Will Gaines Adams Prove to Be the Best or the Bust?

Jeff Berlinicke

For Gaines Adams, 2009 is a make or break season.

The Bucs took Adams with their first pick in the 2007 draft and he’s been hailed as everything from a potential Warren Sapp to a bust. As the fourth pick overall in that draft, he has had to deal with high expectations but he hasn’t quite played up to expectations according to former Bucs coach Jon Gruden or many Bucs fans.

Over the past two seasons, Adams went from 49 tackles in 2007 to 40 in 2008, starting every game along the way. That’s about three tackles per game from a player who came out of Clemson with high marks as a pass rushing run stopper, just what the Bucs needed at the time.

Now that the Bucs have overhauled the defense, it is Adams turn to step up and make a difference. He’s had 12.5 sacks in his two years with the Bucs, but he has been slow to stop the run and his work ethic has been questioned.

Last season, especially down the stretch, Adams was slow to get to the ball. In Week 13 against New Orleans last season, the one that started the downhill snowball for the Bucs, Adams had only one assist on a tackle. Not the kind of numbers from a top draft pick.

Former defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin often was frustrated by Adams progression, but most NFL rookies need about two years to mature into a bona fide star. This is Adams’ third year and he’s desperately needed on a line that bears no resemblance to the run stopping, quarterback chasing lines from previous seasons.

With Chris Hovan, Roy Miller and Ryan Sims on the inside of the front line, the Bucs are at least solid. Stylez White is Adams’ counterpart over at left defensive end and even he isn’t a lock to start after struggling last year.

The Bucs are an attacking defense, but they can’t attack without pressure from the outside and Adams is the key. Coming from the right side, he’s expected to hammer the opposing quarterback on his blind side, which he hasn’t done in his two years with the Bucs.

Gruden stressed patience last season when Adams started to get grilled by the media. With the new regime taking over in Tampa Bay, patience might not be an option and it’s time for Adams to prove himself worthy of being the fourth overall pick in the 2007 draft. By now his poster should be hanging on the outside of Raymond James Stadium.

Unitas Vs. Montana? No Question

You know, sometimes being a sportswriter tends to make you cynical.

We laugh when we should be serious and we criticize when there’s really not any reason to.

The question arose recently on Bleacher Report asking us to choose between several players as to whom was the best. One of them was “Unitas or Montana?’’

I flippantly responded, “Unitas, because I am from Baltimore.’’

Stupid response. I should have said, “Unitas, because he’s by far the greatest quarterback of all-time and the clouds will cry if Peyton Manning ever breaks even one of his records. Also, Montana couldn’t carry Johnny U’s cleats.’’

No one could. Unitas’ cleats, those hightops, along with the crew cut, are only part of what made Unitas. The rest was heart, soul, and about a billion other intangibles that should put Montana or any of today’s pretty boys to shame.

I found one response to a previous comment I made regarding Unitas. Someone wrote, “Montana. He won four Super Bowls. Case closed.’’

Any fan of football knows that the NFL didn’t begin in January 1967, when the Super Bowl started. There have always been NFL champions dating back to 1933. No one can claim that Sammy Baugh, Sid Luckman, Bobby Layne, or Otto Graham weren’t great quarterbacks. They simply didn’t play during the Super Bowl era. Unitas was the best of them all during his career, and it’s unfortunate that his career peaked before the inaugural Super Bowl.

Unitas went to five NFL championships, Montana went to four. Unitas played when men were men and, only weeks before he quarterbacked the 1958 Baltimore Colts to the first overtime championship in NFL history in a game that put the NFL on the national radar, he had three broken ribs and a punctured lung that came from one of those damaged ribs.

Also that season, he broke his nose during touchdown drive against the Detroit Lions. Any pretty boy would have walked off the field and gone on injured reserve. Unitas stuck a pack of mud up his nose and kept going. Montana would have been out for the year.

Unitas invented the two-minute drill. He invented the slant, the audible and the short drop and quick release that Montana could only emulate.

Johnny U. played when quarterbacks were real men who called their own plays and didn’t throw the ball away when the Fearsome Foursome was charging straight ahead. He played in five championship games and Montana played in four. Unitas defined the quarterback position while Montana, also from western Pennsylvania, added to Unitas’ legacy.

Don’t consider Montana a hero because he won more Super Bowls. Football’s history goes a long way beyond 1967.

