International relations can be a dicey thing. What is good for superior minds like Americans (football) doesn’t translate to lesser cultures (kickball hooligans of Europe).
So Clark Judge (not to be confused with Mike Judge or Matt Drudge) of CBSSports.com is of the mind that having the Bucs play in London may create havoc for State Department types in Washington, that this is not a way to thank a foreign county for giving America some of its greatest pop culture icons.
England gives us the Beatles, The Who and Jacqueline Bisset, and we respond by exporting next weekend’s New England-Tampa Bay game? No wonder we’re running a $1.4 trillion deficit.
B.J. Askew's season is over. And perhaps his Bucs career.
In just two years, Earnest Graham has gone from buried on Chucky’s bench to the Bucs’ No. 1 running back, then to fill-in fullback and then to a reserve running back role.
Graham learned of the news yesterday during an interview on 1010 AM.
“I guess I’m the new fullback,” he said. “I can tell you B.J.’s in a lot of pain.”
This is a very interesting development for the Bucs. Raheem The Dream had high praise for Graham’s play at fullback recently. And obviously Graham’s a dangerous weapon to have on the field. There’s no reason to think he won’t be successful and be the No. 1 fullback entering 2010.
That leaves the Bucs at a crossroads at running back.
Derrick Ward turns 30 next summer, and Cadillac Williams is a free agent after the season with an ugly medical history. Joe can’t think of a scenario that would see Caddy back in a Bucs uniform next year.
If Cadillac’s healthy through 2009 and gains 1,000 yards, are the Glazers really going to pony up the cash to keep him considering his medical history? And if Cadillac’s performance tails off through this season, there’d be no reason to stick with a 28-year-old back on the downside of his career.
Perhaps it’s time to take Kareem Huggins off the practice squad and see what he can do. And it’s reasonable to add running back to the Bucs’ growing wish list for the 2010 draft.
Joe loves good interviews — players who aren’t afraid to call it as they see it most of the time and usually bring a very fresh perspective.
On the Bucs, per Joe’s scorecard, the best interview spots go to Antonio Bryant and Jeff Faine. Bryant is unpredictable and passionate, while Faine is candid and extremely well spoken.
Tonight on 620 WDAE-AM, Faine will grab the Total Access microphone at 6 p.m. alongside good guy host Scott Ledger to talk all things Bucs. Faine also will take phone calls.
Should be a treat for Bucs fans.
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“The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN describes that the season has sunk to such a level for the Bucs, that the biggest thing to look forward to is next spring’s draft.
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The season is so miserable, Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune is already looking forward to the 2010 NFL draft. Let’s just say Henderson isn’t the only Joe to already begin looking to the draft.
Henderson points out that for the Bucs organization, and for Raheem the Dream and Mark Dominik to keep their jobs, failure in next year’s draft may not be an option.
Obligatory disclaimer: They have to get this right. They have to go defense, defense, defense, and more defense. The draft brought the Bucs stalwarts like John Lynch, Derrick Brooks and Warren Sapp and it was the foundation of a championship. It has to be that way again.
Yes, we’re talking about the draft because it beats talking about an 0-6 team that is about to fly across the big pond to get waxed by the Patriots. We’re talking about the draft because the only thing that matters right now is making the right moves to fix the mess the Bucs are deservedly in.
We’re talking about this because we need to see that Dominik is correct when he says there is a real plan in place to return the Bucs to respectability.
Given the massive swings and misses in the upper rounds of the draft in recent years under director of college scouting Dennis Hickey, Joe believes Henderson is more than fair to ask, “… whether they have a clue, though, we’ll know soon enough.”
Seems as though Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart has a very low opinion of the Bucs front seven. That’s understandable to Joe, who noticed more heart and passion among tackling dummies than what the Bucs defense displayed on the Panthers’ game-winning, 80-yard drive late in the game.
Carolina jammed the ball right up the Bucs rear end 16 out of 17 plays on that drive. So a reader can almost sense the giggling in Stewart’s voice reading his quote about that drive, reports Charles Chandler of the Charlotte Observer.
Stewart said the Panthers worked extensively on their running game in practice last week and that, against the Bucs, “a couple of runs felt like it was in practice.”
So there you have it: The Bucs front seven is a glorified practice squad.
And Tom Brady and Randy Moss await in four days.
Oh, joy!
(Tip ‘o the hat to Justin Pawlowski.)
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In a question-and-answer article on SI.com, a reader asks Peter King how the Bucs can go from being in first place in the NFC South in the first week of December 2008 and be fighting for the first pick in the draft less than 11 months later with one of the more putrid teams Joe has ever laid eyes on.
