Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles on New Players, New Coaches, Baker Mayfield and more

[MUSIC] It's the final day of Bucks mandatory mini camp that means after today they will be off until we start in late July. For the real thing for training camp the preseason, the regular season cannot wait, but guess what? Last week I had a chance to sit down with Bucks head coach Todd Bowles. We talked about an array of subjects including Baker Mayfield, what he expects from him with or without a contract. Bowles is reason for wanting his defense to get bigger and why he's signed some of the alpha players that they did. It's a really good interview not just because I did it, but the thing about Todd is that you see him on the podium and he's one guy. But one-on-one he's fantastic and I think you'll get a lot of insights as to what they did in the off season also with respect to the coaching changes they made, how he thinks those will play out. So enjoy this really good interview and insightful comments from Todd Bowles coming up in just a minute. 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You heard about it right here on Sports Day Tampa Bay. We're just in OTAs and you're fond of saying nobody wins anything in shorts and T-shirts or whatever. And yet, it's definitely got a different vibe in a sense, a lot more animation, maybe even physicality. If you want to talk about the OTA, you had to scrap. But what do you see at this stage? I know there's a lot of learning and teaching with some of the new guys you've brought in. How do you feel like it's been different, better, the same? What are you watching right now at this level? I feel like it's been better because of the newer guys we brought in. They're more alpha type mentality guys. We're talking both sides of the ball from Gainwell to Aishon to Nacho to Anzaloni. They're all alpha type of guys. So from a toughness standpoint, wanting to win every play from a mentally and physically and trying to make everybody else tougher around them. As well as Killabru and Rose Boom and a bunch of guys in Muhammad. They're all like that. So I feel like from a leadership standpoint, we've gotten the right kind of guys in here for where we're trying to go. That was intentional. We've talked about you wanted to get bigger and you do have those alpha guys in here. During the season, what matters is if you win or you lose. But I do think there's a role for this as terms of like the way you practice, right? That bleeds into the games. So if you get that level of intensity, that level of competition, then Sunday the test becomes more easier, right? It makes everybody else better for sure. Getting those guys in here and even though it's hard to do it out of pads to get that kind of intensity mentally going to get everybody trying to bring the best out of everybody else can't help but help you on Sunday. Obviously any discussion with the box is going to get eventually the Baker Mayfield. I'm going to mention it now. We know that this is the final year of his current contract. There's been very preliminary initial conversations. What have you? He said the other day that the offer hasn't been what he wants yet, but that started training camp. He's all ball. I think Baker's pretty much all ball all the time, but that said, do you have any concerns that if something were to not get accomplished? Of course, there's always things like franchise tags and things down the road or even the regular season, but do you have any concerns that Baker is just that guy that's going to be alpha going to go for it? Contract, no contract. You don't worry about what you're going to get from him. No, I know I'm going to get the best Baker out of Baker. He can separate the two as a lot of guys can. It's been a league for a while. He's been around a block. He understands how to separate the two. When he's out on the field, he's all ball meetings. He's all ball and everything else in the contract part. He knows he'll take care of himself. There's no question that what he has done here has been impressive. In terms of the numbers, he's put up the wins, getting you to the playoffs. You had the same record as the team that did go to the playoffs last year. You missed them. But he's not missing games. He played through some injuries and things like that. What would you like to see that will take him to the next level? He's had a lot of different offensive coordinator. I think you have a lot of confidence. Obviously in coach Robinson coming in here and doing some things. So for Baker looking at last year, some of the things he had to struggle with, the guys in front of him, not in front of him. What do you think he has to do to continue on as the Buccaneers quarterback that's going to get you to a Super Bowl? The thing that'll get us to the Super Bowl with him will be, obviously everybody's got to stay healthy. But the main thing is not turning the ball over. And sometimes checking it down and understanding when he gets out the pocket, he makes some great scrambles, but understanding how to get down and putting himself at a harms way. Because he's not going to miss games. No, he's not going to miss any games. But he can take a little bit better care of himself in certain situations. I understand when it's a yard and a half or two from the first down, but not when it's 10 