Vita Vea: Buccaneers 'happy to have' Todd Bowles as head coach

Individuals within the Tampa Bay Buccaneers organization are saying all the right things to convince fans that it's business as usual this spring following Bruce Arians' surprising decision to step down as the team's head coach in late March. 

Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was promoted to Arians' former role, and linebacker Lavonte David insisted weeks before the NFL Draft that "everybody’s going to love" Bowles serving as their new head coach. Just last week, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich said his game plans won't change much, if at all, without having Arians on the sidelines during games. 

Per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk, Tampa Bay defensive tackle Vita Vea told reporters Tuesday that going from Arians to Bowles as head coach is an easy transition for those who have been with the team.

"With Bowles, he’s such a good guy, a cool guy on and off the field," Vea explained. "We’ve been with him for the past three years, so it’s not like you’re getting a new guy. So I think to a lot of us, he’s still coach Bowles to us. Like when we came in today, our first time seeing him, we still congratulated him for being our head coach now. So it’s pretty cool to see that. 

"Bittersweet about him and BA, but we move on. Happy to have coach Bowles as our head coach." 

While it's nice that Bowles has received public votes of confidence from players, there's no question his new job will come with unique stresses. Tom Brady's decision to end a short-lived retirement and return for at least one more season made the Buccaneers a "Super Bowl or bust" club for 2022, meaning some fans may quickly turn on Bowles this fall if Tampa Bay doesn't look like a contender by Halloween.