets to watch it happen and be an integral part of it happening and still keep his foot in the door, still keep a presence in the room and still have a presence in the building and get his football fix that way.”
Meanwhile, Bowles has four years of head-coaching experience with the Jets, where he competed twice a year against then-Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
“I think Todd Bowles is going to do a great job,” Christensen said. “He’s an even-keeled guy. He’s got some experience, and I guarantee he’s learned from it and the players think the world of him. Whatever the term ‘players coach’ is, he is that. He was that in New York, and the same thing will happen here.”
Bowles learned about Arians’ plans on Monday.
Byron Leftwich will continue to be the Bucs’ offensive coordinator. Bowles may decide to continue to run the defense as he did with the Jets or could hand the role to long-time assistant Kacy Rodgers, the team’s defensive line coach.
Christensen said he believes Bowles will be great for Brady.
“I think Tom is a guy (who), all he cares about it is winning,” Christensen said. “He has an unbelievable respect for coaches, and whoever that guy is in the head-coaching job, he’s going to respect and try to do it his way. He’s going to make sure everyone in the building is in a position to win.
“Todd is going to be great for him. I think he’ll have a high respect for Todd. He played against him (when Bowles was coaching) with the Jets all those years, twice a year. So he’s always had an unbelievably high respect for him.”
