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Hollywood got on the phone to Joe seeking crazed Bucs tailgate chefs for a new TV show.
So Joe is doing his part to make you famous. Read the details below. This is totally legitimate. There’s an open casting call this Sunday and Monday at Mugs Grill & Bar in Clearwater. …Be there. Joe also recommends you e-mail ahead, BackyardBlitzcasting@gmail.com, to possibly get a leg up on the competition.
Joe’s got a quick trivia question for you.
Who led the Bucs in solo tackles among defensive linemen in 2009?
[Insert Jeopardy music]. … OK. The answer is Tim Crowder. Yes, defensive end Tim Crowder, the former Broncos second-round pick who was snatched off the scrap heap last September after being cut by Denver.
Now Crowder, who just turned 25, impressed Joe with his motor and athleticism. The guy sure seemed like a solid backup end with good potential.
But in a feature penned by the St. Pete Times’ Stephen Holder today about the Bucs defensive line, Raheem The Dream’s published quotes omit Crowder and appear to label him a forgotten man.
“You look at it and you have Roy, you have Kyle Moore, you have Brian Price and you have Gerald McCoy,” Morris said. “I’m not saying those are the only guys who are going to play, but that’s a nice core group of guys who can grow together.”
With the Bucs reporting for training camp Friday, the hope is that these linemen are mature enough to push each other and shorten their learning curves at a position that requires patience. Morris said he saw evidence of that in Miller and Moore last season as rookies.
“Kyle Moore had some growth and development to do,” Morris said. “His background and his serious demeanor coming from a winning program (USC), all those things kicked in, and you saw it at the end of last year and going into this offseason. Hopefully it keeps going on that upward (trend) for these guys because, you know as well as I know, not too many D-linemen come in this league and right off the bat become immediate contributors.”
Joe’s glad everything “kicked in” for Moore, so says Raheem The Dream. Joe assumes this was after Moore got past his habit of snoozing through meetings.
So where was Crowder in that Holder story? Not a mention at all by Raheem The Dream or Holder.
Former Bucs defensive lineman Steve White, a JoeBucsFan.com analyst, months ago predicted Crowder could be on the outside looking in entering the 2010 season. So it goes for guys like him, White explained in a detailed analysis of Crowder’s season and immediate future.
You would think that after the strong season Crowder turned in as a backup and with the injury to starter Jimmy Wilkerson, that he would be a lock to be on the roster next season. But having been a backup for most of my career, I can tell you that he is probably still on the bubble more than most fans would think.
For one thing the Bucs drafted Kyle Moore last year out of USC and they are probably going to be pushing him to get playing time this season. For another, its been widely acknowledged that we have to upgrade our defensive line. That means you can expect the Bucs to bring in some more ends either via free agency or the draft. And one thing you never can know or control as a player is how one of those other guys will perform.
It sickens Joe that there’s so much ego in the coaching/GM ranks that a guy like Moore is going to be all but gift-wrapped a starting job because he was a fourth-round pick of the present regime, versus an “outsider” like Crowder, who’s just one year older and seems more deserving. And by no means is it just the Bucs who have that attitude when it comes to players.
Joe just hopes Raheem The Dream runs the best starter out at left end on opening day.
In April, Joe was excited when Mark Dominik drafted a pair of wide receivers, Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams, in the second and fourth round respectively.
What Joe has found interesting is it seems Williams is getting all the run and not Benn. This phenomenon continues as Vacation Man, i.e. Pat Yasinskas of BSPN.com, writing in a recent NFC South chat, also lauds Williams.
Corey (D.C.)
I keep reading positive things about WR Mike Williams. Based on pure ceiling potential, who would you take between him and Benn?Pat Yasinskas
Both have high ceilings. Really liked what I saw out of Williams in offseason workouts. Seems like he can be a big play guy. But I’ll give you a better answer after I see them in pads. I’ve seen a lot of WRs look great in offseason workouts and disappear when it really matters.
