The Tampa Bay Buccaneers appear to have established a target in their coaching search.

The team is offering former Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arians the job, according to the NFL Network. The two sides were expected to begin negotiating a contract soon, per the report.

Arians, 66, retired after last season, finishing with a 49-30-1 record in five years with the Cardinals. While with the team, he had several health-related issues, including two trips to the hospital during the 2016 season. He also later revealed in his book that he had a cancerous spot removed from his liver in 2016.

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In November, Arians told The Canton Repository that the Cleveland Browns’ head coaching opening would be “the only job I would consider.” But he previously worked with Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht, who served as the Cardinals’ vice president of player personnel.

Arians will already have his quarterback in the fold, as general manager Jason Licht said Jameis Winston will return for the 2019 season. Winston is scheduled to earn $20.9 million in his fifth-year option.

Arians has a history with Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston, having coached Winston as a youth during a football camp Arians ran with his son, Jake, in Birmingham, Ala. Arians reminisced about those days during an interview with The Republic in 2016.

“Jaboo’s (Winston’s nickname) been a legend since he was in the ninth grade,” Arians said at the time. “… I’ve been hearing about him, knowing about him for a long time. … Just a tremendous athlete. A very bright guy, but had a cannon for an arm. He was probably throwing 90 mile-an-hour fastballs back then in the ninth, 10th grade.”

Remembering that football camp, Winston, the first overall pick in the 2015 draft, told The Republic in 2016 how Arians inspired him to dream about a career in the NFL.

“He’s one of the first people that gave me that dream of getting a Super Bowl ring,” Winston said. “At the camp, he brought his Pittsburgh Steelers (Super Bowl) ring and showed all of us. That was one of those times when I was just like, ‘Man, I want to get me one of those rings.’ ”

MORE: Buccaneers’ Jameis Winston loves Bruce Arians – and vice versa

Arians was named NFL Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2014, first as interim head coach of the Colts, then as head coach of the Cardinals. He was a part of two Super Bowl-winning teams with the Steelers as an assistant coach.

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USA TODAY Sports’ Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz contributed to this story.