Bruce Arians holds one of the most impressive records in NFL history. Four years ago, while leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl 55, he became the oldest coach (68) to ever win a Super Bowl.
With Tampa Bay fading into the background, at least temporarily, Arians’ name hasn’t come around all that often since then. Here’s a look at what he has been up to in the time since.
Is Bruce Arians Still Coaching?
After the Super Bowl victory, Arians was with the Bucs for another season before officially retiring in 2021. Since then, he’s been in contact with the team but exclusively as a consultant, with Todd Bowles taking over head coaching responsibilities.
The Tampa Bay head coaching job was just the second of his illustrious career. Moreover, it wasn’t something that was originally in the books for Arians. Instead, after a wildly successful stint with the Arizona Cardinals in the mid-2010s, he was ready to call it quits.
From 2017-2019, Arians did stay retired. However, a lucrative contract from Tampa Bay led to Arians coming out of retirement and joining the team. Once his stint with the team came to an end in 2021, defensive coordinator Todd Bowles took over the head coaching job.
However, Arians remains on the franchise’s payroll, joining the team as a senior football consultant. As a mentor to Bowles himself, Arians still has a huge presence in the organization and for the coach as well.
Looking Back on Arians’ Legendary Career
One of the more aggressive play-callers of his generation, Arians was instrumental in making fourth-down aggressiveness as important as it is today. While most teams take the risk to go for it these days, Arians was one of the original pioneers. His slogan “No risk it, no biscuit” became legendary in his run, even before he took on head coaching responsibilities.
With humble beginnings as a graduate assistant at Virginia Tech, Arians slowly made his way up the ranks before becoming the head coach at Temple University less than a decade later. While he flirted between the collegiate and NFL scene for the next 15 years, he was shifting from organization to organization while holding multiple different roles.
Whether it was the running back coach for the Kansas City Chiefs or offensive coordinator for Mississippi State, the tight ends coach for the New Orleans Saints, or the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Alabama, his prowess took him all over the country.
Finally, with his role as a quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts that he began in 1998, Arians became a permanent resident in the NFL as Arians was the first coach for the legendary Peyton Manning.
After the Colts, he moved on to the Cleveland Browns for a short stint, working as their offensive coordinator and helping lead them to a playoff berth in 2022. Once his time with the Browns came to an end, Arians made his way over to the coaching stint that both birthed his legend and made him infamous.
From 2004-2011, he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers, first as a WR coach for three years, before becoming the offensive coordinator. During his stint, the team won two Super Bowls (40 and 43). However, he was still a highly unpopular figure among the fanbase.
That was because of his now legendary aggressiveness. His insistence on taking big risks did net its rewards but didn’t always sit well with the fans. Further, his offense led to Ben Roethlisberger getting exposed ever so often, leading to a record number of sacks year in and year out. The management was unhappy, and Arians didn’t return to the team after his contract ran out in 2011.
Returning to Indianapolis, fans got their first taste of what head coach Brian Arians looks like. When head coach Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia, Arians took over as the interim head coach. Immediately, the results were awesome, as a two-win team went 9-3 under him, still the most number of wins by an interim head coach in history.
His insane turnaround even led Arians to become the first interim head coach to win the Coach of the Year award. Seeing his potential, the Cardinals gave him a four-year deal in 2013 to become their 40th head coach.
In his five years in Arizona, Arians led the team to two postseason appearances while winning the division once as well. His best run came in 2014, however, when the Cardinals went 11-5, tied for the most in franchise history. A 9-1 start was damaged by injuries to starting and backup quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton respectively.
But, Arizona returned with renewed vigor, winning 13 games and the divisional title before making a deep playoff run, all the way to the NFC Championship Game. The next season was Arians’ last in Arizona and what looked like at the time as a head coach, period.
However, a four-year deal from the Buccaneers brought him back into the coaching ranks. After a mediocre first season, the arrival of Tom Brady changed the entire direction of Tampa Bay. An 11-5 record preceded a historic playoff run, where they won three straight road games to reach their first Super Bowl in nearly two decades and second overall.
A 31-9 domination of an injury-ravaged Kansas City Chiefs gave Arians his first Super Bowl as a head coach and Brady his seventh. The next season, they were back in the playoff hunt, making it to the Divisional Round, before falling to the eventual champions, the Los Angeles Rams. That game was the final game of Arians’ coaching career.
Shortly after, he made his decision official to retire as an NFL head coach. Instead, he moved into the senior football consultant role for Tampa Bay that he still holds to this day.