Now Joe is not about to dispute what Pat Yaz, and many others, have written about Williams. But Joe just finds it odd that Benn has all but been forgotten.
Many have written about how Williams “looks” in offseason workouts, but people easily forget that football is not played in shorts and T-shirts. This may be one reason why Williams stood out: offseason workouts in shorts are glorified flag football, thus, it’s easy for one to stand out showing flash as opposed to one being physical.
Joe knows the following and it greatly intrigued Joe: In speaking with an out-of-town football writer this past week, said writer had talked to an NFC South coach not with the Bucs (Joe won’t mention the coach or the team as to blow the coach’s cover), and said defensive coach told the writer Joe spoke with that his team expects Benn to have “an impact immediately.”
Just file that little nugget away for, say, November, to see if this particular coach was trying to con a writer or if he was being sincere.
If Benn really does have an immediate impact, it’s just another example of not jumping to conclusions watching NFL players practice in shorts.
Davin Joseph and the Bucs offensive line should be better this season.
Prior to last season, Joe was confident the Bucs had a damned good offensive line and the unit was on the verge of becoming a dominant force.
Instead, the line greatly regressed amid the nightmare of a 3-13 campaign.
Part of this was likely due to the fact the Bucs were trying to implement some zone blocking, which is difficult to learn and takes time. The Bucs struggled as a result.
But eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune points a finger at the firing of former Bucs offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski prior to the start of the 2009 season, a move Kaufman suggests the Bucs never recovered from.
Jagodzinski’s abrupt dismissal as offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers on the brink of the 2009 season opener left a young line dazed and confused. The results were predictably disastrous as the Bucs went 3-13, failing to establish an offensive identity under Greg Olson, hastily promoted from quarterbacks coach to replace Jagodzinski.
With Tampa Bay players due to report to training camp Friday, the offensive line has new focus.
“We’ve got our offense in now,” line coach Pete Mangurian said. “It’s our offense … it’s not this guy’s or that guy’s. It’s our offense, and we’ve spent a lot of time doing that. Greg and I have spent a whole year together. My job is to make happen what Greg Olson wants to happen.”
Joe cannot believe the Bucs offensive line won’t be better this season. As Joe has pointed out several times, he’s very much underwhelmed with the Bucs rushing attack and that cannot be pinned on the Bucs offensive line solely.
Like Joe wrote yesterday, if Donald Penn, Jeff Faine, Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood found themselves unemployed this morning, they’d be with another team by nightfall.
The national media assessments of the Bucs keep ranging from bad to worse.
Randy Cross, of NFL Radio and NationalFootballPost.com, thinks Tampa Bay is the worst team in the league. Adam Schein of FoxSports.com mocks the Bucs as the worst organization in the NFL. Mike Lombardi, of NFL.com, claims hope is a year away. And now John Clayton, “The Professor” of BSPN, flat out called the Bucs a bad team during an interview with The Fabulous Sports Babe on WHBO-AM on Friday.
Raheem is a “bright young coach with a bad young team,” Clayton said. “There are not enough players to speed up the process to getting better.”
Clayton went on to express his confidence in Raheem The Dream continuing the strides he made with the Bucs defense after the heinous Jim Bates Experiment, but Clayton doesn’t expect the Bucs to move the ball consistently. “Is there going to be enough offense?” he asked passionately and rhetorically.
Joe hates to pour negativity over the heads of Bucs fans, but the only thing Joe can disagree with Clayton on is Raheem The Dream being a “bright young coach.”
There’s just not enough evidence or wins yet to justify that assessment. Although Joe clings to hope that Raheem The Dream has it in him to turn things around.
There are quite a few Bucs that should be concerned about their immediate futures. Linebacker Barrett Ruud, for example, is in the last year of his contract amid rumblings from some circles that he’s not an elite middle linebacker.
Cadillac Williams may be under a little pressure, as the jury is still out if he can get through another season on his reconstructed knees.
