The former Cards coach is hiring Bryon Leftwich as offensive coordinator and is expected to hire Harold Goodwin as run game coordinator/offensive line and Clyde Christensen as QB coach, Rapoport added. Arians is also targeting his former defensive coordinator Todd Bowles for the same position in Tampa Bay.
Earlier Tuesday, Rapoport reported that the Bucs were set offer the gig to Arians. Things developed quickly from there.
“Bruce Arians is one of the NFL’s most well-respected coaches over the past two decades and we are excited to have him leading our team,” Buccaneers owner/co-chairman Bryan Glazer said. “Throughout this process, we focused on finding the right coach with a proven ability to elevate our players and lead our team forward. Bruce has played a large role in the development and career success of some of our league’s best players and we look forward to seeing him continue that work here with our franchise.”
As compensation for hiring Arians, the Bucs sent a 2019 sixth-round pick to Arizona in exchange for Arians and a 2019 seventh-round pick, Rapoport reported.
That swap was necessary because Arizona still held Arians’ rights through 2019 as a part of a team option included in the coach’s contract with the Cardinals signed in 2015. The NFL initially said no compensation from the Buccaneers was necessary for Arians to sign in Tampa Bay, but the Cards put a pause on the deal by insisting on compensation. Both sides ultimately bypassed the issue of the team option, came together to discuss a deal and ended up swapping picks to get it done.
Arians, who retired in early 2018 from his post in Arizona to focus on his health and life outside of football, spent the last season in the broadcast booth as a color commentator for CBS. It was in that booth that rumors of Arians potentially returning to the NFL to coach first started to bubble up. But it was in relation to another vacancy — the Cleveland Browns — not Tampa Bay.
The Buccaneers entered the realm of possibility for Arians shortly after the team fired coach Dirk Koetter on Dec. 30; Koetter was hired Tuesday by the Atlanta Falcons to be their OC. While Arians previously said on record he’d only consider coming out of retirement for the Browns job (which he said he’s wanted for more than a decade), he expanded his willingness to listen to include the Buccaneers.
That decision has landed him a coaching job.
Arians rose to prominence after a coaching life spent largely as an offensive guru, tutoring young versions of Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger before they became their All-Pro selves. That also included getting fired — by Temple, by Cleveland and by Pittsburgh — before his unlikely ascension to offensive coordinator and interim head coach in Indianapolis landed him NFL Coach of the Year honors and earned him the Arizona job.
The Buccaneers, who have more young talent than one might think, are poised to make a leap in overall record, should they and Arians acclimate to each other expediently. That begins with Arians filling out his staff, which could include a Cardinals reunion of sorts. Stay tuned.