Buccaneers Sign Bruce Arians to Four-Year Deal
After retiring from coaching for a year, former Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians is coming back to the NFL sidelines. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced Tuesday that they hired Arians to be their next head coach.
The Bucs signed Arians to a four-year contract through 2022 with a fifth-year option.
Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer reports that Arians already filled out his staff and that the infrastructure was attractive to the Bucs. The NFL Network's Ian Rapoport added that Arians hopes to finalize deals with Harold Goodwin as run game coordinator-offensive line coach, Byron Leftwich as pass game coordinator and Clyde Christianson as quarterbacks coach. Todd Bowles is also being targetted as a defensive coordinator.
Coming off their second straight 5-11 season, the Buccaneers let head coach Dirk Koetter go after three seasons in which he compiled a 19-29 record.
Arians last coached Arizona in 2017 when he guided the team to an 8-8 season. The year prior the Cardinals went 7-8-1. In his three years in Arizona before that lone campaign under .500, Arians helped the team improve from 10-6 to 11-5 to 13-3 in 2015.
In five seasons with the Cardinals, Arians went 49-30-1. Before coming to Arizona, he was the interim coach of the Colts for 12 games in 2012 and the team went 9-3 under his leadership.
