A Little Back Tracking By Jeffrey

I would have never have talked about if I hadn’t been asked by the media. All of a sudden, I’m asked about it and I gave honest answers. The last thing I ever wanted to sound like was that greedy professional athlete. When you start to talk about contract issues with what’s going on in the world … I don’t regret answering a question, but I think I took it to another level, because I started to let my feelings show. It needed to be behind closed doors. That’s not for everyone to hear about, know about - or judge.”

Pewter Plank 2008 NFL Predictions

I had orginally done this as a straightforward division winners and players of the year type of piece.  I was kind of inspired by Bill Simmons first article since 1982 today on ESPN, and feel like doing a points of emphasis type piece on the entire season.

AFC 

1.  The Patriots are not done yet.  I know everyone thinks the departure of Asante Samuel, the arrest of Nick Kaczur, the depletion of the secondary and linebacking corps, the departure of Donte Stallworth, and the lack of any playing time by Tom Brady will finally spell the demise of the mighty Pats.  Wrong.  Sorry.  Best coach in the game, and the best player in the game.  I think Lamont Jordan will be a big addition to the team, Tom Brady will win the MVP and Jerod Mayo will win the Defensive Rookie of the year.  This is still the team to beat in the NFL.
2. The Bills are the sleeper of the NFL this season.  Everyone is all over boring and terrible choices like the Browns (I’ll get to them later), and the Niners.  The Bills have been steadily building defensive talent through the draft for the last 4 seasons.  Donte Whitner, Leodis McKelvin, and John McCargo should all have really good years for the Bills who are sure to improve on their 29th ranked defense of last season.  2nd year QB Trent Edwards has a new target to go along with Lee Evans in giant WR James Hardy.  I really like the chance for this offense to grow and develop this year together.  SLEEPER ALERT!
3. Why does everyone love Derrick Anderson so much?  A 3:2 TD/INT ratio with a 56% completion % doesn’t exactly bring up thoughts of Dan Marino in my mind.  This team will be garbage (impossible schedule, way to many expectations, too many guys who get hurt), mark it down.
4. I love the AFC South.   This division is just spectacular.  Houston is definetly a team on the rise, you can never count out any team coached by Jeff Fisher, the Colts have Peyton, and the Jags are finally looking to top the Colts.   Even the NFC East isn’t this deep. 
5. I really like Jay Cutler this year.  People are so up and down on this guy.  Peter King loves him, Bill Simmons hates him, and I don’t really give a shit what either think!!! Cutler has a cannon, and enough offensive options in Brandon Marshall, Daniel Graham, Tony Scheffler and Selvin Young.  Cutler is my Comeback Player of the Year pick for this season.  I’m not sure their defense is good enough for them to be a playoff team, but there offense will be able to score with anyone. 

1. The Cowboys are stacked.   Simmons touched on this today, but the talent that they have on this team, in the salary cap era at that, is incredible.  I’m not sure that half the team doesn’t end up in jail by the end of the year, or that the cohesiveness of all these guys will be prevalent, but regardless, stacked. 
2. The Packers will regret not keeping Favre.  It’s not that I think that Aaron Rodgers is horrible, but I just don’t understand how the Pack brass didn’t think that Favre gave them a much better chance at winning a Super Bowl, and this team has that kind of talent. 
3. The Vikings will regret not trying to bring in a veteran to push Tavaris Jackson.  This division is crazy.  Two teams that I really like, but I am so unsure of their QB’s that I do not know how to rate them. 
4. The NFC South is back.  After last season, everyone was back to their original realignment assessment of the NFC South as the worst division in the league.  Jake Delhome is back from Tommy John Surgery, the Saints defense is much improved and their offense is potent, and the Bucs have the deepest defense in the history of the team.  The Falcons don’t count. 
5. The NFC West is the worst division in the NFL.  Seattle is blah, the Cards would be fine If i had any hope that Kurt Warner could play all 16 games, the Rams have no defense, and the Niners have…I’m not sure what they have really, other than good linebackers. 

Pewter Plank 2008 NFL Predictions

I had orginally done this as a straightforward division winners and players of the year type of piece.  I was kind of inspired by Bill Simmons first article since 1982 today on ESPN, and feel like doing a points of emphasis type piece on the entire season.

