At some point in the first few rounds, the Buccaneers are going to have to take a real game breaking playmaker on the offensive side of the ball.  Last years signing of Antonio Bryant by ousted GM Bruce Allen was a coup in my opinion.  We paid him pennies for what he produced on the field.  Subsequently, we were forced to franchise Bryant and with only a one year contract for him, he will be forced once again to produce if he wants to get a long term deal going into next season.  The Bucs also brought back WR Michael Clayton on a multi-year deal.  Clayton brings valuable blocking and suspect hands to the middle of the field.  At one point in time, Clayton looked like the next Hines Ward, and hopefully he can get back to half that level this season.  After those two guys though, the Bucs are fairly thin at WR.  Maurice Stovall, Paris Warren and Dexter Jackson (last years 2nd round pick) are the remaning WR’s on the roster.  I do not have any grandiose expectations for any of those players.  

Heyward-Bey, a former track runner, was the fastest receiver at the combine running a blistering 4.30 in the 40 yard dash.  He also put up an impressive 16 reps in the bench press, a 38.5 inch vertical jump and was near the top of receivers in the broad jump, the 3 cone drill and the 30 yard shuttle.  While combine studs don’t always translate to the NFL, Heyward-Bey had 42 catches for 600 yards for a terrible Terrapins team.  

A field stretching receiver should be near the top of the Bucs wish list, especially with a move to a downfield throwing, vertical offense, and Heyward-Bey certainly fits that bill.  

NFL.com Draft Profile

For all of the hype surrounding this year’s other playmakers, no other receiver in the 2009 draft can match Heyward-Bey’s combination of size and speed. Whether that combination will ever translate into his becoming Pro Bowl-caliber playmaker, however, is the significant boom or bust gamble teams will be forced to make on draft day. Had an arm span of 33 5/8 inches and a hand span of 9 inches at the combine.

I had real visions of a grandiose offseason for my beloved Bucs.  Of course, I didn’t expect it to start out with the firing of a good Head Coach and GM in Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen.  I also was a little taken aback by the release of Derrick Brooks.  I understood it from a rebuilding standpoint, but I didn’t like the shitty excuse Mark Dominik gave me about not wanting Derrick Brooks on the sideline wearing a cap.  I’m a fan of the Bucs though, so I accepted these shaky decisions and started looking forward to a free agency period that featured a few players who we could certainly benefit from and 61 mil in cap space to pursue who we wanted as well as resigning our own guys.

Let me preface my free agent rant with one thing, I’m a firm believer in building via trades and via the draft, two things that generally are one in the same in the NFL.  I think that free agency leads to overpayment of players, and unrealistic expectations as a result of overpayment.  On the other hand, with the release of 5 guys on the eve of free agency and some glaring holes to fill, I thought we would come in to FA strong, namely for one guy in particular, Albert Haynesworth.  As I mentioned earlier, I’m all for not overpaying for guys in FA.  If we thought that Albert Haynesworth was going to be a little too rich for our blood, and we backed off, than so be it.  My issue comes with the subsequent resigning of WR Michael Clayton to 10.5 mil in gauaranteed money.  It was reported everywhere that the Bucs and the Skins were the final two teams in the running for Big Al.  He signed for about 41 mil in gauranteed money.  What do you think the Bucs were offering, 35, 36, 37 mil?  In my head that 4-6 mil difference would be enough of a gap for the Bucs brass to back off, and for Big Al to say that’s a big enough difference to sign in Washington.  Fine.  I’m ok with all of this.  10.5 freaking million for Michael Clayton. For real.  The guy doesn’t have over 500 receiving yards since his rookie season.   Dominik didn’t think it more beneficial to add that 4-6 mil to Big Al’s deal, and offer Clayton what he is worth, around 6 mil gauranteed.  Does anyone not see the ridiculousness of this.  Defensive Tackle is in my mind, one of the two most important positions on the defensive side of the ball.  This man wreaks havoc at this position.  He is constantly shedding double teams, and cut blocks and still not just occupying blockers, but getting to the damned QB.  Serious blunder in deciding that a 3rd WR, because lets be honest, that’s what Michael Clayton has shown over the last 4 years (I loved this guy out of college, so don’t get all Steve Duemigie on me and think I got a personal bias against the guy) is more important than signing a defensive cog in his prime, who at one point might have been the MVP of the NFL season.  What’s gonna make me even more upset is when the Nate Washington’s and Devery Henderson’s of the world sign for 1/2 of what we gave to Michael Clayton.