Barrett Ruud: 25 Mock Interview Questions

Tampa Bay Bucs linebacker Barrett Ruud is the new anchor to the Bucs defense. It shouldn’t be hard. He only has to replace a future Hall-of-Famer as the leader of the Bucs defense.

While most of the questions facing new Bucs coach Raheem Morris will surround the explosive quarterback situation, Ruud, who has always liked to stay in the background, will be focused on, as well. He’s the key to the new Bucs defense and a lot of eyes will be on him.

1. Your dad, Tom, played at Nebraska and, later, with the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. Your brother Bo also plays in the NFL. Did you feel like you had to live up to that kind of legacy?
2. You were the man in Nebraska all throughout high school. What was it like to go from Big Man on Campus to just another minion in the Nebraska system?
3. You have the Nebraska career record for tackles. What was it like being not only BMOC, but also a hero in a state that lives for Nebraska football?
4. Were you watching and sweating the 2005 NFL draft? With your numbers at Nebraska, did you expect to go in the first round?
5. How did it feel to come to Tampa Bay, which already had Shelton Quarles, Derrick Brooks, and Ryan Nece as starters? Did you think your time would come immediately?
6. As the heir apparent to one of those starting linebackers, how were you treated by the veterans?
7. What kinds of things did you learn from Derrick Brooks, who knew you would eventually replace him?
8. Shelton Quarles was pretty popular around the Tampa Bay area. Was there pressure in the locker room to replace someone who had garnered an awful lot of respect among his teammates?
9. Once you had the starting job with the Bucs, how did the pressure compare with playing at Nebraska? Were the expectations of the fans a lot different?
10. You were especially close to your mother, Jaime, who passed away from a heart attack in 2006. I know you are tied in tightly with the Tampa Bay community. What do you do to help out in the community in honor of her?
11. Did you mother ever see you play for the Bucs? Was she a regular at all of your games with the Huskers?
12. Did you feel vindicated when you moved into Quarles’s role and helped the Bucs to a 2007 playoff berth? Did you begin to take a leadership role?
13. Last year the team struggled, especially down the stretch, but you kept the numbers up. Did you feel yourself coming along as a team leader by the end of the season?
14. How do you lead? By being vocal or by example?
15. What did you learn from playing besides Derrick Brooks? What advice did he give?
16. How did you find out that Derrick Brooks was let loose and that you were going to be the anchor to the defense?
17. How is your relationship with new Bucs coach Raheem Morris?
18. How about the loss of defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin? What does that mean to the Bucs defense?
19. Have you had any talks with new Bucs defensive coordinator Jim Bates? Do you expect a change in philosophy?
20. Is this a rebuilding year, in your opinion, or was last year’s team that was one win from the playoffs ready to contend for the NFC South?
21. Are you excited about having your photo on the huge side to the stadium facing Dale Mabry Highway?
22. What should Bucs fans expect this season? Any predictions?
23. Who can be louder: Bucs fans or Huskers fans?
24. Seriously, back to last year. What was the feeling heading into the Oakland game that closed out the season and the Bucs’ playoff hopes?
25. If you had anything to say to Jon Gruden, what would it be?

Unproven Josh Freeman May Be in Tampa Bay Bucs’ Starting QB Hunt

New Bucs coach Raheem Morris is about to make the decision that will immediately define his NFL coaching future.

He probably didn’t realize that when he took the Bucs head coaching job that he’d be forced to choose between two quarterbacks with nominal NFL experience and a rookie who was never truly a winner at the college level but has Bucs executives comparing him to Johnny Unitas.

The rookie is Josh Freeman out of Kansas State, not necessarily known as a starting point to the NFL Pro Bowl. The best quarterback to ever come out of Kansas State was the immortal Lynn Dickey who started for some miserable Green Bay Packers teams in the 1970s.

No one doubts Freeman’s arm or size. He’s linebacker big and can throw the ball a mile, but, again, he was never a big winner in college and mostly put big numbers up against Kansas State’s usual schedule of non-conference patsies.

Freeman is an intelligent quarterback, one who should be able to pick up the Bucs new offense as it develops, and if he’s not the starting quarterback in two years, the 2009 draft will go down along with many others in Bucs infamy.

A lot of pundits thought he was a reach as the Bucs traded up two spots to get him at the No. 17 slots in the first round. Bucs brass, through, said he was their first quarterback on the draft board all along, head of even Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez.

There’s a lot to like. He can run, throw and, most importantly, think on the run. He played starter all four years at Kansas State, but starting him as a rookie could be dangerous for the Bucs.

