Fulton’s signing early might work in his favor.  With the possibility still looming that Aaron Sears is not medically cleared to play, and Jeremy Zuttah therefore taking over his spot, the backup Tackle positions on both sides would seemingly be wide open for competition.  Couple that with the regression from Jeremy Trueblood last year, and there is a possibility that Fulton could even be battling for the RT spot.  He drew only two penalties for the Illini last year on 393 pass plays, and amazingly only allowed two QB pressures.

More than likely he will backup both T spots in 09.

This post is not intended to be callous and disregard Sears health, because that is obviously the first concern, but the impact to the Bucs would be fairly large.  Sears was begining to look like one of the best young gaurds in the game.  Combined with Davin Joseph, you would be hard pressed to find me a better young tandem in the league as far as potential and current ability are concerned.  

If Sears is not able to play, swing lineman Jeremy Zuttah would definitely step into Sears’ place.  Zuttah was a 3nd round draft pick 2007 and has been a very nice fill in for Sears and for Joseph during times of injuries.   I have even speculated this offseason that Zuttah might have gotten a chance to overtake the penalty prone Jeremy Trueblood in Jeff Jagodzinski’s new offense.  He is a very solid player, and will fill in just fine for Sears if it were to come down to that.  

The biggest issue would then be the depth on the offensive line.  Zuttah played every position except Center on the line in college, so having him as a backup is quite a luxury.  The Bucs are really only forced to carry two backup lineman as long as Zuttah is one of those two.  If he is forced to start, Sean Mahan would be the backup interior lineman and one of the few tackles on the roster currently, or a player on someone elses practice squad would have to come in and backup the T spots.  It is possible that depending on the versatility of said player, two T’s might need to be brought in, one to man each side.  This will have a direct correlation on the roster as we might not have the luxury of carrying 4 pure running backs, or 6 wide receivers or 7 or 8 defensive lineman.  

So not only does Sears injury effect the overall product moving forward, the potential for him to be out could have a devastating effect on the final 53 man roster.

Left Tackle Andre Smith, who not only two weeks ago was pretty much the consensus number one pick for the Lions if they didn’t choose a QB had a rough week at the NFL Combine.  He apparently was not well versed in any of his interviews, nor well dressed for that matter.  To complicate matters, he dissapeared Saturday afternoon to go home to Alabama and train for his pro day.  The dissapearance might not have been a big issue had he just alerted the media and the people in charge of the Combine, because he wasn’t intending to work out with the offensive lineman anyway.  He essentially flew to Indy to get his official measurements, do interviews (ones that went poorly) and fly home. 

Darren Rovell of CNBC, a favorite of mine, speculates that his blunders this weekend may cost him in excess of 24 million dollars.  This could work out well for a team such as the Bucs who may not want to spend the money to lock up their current LT.  Penn this year was the lowest paid starting LT in the league.  While this certainly worked in our benefit this season, his progression, at the second highest paid position in the league, could have the Bucs on the hook for a hefty pay increase for a guy who has looked solid, but doesn’t seem to have a huge ceiling. 

Smith on the other hand has an enormous ceiling, even with his issues this weekend.  Scouts Inc. of ESPN still grades Smith out at a 95, making him the 9th rated player on their board, and as I mentioned earlier, he spent much of the season in the top 5 as well as numero uno.  At 6’5″ and 345 lbs, Smith would complete the youngest and possibly most dominant lines in the league for the Bucs.  With recent 1st round selection Davin Joseph making his first Pro Bowl, 2nd round selection Aaron Sears not far behind, last years 2nd round pick Jeremy Zuttah just clamoring for a permanent spot on the line and last years FA and highest paid center in the league Jeff Faine, the Bucs already have a young imposing line.  If a player such as Smith were to fall into their laps after the first 15, it would have to be a situation in which we consider.  Penn also has the potential to play the RT position where Jeremy Trueblood sometimes struggled this year.  

While picking another offensive lineman in the top 2 rounds would certainly piss off the majority of our fans in the Bay Area, especially with an aging defense and a lack of overall playmaking ability on offense, I would certainly see the logic in taking a guy who has top 5 talent and not having to pay him Top 5 money because of a bad weekend.