yards or eight yards from the first down. Then you can get up and live another day unless it's fourth and 10 in Houston unless it's fourth and 10 in Houston and the games on the line. I understand where he's going and trying to do those type of things, but if we can get that taken care of, you know, we'll be fine. Is that doable at the stage? It's doable because you get older every year and he sees it and he understands some things and obviously the turnovers is for everybody on offense. But getting down, he can do a little bit better job. I'm not saying all of them, but there's two or three where he'd like to have back where he can get down and not hurt himself. You lost two iconic players, one retired and the other guy is in San Francisco. And I think they both deserve to go to the Hall of Fame. We'll see what happens in the future. Hard to replace both as players and as leaders. And you brought in a lot of guys that are the alpha types that are, you know, we hear them out there right off the bat. Leaders are not picked. You don't handpick your leaders. They kind of emerge. We'll kind of watch these new guys assimilate and you knew what you're getting. Come into a new situation and be that and guys like Yaya and other guys that have been here elevate that leadership part. Have you seen that happen? I've seen it from the new guys right off the top. Namely, Aishan number one since phase one has started. He's kind of been rallying with the D line and getting them to do things off the field as well as on the field and that spills over to the backers and the Dvs as well. I've seen Gain will do it just by example. And the lonely is so smart and he understands everything. He's a natural born leader. He wanted the green dot right away. You know, yes, who had the green dot? I said if you as yours, if you need, if you want to say yes, I want it. So he gives us he gives us an edge that way and from the guy that Levanta left behind like Tai Chi and Yaya and can see and windfield and Vita and all of those guys just speaking up normally. You know, bread is in the very unsung leader on our team because he's very smart and he's probably the oldest one down there at the same time. He understands the game. Got one speaking up a lot more mechers into his second year and you know, Bucky's very bright as well. Him and Gain will they almost very similar. They get along so well off the field and they understand what each other got to do on the field is very great to see and obviously Tristan and Luke and then you know Cody's quiet, but he's very strong and he's very smart. So we got a lot of guys that kind of got us in that mold, you know what I mean. So it's been good to see that blend of the newer guys as well as the older guys. You are a head coach and have been for a long time who also calls the defense. They were not a defensive head coach. You're a head coach who also calls the defense. Let's be clear about that and you may deck there. That said, how difficult was it for you last year because I look at this team now and I wonder how anyone's going to run the ball on you. Right, but when teams can run that makes third down tough. Right. It made a very tough for you last year. Made it very tough. It made a very tough with the injuries as well as not having all the pieces you wanted. But when you you can't stop the run consistently and I thought overall we did a good job, but there was some spurts that got out plays here and there that made a lot of things third and manageable. So you don't want to do all the things you can do. Obviously with the injuries that certain spots on defense that doesn't help either, but it was difficult. But at the same time, we got to execute and you know we can play it better. We can definitely coach it better, but it feels like this year getting bigger inside, you know, even with can see hurt and Logan a little more athletic last year. I don't know if we were big enough if we just stood in there. We had bodies to put in there, but I don't know if we could stand toe to toe consistently. We could scheme people up and do those type of things. But we have guys now that can sit in there and go toe to toe and kind of understand what we're trying to get done as well as good after the pass. I think this league bigger is always better. as long as you can play, obviously, but like, you've had a lot of defenses that were built on speed, and you wanna be fast and big if you can be, but is the game evolving in that? There's always this constant push pull with offensive football. We've seen the running back come back in more to vogue. Teams are running the ball more, you can spread everybody out, but what was it that you felt like we need to be bigger? We need to hold up inside more, so then we can utilize all those other pieces. Like I looked at Anton Winfield, Junior last year was still an all pro player, we had played a lot of center field last year. - Right. - For you. - Right, because he was the oldest, obviously, who the smartest back there, and he had the man in the middle of the field to make up for everybody else. When we first got here back in 19, we had Sue, we had Goldstein, we had Vita, we were huge, and then after Sue was Hicks, so we had a huge team. - Big, big, huge. - And then so we started getting all the outside runs in a quick throws outside, and everybody started zone blocking