TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers locker room was filled with the sound of players packing up their lockers on Monday.
“Today is always a tough day,” left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “You see all the bags, guys cleaning out their lockers. There is nothing set in stone right now. You know its coming. It’s going to be a different room next year.”
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“It’s sad. It’s definitely a low vibe,” wide receiver Jalen McMillan added. “We appreciate all our relationships with each other. At the end of the day, it’s not going to be the same locker room. It’s a little heavy.”
Even though Tampa Bay beat the Panthers 16-14 in Week 18, Carolina won the division based on a three-way tiebreaker when the Falcons beat the Saints on Sunday.
“It was sh***y,” McMillan said. “It wasn’t a good feeling. Definitely something I don’t want to experience again.”
“It’s tough leaving it in someone else’s hands, but we did our job,” Wirfs said. “We got the win. Coming in here after something like that felt better than if we just lost straight up. I guess you can’t leave it up to the Saints.”
“Very disappointing,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “First time in five years you get used to it. We did it to ourselves. We have to take a deep evaluation starting with myself.”
The Bucs’ four-season reign as NFC South champions is over, something that seemed hard to believe two months ago when the Bucs were 6-2.
Then came the historic collapse, with seven of their last nine games lost, raising questions about Bowles's job security.
“All I can do is coach and be myself,” Bowles said. “I’ve earned the chance. I’ve won three straight division titles. That says a lot as far as I’m concerned.”
“I love Coach Bowles,” Wirfs added. “I see all the talk on Twitter. I don’t care about it, people sitting at home talking about it. We know what we have in this building. If something happens, something happens. If something doesn’t, something doesn’t. The season is coming regardless. We’ll all be ready.”
Bowles plans to meet with the Glazer family ownership group later this week.
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