Obviously the thinking in the NFL has changed. It used to be that a rookie sat for tow years, held a clipboard and wore a baseball cap, then finally got his chance.

After Baltimore’s Joe Flacco and Atlanta’s Matt Ryan had decent years as rookie starters in 2008, it’s a whole new ball game. Fans want rookies to start now, but Atlanta and Baltimore had different situations.

Baltimore lives and dies on defense. Flacco was expected to keep it safe and keep the ball on the ground. Same with Ryan. Neither were expected to put points on the board, only to keep the offense on the field. It worked because their offenses were equipped to score in multiple ways.

Freeman’s situation is different. His running attack of Derrick Ward and Earnest Graham is questionable so he will have to put the ball in the air. He has possession receivers in Michael Clayton and Kellen Winslow so he can throw underneath until he gets the experience, but starting him as a rookie will bring a lot of questions to Morris who has said he knows that this is a decision that could define the season.

And that decision comes after the Bucs purged fan favorites Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, Joey Galloway, Kato June and quarterback Jeff Garcia soon after Morris’ hiring.

If Freeman gets the job he might not be any less impressive than veterans Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich who are still fighting for the top job, but if Freeman is the future, Morris has to decide if he wants to throw Freeman into a fire immediately.

Bucs fans who might have a hard time filling Raymond James Stadium this season are clamoring for Freeman, but they also need to realize that drafting a quarterback in the first round is akin to taking two first round picks to years later. He’s simply not supposed to play.

Morris has a big decision to make and his NFL future may depend on it.

Last Second Shot: Was it just two years ago that the Bucs were raving about fifth-round pick Josh Johnson who hasn’t played since joining the team? What happens to him in this offense? It’s doubtful the Bucs will keep four quarterbacks even though they have in the past.

Johnson looked good during limited playing time in the pre-season and deserves better. The quicker the Bucs cut him the quicker he’ll be able to hook up with another team.

Bucs vs. Saints: Bucs, McCown Entering Bush League

Nov. 22, Bucs at Saints
Dec. 27, Saints at Bucs

By the time the Saints and Bucs finally get around to playing each other, the Bucs should at least have some idea of what the Saints will throw at them on defense.

For the Bucs, it could be a make-or-break game for Luke McCown, who has a chance to throw against a secondary that is shaky at best. If he can rise to the occasion, the Bucs might have a shot at sweeping the Saints, which are set on offense but are going through a severe change on the defensive side.

On one hand, new defensive coordinator Gregg Williams is one of the most respected in the game and will have had most of the season to recreate the new Saints defense.

On the other hand, the Saints will enter training camp with no clear idea on what it will be throwing at the Bucs, not to mention the rest of the NFL.

The Saints offense was not the problem during last year’s 8-8 tailspin that kept them out of the playoffs. Quarterback Drew Brees threw for more than 5,000 yards.

The Saints struggled to run the ball and lost Deuce McAllister to free agency, but coach Sean Payton has said that the 2009 season is where former first-round pick Reggie Bush finally makes an impact.

It’s the defense that is suspect and, by the time the two teams meet in New Orleans, the Bucs should finally have an idea about the direction Williams has taken.

For the first part of the season, Williams will be trying to mix and match. After last year’s debacle where the Saints lost two of their final three games at the buzzer, including a crushing 33-31 loss to division rival Carolina in the final game of the season, Payton made changes. Gone are former defensive coordinator Gary Gibbs, along with three quarters of the secondary.

The Saints went out and spent a lot of money on Darren Sharper and Jabari Greer to reinforce the secondary, and Paul Spicer was brought in from Jacksonville to solidify the line. Williams has a whole new crew to work with, anchored by Jonathan Vilma at middle linebacker.
 
So what does that mean for the Bucs?

They will have plenty of time to scout the Saints. The NFC South schedule is backloaded so the Bucs be able to check out the Saints early and often. The week before their first meeting on Nov. 22, the Saints will be at St. Louis, which shouldn’t be a challenge, but the early part of the Saints schedule is difficult.

After a home opener against the Detroit Lions, the Saints travel to Philadelphia and Buffalo, neither of which should be easy games on the road.

Brees can light up any secondary and he has the receivers to work with. Brees isn’t known for firing deep, but Lance Moore and Marquis Colston are two of the more underrated wideouts in the league. If Bush is fine after his knee injury from last year, he also offers Brees an option than could sting the Bucs defense that is lacking in the secondary.

