Hall-of-Famer Rondé Barber slams Todd Bowles' defense as "too complicated," questioning if players can master multiple roles within the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach's demanding scheme.
Todd Bowles has his share of critics, for the job he’s done as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head coach and the team's defensive coordinator.
Critics of Bowels’ defensive coordinating include Bucs starting running back Rachaad White and, on Monday, arguably the most beloved Buccaneer player of all time.
Ronde Barber played cornerback for the Bucs for 16 seasons — the longest of any player in franchise history — and is in the NFL Hall of Fame.
Barber’s signature moment came in the 2002 NFC Championship Game, when his 92-yard pick-six of Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb clinched Tampa’s first trip to the Super Bowl -- and its first Super Bowl victory.
Defense was Tampa Bay's meal ticket that season, and the 2002 Bucs defense — which featured fellow Hall-of-Famers Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch — is still among the fiercest in NFL history.
The 2025 Bucs defense was never close to that level, but it could have done better than 20th in the league in scoring defense.
Tampa fired its offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator after the season, but for Barber, Bowles’ scheme is is too complicated.
“His defense is difficult,” Barber said. “It’s hard. I’m telling you, the playbook is hard. It’s comprehensive,” Barber said on Tuesday on The Ronde Barber Show on WFLA-TV.
Barber went onto explain that the defense has players needing to know multiple positions at the same time.
“Every defense is somewhat of a pressure and it asks everybody a lot a questions on how to play the position,” he said. “Like an edge rusher has to have the same responsibilities as an outside linebacker. Safeties and corners have to have sometimes the same responsibilities as those two standup inside linebackers. So you’re asking a lot.”
For Barber, this complexity led to many mistakes uncovered.
"You see these failures in coverage and people running wide open and guys looking at each other on the sideline, like, ‘Did I mess that up? Did you? Who messed that up?’ That can’t be the case anymore," he said.
Barber went on to say he doesn’t believe Bowles is the problem and that, with the right talent, the scheme can be effective in the modern NFL.
But what Barber told Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday indicates he does think Bowles is to blame.
"It’s almost as if (Bowles) expects every player to be able to do every position’s jobs, which in my opinion is ridiculous,” Barber said.
Bowles has proven he's a quality defensive coordinator.
When the Buccaneers last won the Super Bowl, it was Bowles running the defense.
Bowles’ performance as defensive coordinator made him Bruce Arians’ successor as head coach after the 2021 season, and he’s shown he can manage both jobs well at times, having led the No. 7 scoring defense in the NFL in 2023.
But how the Bucs’ defense performed the last two seasons — 16th in 2024, 20th in 2025 – have a lot of people wondering if the team needs somebody to focus solely on the defense.
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