Tidbits From Bucs Camp And The Favre Fallout

I finally have gathered up enough willpower to write an article after the debacle that was the Brett Favre situation.  I have a few things to say about this first before I give you some links and some commentary.  I think we put ourselves in a bad spot in the last week.  If Allen and Gruden (which anyone that reads this site, knows that I love both these men) really wanted to get Favre, we should have gone out and trumped whta the Jets were offering.  I think they saw him as an upgrade, and so do I.  If the end result is a Super Bowl appearance and the subsequent loss of a first round draft pick to obtain said Super Bowl appearance, isn’t that worth it.  Now, Allen has to deal with the little weasels in the Tampa media who despise him and will continually confront him about our attempts to land Favre.  Just a bad situation all together in my opinion.  Now to some actual foosball talk.

• Editorial from Tribune writer Martin Fennelly on the Favre fallout.  I do think that the feelings of Jeff Garcia are being brandied about a bit too much.  This is F’n football.  This isn’t the Y soccer league, this isn’t Rec Center bball, this is a grown mans game.  Shit happens.  Garcia isn’t the best QB in the league, he knows that (I would hope).  If a team has a chance to improve themselves, they should look into, THE END.

• My man over at BucsStats.com has been saying all camp how good Ryan Sims has looked.  Buccaneers.com put out a little piece on Sims’ recent runs with the first team in Jovan Haye’s absence.  My 53 man roster prediction (which did not have Sims making the final 53, might already have a blunder).

"“We like Sims a lot,” Gruden said. “He’s a load in there. He can play nose or under tackle. He is a big, physical presence. He’s a great pocket-pusher. It’s hard to step up in there when he’s generating that type of push. I’m really impressed with him."

"“I’m sure Jeff wasn’t real pleased with the reports and things of that nature,” Gruden said. “At the same time, I feel at the end of the day hopefully he will understand. He knows we have a lot of respect for him and hopefully we can get him re-signed to a long-team deal because he’s a hell of a quarterback.”"

"“He had a good workout,” Gruden said. “He was impressive and he took a physical. When you’re a two-back football team, the fullback is a critical member of the unit. Lorenzo Neal is a Pro Bowl fullback that we want to look at.”"

"After conducting 10,000 game simulations, AccuScore predicted Tampa Bay would win three or four more games this season with Brett Favre at quarterback than Jeff Garcia because Favre completes a higher percentage of passes, especially on third down. Tampa Bay’s chances of making the playoffs as a division winner or wild card increased from 43.5 to 52.1 percent with Favre."

"Training Camp Summary: Wednesday August 06Brian Griese was back after having the afternoon off yesterday. This is only significant because people were speculating that he was absent because he was getting traded. That is not the case.Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood are practically reading each other’s minds at this point. One of the 2-on-2 drills today was for the linemen to practice switching up their blocks to beat stunts. These guys picked up every stunt, and it was against first-team defenders.Aqib Talib must have jumped ten feet in the air to snag an interception. Guess which cornerback underthrew the ball. Hint: His name reminds you of a fast food burger.Ryan Nece made a lot of plays at linebacker today. There are going to be some real hard decisions to make at the end of the month.Dexter Jackson has speed on the end arounds and reverses. He got a nice gain down the sidelines.Afternoon practice was closed to everyone.Training Camp Summary: Thursday August 07The morning practice was special teams only. The Bucs will hold a night practice tonight at 7:30.Matt Bryant has still only missed one field goal throughout camp. He hit three long ones today, including a 51 yarder.Sabby Piscitelli has been very involved in punt return drills as both a gunner and a personal protector. He’s in no danger of getting cut, but it’s nice to see him so active on special teams.Josh Bidwell had a punt with a 5.1 second hangtime. Remember when Ray Guy‘s 5.0 hangtime was legendary? Either it’s not such a big deal anymore or someone doesn’t know how to use a stopwatch.John Gilmore was the long snapper for part of practice, most likely as an emergency backup. He was fine, although Bidwell had to jump for one snap because it sailed on him.Training Camp Summary: Thursday August 07 – NightWarren Sapp and Mike Alstott both attended the practice.Elbert Mack made a very nice interception int he endzone during secondary drills. Mack has been kind of under the radar, but he could see some more action with Sammy Davis nursing a hip problem. That fourth corner spot is kind of up for grabs.More scout team work to prepare for the Dolphins. Josh Johnson and Chris Simms ran the scout team offenses. Luke McCown and Brian Griese ran the offense against the scout team defenses. McCown had a notably better performance and found a nice rhythm with Maurice Stovall.Michael Bennett showed great awareness and ball control when a ball hit Micheal Spurlock in the hands, bounced out, and Bennett caught it and took off up the middle.Three safeties on the field at a time? Sabby Piscitelli joined the starters on the field for a series of plays in a three-deep zone.Eugene Wilson and Donte Nicholson were both going for the same ball and collided at full speed. They both had to take a couple seconds to shake it off.It sure seemed like Chad Lucas got a lot of work during this practice. He has been reliable, but has been the victim of a couple interceptions because Aqib Talib is is simply a better athlete than he is. You get the feeling that the quarterback has to throw a better ball if Lucas is the target."