AFC 

1.  The Patriots are not done yet.  I know everyone thinks the departure of Asante Samuel, the arrest of Nick Kaczur, the depletion of the secondary and linebacking corps, the departure of Donte Stallworth, and the lack of any playing time by Tom Brady will finally spell the demise of the mighty Pats.  Wrong.  Sorry.  Best coach in the game, and the best player in the game.  I think Lamont Jordan will be a big addition to the team, Tom Brady will win the MVP and Jerod Mayo will win the Defensive Rookie of the year.  This is still the team to beat in the NFL.
2. The Bills are the sleeper of the NFL this season.  Everyone is all over boring and terrible choices like the Browns (I’ll get to them later), and the Niners.  The Bills have been steadily building defensive talent through the draft for the last 4 seasons.  Donte Whitner, Leodis McKelvin, and John McCargo should all have really good years for the Bills who are sure to improve on their 29th ranked defense of last season.  2nd year QB Trent Edwards has a new target to go along with Lee Evans in giant WR James Hardy.  I really like the chance for this offense to grow and develop this year together.  SLEEPER ALERT!
3. Why does everyone love Derrick Anderson so much?  A 3:2 TD/INT ratio with a 56% completion % doesn’t exactly bring up thoughts of Dan Marino in my mind.  This team will be garbage (impossible schedule, way to many expectations, too many guys who get hurt), mark it down.
4. I love the AFC South.   This division is just spectacular.  Houston is definetly a team on the rise, you can never count out any team coached by Jeff Fisher, the Colts have Peyton, and the Jags are finally looking to top the Colts.   Even the NFC East isn’t this deep. 
5. I really like Jay Cutler this year.  People are so up and down on this guy.  Peter King loves him, Bill Simmons hates him, and I don’t really give a shit what either think!!! Cutler has a cannon, and enough offensive options in Brandon Marshall, Daniel Graham, Tony Scheffler and Selvin Young.  Cutler is my Comeback Player of the Year pick for this season.  I’m not sure their defense is good enough for them to be a playoff team, but there offense will be able to score with anyone. 

1. The Cowboys are stacked.   Simmons touched on this today, but the talent that they have on this team, in the salary cap era at that, is incredible.  I’m not sure that half the team doesn’t end up in jail by the end of the year, or that the cohesiveness of all these guys will be prevalent, but regardless, stacked. 
2. The Packers will regret not keeping Favre.  It’s not that I think that Aaron Rodgers is horrible, but I just don’t understand how the Pack brass didn’t think that Favre gave them a much better chance at winning a Super Bowl, and this team has that kind of talent. 
3. The Vikings will regret not trying to bring in a veteran to push Tavaris Jackson.  This division is crazy.  Two teams that I really like, but I am so unsure of their QB’s that I do not know how to rate them. 
4. The NFC South is back.  After last season, everyone was back to their original realignment assessment of the NFC South as the worst division in the league.  Jake Delhome is back from Tommy John Surgery, the Saints defense is much improved and their offense is potent, and the Bucs have the deepest defense in the history of the team.  The Falcons don’t count. 
5. The NFC West is the worst division in the NFL.  Seattle is blah, the Cards would be fine If i had any hope that Kurt Warner could play all 16 games, the Rams have no defense, and the Niners have…I’m not sure what they have really, other than good linebackers. 

Willie Anderson Heads To B’More

As reported by Stephen Holder of the St Petersburg Times & The Bucs Beat, OT Willie Anderson will sign with the Baltimore Ravens.  It appears as though the Bucs weren’t interested in using Anderson at LT, and thus, Anderson knew he had a better chance to play in Baltimore.

Willie Anderson A Buc?

Adam Schefter of NFL.com is reporting that Willie Anderson has narrowed his search down to 3 teams, the Bucs, Ravens and Chargers.  The Ravens and the Bucs would seem to have the more pressing need at LT.  Surprising the Bills aren’t on this list, being as though Jason Peters is still holding out.  If i was a player though, I couldn’t blame them for not wanting to go to Buffalo. 

I have to think he would be the starter at LT, even with the progression of LT Donald Penn throughout last season and this camp.  Anderson was the 10th overall selection by the Bengals in the 1996 draft, and has been selected to the last 5 Pro Bowls.  He would be a big veteran addition to our young line and further cement this unit as finally one of the strong points for the Bucs as opposed to normally being the worst unit on the team.

Bruce Allen Continues To Trade

Last night Bruce Allen pulled off 2 trades that ended up seeming like an even swap of players.  We sent C/G Dan Buenning to the Chicago Bears for an undisclosed pick in next years draft, and then subsequently sent an undisclosed pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for former C/G Sean Mahan. 

Just like I said earlier, this seems like a simple swap of players, just with 3 different teams involved.  Pittsburgh nets a pick, the Bucs replace Buenning with Mahan, and the Bears acquire Buenning. 

The funny thing about this trade is the fact that Mahan and Buenning once looked like a promising core of lineman for the Bucs in 2005, starting all 16 games together.  Before last season though, Mahan was not retained and signed as a free agent with the Steelers, and Buenning continued his string of always being hurt.  I’d have to think that injury history had something to do with this trade.  With only undrafted Jonathan Lee and Anthony Davis serving as the backups right now, one injury would have thrust Buenning into the starting lineup. Given his dicey knees and injury history, maybe we weren’t willing to count on that.  Mahan isn’t a mauling beast like Buenning, but with the rest of our line more on the lines of mauling beasts, sans Jeff Faine, maybe the brass thought bringing in another Faine like player in Mahan was the right way to go.   

 For a league that is very devoid of trades, Bruce Allen seems to make plenty of them.  Last year we acquired Ryan Sims and Michael Bennett via trade.  Thomas Jones, Joey Galloway, Tim Rattay and Luke McCown have all been acquired via trade.  We have shipped off numerous players as well including Marques Douglas this season, Keenan McCardell, Keyshawn Johnson, Roman Oben and Booger McFarland. 

