Bruce Arians shocked the world when he announced Wednesday night that he's handing over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coaching keys to Todd Bowles and moving into the front office. It's just the latest unexpected move in an absolutely wild 2022 NFL offseason.
This sums it up well:
This #NFL offseason pic.twitter.com/xsbAXEpSo0
— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) March 31, 2022
Arians says he made the decision because he wanted to leave the Buccaneers to a successor when they were in good shape to win, and the return of Tom Brady put them in a much better spot than they would have been if he stayed retired. Arians was apparently also upset about Bowles and Byron Leftwich not getting head coaching jobs this cycle, so he wanted to reward one of them:
In my interview with Arians that hasn’t aired @nflnetwork yet, he spoke of how upset he was the Bowles and Leftwich didn’t get HC jobs this cycle and added that they had plans to elevate others on staff in case they did. I guess those will be activated to some degree now.
— Steve Wyche (@wyche89) March 31, 2022
Arians' aims certainly seem to be noble when taken at face value, but that hasn't stopped people from diving into conspiracies related to Tom Brady given the timing of this all:
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 31, 2022
Remember, there were reports of a rift between Brady and Arians, so it's only natural for people to wonder if Touchdown Tom's return to the Buccaneers came with the condition that the head coach must leave his post and hand over the job to one of the top assistants.
There was also some confusion over the Rooney Rule:
This implies the existence of one HELL of a Rooney Rule loophole that surely does not exist. https://t.co/yb9FPQBqMf
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) March 31, 2022
But while this all made for great fodder, others wanted to focus on the positive of Arians' move:
Rather than getting wrapped up in Tom Brady-related conspiracy theories, I choose to focus on how Bruce Arians proved yet again how he's an ally to Black and minority coaches by stepping down and promoting Todd Bowles https://t.co/ncojc4klAE
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) March 31, 2022
Current and former NFL players also chimed in on the big decision, with praise going to both Arians and Bowles:
Shout out to Coach Todd Bowles! 🐐 #Prez
— Jamal Adams (@Prez) March 31, 2022
Bruce Arians was never led by gossip and opinions which is what made all his players ride for him no matter what! Happy retirement #BadAssBruceArians aka “B.A” #MrKeepit100 @BruceArians
— ROBERT MATHIS QBH8r (@RobertMathis98) March 31, 2022
https://twitter.com/chanjones55/status/1509364730812506117
Whatever happened here with Bruce Arians and the Buccaneers, he undoubtedly left the team in a great spot for Bowles to compete for a Super Bowl. With Brady and a number of other key players back, they will be one of the favorites to win it all. There's still some work to do with the roster, with a major decision to be made by Rob Gronkowski. It also looks like Ndamukong Suh wants to be back.
Stay tuned!