Today was the icing on the cake for me.  This whole Jay Cutler story is eating me up inside.  If the BS reports out of NE and KC are true, that the Bucs just jumped into the equation too late, isn’t this a stain on the front office that must be accounted for.  With all of the inside information that is passed around the NFL, you would assume that someone in our front office would have caught wind of something like this going down.   Franchise QB’s don’t become available via trade very often, and for a few hours yesterday, it appeared that one was available, and we whiffed.  

I’m generally very supportive of my teams front office.  I understand the complexities of the cap, of the business side of the operation as well as the player and football side of the whole thing.  I’m usually one to give the front office the benefit of the doubt for a missed pick, a missed FA, or just a general error that sports radio hosts in Tampa will crucify the front office for.  This situation though leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and it is one that I hope our front office gives me a nice frosty glass of scotch to wash that bitterness out with….very soon.

Their main targets were former Cleveland Browns OC Rob Chudzinski, former Rams Head Coach Scott Linehan, and current QB Coach Greg Olsen.  Linehan signed on to be the Lions offensive coordinator on Friday, probably under the premise that he would have his choice of players with the first overall pick in the draft.  That is pure speculation on my part, but it would seemingly be the only logical reason (other than Calvin Johnson) to choose the Lions over the 49′ers (who were also interested in his services) and the Buccaneers.

I have a few friends/fans who I respect that thing Chudzinski would be a great choice for the Bucs, but I’m not so sold.  Not saying the guy couldn’t be successful here, but his two year stint with the Browns has me less than convinced.  The Cleveland offense ranked 30th in points, 31st in both total yard and pass yards, and 26th in rushing yards, with much more at his disposal as far as offensive weapons are concerned.  We lack the aforementioned offensive weapons that the Browns had, other than bringing back Antonio Bryant or augmenting our skill positions via free agency or the draft.

I was excited about the possibility of Linehan as the OC, but as I mentioned earlier, that is over with now.  He was successful as the OC in Minnesota and Miami, and although he had his struggles as the Head Coach of the Rams, he may have just not been suited to run the whole show.  There are plenty of succesful coordinators and coaches in the league who have had trouble in the top chair, but relish the opportunity to manage one unit or one side of the football, and I think Linehan would have been a great choice.

It’s hard for me to want to get behind Greg Olsen either, as our offenses have been quite pedestrian the last few years with him coaching the QB’s, although he had no control over play calling, and I’m of the belief that Jeff Garcia hindered our offense more than helped it.

The man I really wanted to look at Jeremey Bates, decided to go be the Offensive Coordinator for Pete Carroll at USC, and in retrospect, knowing now that we were hiring his father to be the defensive coordinator for our football team, I think he might have chose a different route had the Bucs shown interest.  He has ties to the organization and our Super Bowl team as an offensive quality control coach and as an assistant quarterbacks coach.  If I had to guess he will be one of the hot names in the NFL coaching ranks the next few years as far as offensive minded guys are concerned.

My main question now is do the Bucs continue to look at Chudzinski, Olsen and I’ve heard we’ve also had some interest in Chan Gailey (yikes) or to be we look outside the box and target a college coach who may be looking for his NFL break.  I still think Jeff Jagodzinski the former BC head coach who was fired for interviewing with the Jets, would be a perfect fit.  He had plenty of NFL experience as TE’s coach of the Packers for 4 seasons, two years as the Falcons Oline coach, and one year as the OC of the Packers in 2006.  He is still unemployed and would be a great fit for the team in my opinion.