Grumblings from players falling on deaf ear's

There has been much made about the recent grumblings by starting qb Jeff Garcia about a long term contract extension, as well as Earnest Graham being a no show during off season workouts and OTA's.

When you look at the situation with Garcia sure he would like to get all he can, while he can. The problem is his age an inability to stay healthy for a sixteen game season, not to mention as some local media types would have you believe the team could use the franchise tag on him following the 2008 season.

What GM in there right mind would be willing to give a forty something qb the top five at his position and not live to regret it? No GM is the answer, not even Al Davis would make such a boneheaded move.

Further more his numbers just don't support the notion of dueling out 10 million for his services, which is what the team would have to set aside if they decided to use the tag.

While he is a fierce competitor, field general and has great command of the huddle nothing supports the outlandish dollar figure tied with using the tag for a serviceable quarterback at best in this stage of his career.

While in the past Graham has stayed away from off season workouts & OTA's, this smells a little different, with the hiring of a super agent, Graham is looking to cash in now instead of later, but at 29 there wont be many suiters for his services on the open market after the season.

A deal he negotiated himself two season ago was fair at the time, but he has out worked it by league standards. Now one season doesnt make a back, we have seen first hand here in Tampa of that with Carnell Williams after a decent 2005 season things went down hill quickly.

The team does have insurance against a hold ala former Buc Errict Rhett. In Warrick Dunn, who also stepped in, in 1997 when Rhett decided he wanted more money.

Daily Roundup

The daily roundup takes you around the web, rather then you surfing for news on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers yourself.

According to the the St. Pete lies both Brian Kelly & Alex Smith might return to play against the Arizona Cardinals in week 9.

Scott Reynolds of PR.com states we as fans cant blame Jon Gruden and his play calling for the loss to the Jaguars last week. Well I for one will continue to blame the head coach every time this team puts another one in the loss column.

In an attempt to be funny Stephen Holder of the local lies club tries a little to hard, when he writes in his blog about the kickoff mystery solved. Maybe if the local hacks in Tampa/St. Pete would do more research they wouldn't be trying out for Comedy Central these days.

Sporting News, has released it's latest mock draft, you wont believe who the Bucs will be drafting according to the so called experts, well ok some might have a clue. So with out further pausing to fill space. With the sixteenth selection in the 2008 NFL draft the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select QB Andre Woondson of Kentucky.

The Tampa tribune runs a play off of WWE Smackdown with their own version called SMACKDWON, well this week they are asking fans to choose the biggest surprise at the midway point of the season. Well I guess they are really laying the smackdown on all the candy ass readers.

So are fans right? when they call Gaines Adams a bust. While I don't believe he is living up to the hype as the best pure pass rusher from the draft, He is coming along at a snails pace. Adams has lots to learn.

Mr. Doesn't have a clue offers up his mid season report card on the Bucs.

Counting Kiffin

A combination of skills and statistic excellence are pre-requisites for the Hall of Fame; being better than most at their position before their career began and those who were their direct peers. Those are for players, but what about coaches?

More specifically what about specialty coaches? Guys who were never head coaches? The usual names associated with Buccaneers and potential representatives in the Hall of Fame include Warren Sapp, Ronde Barber, Derrick Brooks, Simeon Rice, and John Lynch, but what about Monte Kiffin? Entering his 12^th season as Bucs’ defensive coordinator last year was the first they didn’t finish top 10 under his supervision.

He’s outlasted a head coach and countless offensive coordinators, seen numerous members of his staff head on to bigger and better positions, and out maneuvered two of the best offenses around in two of the three biggest games in recent Buccaneer history; Super Bowl 37 and the 1999 NFC Championship game.

But he’s never been ‘the guy’, does that restrict him? It shouldn’t, not when you consider his fingerprints aren’t embedded with the help of only elite talent, sure having five of the best at their positions at one time helps, but ask the Cleveland Browns if every defensive first round pick works out, then ask Larry Coyer how to make first round defensive talent work.

He’s credited with the Tampa Two, even if the Bucs’ don’t use the exact formula 75% of the time, and this year he’s expanding his mold, reinventing what you expect from the defense of the Bucs. Talk of the 3-4 being mixed in, or a ‘nickel blitz’ with three down lineman, three linebackers, and five defensive backs, youthful linebacker Quincy Black has been doing a lot of blitzing, and while some will blame Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen for the defense’s collapse, and that’s the correct way of doing so, unlike time those two have a face.

They also have eyes, ears, and a mind apiece that they don’t share, despite what some say, the ultimate example of these two caring what Kiffin says? This past April, facing the 64^th pick in the draft, with another sitting four picks away the team had a choice to make; take Sabitino Piscitelli and Quincy Black, or take their top ranked player and hope that Piscitelli dropped to the third round and Black to the fourth. They went the first route, and it seemingly couldn’t be working out better with both players turning the heads of onlookers and coaches alike.

Sapp, Brooks, Lynch; Adams, Black, Piscitelli, don’t look now, but Monte Kiffin has a young core at each level and some free agent tools to play with, knowing Monte he’s going to carve out a masterpiece, the question becomes will a blacksmith be doing the same with his bust in a few years?

Haye, What?

It’s an annual egg hunt amongst all sports fans, the enchantment of a ‘sleeper’ player. Front offices across the spread had better damn well get their first round picks correct, that’s a requirement, not an expectation, it’s what personnel directors do in the second day and after the draft and free agency is in the process of roster fillers when they earn their praise and paycheck.

