Bruce Arians strongly confirms he’ll return to Bucs next season

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians told reporters he’s returning for the 2022 season after losing a heartbreaker to the Rams.

The Buccaneers won the Super Bowl last year with Tom Brady and Bruce Arians leading the way. They won’t repeat this year after losing to the Rams in the NFC Divisional Round.

The question both have to answer is whether or not they’ll give it another go in 2022.

Bucs fans got their answer on one of them after the defeat on Sunday.

Bruce Arians says he’s coming back to Bucs next season

Arians was asked about his plans for 2022 and he gave a pretty definite answer.

“Oh yeah,” the head coach said.

The Bucs hired Arians as head coach in 2019 and he went 7-9 in his first season. Adding Tom Brady in the offseason made a huge difference for the 2020 season as the coach won his very first Super Bowl. In 2021, he won the NFC South for the first time but couldn’t make it past Los Angeles for another shot at the NFC Championship.

Before Tampa Bay, Arians was the head coach of the Cardinals from 2013 to 2017. He won the NFC West once and made it to the playoffs twice while earning the AP NFL Coach of the Year Award twice. He retired with a year left on his contract and spent a season out of the game before returning for the Buccaneers head coaching opportunity.

Arians will turn 70 in October but it sounds like he’ll celebrate that birthday as an NFL head coach.

As for Brady, his status remains unknown. Arians wouldn’t comment on Brady’s own retirement decision, which will come at some point in the offseason.

For now, Tampa Bay can move forward knowing they won’t have to conduct a head coaching search.