Also, don’t discount the signing of free agent fullback Heath Evans from the Patriots. His blocking will give Brees extra time and he can take on Bucs defensive ends Gaines Adams and Stylez White.

On defense, quarterbacks Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich won’t be able to take advantage of the Saints incohesiveness. New Orleans brought in veterans and first-round draft pick Malcolm Jenkins should be starting at cornerback by the time the teams meet.

The defensive line is lacking and Earnest Graham and Derrick Ward should be able to move the ball, especially if the Bucs go to the power game against a weak middle.

The Saints have a defense in transition, so it’s hard to tell what it will look like by the time the two teams face off in the second half of the season, but the Bucs can win both games. In the topsy-turvy NFC South, it’s typical for one team to be out of contention by Thanksgiving and it’s likely that one of these teams will be out of contention.

Too close to call, but, if the Bucs are still playing for January, there’s no reason they can’t sweep the Saints.

LAST SECOND SHOT: Do you remember that, for years, the Bucs couldn’t win a game in temperatures lower than 47 degrees? They went from 1976 until 2002 before they did. This year, the Bucs won’t have to play in any game where the temperature might dip below 70 degrees.

They play the Bills, Redskins, and Eagles on the road, but that ends in Philadelphia on Oct. 11. After that, the road games are in Miami, Atlanta (dome), Carolina, Seattle (maybe some rain), and New Orleans (dome).

Bucs Offense: Five Issues and Answers

by Jeff Berlinicke

TAMPA—The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have never been a franchise that relied too much on offense. From Day ONe, way back in 1976, it’s been all about defense.

This year, though, that has to change. No longer do the Bucs have the savage defense that shut down opposing offenses and relied on a horizontal passing game and straight-ahead running to win. The perennial Pro Bowlers on defense are all gone now, except for fading veteran Ronde Barber. For the Bucs to make a run at the NFC South title, they will have to rely on at least a little offense.

The trouble with that is that there aren’t a lot of answers. Only a lot of questions. It’s been a long time since the Bucs have been so vulnerable on defense, so it’s up to new offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski to come up with some answers. New head coach Raheem Morris, at 33, is the youngest coach in the NFL and has little experience with coaching an offense.

Jagodzinski has experience with talented offenses. He coached Brett Favre in Green Bay for four years, then after two years in Atlanta, he got more of the Favre experience. At Boston College he coached Matt Ryan who moved on to single-handedly turn around the Atlanta Falcons as a rookie last season.

This year he doesn’t have Favre or Ryan. He has Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich. He also inherits a lot of question marks and, if he doesn’t find some answers, this could be a long season on Florida’s west coast.

 

1. What if McCown and Leftwich aren’t the answers?

That’s a good question. McCown is 1-6 as a starter in his career and didn’t complete a pass all of last season. He has had chances as a starter in Cleveland and was so impressive that the Browns traded to draft Brady Quinn in 2007. Leftwich has all the mobility of a doorstop and has physical problems to add.

Leftwich, after an unsteady experience in Jacksonville, had lost all confidence by the end of the 2007 season when he was replaced by untested David Garrard and unceremoniously dumped by the Jaguars.

So do the Bucs look to first-round pick Josh Freeman? Freeman has enough tools that the Bucs traded up two spots to pick him in the first round and he’s expected to be the quarterback of the future, but how about 2009? If the Bucs lose early and often—not a longshot—Freeman may get a shot. Someone has to play quarterback.

 

2. No matter who is throwing the ball, who is going to catch it?

Another good question. The Bucs have no burners and waited until the seventh-round of the draft to take Sammie Stroughter out of Oregon State. Stroughter will make a decent kick returner, especially if Morris lets Pro Bowl returner Clifton Smith concentrate on running back.

The top of the depth chart includes Michael Clayton and Antonio Bryant. Clayton is a possession receiver, who finally showed the promise he expressed during his rookie season towards the end of the 2008 season, but his work habits have been questioned and he fell into former coach Jon Gruden’s always no-vacancy doghouse and never escaped.

Clayton was on the cut line last year during summer training camp and barely held onto his roster spot. He’ll need to show more of a work ethic. Bryant looked good at times but also is questionable with is work ethic. He’s also been prone to trouble off the field. He was a model citizen last year with the Bucs who have never stepped away from taking chances on former problem children.