So Joe found it a bit surprising that Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, in a list of NFL players under the most pressure, has included Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.
20. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, QB Josh Freeman
In Detroit, Matthew Stafford showed people enough that the fans are starting to believe they finally have an answer at quarterback. Same goes for Jets’ Mark Sanchez. As for Freeman, the third of three first-round picks in the 2009 draft, the Bucs did a good job to get Freeman 10 games of action last season, which he desperately needed. The problem now is that the Bucs haven’t done as good a job as the Lions and Jets of surrounding their young QB with offensive talent. That means that Freeman (and the Bucs fans) must be patient. Fortunately, Freeman is a kid with his head on straight and has a good family foundation to get him through tough times. But there’s no question, it’s going to be a test.
Joe is surprised by this. While Cole is absolutely correct in that Freeman doesn’t have much to work with (this year) as Stafford and Sanchez, in Joe’s eyes this doesn’t or shouldn’t put any pressure on Freeman.
It’s not like anyone is expecting a playoff run this year. So why should there be any pressure on Freeman? Greg Olson, yeah, he should be under pressure if Freeman doesn’t progress.
Freeman shouldn’t be under any pressure this season.
In what is sure to be a comment extraordinarily overblown by Bucs fans that cheered the departure of Antonio Bryant, Chris Mortensen, of BSPN, informed his Twitter followers last night that Bryant had knee problems this offseason.
When I mentioned watch for Bengals & TO earlier, one factor to watch is Antonio Bryant, whose knee was still a problem this off-season.
Now Joe doesn’t know Mortensen’s source, but surely Bryant’s knee history is an open book. One can refresh his memory on that by reading Bryant’s own chilling explanation of his knee problems.
Joe can say that Bryant participated fully during Bengals’ OTA sessions and received rave reviews for his veratility, per the Cincinnati Enquirer, whose archives don’t mention Bryant’s knee being a problem this offseason.
Kellen Winslow’s got permanent knee problems, as do many successful players.
Joe still would have kept Bryant in Tampa to provide stability and playmaking ability for the Bucs’ young quarterback.
Bucs fans concerned that manbeast Gerald McCoy might not sign with Tampa Bay before training camp as part of a sinister ownership plan to squeeze rookies seeking outrageous paydays need not worry one bit, so says “The Professor,” John Clayton, one of the senior NFL analysts at BSPN.
Speaking today on The Fabulous Sports Babe show on WHBO-AM, Clayton shrugged off any notion there would be a rash of draft picks unsigned come Aug. 1.
“The owners didn’t spend money in the offseason. All the money is sitting there to sign the draft choices,” Clayton said. This should be “no different” than any other season, he said.
Clayton spoke on a variety of topics. And Joe will bring you his take on Raheem The Dream tomorrow.
Joe was intrigued by Clayton’s confidence that NFL owners will approve an 18-game season later this summer. He was certain that owners have the votes to pass it. And he said he was quite sure players would embrace “swapping a $1,000 a week preseason game check for veterans for a game check,” which would represent “roughly a 14 percent pay increase.”
Joe would love an 18-game season, even though it surely would shorten careers and likely affect the quality of the product.
Joe laughs every time he hears fans say that Donald Penn will be in training camp or that Penn would never sit out part of the 2010 season.
Why, for some, is it so hard to believe Penn might have the stomach and desire to sit out?
First off, Penn should not be broke. He earned $2.8 million last year. And he couldn’t have eaten that much food.
Second, no fans, or even media, can say they know what makes Penn tick. Is he a gambler? Many people are. Today alone there will be tens of thousands combined at Derby Lane, the Hard Rock casino and other wagering outlets in the Bay area putting their money on the line.
Penn might look at Demar Dotson and Josh Freeman and like his odds of squeezing the Bucs for a better contract by waiting to report. Maybe even waiting as long as Week 3 of the season to sign his $3 million+ tender.