us and reaching us, and they were getting hooked by the zone block schemes, 'cause the lineman were faster, and our interior was not, so we had to go out and get can't see, and Logan Hall and those type of guys, they can run sideline to sideline. So we started out smaller into backer spot, outside backer spot, and bigger inside, and we ended up getting smaller inside and bigger outside. And then now teams are running the ball more, because all the young quarterbacks coming out of college, and until they grasp the playbook, they're going back to the run game, 'cause people don't practice the run as much, and we felt like we had to get back bigger, so you gotta make sure you stay ahead with the trends that are going ahead, but bigger as far as guys that can move, as well as make plays. So we got bigger on the outside with Bane, and obviously Yaya and Bradzwell and Nellie are all good side there, so we can set the edge, and keep that ball from running sideline to sideline. And then we're gonna have to run our guys inside, and make a bunch of plays. - I have to ask you about Rubin Bane Jr., 'cause at this moment, I can't believe he was still available at 15, I know you've had your celebrations in your high fives, and you're probably used to having them on the field now, but we watch them on the grass, and see his bend, and see his intensity, and see his size, and all the things that he did at Miami. How great for you that a player like that comes along, and can set that edge for you now, opposite Yaya Diabean, and just what you could potentially get out of this young rookie. - I'm extremely grateful, I mean, just seeing him in person, you know, there's size and his length and his speed, and there's everything else, but you also have to look at how a guy rushes the passer. It's a lot, and how he rushes the pass, so he's never down the middle, he's always on the edge, he's never way steps, he always uses his hands, he understands leverage, he knows when to swim, when to knock him down, when to fight the offensive lineman's hands, and he's just a workhorse, but even beyond that, he's even more of a football player than I thought, he's extremely bright, he picked up the system very well, he runs games very well, and you can see the possibilities, and him and Kancey on the same side can do some good things, because they get off the ball very well, and they understand each other, so just having him in the spring, seeing the possibilities of what he can do, you can't help but smile. - Yeah, absolutely, it was a great, great get. And Josiah Trotter, I think when you look at foundational pieces, if you can get an edge rusher, and an inside linebacker for the next, they're 21 year old guys, 22 year old guys, those are big blocks on the defense, going forward too, right? - Those are huge blocks, and I think this is probably the biggest inside linebacker group from a height standpoint, and probably a weight standpoint that we've had since we've been here, and I have the only six two, and you know, Trotter's like six two, and he's long, and he runs a lot better than the people think he does when you see him in person, and he can moonlight outside as well as inside, and he's a heck of a blitzer, and you really feel his presence when the pads come on, so I'm excited to see it. - It's an evolving league, your division gets better every year. I think you guys have certainly got better in the off season. What is gonna be some of the keys, and we got a long time before we get to the regular season, but what do you, in this next phase, you have mandatory mini-camp, and then before, long four or five weeks after that, we'll be in training camp. What do you wanna see this team do before you get, you know, through training camp and into the regular season? What do they have to do to build? - Right now, it's the preparation of the small things, the fundamentals and the technique are, mini-camp, OTA, that's all it's about. - That's all you're doing? - Get that taught. If you can get those foundation pieces taught, because it's hard to do it in training camp, and once you start scheming and game planning everything else, it makes it very difficult, and when you get the training camp with the pads on, you still wanna prepare, but you gotta be able to execute. Now it becomes-- - You're gonna get the other team. - Yeah, so you're gonna get the other team, and it's live bullets, and you got the pads on, and it's blocking and tackling at the end of the day, and we have to be able to do it better than everybody else. If we can prepare and we can execute, and we don't look at the names on people's helmets, and we can play the same every week, and learn how to finish off games and close games out, instead of getting a lead, and just taking plays off, or not having, or you're gonna have to come back late, and you just wanna play four quarters, and you wanna go out there, and I think we have those type of alpha dogs on our team right now that will make this team elevate to that, when they start coaching themselves on the field, and they'll need too much coaching on the sideline, that's when you know you've arrived. - And last year, and you've said this, even though you guys got off to that 501, 6 and 2, start there was some outstanding play down the stretch. Big plays, big times, one of those games, but you didn't run away from anybody, but I also don't think you necessarily saw, you know, losing seven games that you lost either. So there's been some fast starts, there's been some plateaus, and maybe not the strongest of finishes, you prepare your team to come out of the gates really fast. What is that thing, and look, we can see here into a whole show on injuries, right? No one cares. - Right. - And we know how obliterated you were on the sideline. - About a curious time. - We could list the eight games, maybe that you had four offensive linemen together, but aside from that, like what is that thing that you need to maintain that level that you always start? 