Ask Bucs Nation

offensive and defensive line of course

Offensive line….loaded with players with plenty of games under their collective belts, but struggled to establish tempo and a physical presence in the run game. A little better in the passing game last year, and especially so at LT behind Donald Penn, who just signed a big extension. Should pretty much be the same unit, except ’09 CAR starter Keydrick Vincent could (and I think will) supplant imcumbent Jeremy Zuttah. Other 4 starters should hold their spots. Much more is expected of this unit as a whole after last year.

Defensive line…..Young, developing unit with McCoy as clear starter at undertackle and 2nd-year Roy Miller/rookie Brian Price battling for starting nose spot. Price has a higher upside and has been disruptive in practice, but Miller has been decent in live game action. Ultimately, I expect Price to win the position, with Miller to provide solid depth. With a (hopefully) better push up the middle, ends Stylez G. White and Kyle Moore could be poised to cash in on a QB with nowhere to go. Of course, this is all theoretical, as the tackles are going to have some growing pains and the D-line has really underwhelmed with its pressure so far this preseason.

Biggest strength right now? Hmm, I’m actually feeling pretty good about this team’s secondary right now. Aqib Talib is becoming a legit shutdown corner opposite Ronde, who should have one good year left in what’s a hybrid of the Tampa 2 that he thrived in. Nickel CB EJ Biggers, who missed almost all of last year with a shoulder injury, has really impressed so far in the preseason and appears to be the favorite to win the job. Tanard Jackson is a solid free safety and the winner of the Sean Jones/Sabby Piscitelli battle will certainly be the better for it.

Biggest weakness…..there are several, but I am concerned about the pass rush. This team tallied a blech 14 sacks last year and have done nothing to upgrade the DE spots. The rookies they are counting on to generate a push up the middle are just that……rookies. It could be some time before they get it together and become productive consistently.

Injuries…..WR Maurice Stovall (ankle), RB Derrick Ward (head), DT Brian Price (hamstring), CB Myron Lewis (hamstring), RB/KR Clifton Smith (gout in knee), reserve T Demar Dotson (ankle) have all been dealing with varying degrees of injury, although some are no longer on the injury report. Kellen Winslow’s knee is an ongoing injury that he’ll probably be fighting all year.

The jury is still out on Raheem Morris. The pre and mid-season turnovers of assistants last year made him and the front office look a bit scattershot and impulsive, but he took over the defense for the last 6 games of the year, and the team responded well. How well he can balance the duties of d-coordinator and head coach this year is a concern to some fans. I think another similar season to last year’s could be the coup de grace, especially with a substantially more manageable schedule this year.

I personally don’t, because I don’t think they’re really cutting corners here, but there’s no denying that they’ve been at the bottom of the payroll over the past years. Until about 2006-07 this is easily explained by cap problems – they couldn’t spend more money if they wanted to. But since then the cap problems have disappeared, but spending hasn’t really gone up. Some say this is because the Glazers are saddled with ManU’s debt, or because they’re simply cheap. Others, like me, think they’re trying to spend smart instead of spend big and there’s a bit of evidence they do spend when they need to: they signed Penn to a big contract extension, gave Faine and Winslow the biggest contracts at their positions and tried to sign Haynesworth last year. Of course, there are a lot of restricted free agents they could be extending right now but aren’t because of the labour situation – or so they say.
So: a large part of the fanbase is very unhappy with the lack of free agency investments and lack of extensions and blame the Glazers.

They like Watson as a blitzer and there’s some room for him to stick in the linebacking corps.

Preston Parker probably won’t make the roster, the numbers aren’t there. They’ll probably try to get him to the practice squad, though.

Seems that’s what most Bucs fans think, too.
I’d say they could be getting back to the playoffs in 2011 (if there’s football) with a bit of luck, and should be in by 2012 if the rebuilding plan works.

He’s been working very hard this offseason, he’s stepped up as a leader and he has all the physical abilities. He has to improve his accuracy and ability to read the field, but he’s worked hard at that. I’ll start to worry if he doesn’t make some big strides this season though.

As for #1 receiver, that would be rookie Mike Williams. He’s really stepped up and been very impressive in camp and in the preseason games so far.

is a hard question to answer. He’s had a half a season to show for it. This year will tell us a lot about the future of the young quarterback.

Our first preseason game was about 25,000 tickets shy of being sold out. They’ve lowered prices for some seats and introduced cheaper seats for kids. I think they’ve been a bit more aggressive in getting people to renew their season tickets, too.
They also introduced some fan-friendly events during the offseason, like an open night practice in the stadium.

As a back-up, a bit. The primary backup QB right now is Josh Johnson, who isn’t ready to fill in all that well for Freeman. Leftwich or McCown could do better than Johnson.

Played all of last year and enters this year fully healthy. He’s the starting running back.