Despite missing the playoff this season, Todd Bowles claims his division titles prove he's earned his job as head coach of the Buccaneers.
Plenty of people want the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to fire Todd Bowles.
That's a likely outcome for any team that starts the year 6-2 and ends up missing the playoffs, let alone one that played in a division so god-awful that all four teams finished with a losing record.
Tampa Bay has owned the NFC South for the entire 2020s -- that fact can be used both to make the case for Tampa keeping Bowles or moving on from him.
Talking with reporters for the season's postmortem on Monday, Bowles used Tampa's past success to argue for why he should stick around.
"All I can do is coach and be myself. I've earned the chance," Bowles said. "I've won three straight division titles. So, that says a lot as far as I'm concerned."
On the contrary, Tampa's overall dominance of the NFC South — five straight division titles, three in Bowles' first three seasons — highlights just how awful this season turned out to be.
To illustrate Tampa's expectation level relative to other teams, the Carolina Panthers finished 8-9 and are only in the playoffs over Tampa due to a three-way tiebreaker.
Yet Panthers coach Dave Canales — a former Bowles assistant — is thought by some to be a Coach of the Year candidate, while Bowles seems to warrant dismissal.
The Buccaneers are never going to be the Pittsburgh Steelers when it comes to excellence being routinely expected, but the bar was long ago raised to the extent that people want better.
"It's disappointing we didn't get in. It's very disappointing," Bowles said. "First time in five years, so you kind of get used to it a little bit."
Bowles also acknowledged there's no excuse for a team with Tampa Bay's level of overall talent losing seven of its last nine gams.
"We did it to ourselves," Bowles said. "We did it to ourselves. We've got to take a deep evaluation, starting with myself. Once I do that, I'll evaluate the coaches and players, and we'll go accordingly."
"I understand their frustration, and I understand our frustrations as well."
Bowles didn't get into detail about conversations he may have had with the team's owners, the Glazer family.
"We listen, and we talk about football, but we don't really get into what we talk about because those are private conversations," Bowles said. "At the same time, I coach this team, and I understand football very well, and I have a good feel for what we need and what we don't need."
So, how likely is it that Bowles is back next season?
ESPN's NFL Insider Adam Schefter thinks fans who want Bowles' dismissal might be disappointed.
“The Buccaneers’ owners do not want to make a change. They want to keep Todd Bowles, and the feeling around the league is, ultimately, that they will keep them,” Schefter said during NFL Countdown on Sunday. “We are leaning safe on Todd Bowles staying in Tampa, but let’s see how it works out.”