Ed Werder of ESPN.

Joe is emptying a notebook of interviews with national NFL media types concerning the Bucs in recent weeks. Below, long-time NFL insider Ed Werder of ESPN discusses with Joe, among other things, a different way to rebuild the Bucs.

JoeBucsFan: Put yourself behind the desk of general manager of the Bucs. What kind of path would you take to rebuild this team?

Ed Werder: If you are picking that high in the draft and there is a quarterback available and you don’t have a franchise quarterback — which, I think the general consensus is they don’t — then I think you have to give it a lot of consideration. I don’t think people in the scouting community are as concerned about [Jameis] Winston’s off-field issues as they were with Johnny Manziel. What has happened with Manziel certainly doesn’t help guys like [Winston] especially with the rules being what they are as far as the personal conduct policy are enforced more rigorously. Guys like that are going to demand more scrutiny.

Joe: What would you do first, draft a quarterback or draft an offensive lineman? It sure seems you can get decent offensive linemen off the street but you cannot get a decent quarterback off the street.

Werder: Well, you say that, and we’ve seen teams who are committed first round picks to offensive linemen like the 49ers who are a dominant contender. Until this year, the Seahawks, the Cowboys have three first round picks on their offensive line. I think that is the philosophy that Jerry Jones always had. It kind of got him ultimately in trouble which was, that you can develop offensive linemen and if you have good skill position players, you can still be great. There might be some truth to that but trust me, if you don’t have a good offensive line, nobody looks good on offense. The quarterback doesn’t look good, the running back doesn’t look good, nothing works without a good offensive line but you can always develop one.

Joe: Is the Tampa-2 dead?

Werder: Ah, is it dead? I don’t think it is. Seattle uses a variation of that and Dallas uses a variation of that with Rod Marinelli. Is it dead? I think it is deployed differently than it has been from its purist form. But of course, that happens with everything. That happened with Bill Walsh and the west coast offense. There is a natural evolution to these systems. So, no, I think it is still a viable system. That’s one reason Seattle was in the Super Bowl.