If he sits out that long, he spares his body the risks and wear of training camp and preseason, and he forfeits roughly $600,000 in pay (before taxes). The Bucs have a bye in Week 4, and perhaps Penn is giddy at the thought of earning $2.5 million for three months of work and a crack at unrestricted free agency.
Joe has no clue what Penn’s going to do. But Joe knows he wouldn’t bet a dime that Penn’s in training camp.
Joe loves Cadillac Williams to death. If half the players in the NFL — much less one of Williams’ teammates at running back (ahem) — had the same heart and desire as Caddy, the NFL would truly be a wonder to behold.
So this is not a knock on Williams. Rather, it’s a source of concern for Joe.
Caddy is 28, in some circles that’s middle-aged for running backs. He’s walking on two man-reconstructed knees. Not a good thing. And he’s also a workhorse.
Per Vacation Man, of Stalinist BSPN — these days, that’s a friggin’ compliment to that children’s network — writes how no running back in the NFC South was on the field more than Cadillac Williams and that the Bucs have him penciled in as their No. 1 back this season.
Tampa Bay’s Cadillac Williams was on the field for almost 60 percent of Tampa Bay’s offensive plays and was the only division running back to take part in more than 50 percent of his team’s offensive plays. Not bad for a guy who has endured two major knee injuries in his career.
Let’s be real here: The Bucs were one of the worst teams in the league at running the ball last year — the numbers don’t lie. A year removed, the Bucs plan on using a guy who every time he runs around the right corner Joe holds his breath, not because he might bust a long gain but because he might bust a knee (again), and that he’s not exactly a spring chicken. This concerns Joe a great deal.
Don’t pin this on the offensive line either. If Donald Penn, Jeff Faine, Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood were somehow cut, they’d be on another team before nightfall.
Next year in Joe’s eyes, Mark Dominik has two positions that need upgrading for the Bucs to jump to the next level: Defensive end and running back.
Joe can see Cadillac coming off the bench as an effective running back. Not as a No. 1 back. Not at his age with two rebuilt knees.
Josh Freeman is just one of a number of young players NFL.com's Michael Lombardi likes.
Last year was a nightmare for Bucs fans. A team for which fans had grown accustomed to enjoying annual playoff runs, if not a Super Bowl run, was suddenly reduced to a laughing stock within a few months.
Despite the fact it appears the Bucs have a few young players who may be elite players in the not so distant future, many Bucs fans were aghast at the way opposing offenses abused the heinous Jim Bates Experiment and opposing defenses rendered the Bucs offense impotent as Connie Chung.
On paper, with the Bucs depending on so much from so many rookies, it’s easy to see why fans are still outraged. Just be patient ,Bucs fans. Just one more year and it will turn around.
That’s the word from Michael Lombardi of NFL.com. He writes that the Bucs are one year away from busting things wide open.
The Buccaneers have some nice pieces in place, but it will take at least one more year of acquiring players to have a playoff roster.
This is exactly what the Bucs have been trying to tell fans all along: Stock up the roster with young, talented players, and when they mature fill in a few holes with free agents.
It happened with the Bucs before. And Lombardi believes in will happen again. Just not this season.
Those expecting Gerald McCoy to turn around the Bucs defense may be expecting too much too soon.
While Joe has high hopes for the Bucs defense and is generally excited about the two rookie defensive tackles Mark Dominik drafted last April, Joe knows, and is generally frightened, that the Bucs are relying too heavily on too many rookies.
Seems as though good guy and semi-regular (?) Joe reader Tom Jones of the St. Petersburg Times agrees with Joe. In a recent live chat on his paper’s site, Jones pointed out that the Bucs defense could take a step back while waiting for the rooks to season.
dspkabledspkable:
2 rookie DT’s mean some growing pains on the D-line. Will we suffer more in the run defense or QB pressures as these guys get their feet wet?Tom Jones:
Good analysis. You’re right. There will be some growing pains for sure. When you talk to football people, they always say (somewhat surprisingly) that it’s more difficult to adjust to playing run defense than pass defense. Pass defense is simple: lower your head and go after the quarterback. But run defense takes discipline to stay in your gaps, etc. So, I would say run defense could be an issue more than pass defense in the early going for the young DTs.