Morris and Jagodzinski have expressed an interest in going to a vertical passing game rather than the dump-and-run that Gruden used. Somebody has to get open or it will be more of the same.

 

3. Is Kellen Winslow any kind of an answer?

Winslow has talent, no doubt about it. He also has two bad knees and didn’t even bother to show up at Tampa Bay’s first OTA after saying he would. He’s high-maintenance and there has to be a reason the Cleveland Browns dumped him for a second-round pick while Winslow should be entering the prime of his career.

He’ll be a big part of the new offensive package, creating mismatches. He isn’t one to be double-teamed and that should free Clayton and Bryant, Winslow offers lots of options, but if either of his knees gives out, that leaves Jerramy Stevens as the only other viable tight end.

Another factor involving Winslow is that former Cleveland coach Romeo Crennel, one of the most docile men in sports, wasn’t crazy about Winslow and his blocking or his attitude. That Tampa Bay offense hasn’t had a stud tight end since Jimmie Giles who has been retired from the NFL for 20 years. In Tampa, tight ends block first and catch passes later. It will be interesting to see if Winslow and the Bucs make a good fit.

 

4.  OK, the Bucs offensive line is the best unit on the team. What is someone goes down?

The starting five of Donald Penn, Aaron Sears, Jeff Faine, Davin Joseph, and Jeremy Trueblood is the best the Bucs have had maybe in franchise history. But the only backup with any experience at all is Sean Mahan, a center who can back up Faine. The rest of the line depth is almost barren. Penn may be expendable, but his backup on the depth chart is untested Anthony Alabi and fifth-round pick Xavier Fulton who will get a lot of chances during pre-season to win the job.

It’s not a deep line and Joseph and Trueblood both play on the right side of the line. In the perfect world they would be on the left side, guarding McCown’s and Leftwich’s backs.

 

5. Who is going to be the Bucs workhorse running back? Will it be by committee? And is Cadillac ready to run?

First, let’s talk about Williams. He has suffered serious injuries to both knees since his shoes went to Canton after the third week of his rookie season. He says he is fine and ready to run. Morris has said that it would be a stretch to see Anderson make any kind of impact this year.

Anderson has heart, but he runs side to side on a small frame. In the perfect world, he’s a small version of Barry Sanders, but this isn’t the perfect world and Anderson’s running style combined with his size makes him an ACL waiting to happen.

Earnest Graham and Derrick Ward will get most of the carries with Ward starting at the top of the depth chart. Ward rushed for more than 1,000 yards for the New York Giants last season, but 1,000 yards doesn’t mean what it used to. He and Graham are pretty much the same back.

Both can catch the ball out of the backfield, both are slashers, but neither is a franchise running back and the Bucs seem content to rely on them to take the bulk of the carries while hoping Anderson can be ready by early September.

Don’t be surprised to see the Bucs checking the list of players who get cut halfway through the pre-season to pick up another running back. Smith may be an answer, but he’s untested.

LAST SECOND SHOT: Have you noticed that, for the second straight season, every Bucs home game starts at 1 p.m.? They were 9-7 last season and that should at least merit one nationally televised night game, shouldn’t it? The New Orleans Saints, also in the NFC South, won one less game last year and have three prime-time games, including two Monday Nighters.

 

Is Michael Vick a Good Option For The Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Tampa – There are 32 teams in the NFL trying to deal with one of the touchiest topics in sports history.

What to do about Michael Vick?

Everyone knows the Michael Vick story. He raised and paid for dog fighting, got busted, and spent more than a year at Leavenworth. Now he’s under house arrest and hoping for an owner to acknowledge that Vick is repentant, that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell believes his story or remorse, and that Vick can return to the NFL.

Thirty-two teams are considering Vick as a possibility. Already, according to sources at ESPN, four NFL coaches have already started pleading with their owners to sign Vick. Also, according to ESPN, all four owners said no.

Owners, the source said, were afraid of dealing with fan backlash and PETA in an atmosphere when ticket sales are falling all over the NFL.

That brings up Tampa Bay. The Bucs have never shied away from bringing in miscreants. Darrell Russell was signed for a brief time after being found guilty seven times for substance abuse. He also was accused in 2002 of videotaping the rape of a woman who had been drugged with GHB.

Current tight end Jeramy Stevens has been arrested so many times for heinous crimes that there’s hardly enough room to print them all.

The Bucs have become the new Oakland Raiders, many would say. SO, right or wrong, Bucs fans have to wonder whether or not Vick is a good fit.

