NFL News: Todd Bowles breaks the silence on becoming the Bucs' HC

It’s the dawn of a new era for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Even with Tom Brady coming back from his ‘retirement,’ Bruce Arians won’t be calling the shots for the biggest candidate in the NFC South anymore.

The Bucs promoted Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles for the job. He interviewed with multiple teams to get another shot at an HC gig after his mid success with the New York Jets several years ago.

Bowles put together a championship-caliber defense since his arrival in Tampa Bay. Now, he’s got some big shoes to fill as he tries to win the second Super Bowl in three years of the Tom Brady era.

NFL News: Todd Bowles Says Bruce Arians Was His Biggest Father Figure In The League

“He will probably be – not probably, definitely – the most influential coaching figure, father figure that I have ever had in my life in this league, for as long as I shall live or continue to be in this league,” said Bowles. “And I just want to thank him personally before I go on, just face to face so the whole world knows what he has meant to me, what he means to our coaching staff, what he means as a family man … he teaches, he takes advice, he understands, and that’s what you need to be a good leader. I’ll try to do that going forward.”

“I’m just going to be me. I cannot be him. I don’t expect to duplicate the things he’s done. [He] won a Super Bowl, won a division – I want to duplicate that part, but probably with some tweaks and in a different way,”Bowles added. “There are a lot of ways to skin a cat, and I’m just going to do it my way. I’m going to do it my way. I’m going to do it my way with a lot of advice from him, a lot of advice from the other coaches. But I’m going to say what I feel. I’m a very honest guy, very straightforward there, and we’ll get to know that as a group, as well.”

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Bowles Is More Experienced Now

Bowles also talked about his previous experience with the Jets and how he hopes to be better now that he’s way more experienced. To be fair, he’s got a massive upgrade at the QB position this time around:

“I think when you take a head job [for the first time] you have to wear a lot of hats, but you had never experienced wearing those hats,” Bowles said. “When you understand that going in…without the experience I think you tend to do things a little differently. You have to be man enough to know when you can change things. Usually when people get fired they blame everybody else. The first thing I did was look within myself, and there were a lot of things I can do better.”

The Buccaneers are once again the team to beat in the NFC South as most of their starters will return. Tom Brady’s back and he claims to have some unfinished business; so the league better watch out.