Since taking over as Buccaneers’ general manager Bruce Allen has made a name of himself for finding sleeper players, most notably the ever underrated Chris Hovan. It’s a given that every off-season Bucs’ fans will make a comment that equates a current project, Ryan Sims for example, as a ‘Hovan’ like signing. Frankly these signings are overrated, Sims, like Hovan, like Phillip Buchanon, was a first round pick. Players chosen in the first round have tools that stick out, whether the coaching staff can groom those tools, and if the players can mentally adapt to modern day gladiator like abuse is the difference between a bust and a boom.

Shelton Quarles is the textbook example of what great personnel groupings do; find a player who fits your system and fits it well. Quarles was signed after being cut by the Miami Dolphins and spending some time up north in the Canadian Football League, he’d hang around on the Buccaneers until Nate Webster bolted in free agency and the team retooled with Q at mike. He played the spot well alongside Derrick Brooks and numerous strong side linebackers that would come into the system.

In 2005 the Bucs would take a young middle linebacker from Nebraska, Barrett Ruud, NFL genealogy in tact. Quarles would hold the youngster off until 2006 when he’d go down with an assortment of injuries, the rest we know, Quarles has been relieved of his playing duties, and Ruud is the starter at MLB, but that’s not the point here: the Bucs took a chance on a kid from Vanderbilt and he worked out magnificently for nearly a decade.

The pre-season is less than 14 days from starting, reading the training camp reports and coming across the first time under tackle gave me great enthusiasm: Jovan Haye. An undrafted kid from Vanderbilt previously released by the Carolina Panthers Haye took in nine games for the Bucs last season, 11 tackles and six assists later he became a blip on the radar for some Bucs fans looking towards next season.

Born in Jamiaca Haye’s family moved to the United States when he was six, he didn’t play football until his junior year in high school and even then he was an offensive guard for his two years, as well as a shot putter and a basketball player. Haye isn’t your run of the mill ‘jock’, unlike some Buccaneer players who I won’t name, getting into Vanderbilt is quite an accomplishment, as is a 4.5 GPA in high school.

He’d head to Vanderbilt, switch to defensive end, and after redshirting a season would start 11 of 12 games the next year. What he did in college statistically isn’t important in the least, he showed the ability to play against better competition, and he brought his best every week. Scouting reports noted he was a ‘relentless pass rusher’ with a ‘great burst’ but was ‘moody’ and ‘handled adversity differently’, seemingly not a good mix for the world of drill commander defensive coordinators and defensive line coaches.

Jethro Franklin was hardly that, and perhaps that’s one of the reasons Haye excelled, but I’m willing to bet it had more to do with Haye’s determination and drive, and I’m also willing to bet Larry Coyer is a better coach. People warn that small sample size will be the downfall of Haye, but I’d point to Dewayne White’s half season sample last season, and notably when he gave all-ever left tackle Walter Jones fits for 60 minutes, and then took his ball and headed to Detroit for more money than his performance demanded.

Haye has the body of an end, the speed to boot (4.7 in the 40, faster in-game) he’s also got the body of work that shows he’s no enemy of changing for his team’s own good, that shows maturity, he’s coachable and has talent, otherwise an offensive guard turned defensive end wouldn’t have succeed so quickly, now he’s back to step one, only on the opposite side.

He knows exactly how to block a defensive tackle from getting to his quarterback; Haye is a smart man, don’t be surprised when he uses that knowledge to make opposing passers’ days hell come the season, and don’t be surprised when he becomes the next ‘from nowhere’ story, collectively placing a stamp on Bruce Allen’s résumé, filed under ‘sleeper finder’.

Mr. Who

Matt Lehr - OG / C

You were expecting Cato June or B.J. Askew I'm sure, but instead I went with Lehr, who as suspected isn't being thought much of. What he brings is experience, versatility, and the juice.
He would've also brought insight into the Falcons playbook, but as we know Jim Mora Jr. is no longer the coach, however this will give the Bucs some insight into the Seahawks' defensive backs coach and his gameplan for his secondary, this of course probably won't be too much of a help considering the Bucs have seen plenty of Mora's work, and it's not too pretty.

The Runners Up

Number Two: Jerramy Stevens - Tight End

Yes the drinker, party animal, condom using Stevens is only third on the list; personally I feel he's going to make a bigger impact then expected. Sure he's gotten grief for his Super Bowl drops, but Joey Galloway lead the team in drops last season, I don't see anyone shipping the Rocket out of town. Stevens comes from a high power offense and just has the look of a TE who can burn the seam.




Number Three: Ryan Sims - Defensive Tackle

A former top five pick, some actually thought Sims was the more talented UNC lineman, his teammate? Julius Peppers. He never had that 'Batman' to go with his 'Robin' in Kansas City, in Tampa he'll have Simeon Rice, Gaines Adams, and Chris Hovan amongst others, four first rounders on one line, where have we heard of that before?

Number Four

Sammy Davis Jr. - Cornerback - Texas A&M

Another rejuvenation project for Monte Kiffin and crew, the past few years hadn't been stocked full of first round defensive picks, but we're making it up to him by signing former first round 'busts', it worked for Phillip Buchanon, and hopefully another player on this list, but let's address Davis.

Drafted by the Chargers he was traded to the 49ers for another first round bust from that 2004 draft, Rashuan Woods, in his rookie year he grabbed two of his three career interceptions, and was often the target of opposing offenses.

The talent is there, but mentally he's always been unable to adjust, hopefully with two of the best defensive coaches around Sammy Davis Jr. can fit into the Bucs rhythm and give opposing QBs the blues.