WHY DO THE BUCS STINK? From Dale Schoelles of Dallas: “Lack of owner support, lack of talented players, coach and management being clueless, lack of fan support… How does Tampa fall so far so fast? What should a long time fan believe? How do teams like Tampa and Nashville go from playoff contenders to toilet?”
As the Buccaneers GM, Mark Dominik, told me the other day, they’re staying the course, and what’s happened shouldn’t be too surprising when you see they’ve gone from being the third-oldest team in the league in 2008 to the fifth-youngest in 2009. If I were a Bucs fan, I’d want to see the two kid quarterbacks, Josh Johnson and Josh Freeman, play about equal time in the final 10 weeks. That’s the most important thing that can come from the rest of the season — seeing what you have at quarterback entering 2010.
What a friggin’ miserable season this has become. Bucs fans have to look forward to watching a rookie and an inexperienced second-year quarterback struggle. Ugh!
Count former Bucs beat writer and current SI.com columnist Don Banks among the many impatient Bucs fans who want to see Josh Freeman crumble into a fetal position worse than Artie Lange on a heroine binge.
Banks too wants Freeman thrown to the wolves (for what reason, Joe isn’t sure), damned the results on the multi-million dollar investment.
I know the Bucs are hesitant to throw rookie first-round quarterback Josh Freeman into the deep end of the pool before he can swim, but why wait much longer? You’re going to lose this season with or without Freeman under center, so why not get his learning curve started? All you’re doing with Josh Johnson is delaying the timing of Freeman’s first few NFL quarterbacking lessons.
Once again, Joe will write, he has two words as to why it’s best to wait on Freeman.
“David Carr.”
Nothing — nothing! — will be gained by rushing Freeman. Nothing. Just because the Bucs made a mistake in trading up in the first round to get a project that made Raheem the Dream drool all over his pillow at night means the Bucs should compound the (eight-figure) mistake by pushing him too quickly.
What, like the Bucs will miss the playoffs this season without Freeman?
There’s hype for a game, and then there’s all-out BS.
No, this is not a post about ESPN.
The Bucs are playing the Patriots in historic Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday, and Wembley Stadium officials are hyping the event referring to the Bucs as a strong playoff contender.
The Buccaneers and Patriots have been two of the NFL’s most successful teams in recent years, combining to win four of the past seven Super Bowls. Both clubs are strong contenders for a return trip to the playoffs this season.
C’mon mates. The bloody game will be sold out. Do you really need to sell the Bucs as a shining example of championship-caliber American football?
That’s no way to get the game to catch on in Europe.
“The Football Moron” of BSPN has insight into the Patriots-Bucs game that you just cannot get anywhere else. For example, these two nuggets:
1) Injuries to the Patriots weak running backs will make the Patriots rush offense even weaker. You don’t say?
2) Bucs cornerbacks Ronde Barber and Aqib Talib are getting roasted by quarterbacks and as a result are the root cause of the rotten Bucs defense.
It warms Joe’s heart to know “The Football Moron” has spent many hours conducting rigorous research on the Bucs last two games to decipher that information.
Where can Joe get a gig like this for such good coin where he can just mail it in each week?
Earlier today Joe brought you the tidbit that Pat Kirwan wasn’t overly impressed with the Bucs unloading defensive end Gaines Adams.
Kirwan explains in more detail why he came to that conclusion including input he received from other NFL front office types.
It’s rare to see a player traded for a second-round draft pick 37 games after he was the fourth overall selection in the draft. Honestly, I stopped looking for a comparable transaction after going back 10 years.
I asked three personnel people and two former head coaches about this trade and they all seemed puzzled. After being drafted in 2007, Gaines Adams became a 16-game starter in 2008 and was credited with 38 tackles, 21 hits on the quarterback, 6.5 sacks and six passes defended.
I recognize he was off to a poor start this season, but when you consider his salary, his ’08 production, his age (26) and his 30 sacks in 28 college starts, Tampa Bay should not have traded him. Perhaps there were other factors that drove the deal, but a second-round pick just seems like a good deal for the Bears.
Why does Joe get the impression that somehow Rod Marinelli will find a way to get more out of Adams than Jim Bates could?
Of course Joe knew that cheap shot artist Dante Wesley would somehow blame someone else for his assault Sunday on Bucs return specialist Clifton Smith.
That is exactly what dirty back-up defensive back Wesley is claiming, reports David Scott of the Charlotte Observer.
“He never fair-(caught) the ball, so I was just trying to play,” said Wesley. “It’s not like I tried to deliberately hurt anybody. That’s not even me. It just so happened that I hit him.”
