“Stories are going to be coming” - NFL analyst believes there could be rift in Buccaneers camp following Bruce Arians' retirement

Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (sans Bruce Arians) will be running it back for the third season in a row in hopes of winning their second Super Bowl. This time, however, the Buccaneers will be doing it without their former head coach, who suddenly retired. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles will step into the head coaching role and navigate the NFC with largely the same roster that Brady initially joined in 2020.

On the NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, NFL Analyst Michael Robinson went deeper and suggested that not all might be well within the Buccaneers locker room:

“I’m gonna go with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Todd Bowles, and Tom Brady. And I know we're talking about the GOAT. I know we're talking about Todd Bowles, who's regarded as probably one of the best defensive minds in the game of football. But this team was in a Super Bowl a couple of years ago. They got close last year. They lost in the divisional round to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams.

With Tom Brady saying, 'I'm gonna retire. Okay? I lost and I'm gonna retire.’ But the last time we saw him on the field, he was mounting a furious comeback behind the Rams. I could argue that, if they had 10 more minutes left, Brady comes away with a win in the divisional round last year. So you bring the band back together. And now the expectation is that the Buccaneers are on top of the NFC."

Robinson went on to emphasize that Arians’ shadow still looms over the organization, especially with the former head coach moving upstairs into a front office role:

"And it's not like Bruce Arians. This is really a tricky thing for me. It's not like Bruce Arians retired and is completely out of the building. There's gonna be guys that loved Bruce Arians as the head coach.

Bruce Arians and Todd Bowles are two different personalities. I know they connected in a lot of different ways. But Todd Bowles is an entirely different personality than Bruce Arians. And what happens when this team meets some type of adversity?

And some players on this team think, ‘Oh, maybe things would be different if Bruce Arians was the head coach. And oh, Bruce Arians is right upstairs. I want to go talk to him.’

See, that's when I think Todd Bowles being the head coach and all the pressure on Tom Brady, and this Tampa Bay Buccaneers can be very interesting. Because again, I do think there's a fraction of that team that loves Bruce Arians, and Todd Bowles is a different personality. How does that dynamic play out? If they meet some adversity? I'm telling you, stories are going to be coming. They’ll be coming out.”

Tom Brady's and Todd Bowles’s new partnership after Bruce Arians' retirement

Tom Brady will be playing for only his third head coach in his 20+ NFL career, which is incredible but not surprising given the success he's had with the New England Patriots over the last two-plus decades. While Bill Belichick and the former head coach seem to be different in terms of coaching philosophy (Arians might be more open compared to Belichick), both have larger-than-life personalities, and both are known to be hard on players.

For Todd Bowles, he’s more stoic and less fiery on the field than the former Buccaneers head coach and even Belichick (who’s famous for seemingly wearing a scowl 24/7).

For the first time, Brady will be playing for a coach without a big personality on the field and off the field, so it will be interesting to see how the Buccaneers navigate the season and potential drama with Bowles at the helm. As Michael Robinson mentioned, however, Arians is still in the building as a front office executive should the Buccaneers or Tom Brady ever need a familiar face.