Now that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are fully in offseason mode, some big decisions that have loomed all season will need to be addressed. One of the more pressing issues is what will happen to the team’s coaching staff, which could see significant change in the next few weeks.

Liam Coen is a top head coaching candidate after the job he did running Tampa Bay’s offense this year, and there’s a good change he gets poached. If that happens, the Bucs will have a third straight offseason where the team will need to find an offensive coordinator, but that’s not the only place on the coaching staff that folks are looking at.

All season the defense was scrutinized by frustrated fans, and now that the season is over some are expecting to see change. Firing head coach Todd Bowles was a wish that will go unfulfilled, and rightfully so, but with the target of his back some are wondering if that will mean some of his coaches pay the price for what was a rough season on that side of the ball.

While fans might want change, it doesn’t sound like Bowles is ready to make any.

Todd Bowles speaks on potential changes to the Buccaneers coaching staff

Bowles spoke on potential changes that could be made this offseason, and based on what he said it doesn’t seem like any are going to come voluntarily.

“Not thinking about that right now. Again, we’re having exit interviews – we’re fresh off the loss. As the days come, we’ll go from there,” Bowles said.

He also got a little terse when challenged about potential coaching changes amid outside noise about how poorly the defense performed this season. There’s some merit to the criticisms of the defense but a lot of it seems to have been amplified in the moment while ignoring the positives.

“We went to the playoffs five times with the defensive coaches we have. They’re very good coaches, obviously. A lot of things have to happen in that…We’ve got to get more interceptions, we’ve got to coach it better, but we’ve got to play it better, as well.”

Bowles’ defense wasn’t perfect but it was also a depleted unit for most of the season. Antoine Winfield Jr., Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, and essentially the entire secondary all battled significant injuries which threw the depth out of whack. Despite this, Bowles and his defense managed to hold opposing offenses to just 26 combined second half points over the last seven games of the season, which is a big reason why the team won a fourth straight NFC South title.

All bets are off next year, as there’s absolutely zero margin for error when it comes to some of the sins of this season being absolved like they are. For now, though, it seems that the Bucs are going to march forward with the coaching staff they have assiming none of them get poached as part of this offseason’s hiring cycle.