Wesley even had the nerve to suggest a number of Bucs players should have been suspended by NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell. Monday, Wesley was suspended for a game.
“How could I be the only one being ejected (just) because I tried to make a play?” he said. “They came toward me. I didn’t go in their face and try to say something aggressive toward them. When the other team came toward me like that, I felt like the ref could’ve looked at the situation a lot differently.”
Can you imagine? This is like sticking up a liquor store and popping the clerk and then blaming the poor guy for the cops barging in.
The Chicago media was formally introduced to Gaines Adams yesterday. And per an Associated Press report, Adams sold them a bill of goods claiming he was Mr. Work Ethic.
“Every day I went to work at Tampa, I gave it my all,” Adams said. “Obviously, things didn’t work out as planned.”
Why?
“I have no idea,” he said. “Obviously, the coaches wanted to go in a different route, and it’s something that I had to go with.”
LIAR!
This is laughable and Joe can point to two prominent feature stories that refute Adams’ claims of being such a hard worker.
First, Pat “Vacation Man” Yasinskis, of BSPN.com, basically wrote a whole spread on how Adams upped his commitment to the game this last offseason. Essentially, he reported Adams’ work ethic wasn’t where it needed to be in his first two seasons with the Bucs.
Second, Joe will point to a feature story by Rick Stroud, aka The Mad Twitterer, Bucs beat writer for the St. Pete Times. In a June feature about the Bucs new strength and conditioning coach, Stroud claimed “[Adams] boycotted the squat rack” in his first two seasons.
Both stories referenced Adams’ lack of strength.
As for Adams responding “I have no idea” to questions about why he was traded, Joe is impressed that Adams is seemingly oblivious to the multiple times he was called out by Raheem The Dream before and during the season.
Joe wonders whether Adams knows what country he lives in.
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Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson writes the weekly QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson has TV gigs in the Bay area and trains quarterbacks of all ages via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.
I haven’t been to too many Bucs games purely as a fan.
Usually, I have a professional reason to be there, but Sunday I enjoyed a beautiful afternoon with my son, plenty of empty seats around to spread out (just nine rows from the Bucs sideline).
No one yelled or stood up in front of me until Clifton Smith got knocked out on that punt return just before halftime. People all around us started cursing and screaming over that cheap shot, but not over the lack of deep shots (zero, by the way) the Bucs took with their passing game.
I would be starting to get a bit frustrated over the Bucs’ inability to pressure the secondary deep with any of their receivers, but the Carolina Panthers didn’t do anything differently than the Bucs.
Aqib Talib shut down Steve Smith, but Smith doesn’t have any touchdowns all season and Jake Delhomme didn’t take one shot at his 6-2 receiver Muhsin Muhammad, who was matched up much of the day on 5-10 Ronde Barber.
With the Panthers running over the Bucs on the line of scrimmage and with Delhomme’s four TDs and 10 interceptions on the year, I might be gun-shy to throw it up as well. At least it’s good to know there is another team that doesn’t try to exploit the whole field. And with the help of special teams and defensive touchdowns, the Bucs played within one score.
Unfortunately for the Bucs, Tom Brady, Randy Moss, Wes Welker and a few other Patriots just might use the whole field.
Former Bucs wide receiver Joey Galloway, who was signed in the offseason by the Patriots, won’t be sharing any fish and chips with his old friends on the Bucs this weekend in London
Galloway was cut, as Joe’s good friend, the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620 just e-mailed Joe.
It seems the Bucs are looking for wide receivers, as clearly they brought in receivers for a workout a week ago and signed Yamon Figurs as a result. Might the Bucs take another flier on Galloway?
Raheem The Dream was quoted saying Sammie Stroughter should model his career development after Joey Galloway because they are similar body types and Galloway has a great work ethic and was a great young kick/punt returner, as well.
Rough last few days for Galloway. First his Buckeyes go down to Purdue and now he’s out of a gig.
Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger claims the trade of Gaines Adams very well could be the first of many changes to the Bucs roster, and hinted Michael Clayton should be concerned.
Raheem the Dream hinted at it yesterday that there needs to be a thorough housecleaning on the Bucs roster.
Good of him to final notice what most Bucs fans figured out some time ago.
Good guy Backwards Hat, otherwise known as Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger — Hey Rick, Joe misses your weekly videos, man — suggests the trade of Gaines Adams Friday was the first salvo that major changes are at hand if performance lacks.
The move also sent out a silent warning among the players – perform or risk being the next one shipped out.
Are you watching Michael Clayton?
When a team is 6-0, then everything is rosy.