As Pat Kirwan of NFL.com and Sirius NFL Radio has pointed out, rookie defensive tackles struggle more often than they shine.
In short, if Gerald McCoy and/or Brian Price can rack up 30 tackles and three sacks, for a rookie, those are good numbers and will be a good season.
Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.
There is no question whom the starting quarterback of the Buccaneers is this year, unlike last. Going into this season, their quarterback has nine games of pro experience in what would be his rookie year had he decided to finish his college eligibility.
So, with only a single offseason in which the offensive coordinator is properly prepared for the upcoming season with new plays and formations in tow to officially run his offense, it begs the question, how much time does Josh Freeman need under center in the preseason to be ready to go with his new receivers?
The heavy investment in new receiving personnel, and the lack of production from the leftover crew of wideouts, should translate into a significant amount of preseason time together to get the kinks out and their groove on. But as surely as night follows day, now that Freeman is “The Man,” he will follow the well-worn script of all his starting QB predecessors: In Game 1 of preseason game he’ll play the first quarter (and possibly a series of the second, depending on how many offensive plays the team gets), the first half of Game #2, into the 3rd quarter in Game 3 and a brief appearance in the preseason finale.
There is almost no variance from this script when you are deemed the starting QB in the NFL.
If I’m not mistaken, even Joe Flacco two years ago and Matthew Stafford last year followed this system pretty closely even without a down of NFL experience. Mark Sanchez wasn’t far off, but he had the more experienced Kellen Clemens to fight off. And in football sometimes you have to give the illusion of competition to the veteran, even though everyone knows the outcome of the QB competition.
I expect Sam Bradford’s preseason playing time in St. Louis to look exactly the same as Freeman’s, even though he is a rookie who barely even played football last year.
There is always the talk about building the quarterback’s “chemistry” with the receivers and there is some truth to the concept of familiarity helping somewhere along the line.
There is a great description of just that in the current edition of ESPN The Magazine. The coverboy, Aaron Rogers, is one of my favorite QBs (he needs to quit trying to make so many big plays, protect the ball and live to play another down), and he explains a big play to Donald Driver last year that was all non-verbal communication and each player just “knowing” what the other would do and how it worked out perfectly.
These things are worked on over time, but Brett Favre really blew the whole “chemistry” concept out of the water after he missed training camp with a brand new team and then made unbelievable play after play throughout the season, while leading them to the NFC Championship game with barely had a handful of practices with the Vikings under his belt.
Yes, I understand he was almost a 20-year vet, but there was no “chemistry” built at all.
Just don’t go into this preseason expecting the Buccaneers’ coaching staff to veer from the format that everyone has used for so many years. Remember, the NFL is a copycat league. (Heck, with the Vikings’ success, teams might start bringing in their QBs after training camp and giving that a shot).
By the way, bringing in Jeff Garcia to play back-up to Freeman would be a more red-flagged mistake than making Byron Leftwich the starter last season, and we know how well that experiment went. Not only is he a year removed from the NFL at 40+ years old, but Garcia breaks down more well-designed plays by scrambling before they even have a chance to form that he looks like a Jack Russell Terrier chasing a field full of rabbits.
“Jiminy Christmas” that sends offensive coordinators out of the league sometimes.
How bout Team Glazer checking in as owners of two sports teams valued over $1 billion, with both placed in the top 12 on Forbes‘ latest list of the most valuable franchises in sports.
Manchester United sits ranked No. 1 at $1.84 billion, and the Bucs are No. 12, valued at a cool $1.09 billion.
And Team Glazer manages the Bucs so efficiently, per Forbes the team is the eighth most valuable club in the NFL!