'Cause I think you prepare the team to start the season as well as anybody I've been around. - We have to develop the depth, because you know the injuries are gonna come. That's not an excuse, that's real. - Okay, right, it's reality, and we have 53 guys on the team, and you know, I always ask the coaches, why do we keep them on the team? What does he do well? So when he goes in the game, let's work on what he does well, as opposed to the guy that got hurt, that does that well, he doesn't do that well. We gotta be able to do that, and adjust ourselves to that part of it. - To the personnel. - To the personnel that we have, and make the calls that make him less prone to make any mistakes or anything like that, and that's just coaching. That's coaching that comes with that. At the same time, they have to prepare themselves as well, and we gotta make sure the schemes are right for those guys. So if we develop the depth, and we can bring guys in and not drop all far, I think that'll help us during the season. - It's interesting, Deft, because I think you have some really good young players who're gonna play right away, and they have some guys that will develop at their own speed. But then also, you've got veterans that have played, I think if you have, is it easier when you have a veteran player that's been in the fire that if he's coming in to replace somebody that's hurt? In other words, you're not reaching for a rookie who's getting their first taste, right? Like sometimes that can be a challenge, like okay, the starter's hurt, the guy I'm putting in, just really had to play a lot in the NFL. - Sometimes it's easy to put a veteran in there. You gotta see how much of a veteran, 'cause their legs may give out at some point. They might be two or three, - Three-be-one reason, or there? - And the younger guy may have more energy, but maybe not as much experience, and you have to choke it down to where he does the thing that he knows how to do as opposed to give him everything. So it has its pluses and minuses, depending on who you're putting in there, and how you put them. But I think we have some better runs that can go in there and get you out of games as well as start ball games. And we have some young guys that are coming along right now to fast pace, so it'll be great to see them in pace. - Nobody knows where house season's gonna go. No one can predict this stuff. But, and if you could, and we'd all be in Las Vegas, but I do think that you have a general understanding of how good this team is. You've been to the playoffs, um, team times until last year's streak was broke. You know this division very well now. How good potentially in that, we use that word a lot in this business, but like, how good do you think this team is? How much better did you make it from the end of last year? - I think from a depth standpoint, we've got significantly better. I think we've won because we relied on our stars to be stars. I think we have more of a team right now where everybody can just do their job, where there's offensively or defensively and guys can make plays. I think we've gotten more depth at a lot more spot, so I think we're deeper than we've been in a long time. So if there's a drop off, like we got a lot of outside backers, you got y'all, y'all, y'all, you got Bain, you got Nelly, you got Bradzwell, you got David Walker, you have a bunch of guys coming up there at that position. You know, you got Muhammad, you got a bunch of guys that can come in and play. So our depth has gotten a lot deeper for us to maintain if something happens if we do get injured as from the past. One thing you didn't do was run the ball the way you liked to. You were fifth, I think a top five rushing team and then you fell off and there's a lot of reasons for that. Let's start with the injuries inside and other places. But you have three running backs now that look very similar on paper and otherwise, right? Guys that can catch, they can run outside zone. Kennegan, well, was an MVP of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sean Tucker, but they're all about the same guy when you look at him stature wise. Is that a great thing that you have interchangeable parts? [BLANK_AUDIO] they all can plug and play and do the same things that you need them to do. Or you're missing that, you know, you don't have the so-called big back. And I know Tucker was your short yardies. He was scored seven touchdowns. You know, so you can get that out of him. I think Bucky and Game will are similar. I think Tucker's a little bit different the way he runs. He's a little thicker, lower body wise. You don't have the bigger back after losing Richard from a past protection standpoint, but all of them are very good