Buccaneers keep proving that change is coming

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have pulled off a win in the box score in Week 13, but that game was anything but that for the long-term viability of this roster.

The Bucs played the worst team in the NFL close. That alone should've been enough to cause changes at the start of the week.

This isn't a new feeling either. This is something that keeps happening to the Buccaneers and will continue to happen for as long as Todd Bowles is the head coach. If the Bucs want to get better, a change is needed at the top.

Outside of Mike Evans dominating and Devin White killing his chances of getting a major contract extension come the end of the season, the failures of Todd Bowles have been the biggest story for the Bucs this year.

This Tampa team has been up against a lot, especially with rampant injuries, but so has every team. Injuries aren't unique to Tampa; teams either adapt or make changes.

The Buccaneers have tried to adapt under Todd Bowles, but the change between this roster and the one under Bruce Arians has been jarring. The Bucs under Arians were able to compete for Super Bowls. The team under Bowles scraps and claws for the playoffs. The roster (at least last year) was similar, so that doesn't work as an excuse.

People can make other excuses for Todd Bowles all they want; it doesn't change the fact that what the Bucs have done under his two years has fallen flat when compared to the expectations that were built when this franchise was competitive.

Winning matters, and the Bucs struggling to even accomplish that during a two-year stretch where the NFC South is the worst division in football is unacceptable.

It makes some sense that the front office would rather have Bowles finish the year out to keep some consistency while the team is still technically in the hunt for the playoffs, but the team has been so bad that one has to wonder just how much a change now would hurt when the team has already seemed to struggle at the highest level on both sides of the ball.

Beating the Panthers by a slim margin is a massive red flag, and it certainly isn't the first of the Todd Bowles era. The Buccaneers need to make a change soon if they want to avoid catastrophe.