Bruce Arians once retired from head coaching in the NFL, but isn't ready to hang up his headset after the Super Bowl. Even if the Buccaneers win Super Bowl LV, Arians will return as the team's head coach in 2021 -- confirming to CBS Sports The NFL Today analyst Bill Cowher he's coming back.
"I don't know, but I do know this. If we win it, I'm coming back for sure and trying to get two," Arians said on The Super Bowl LV Today pregame show. "(If we don't win it) I'm damn sure coming back to make sure we got a shot to win it again."
✅ Peyton Manning
— NFLonCBS (@NFLonCBS) February 7, 2021
✅ Big Ben
✅ Andrew Luck
Now @BruceArians has teamed up with Tom Brady and the duo finds themselves in the Super Bowl. And the @Buccaneers head coach has done it his own way. pic.twitter.com/xw6dIXEWDD
While Arians plans to return to the Buccaneers in 2021, he has a succession plan in place for when he does decide to step down. CBS Sports NFL insider Jason La Canfora said on The Super Bowl LV Today pregame show that Arians could step down where defensive coordinator Todd Bowles would be promoted to head coach.
Super Bowl LV is almost here, and you can watch it for free on the CBS Sports App.
Arians has credited Bowles' transformation of the defense as a catalyst toward the Buccaneers' Super Bowl run. Bowles, a former head coach of the New York Jets, had interviews with the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons this head coaching cycle. He was 26-40 in four seasons with the Jets.
"I think lightyears. Just the mixture of all those guys in the secondary [and] solidifying the front," Arians said. "Again, going into last season, we had to get Shaq [Barrett] back [and] we had to get [Ndamukong] Suh back. Keeping everybody there [and] now getting Vita [Vea] back. That secondary was the key. Getting guys that could play man-to-man, that were aggressive bump-and-run type people that could also play zone, rather than soft zone players.
"It took a while, but I think Todd has just done a tremendous job and we've been winning with defense."