Unbelievable businessmen these Glazers are, having bought the Buccaneers for less than $200 million about 15 years ago!
Bucs fans can rest easily remembering Joel Glazer saying “money will never be an issue” when re-building the Buccaneers into a lasting contender.
Just about any Bucs fan who doesn’t use a white cane knows Bucs blocking icon Michael Clayton has had trouble hauling passes in.
Joe’s not going to get into why, but Joe does have some numbers that will alarm Bucs fans.
Per FootballOutsiders.com, a thoughtful site that sometimes goes a bit too far trying to mirror baseball with mindless, empty convoluted stats that give 30-year old virgins a reason to beat their, um, chests, has a list of NFL receivers who have the most trouble hanging on to the football.
Clayton’s name is found second on the list.
Joe’s not even going to try to find out what the obscure statistics are that Bill Barnwell of FootballOutsiders.com uses because it bores Joe to tears (Joe’s into football strategy, not algebra), but of the 45 times last year that Bucs quarterbacks threw the ball to Clayton, he caught only 16 of those passes.
In short, Clayton only caught slightly more than a third of the passes thrown his way in 2009. That suggests either Clayton received blanket coverage from opposing defenses or he had terrible quarterbacks throwing him the ball, or that he simply couldn’t catch.
More likely, it’s a combination of all three.
This seems to tell Joe that maybe Josh Freeman shouldn’t target Clayton unless he is totally wide open.
That is, if Clayton is on the Bucs roster come the second Sunday in September.
A very giddy and incredibly playful Brian Price checked in today with the infamous King David Show on WQYK-AM, hosted by Toby David and former Bucs quarterback Shawn King.
Price was upbeat from the start after King introduced him as “Tampa’s newest millionaire.”
It’s “a dream come true but a job undone,” Price said. “I got paid for what I did in college.”
Price dropped the typical playerspeak but also explained that he’s already in Tampa training specifically to acclimate himself to the humidity.
Joe’s lived in Los Angeles, Price’s hometown, and Joe vividly remembers people literally going outside during a rainstorm to drink beer and play because it was such a rare event. There’s no doubt that Price will have a huge adjustment from his days in the dry climates of the Pac-10.
Beyond that, Price said he’s thinking of buying an all black new Camaro.
Joe’s just ecstatic to have him coming to camp. The odds are pretty strong that he or Gerald McCoy will turn out to be a helluva player.
Cobbling together a list of 13 guys with a good shot of making their first Pro Bowl appearance after the 2010 season, John Clayton, “The Professor,” of BSPN.com, doesn’t have one Bucs player in the mix.
Not even Aqib Talib or Tanard Jackson, who are Ronde Barber’s “can’t miss” stars.
Clayton preferred the Bengals cornerbacks Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall as his favorite emerging stars in the secondary.
This is the best cornerback combo that doesn’t get enough recognition leaguewide. Under coordinator Mike Zimmer, the Bengals have turned their defense around over the past two seasons; the shutdown abilities of Joseph and Hall have been key to that improvement. Joseph ended up being a second alternate last season while Hall was a fourth alternate. Sure, it’s hard to crack the AFC cornerback Pro Bowl list with the trio of Nnamdi Asomugha, Darrelle Revis and Champ Bailey at the top, but Joseph and Hall are knocking on the door.
Joe thinks Talib is knocking on that same door and could easily be in the same class as all the top corners this season.
Speaking of the Bengals, looking ahead at the Bucs schedule Joe is most intrigued by the Bucs-Bengals game in Week 5, which comes right after an early bye week. The Bucs likely will be sitting at 1-2 or 0-3 with their season all but on the line against a playoff team on the road.
The young Bucs receivers, with their feet already wet, will get an extreme test from those corners, and Antonio Bryant will be lined up on the other side of the ball.
Ahh, Joe can’t wait for some football.