There’s enough interest in Vick that, if Goodell reinstates him, he will be playing somewhere in the NFL in 2009. Tampa Bay would be near the top of the list. First, the Bucs have plenty of room under the salary cap and Vick, who declared bankruptcy last year, might be willing to play for scraps.

Second, he’d be a good fit. No one on his former team, the Atlanta Falcons, according to sources at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ever accused Vick of being anything but a strong leader and a good teammate. He wouldn’t be a new Derrick Brooks or Warrick Dunn, but he knows how to lead unlike the current stable of Bucs quarterbacks.

Third, Vick would bring an option to an offense that simply doesn’t have many options. Luke McCown, currently at the top of the Bucs quarterback depth chart, is a drop back passer with few receivers and a limited running game.

Vick would bring options just by lining up in the backfield behind McCown. The Bucs could go the wildcat offense and let Vick throw the ball a few times a game, he would be a viable alternate at running back, someone who could catch the ball out of the backfield, and he could also be a special teams returner, someone like Chicago’s Devin Hester.

Reports are that Vick worked out hard during his time away from the NFL and there are few players in the league with his natural ability. Vick would give the Bucs an all-purpose player unlike anyone in franchise history.

That is, if the Bucs can take the public relations hit from the fans who are already showing up as pewter-colored seats at late season games. The Bucs have rolled the dice before on miscreants and Stevens is still in town. There have been others and the Bucs have held their noses and gone ahead with them.

Vick isn’t a quarterback, but the options he could give to the Bucs are endless when compared to what they have now. Plus, he’s only 28 with limited wear and tear after two years away.

It’s a tough call but one that general manager Mark Dominick will have to consider along with 31 other NFL teams. Vick is going somewhere and he is talented with a lot to prove.

And, in the NFL, as the Bucs have proven, everyone deserves a second chance.

LAST SECOND SHOT: I ran into former Bucs defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin, now the defensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee at the Tampa Gaither High School football jamboree on Friday.

He’s doing fine and, although he didn’t want to get into details, he must have been looking at Tampa Hillsborough quarterback Taurien Austin who suffered a hairline fracture to his left leg on the fourth play of the meaningless game.

Kiffin spent most of the game signing autographs. He said he loved his time in Tampa but it was time to move on. He’ll be helping his son, Lane Kiffen who took on the head coaching spot with the Vols.

He had nothing but great words to say for new Bucs head coach Raheem Morris, the defensive back coach who helped perfect Kiffen’s Tampa Two defense.

Will Bucs Be Driving a Cadillac This Year?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have more than one problem to solve once things start getting serious in July.

They have problems on the defensive line. They have problems at the linebacker position with anyone who isn’t named Barrett Ruud. They have problems at the quarterback position and don’t have anyone who can outrun former receiver Joey Galloway in a 40-yard dash.

Then there’s running back. Earnest Graham and free agent Derrick Ward are expected to be the mail carriers this fall even though Graham is little more than a versatile back-up plan and Ward is a huge question mark who gained 1,025 yards last year with the New York Giants, a team that ran that ball extensively and where it is tough in a 16-game season to not have a 1,000-yard rusher.

That brings up Cadillac Williams, the former Bucs star who ran for 1,178 yards in his 2005 rookie season, had his cleats sent to Canton after his third game, then fell under the radar. He ran for 233 yards in 2009 and averaged only 3.7 rushing yards last season.

Williams fell off the chart and his cleats from his rookie season are somewhere in the Hall of Fame basement.

Rookie coach Raheem Morris said he isn’t giving up on Williams even though he is little more than a blip on the Bucs radar.

“I’m feeling pretty good about him,’’ Morris said after a recent OTA. “I hope he’s ready by training camp.’’

Williams didn’t participate in the three-day voluntary min-camps the Bucs held in early April, but Williams appeared and said that his surgically repaired left knee was in decent shape. Maybe not the kind of shape that a 1,000-yard rusher might be looking for, but Williams said he should be ready for July and that Ward and Graham better be on alert.

“I’m doing good and coming along,’’ Williams said. “I am doing straight-ahead running and things feel a lot different.’’

Williams was thought to be the future of the franchise after his breakout rookie season, but the injuries left him as little more than an afterthought prior to last season. Former coach Jon Gruden ignored Williams and gave the starting job to Graham who had languished on the Bucs bench for seven years except for special teams opportunities.