past protectors at the same time. But we got to be smart about who they're blocking. Right. So, run game wise, I think it'll be better because it's, Zach does a very good job of mixing everything, making it look the same. Yeah. And it's a little more structure from that standpoint. So that'll help us go on into the year as well. But the running backs, you know, you go with the hot hand whoever's in there. I think both of them are great inside and outside runners as well as the receivers. And they're very willing blockers that can put their face in there. So I can only think that can only help us. You've hired a lot of coaches. You did it specifically on defense this year, but mostly by promotion. You lost offensive coordinators as head coaches. Zach Robinson, some of you are familiar with you competed against him. Feels more like the Liam Cohen, Sean McVeigh, type pedigree, if you will. You see it looking more like that too. Or just, you know, what is half of it is. And half of it are some new wrinkles. We have some concepts that are really the same. The guys, oh, this is that, that is this, this is that. Then we have some new things that are structured that they got to learn within that. That gives Zach his own wrinkle and just going against them the last four times we played Atlanta. You can see how he changes the game and gets the wrinkles in there and his intent on how he wants to move the ball and the things he tries to get done. It's very clever and it's very smart the way he does it. So I think guys are really adjusting to that right now and kind of extremely happy that they have some familiarity but also happy that they have some wrinkles that can go off of that that helps them get open or helps them with more angle blocks or anything like that. So that really helps. Final thing, you've hired and fired a lot of coaches and some of them may come head coaches and that's why you've had to replace them this year. You lost some guys on defense but you brought in some pretty good coaches I think. How pleased are you with the staff that you now have most of them new on your side of the ball but the way you've watched them work? What do you think they're bringing? The coach couple guys were already on his staff that you've been sort of grooming to be those guys right? Danny Smith, the special teams coach, I think Danny's outstanding. Danny comes in with tons of energy. They're oldest but he's the youngest. He's the energy and he brings a lot of experience and wealth and he holds everybody accountable and everybody sits in there. We're really excited about him coaching our special teams this year because we haven't had a guy like that here in a long time inside the building. Really excited to have Marcus Wes' the D-line coach, the passion he brings and understanding, holding him guys accountable to be smarter than what they were and figuring out things on the field as far as which protection is which we've done that before but he really holds them accountable and have those guys getting off the ball. I think Chandler Wittner, it matters a very rising quarterback coach. He's outstanding there. He's a good teacher obviously at Mendoza at Indiana but he's a really sharp guy. I was played the position in TJ who's the past game court and obviously he's a quarterback as well and he's coach Whitehouse as well and then the addition of Zampeese who has a wealth of experience and been around so many guys and he's not quote unquote Tom Moore. The anybody can reach Tom Moore status, age wise or otherwise so but he's a very sharp guy and we're getting a lot out of these guys here and the energy is different, the energy is new, the players are excited and they're happy to come to work and soak in more knowledge from these guys so I'm really looking forward to that come summer camp. Yeah it's been great. Well I appreciate you doing this. We look forward to you got a mandatory mini camp then before you know it maybe you'll get it there too often we can get back to training camp in the last day. Definitely gonna do that but I'll be ready for training camp. Appreciate it. I thanks. Yep. All right my thanks to Todd Volz. Always good to sit down with him. Tomorrow we'll have the interview that I did with Bucks General Manager Jason Light just as insightful. A lot of information about Baker may feel that contract negotiation. What do you expect there? Also some of the decisions that they made in the draft and free agency. You want to get the GM's perspective on all of this. The Tampa Bay rays are off they started serious with the Washington Nationals tomorrow and Team USA will be getting ready to play tomorrow as well against Australia their second game. That's correct yes. World Cup getting into the second game of the group stage. Second round of the group play. Yeah it should be fun. So again my thanks to Jason Light. Thanks for listening for you guys as well getting on down to Brighton and boutique international plasma. All there are sponsors they have the beautiful Navitimers and Chrono Mount watches. It's almost Father's Day so make your father, dad, brother, you name it happy with the greatest time piece he will ever own at Brighton boutique. Let him know you heard about it here on Sports Day Tampa Bay. Forsteeversick I am Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times. Have a great day everybody.