Seems as though former Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia is still out of a job. Joe has a suggestion for Garcia: Call Mark Dominik.
Say what you will about the Bucs this year, whether you are Randy Cross and see a trainwreck, or if you are commenter JimBuc and see Raheem the Dream raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy amid a shower of confetti on an early February night in Dallas, the prospects of the Bucs doing anything offensively if quarterback Josh Freeman goes down is no less than frightening.
Career backup Josh Johnson proved to be true to the moniker bestowed upon him by Raheem the Dream in limited starts last year. Beyond that are two signal-callers who have yet to take an NFL snap.
If there’s a team out there crying for a reliable backup quarterback, it is the Bucs. Jeff Garcia can be that man.
Besides, with Rachel Watson now tormenting fathers in the general Land O’ Lakes area, who better to brighten the sidelines than Carmella?
Bucs fans seeking comfort might want to stay away from the Internet for the next year seven weeks. All the preseason prognostications could be quite hard on Tampa Bay.
Randy Cross, the former All-Pro turned NFL Radio talking head, took the down-on-the-Bucs theme to the limit in his latest projections for NationalFootballPost.com.
Cross gives the Bucs the No. 1 pick in the 2011 draft.
2011 NFL Draft Top 5
1) Tampa Bay Lowest payroll in NFL, youth and inexperience give the Bucs the top spot.
2) St. Louis When the Rams settle their ownership issue and acquire a lot more talent, they’ll stop drafting here.
3) Buffalo Building “Lines” and finding a QB doesn’t happen fast these days.
4) Kansas City This is K.C.’s last year in Top 10 of the draft for awhile
Joe’s not seeing the Bucs as the worst team in the NFL. If so, and the Bucs are stuck with two or three wins, Joe is quite sure that would bring a swift end to the Raheem The Dream era.
While on face value it appears unlikely that first round draft pick Gerald McCoy would sit out training camp, it’s a sure bet that fellow rookie defensive tackle Brian Price will be at One Buc Palace a week from Saturday when training camp begins.
That’s because the Bucs signed Price this afternoon.
Price, a second round pick of the Bucs, became the NFL’s highest drafted player to date to sign with his respective NFL team.
Price and the Bucs agreed to a four-year contact. Terms were not disclosed.
“I’m glad my agent got the deal done, so now I can concentrate on having a great Training Camp. I’m looking forward to contributing to the Buccaneers’ dominant defensive tradition,” Price said in a statement released by the Bucs.
Since Price is the highest rookie to sign thus far from the 2010 draft class, it sort of puts a dent into the popular (in some circles) “Glazers are cheap” cry.
It was important that Price got into camp on time. He was hobbled in preseason workouts due to an injury and missed most of the Bucs OTAs due to Price’s school requirements at UCLA.
Good guy Stephen Holder, of the St. Pete Times, penned a look at the key battles for starting positions on the Bucs this preseason.
Holder names left guard, left defensive end, strong safety, receiver and defensive tackle as the hotspots.
Still, as we approach training camp, Tampa Bay still has a fair amount of competition for jobs. There are at least six starting spots that, near as we can tell, are either wide open or where the incumbent will likely have to fight off a challenge from others.
Joe is quite hysterical reading this paragraph from Holder. Just six weeks ago, his fellow beat writer, The Mad Twitterer, said all but one starting job on the Bucs was up for grabs. Stroud even went so far to say that hogwash fact is what will make training camp so exciting.
Of course, Holder is like any other intelligent Bucs fan. He knows there are several starting jobs in stone on the Bucs, including more than half the defense.
One position Holder passed on is running back.
Joe firmly believes Derrick Ward will be given a chance to redeem Mark Dominik win the starting running back job. He’s not being paid handsomely to hold his helmet.
It’s highly unlikely Cadillac Willams (28) or Ward (almost 30) will be Buccaneers when the team hopefully reaches its “lasting contender” phase. So why wouldn’t the team simply play the hot guy on 2010?
