TAMPA, Fla. — Bruce Arians has decided to retire as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and move into a front-office role with the team, a stunning move announced Wednesday night.
Arians, who will turn 70 this coming season, coached the Bucs to the Super Bowl title in the 2020 season – Tom Brady’s first with Tampa Bay. The Bucs were 31-18 in Arians’ three seasons there, and he was 80-48-1 in eight years as a head coach overall when adding in his five seasons with the Arizona Cardinals.
Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles will replace Arians as head coach.
NBC Sports and the Los Angeles Times first reported Arians’ decision and that Bowles would be promoted.
“I have spent most of the last 50 years of my life on the sidelines as a football coach in one form or another,” Arians said in a statement released by the team. “Today, I have made the decision to move from the sidelines into another role with the Buccaneers front office, assisting (General Manager) Jason Licht and his staff.
“I love football. I love the relationships, the strategy, the competition – everything. It has been one hell of a ride, but I know this is the right time for me to make this transition.”
It is the second major retirement announcement for the Bucs this offseason, following Brady’s announcement in February that he was ending his career. Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback, returned 40 days later, saying he would play a 23rd season and noting he had “unfinished business.”
There was no public indication at the NFL’s annual meetings on the Atlantic side of the state in Palm Beach, Florida, that such a move was coming. Arians was there, briefly, and did an interview with NFL Network about what the team would have done to replace Brady if the quarterback hadn’t changed his mind. Licht addressed reporters for a short time during the meetings, as did team co-owner Joel Glazer.
Arians did not do a group interview there, with the team saying he was leaving for personal reasons. He was also one of the four coaches who opted to not be part of the annual group photo of all NFL head coaches at the meetings.
Bowles was an interim head coach in Miami for three games in 2011, and went 24-40 in four seasons with the New York Jets from 2015 through 2018.
“I am appreciative of the Glazer family and Jason Licht for having faith in me to take on this role, and to Coach Arians for his support and guidance over the past four decades,” Bowles said. “Tampa has become home for my family, and we are excited to remain part of this community for years to come. … I am eager to get started with our players, coaching staff, and front office in preparation for the 2022 season.”
COLTS: In words that are uncharacteristically blunt in the vocabularies of the men who run the NFL, Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay described the one-year tenure of Carson Wentz, the quarterback his team traded to the Washington Commanders, as a “mistake” the Colts had to rectify.
Colts Coach Frank Reich was diplomatic Monday in discussing how things didn’t work out with the quarterback he’d coached as an assistant in Philadelphia, but Irsay was more focused on laying much of the blame for Indianapolis’ disappointing 2021 season at Wentz’s feet.
“I think the worst thing you can do is have a mistake and try to keep living with it going forward,” Irsay said at the NFL owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, about the decision to move forward without Wentz. “For us, it was something we had to move away from as a franchise. It was very obvious.”
Wentz, who was welcomed in Indy last February when the Colts traded a first- and third-round pick to the Eagles for him, found his footing after an 0-3 start. He threw for 23 of his 27 touchdowns during a 9-3 run that preceded the Colts losing their last two games and finishing 9-8.
“For us, the fit just wasn’t right. I don’t know why,” Irsay said. “A lot of times you don’t know why, but you know it isn’t, and it was important for us to move in a different direction.”
Behind the scenes, the chemistry just wasn’t there, according to Irsay.
“In having conversations with trusted veterans on the team, when you speak to them in confidence, oftentimes they share, really, what’s happening,” Irsay said. “What I found out was very concerning. You search for the right chemistry with any team. In football, it’s as important as any sport that there is. If that chemistry is off, if it isn’t there, it can be extremely detrimental and lower performance to a degree that is stunning and shocking.”
It was particularly galling to Irsay when unvaccinated players tested positive for the coronavirus, something that happened to Wentz before the Colts’ Week 17 game against the Raiders. Because NFL protocols had been changed by that point, he played in the game but missed practice all week.
Going into the regular-season finale, the Colts were 9-7 and still in the running for a playoff spot when they faced the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars. Their 26-11 loss was the last straw for Irsay, and Wentz’s season stats – 3,563 yards passing, with only seven interceptions – couldn’t save him.
“No disrespect to Jacksonville, but I mean, they’re the worst team in the league. You play well and hard for the first quarter or so, and they’re looking to go to their locker room and clean it out. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life,” Irsay said. “You say, ‘My God, there’s something wrong here.’ It needs to be corrected. I think that we feel like we did.”
MALCOLM JENKINS is retiring after a 13-year NFL career in which he established himself as one of the league’s best all-around safeties, most durable players and leading voices for social justice.
Jenkins helped both the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles win their only Super Bowl and made a major impact off the field as an activist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.
JAGUARS: Jacksonville signed defensive end Arden Key to a one-year contract, giving the team an athletic pass rusher to play opposite Josh Allen and potentially alongside rookie Aiden Hutchinson.
Key is coming off his best year, recording 6 1/2 sacks for San Francisco while playing with Pro Bowler Nick Bosa.
A third-round draft pick from LSU in 2018, the 6-foot-5, 240-pound Key spent the first three years of his NFL career with the Raiders.
LAWRENCE TAYLOR, the ex-football great who spent his Hall of Fame career as a linebacker with the New York Giants, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on charges of failing to register as a sex offender.
Taylor, 63, was arrested Dec. 16 for failing to report his address change to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Taylor’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, said Taylor used his home address instead of a hotel address.
Taylor must report address changes as a sex offender due to a plea agreement in a 2010 incident in which he had sex with a 16-year-old who he said claimed to be 19 years old. He pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct and sex with an underage prostitute, both misdemeanors, and was sentenced to six years’ probation.
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