Bruce Arians is back.
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are finalizing a deal to make Arians their new head coach. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network says that the pact will be a four-year contract with a fifth-year option.
Rapoport adds that Arians is also hoping to finalize deals with several coaches that will join his staff: Harold Goodwin as run game coordinator and offensive line coach, Byron Leftwich as pass game coordinator and Clyde Christianson as quarterbacks coach.
There have also been discussions that Arians could bring former New York Jets head coach Todd Bowles aboard as his defensive coordinator.
Many felt that Arians was done with football once he resigned from his post as Arizona Cardinals head coach at the end of the 2017 campaign, as the 66-year-old had been dealing with health problems.
However, he was apparently just taking a short hiatus.
Arians has two Coach of the Year awards under his belt, winning his first award after going 9-3 as interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2012 and earning the honor for a second time in 2014 after guiding the Cardinals to an 11-win season.
Interestingly enough, because Arians was only an interim coach for the Colts in 2012, those wins and losses do not count toward his overall coaching record, which is 49-30-1 over five seasons in Arizona.
Arians' most successful year came in 2015, when he led the Cardinals to 13 wins and an appearance in the NFC Championship Game.
He will hope to bring the same kind of success to a Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise that has not made the playoffs since 2007.
