HEAD COACH TODD BOWLES

(On if he's spoken with General Manager Jason Licht or the Glazer Family)

"Not at this time, no. I just met with the team."

(On his message to the team)

"Obviously, I'm proud of the work they've done this year. It wasn't good enough – the only team that's going to be happy is the team that's going to win the Super Bowl. Start the little things right. It starts with the offseason, once they come back from break. We've got to build it up from ground zero once again. A lot of guys in that room are free agents. We'd be lying if we said we were going to keep everybody, or everybody was going to stay. For whatever reason, there's going to be turnover. When they come back, just understand we're starting from ground zero. We have to do the little things right to start the season all over again. We're not going to pick up where we left off. I'm proud of the effort, proud of the organization, the people in the building – from the general manager to the scouting department, equipment, trainers, everybody, nutritionists, the whole gang. We've just got to do a better job of coaching, a better job of playing, making plays at the little times, coaching it right at the best time, and come back with a chip on our shoulders."

(On where he'd like to see the team improve in the offseason)

"Right now, all areas, as I dive into it. We haven't dived into the offseason yet, but I can name a myriad of things and it'd be too long of a list to go into right now. Whatever it takes to get us to the next step."

(On what's at the top of his offseason wish list)

"Like I said, I don't have a top of the list. I'm still fresh off the loss right now. There's a lot of things I can single out, but I wouldn't say they were top of the list until I sat down and really charted them and looked at them. Once the weeks go on, we'll start to get ahold of that and see what we want to do."

(On S Antoine Winfield Jr.'s season)

"Injuries [were] his issue. He missed four weeks to start out, when he came back, he wasn't completely healthy, and then he got hurt again. A healthy Winfield leads to healthy plays."

(On if Winfield Jr. was ever 100% after Week 1)

"I couldn't answer that personally, but I would venture to say I'm sure everybody played hurt a lot, but when he's healthy, you can see it. I think once he got healthy, he got injured again. That kind of impacted it a little bit."

(On if he's contemplating any changes to his staff)

"Not thinking about that right now. Again, we're having exit interviews – we're fresh off the loss. As the days come, we'll go from there. We went to the playoffs five times with the defensive coaches we have. They're very good coaches, obviously. A lot of things have to happen in that…We've got to get more interceptions, we've got to coach it better, but we've got to play it better, as well."

(On if he will reevaluate the team's practice schedules and treatment approaches this offseason)

"Offseason, you reevaluate everything. There's nothing that goes unturned in the offseason. Again, it's too early to say everything that we're going to evaluate, but we're going to evaluate everything."

(On which players took the biggest stride this year)

"I really like where Luke Goedeke played – I like the way he came back this year and played. Even after he got hurt with the concussion, he came back and he made a lot of strides this season, as well. I thought Christian Izien before he got hurt made great strides and did a lot of things well. There [are] a few guys that made strides like that, but those two stand out."

(On what LB Lavonte David means to him and this franchise)

"Personally, we've gotten very closer over the years I've been here. He's a coach on the field, he's a captain, he's a leader, he's a heck of a person off the field. He's our bell cow. When things go wrong, he'll fix it from a mental standpoint in the locker room. He gets everybody lined up in the right plays, he understands the game – as well as making a ton of plays himself. He's meant everything to me, as well as our coaching staff and the players in this building."

(On if he knows the extent of David's injury)

"Not at this time. He was walking pretty [well] today. Again, he's not running, so I don't know. I haven't gotten to the training room yet."

(On if he's spoken with Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen)

"We've had a conversation. Me and Liam are very close – we have these types of conversations [as far as] what to expect from an interview and everything else. At least you know you're picking the right guy. We'll see what happens going forward from there. If they're not talking about your guys for interviews, then you're probably not doing it right."

(On the decision to kick a game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter rather than go for it on fourth down to try and score a go-ahead touchdown)

"It was third-and-1, obviously … and we go backwards… it was fourth-and-3. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times on that drive, so it was easier to tie the ballgame in that [situation]. If we were moving the ball at ease and getting down there every single time, we probably would've went for it. At the time when we were going for it, we had it third-and-1 and we thought we had two downs to get 1 yard. We didn't get it, we went backwards. If we didn't get it, it was 20-17 and we possibly lose the ballgame, so at least we had the tie and try to get the defense to get the ball back."

(On the aggressiveness of the Washington Commanders repeatedly going for it on fourth down)

"It wasn't harder. We knew they were going to do it. We were prepared for it. He (Jayden Daniels) out-athleted us on a few plays and that's a credit to him."

(On how the impactful young players can benefit this team moving forward)

"It helps only if they help themselves get better. The concentration part – them working out in the offseason, coming back in shape and being prepared will help us a great deal next year."

(On what the team can do moving forward to be better prepared when faced with injuries)

"Well, you try to prepare for it. Me and Jason [Licht] will sit down and talk about how we want to approach the offseason. The practice squad has a big part to do with it, whether it's all rookies [or] whether it's a mix of rookies and vets. What we're able to get, what we're able to see and those type of things… we will sit down and talk about it, and it will be a long conversation."

(On the future of WR Chris Godwin)

"He's an outstanding player. If we can sign him back at all, I'd love to have him back here. I don't know the significance yet of how long he will be out and how he will recover, but we would definitely like to have him back."