The Bucs, however, are not 6-0. For those who are still counting, they are 0-6 and fans are starting to fold their cards on the season.
This is the time, however, when the spotlight from management turns to the players. They want to see if the people they pegged to be the foundation of the team are the proper building blocks.
Do you understand Derrick Ward?
Joe can only think of a handful of players who have no worries about their mortgages. Aqib Talib, Donald Penn, Sammie Stroughter, Davin Joseph and Josh Freeman are absolutely safe. Geno Hayes, Quincy Black and Earnest Graham are likely safe.
The rest better worry. If they don’t, then they are gutless.
Sad thing is Raheem the Dream and possibly Mark Dominik came to this conclusion a bit late. There are scant hours left in the trade deadline (4 p.m. today).
Raheem the Dream has thrown his hands in the air in frustration over his sorry defensive line.
Buried in an article from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune was a quote from Raheem the Dream where he called out his defensive line, which frankly should have happened weeks ago.
(Joe’s beyond tired of the coddling. If a bunch of adults playing this horribly cannot handle their coach telling them they suck, then they need to get the hell out of the NFL.)
“That last drive was more of that Giants-type of physicality where you get beat up and you get overpowered,” Bucs coach Raheem Morris said, referring to the 24-0 Week 3 loss in which the Bucs surrendered 226 rushing yards.
“We either need to get better up front or we need to get better people,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way to stop the run when it counts, and that last drive was one of the times it counted.
Joe has resisted going after Raheem the Dream for several reasons but Joe can’t let this one slip by, as much as he likes Raheem the Dream.
Yo, Ra: You are the one who picked these slugs. You — or was it Jim Bates? — are the one who thought these guys could play a two-gap system. Or are you finally admitting this was the proverbial case of a round peg in a square hole that virtually every football person not connected to the Bucs from Pat Kirwan to Steve White has been saying since January?
Or are you confessing you thoroughly misjudged the “talents” of your defensive line?
After all, the head coach has the final say on who stays with the team when the final cuts are made in early September, right?
Or are you suggesting that someone in the halls of One Buc Palace is telling you who to pick for “your” team?
Joe has a lot of respect for former NFL coach and executive Pat Kirwan.
So far the things Kirwan has predicted for the Bucs since the change in coaches this January has been absolute dead-on accurate, to Joe’s chagrin. His Sirius NFL Radio show with Pat Ryan is must-listen radio for football fans.
So it raised an eyebrow with Joe when he read Kirwan take the Bucs to task for giving up defensive end Gaines Adams for a second round pick. Virtually everyone connected to the Bucs — including fans — have washed their hands on Adams labeling him a bust.
Kirwan is not among that group. He noted in an NFL.com chat Monday the Bucs made a mistake.
Jon chwecke, Great Falls MT
why would my bucs trade huge potential like gaines adams its so frustrating.
Pat Kirwan, NFL.com
Jon, I questioned it in my column today. Rarely can you find the fourth overall pick in an NFL draft traded in less than three years. Last year, Gaines Adams had incredible numbers for a second-year player. There could be financial reasons they did it, but I just sit here and scratch my head about taking a second-round pick for a guy that had 6.5 sacks, 21 hits on a QB, seven passes defended and 55 tackles last year, and is only 26 years old.
Hhhhmmm? Financial reasons? Joe smells an English kickball team.
"Bill Belichick is licking his chops," Raheem The Dream said.
Some quality ridiculousness at Raheem The Dream’s Monday news conference.
After telling the media, “Bill Belichick is licking his chops,” Raheem The Dream went on to explain that one way he prepared to face the New England Patriots in London on Sunday is by consulting with the Glazers on how to deal with jet lag.
“We got some ownership that’s really familiar with going over there a lot and traveling over there and how you deal with jeg lag and all those things. So we took a lot of advice from our ownership and took a lot of advice from people that go over there often,” Raheem The Dream said.
Joe finds this bizarre. The Bucs are playing at 1 p.m. EST on Sunday, their usual time, and they have a daytime flight on Friday to England.
Why would there be jet lag issues?
It’s not like the game is in Tokyo, or Hawaii for that matter. London is five hours ahead. Keep your regular schedule and play the damn game.
As for what the Glazers could offer up for advice, Joe can only imagine. Last Joe checked none of them are professional athletes, unless you consider hiding from the media a sport.
International relations can be a dicey thing. What is good for superior minds like Americans (football) doesn’t translate to lesser cultures (kickball hooligans of Europe).
The Chicago media was formally introduced to Gaines Adams yesterday. And per an Associated Press report, Adams sold them a bill of goods 
By JEFF CARLSON
