Former NFL head coach Bruce Arians wants to return to the sideline.
Arians led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl LV win in 2021. He retired in 2022, handing over the job to defensive coordinator Todd Bowles and stepping into an advisory role with the Bucs front office. But Arians told NFL reporter Jordan Schultz in an interview this week that he has the “itch” to coach again.
“We did everything we thought we could do in Tampa after winning the Super Bowl, trying to get two, and then it was time to give it to Todd,” he said in a clip posted on X Thursday. “And now that I’m all healthy again, I got the itch again, so we’ll see.”
Arians was hired as the Buccaneers’ head coach in 2019. He previously served as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2013 to 2017, then retired and joined CBS in the broadcast booth in 2018. Arians led the Buccaneers to a 7–9 record in his first year as head coach.
In 2020, the Bucs signed six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Tom Brady and traded for his longtime receiving weapon, tight end Rob Gronkowski, from the New England Patriots.
With Brady at the helm, the Bucs went 11–5 and earned a Wild Card berth in the playoffs. They marched through the NFC playoffs to Super Bowl LV, where they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31–9 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
The Bucs won their second Super Bowl and became the first team to play, and win, a Super Bowl in their home stadium.
Arians, Brady, and the Bucs returned in 2021 and improved on their record, going 13–4 in the newly-established 17-game season and winning the NFC South. They won the Wild Card round but lost in the Divisional to the Los Angeles Rams, who went on to win Super Bowl LVI.
Arians stepped down in March 2022, handing the head coaching job to defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. Arians said at the time that his decision was more about ensuring an orderly transition and giving Bowles the opportunity to succeed him on the field. He shot down the idea that it was because of health concerns.
But he told Schultz this week that he was dealing with multiple health issues at that time, which prevented him from staying with it.
“I had torn my Achilles early in that season, and I was wearing these prosthetic high heels, and it threw my back out and I couldn’t stand on the sideline for four hours anymore without a lot of pain,” he said. “And I was also monitoring an aneurysm on my heart, so I had some health issues.”
Arians stayed with the organization as Senior Advisor to the General Manager; he told Schultz he is no longer in that position. He has, however, stayed involved with football, with a recurring gig on The Pat McAfee Show as an analyst in 2025.
Arians said he has been attending high school football games in Arizona, where his son coaches. He spoke to the coaching staff there during the spring and said it lit the fire in him to get back on the field.
“This is the first time it’s really—I had no desire to go back, and I was still fighting some health issues,” he said.
Arians announced in January that he was scheduled to undergo open-heart surgery.
“But now after the open-heart surgery, I’ve got so much more energy,” he told Schultz. “It’s amazing. So yeah, it’s just a matter of … we’ll see what happens.”
Arians said he has not spoken to any teams yet about a potential comeback.