Morris has said that Williams will get every opportunity to be an every down back if his knee is holding up.

That’s the problem. The knee. Williams is a side-to-side runner and never heads for the sidelines. Unlike a Walter Payton or a Franco Harris, Williams goes full-boar, taking hits that other running backs would dodge by darting toward the sidelines. It cost him early and often in his brief NFL career, but he says he won’t change a thing.

“That’s how I play and it’s different, but I am ready to play if I get the chance,’’ Williams said at the OTA.

Williams also said that he is ready for training camp and Morris added that he only hopes that he has another weapon in his arsenal.

“We’re keeping our fingers crossed,’’ Morris said. “I’m feeling pretty good about him.’’

One less problem is never a bad thing.

The Tampa Bay Bucs Roll the Dice with New Quarterback

Jeff Berlinicke

TAMPA—No one denies that Josh Freeman has all the tools.

At 6’6″ and 248 pounds, the Bucs’ first-round draft choice has everything a team could want from a quarterback: size, speed, strength, and a good head on his shoulders. He impressed the Bucs so much that they traded up in the first round to nab him just before the Denver Broncos, who had the 16th pick—one before the Bucs.

Freeman has the tools. So did Tim Couch, Cade McNown, Joey Harrington, Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, Alex Smith, and a host of other former NFL quarterbacks who were taken in the first round and turned out to be busts. The Bucs selected Freeman with hopes that he would watch Luke McCown play for a year, maybe two, then lead the franchise for the next decade.

The Bucs have rolled the dice in the past, but this might be their riskiest pick since taking Bo Jackson, who never even suited up for the Bucs.  Freeman looks great in the locker room—on the field might be a different story.

Rookie Coach Raheem Morris said that Freeman would have been his first pick even if the Bucs held the No. 1 overall pick.

”We wanted him all along,’’ Morris said the day after taking Freeman with the team’s first pick. “He has the tools and we think he will be a great quarterback for a long time to come.’’

If the Bucs fast track Freeman, he’ll only have to leapfrog over Luke McCown or Byron Leftwich. McCown is No. 1 on the depth chart, but Leftwich said he plans to give McCown a run for the starting job. McCown has never been a starting quarterback on a permanent basis, and Leftwich couldn’t get the job done after being the No. 7 pick overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Neither is a long-term option, but still, Freeman can be considered a stretch.

Freeman started for three years at Kansas State in the, suddenly, pass-happy Big 12. He has the size and athleticism and can make every throw. He played basketball in high school, so his athleticism isn’t a question. He doesn’t go down easily, which already makes him an improvement over Brian Griese and Jeff Garcia. He can run and is durable.

However, he gained a reputation at Kansas State for being easily rattled and for making the long throws and not the short passes that are key to the Bucs playbook. He also was never a consistent winner for the Wildcats.

Most NFL scouts at the combine remarked that Freeman is a project, but the Bucs might not be able to afford to invest two or three years into a project. Mathis coached at Kansas State when Freeman was a freshman and is convinced that Freeman is the future. Kansas State was never a big winner while Freeman was in charge, so he comes to Tampa with some baggage.

“All I want to do is the best I can for this team that believed in me,’’ Freeman said during his introduction to Tampa. “All I can do is my best.’’

Morris said he plans to go with McCown and/or Leftwich this year, while Freeman carries a clipboard, meaning that the Bucs’ first-round pick won’t make any kind of impact whatsoever in 2009. That is, unless the Bucs stumble out of the gate and are playing out the string. Then, Morris said, Freeman might get some snaps.

Best case scenario: Freeman continues to mature, stays patient wearing a baseball cap, and learns the offense of new coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski.

Worse case: Bucs fans don’t want to think about it. They’ve seen it before.

Loveable Losers: How the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Made Me a Fan

I can’t say I was ever a die-hard, orange- or pewter-bleeding Bucs fan. I loved them in the ’70s, felt indifferent in the ’80s, and then rediscovered them in the ’90s.

But I know it will never be the same as it was when I was a little kid in 1976.

It was never a love-hate relationship as much as it was a case of “I guess I have to root for somebody since the Colts were stolen from Baltimore.”

When I was a kid, the Colts were my passion, as they were for most of Baltimore.

The franchise tumbled to an ignominious ending when an evil man moved the team during a snowstorm in the middle of the night. I haven’t watched a Colts game since.

As a beat writer for the Jacksonville Jaguars I begged out of only one assignment—when the Jags hosted the former Baltimore Colts.