(On OLB Shaquil Barrett's limited snaps on Sunday)

"Well, [when] you miss a whole season and you come back, two weeks aren't going to get you ready. And the scheme has changed some since he has played. Trying to put him in and do the things he could do interferes with the rest of the calls of the defense, so we were bringing him along slowly and making sure he was in shape. We didn't want him to go out there and get hurt. Hopefully he has a future for us next year."

(On LB Deion Jones)

"Small sample size, but we liked what we saw. He's very athletic, he's very good in the pass game. He tackled okay. He did some things well. I'd like to see more of him, so we'll see what the future holds but he's a guy in hindsight that I'd like to have back."

(On the top priority for him this offseason)

"It's a little early right now for that, again. We haven't sat down and evaluated everything and gone over everything to see what we'd have at the top [of the list]. We're just fresh off a game and a playoff loss. It's going to be a couple of weeks before we make that decision."

(On the pressure created up the middle from DL Calijah Kancey and NT Vita Vea)

"They played well all year, and Logan [Hall] is included in that. I thought Logan had a heck of a year, as well. I thought the interior three did a heck of a job pushing the pocket all year long."

(On who surprised him the most this year with their performance)

"I don't know if it's a surprise, but I think guys played well. I liked the steadiness that Graham Barton showed as a rookie. Playing one of the toughest spots on the field, going against a Pro Bowler almost every week and just doing his job and coming to work every day with a lunch pail attitude. Making blitz adjustments and stunt adjustments aren't easy for a first-year center."

(On how much he was able to deploy the defense that he wanted to heading into the season considering the injuries)

"I don't know, it changed so much. It's not so much about deploying a defense as it is about executing what we call. I thought those guys, for the most part, did a good job of coming in and executing what we called with what they can do well. That was the defense we were going to play. We had a chance to be successful if they executed the defense and they did a good job after the Bye Week of coming in and doing that, so I was proud of them for that."

(On S Kaevon Merriweather having a bigger role after returning to the Buccaneers)

"He came back – after we let him go, when he came back from Detroit's practice squad, he had a very professional attitude. He studied, [we] hardly talked about him making mental errors, and everything else and he became one of our better safeties from the second half of the season on. I'm very proud of the job he did. I told him that earlier this week. The attitude he came back with, the professionalism, the way he played. He can play free or strong at the drop of a hat. With guys going down, he was moving from one to the other and he never flinched and I'm very proud of him for that. He was one guy that I can say [that] I can hardly say his name on film that had a mental error."

(On what the next step is to get the team in the position to win in the playoffs and if it's having better luck with injuries)

"It won't be injuries. It's doing the little things right – not turning the ball over, getting off the field on third down. Those are the little things that happened all year that came up at the end. We had a good stretch defensively at playing third downs – didn't play them well last night. They got the turnover in the plus territory inside the red zone right there. It won't take injuries because people go to the playoffs with injuries all the time. That's not even a factor. We just have to do the little things right when we get there."

(On what he liked and didn't like about his defense this season)

"At the start of the season, I thought we were fast starting the season. We got banged up pretty early. We got banged up pretty early and we made some routine plays look hard and I didn't like that about it. That will probably eat at me the whole offseason."

(On the team having high internal expectations and lower external expectations and how he frames this season)

"Not like you just framed it. We're not going to overachieve and disappoint. We underachieved as far as ourselves are concerned. We don't worry about external expectations. Our internal expectations were for us to go to the Super Bowl. Injury or regardless, our internal expectations are to go to the Super Bowl. We did not get that accomplished. We did some good things throughout the year, yes. We had guys injured, yes. We got to the playoffs, yes but our expectations are to win the Super Bowl."

(On S Tykee Smith's rookie season)

"He got banged up and he missed some time. He got banged up, he was playing with a knee [injury]. When he came back, he made the plays he was supposed to make. He set the edge, he did some good things and he was one of our best players on defense. He didn't hit a rookie wall at the end of the year. They started going away from him some and he started being a non-factor because the ball wasn't showing up but he did everything he was supposed to do."

(On what he saw in terms of growth from the tight ends after hiring Tight Ends Coach Justin Peelle)

"They were one of the groups that had the fewest mental errors during the season as well. Coach Peelle does great job getting Cade [Otton] ready, getting Payne [Durham], getting [Devin] Culp ready, having Ko [Kieft] available, using different types of guys to do what they do best."

(On what he can take away about himself through this season)

"I think the older I get, the more I learn. When you stop learning, you stop growing and you start understanding things more, and you see things quicker, obviously. You just have to keep growing. What you see as a coach isn't what they always see as a player so you have to constantly think about that – the idea in your head, and then the idea of what they can actually do. That never stops as a coach. You constantly go through that and with all the different bodies put in here during the year, that forces you to go outside your box and your normal deal, which is a good thing because it helps you keep coaching fresh. It's not a good thing they get hurt, but it's a good thing that you try to adjust and keeps you on your toes and that's what coaching is all about. It's not about coaching the best players all the time. It's about coaching what you have and making it work and still being a good coach. We have a lot of guys on our staff that [have] done that this year."

(On if he thinks losing all four night games this season is just a coincidence)

"I think we should have every game at one o'clock [laughs]."

(On how much of the offseason is spent reviewing what he's done as a coach or finding inspiration from other teams and coaches)

"It's a lot. The first thing you do is review everything you've done, see what they're seeing, see what you see, see what you can change. Then you're always looking for fresh ideas, whether it's high school, college, pro, pee wee ball. You're always looking for fresh ideas, whether it's pressures, whether it's runs, whether it's blocking schemes, whether it's coverages. You're always looking for fresh ideas going forward."

-BUCCANEERS-