Fan-Sided Blogs End Of Year Predictions

Saints v Bucs In The Superdome

ESPN is reporting that the Bucs and the Saints will play their opening tilt this weekend in the Superdome as previously planned.  As mentioned in the earlier post, I think this is a big turn of events for the Bucs.  Six road games out of seven would have made repeating as division champs very difficult.

Where Will The Bucs Vs Saints Game Be Held?

I have been waiting on an update on this information for the last two days.  I am planning a trip to New Orleans to go to the game this weekend, so as soon as I find a definitive answer on this from the NFL and the city of New Orleans I will post it up. 

“We’re in good shape,” said Doug Thornton, vice president of SMG, the company that manages the Superdome and neighboring New Orleans Arena. “We’ve got some exterior signs ripped and things like that, downed fences and light poles blown over, but nothing major, nothing structural or nothing that would affect the interior condition of the building.”

“We are continuing to monitor the situation in close coordination with the Saints,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. “Our focus today is on the brave people of the Gulf Coast. We have great admiration for them and for the public safety and emergency personnel who are tirelessly working to protect lives and property in that region. We will make an announcement at the appropriate time about the status of the Saints’ game scheduled for Sunday in the Superdome.”

I really don’t want the two home games flip flopped which was one of the possible scenarios mentioned the other night by Adam Schefter of the NFL Network.  That would give us 4 road games in a row, and a stretch of 6 out of 7. 

Thoughts On Bucs Final Roster

Sorry for the delay in posts, especially on final cut weekend.  I had my two biggest fantasy drafts this weekend it turned into a 2 day fantasy draft party-a-thon. 

To the cuts…. Ryan Nece and Dre Moore were the only two real surprises.  If you had been watching any of the games, or paying attention to any material written about Moore though, even him getting cut wasn’t surprising. The guy is out of shape, and didn’t appear to have the drive to make our final 8 defensive lineman.  In a battle as tight as ours was on the Dline, just being a 4th round pick is not good enough.  It is sad though that we had to cut a player we traded up to take in round 4. 

As far as Nece is concerned, he was a marginal player that had the ability to play all 3 positions on our team.  I think we kept guys that had a much higher ceiling than he did.  Matt McCoy and Adam Heyward both have flashed much better potential than Nece has shown and he has been given multiple chances to shine as a starter. 

Thoughts on the roster..

QB’s - I think everyone knew Chris Simms was out, and Josh Johnson was making the team.  We will not have a debacle like 2 years ago where QB’s go down, and Bruce Gradkowski (who was cut by the way) has to start.

RB’s - Watching Michael Bennett get all those carries vs Houston sealed the fate for Clifton Smith (cut).  I think a Bennett, Warrick Dunn, Ernest Graham backfield is deep and has a chance to be quite effective with each bringing different positives to the table.   I think once BJ Askew gets healthy, Bryan Storer becomes the 53rd man on the roster and will be in jeapordy of getting cut. 

WR’s - No surprises here.  Michael Spurlock sealed his fate with that fumble after a Dexter Jackson touchdown.  Joey Galloway, Michael Clayton, Antonio Bryant, Dexter Jackson, Maurice Stovall, Ike Hilliard while not being a group of flashy names, have more than enough skill to make Gruden’s offense click. 

TE’s - Ben Troupe is probably going to have to show a lot on the field while Jeramy Stevens is suspended.  Stevens knows the offense better, and should be placed back on the roster after his suspension.  Troupe could hang around though if we decided to just cut Storer (as long as Askew is back).

Oline - Our best offensive line, in my generation of Buccaneer football.  The starters were locked in, and Dan Buenning, Anthony Davis (yikes) and Jeremy Zuttah are the backups.  We signed James Lee, an undrafted rookie out of South Carolina State to fill another tackle spot (Eugene Wilson got the boot).  This unit is large, and should really start to blossom this year. 

Dline - Another best in my generation of Buc football.  8 men deep, and all 8 are going to see significant time on the field.  Gaines Adams, Chis Hovan, Jovan Haye and Kevin Carter will probably start, but Jimmy Wilkerson, Greg Peterson, Ryan Sims and Greg White as mentioned a second ago will see many snaps.  Love this unit. 

Linebackers - Another deep unit with some vets and a bunch of young cats learning the ropes.  Derrick Brooks, Cato June and Barrett Ruud are the obvious starters, with all 3 backups (Matt McCoy, Quincy Black, and Adam Heyward) likely to see little time on the field other than special teams duty.  I will say though, this could be, outside of Maurice Stovall, our three best special teams players.  I would feel comfortable if any of the three had to start at some point during the season due to injury.  

Secondary - I might sound like a broken record here, but this unit boasts great depth as well.  Ronde Barber, Phillip Buchanon, Aqib Talib, Tanard Jackson, Jermaine Phillips and Sabby Piscatelli will all start or see significant time on the field.  I could do without WIll Allen, but we obviously felt his time in the system made him a better fit than the extremely dissapointing and now cut Eugene Wilson.  I love this unit as well.

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