ESPN NFL analyst and former General Manager Mike Tannenbaum has made a bold comparison about Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles.

After years of being somewhat irrelevant in the National Football League, only really making headlines as a result of former quarterback Jameis Winston - such as his infamous 30 touchdowns, 30 interception season in 2019 - the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have become much more of a force to be reckoned with.

Part of that has been the introduction in the past few years of Tom Brady at quarterback and the partnership he developed with head coach Bruce Arians, a well-renowned offensive mind, that helped them win the Super Bowl in their first season together in 2020 whilst making the playoffs in 2021. 

But as the team gets ready for the 2022 season, they will be doing so in a slightly different fashion to how they finished last season. Whilst Brady will be back under centre, Arians has taken his talents upstairs to be the team’s ‘Senior Football Consultant’, with head coaching duties handed down to former defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. 

Not his first rodeo

Bowles has been a head coach in the National Football League before, as an interim head coach for the Miami Dolphins in 2011 where he had a 2-1 record, before taking charge of the New York Jets between 2015-2018, during which time he had just one winning season and put up an overall record of 24-40, including three 4th placed finishes in the AFC East.

However his credibility has skyrocketed in recent years taking control of the Buccaneers' defence, most notably for their role in the team’s 2020 Super Bowl run which saw them keep Patrick Mahomes out of the end zone all game, sacking him three times and intercepting him twice. 

And perhaps as a result of that, Bowles is being tipped to do well with the Buccaneers, with Mike Tannenbaum even going one step further as to how well he think he’ll do.

What’s he said? 

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up, Tannenbaum, a former executive for a number of clubs around the league, claimed that the hiring of Bowles could be a significant ‘X factor’ in them having success this year and saying that he could be the ‘next version of Bill Belichick’:

Certainly a bold claim, and after everything that Belichick did with the New England Patriots, if Bowles can be even half as successful in Tampa Bay, then you feel that the Buccaneers would take that all day long.

You just hope that a comparison like this doesn’t end up putting too much pressure on Bowles to perform this upcoming season.