I can’t look at the horseshoes. Peyton Manning couldn’t tie Johnny Unitas’ shoes.

But back to the Bucs.

My parents moved me to Tampa in 1976 when I was a very little kid. It was the Bucs’ inaugural season. That team that bordered on comical. Still, the Bucs were exciting if only because they were new in town and so was I.

Imagine Steve Spurrier, John McKay and me making Tampa our new home in the same year. My failures, at least, weren’t in the national news or on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson every night. My only failures were with elementary school girls.

I remember their punter, David Green, coming to talk to our third-grade assembly after the season and showing the Bucs’ NFL highlight film with the booming voice of John Facenda. Imagine a highlight film about the worst team ever to take an NFL field. It consisted mostly of good punts. No wonder Green was the speaker.

But you know something? That is my favorite team of all time, and it made me somewhat of a Bucs fan.

Unlike most Bucs fans I long for the days of the Popsicle uniforms (they really weren’t that ugly, were they?). The 1976 team would have lost to the 2008 Detroit Lions by at least a million, but they were fun to watch in a grotesque way.

Start with quarterback Steve Spurrier.

He’s a legend in Florida now, but back then he spent more time looking like a hash mark in old Tampa Stadium, taking beating after beating. The Bucs were outscored 412-125 that first year, and the poundings got worse as the year went on. They didn’t score their first points until the third game (three field goals) and didn’t register a touchdown until Game Four.

The Bucs were Curly to the NFL’s Moe.

Spurrier was mauled, and he didn’t have much help behind him. I remember Parnell Dickinson and former Notre Damer and Pittsburgh Steeler Terry Hanratty taking some snaps and eating a lot of dirt along the way.

I had to look it up to remember that Louis Carter led the team with 521 rushing yards and Morris Owens had a whopping 30 catches to lead the team. Carter and Owens, of course, went on to have long NFL careers with multiple Pro Bowls.

Maybe not.

The offense stank, and so did the defense, even though it was clear that Lee Roy Selmon, Batman Wood, and Mark Cotney were the seeds of something special.

The NFL frontloaded the expansion team’s schedule with patsies, trying to give the Bucs a chance to win before it was time to take on the big boys. But they didn’t win, and they ended the season with blowout losses to Pittsburgh, Oakland, and New England.

And you know something? It was still fun.

At least more fun than the 9-7 or 7-9 seasons that Bucs fans have gotten used to. The imperfection was perfect.

Meanwhile in Baltimore, the Colts were winning their third-straight division title. I missed the Colts but still wore my Bucs jammies to bed every night and waited in line at the mall for Dewey Selmon’s autograph.

There’s something about a lovable loser.

Ask old-time New Yorkers about the 1962 Mets.

Ask any Detroit Lions fan today.

I moved back to Baltimore and watched the Orioles lose the first 21 games of 1988, and that is still my favorite Orioles team of all time. (By the way, does anyone remember that the 1988 Orioles lost 108 games and still had three players elected as starters in the All-Star game?)

Maybe it’s because the Bucs were like most of us. They weren’t perfect. They tried their best and often it simply wasn’t good enough.

In life, you don’t win all the time. You don’t necessarily lose all the time either, but the Bucs I remember as a kid never quit, and there’s something admirable about being down and getting off the canvas to fight again. It’s easy to lose, but it isn’t so easy to lose and rally to fight again.

I was at the last game of the 1976 season, a 31-14 loss to New England. It was the first time I ever made it to a game at The Sombrero. They had been the butt of national jokes all week. Carson and his writers were having a field day, and if ever a team had no chance to win, this was the time.

Yes, the Bucs lost that game to finish at 0-14, but I remember the players running off the field after the game, and I remember Coach John McKay trying to conceal a smile. He had gotten the best out of a team that had no business being on an NFL field.

It was a team that might have gone .500 in the Big Ten that year.

But I don’t think about the losses as much as I remember the way they lost with dignity—and, yes, the dropped passes, the fumbles, the blown coverages, and McKay’s postgame press conferences.

But no one pointed fingers. The Bucs knew they were bad and took their lumps like men.

Bucs fans can have their Super Bowl champs, their NFC South champs, their Richard Williamson, Sam Wyche wilderness years. Give me the 1976 Bucs. They might have been losers on the field, but they won a lot of hearts that year, including mine.

(And remember, they will always be the Baltimore Colts. Give us back our uniforms).

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