The next team up on our Gridiron Blitz is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Music to listen to: Florida Breaks
Current State: Out of all of my Gridiron Blitz previews that I’ve done the past few weeks, this one may be the most difficult one so far because the Bucs are in full rebuilding mode, meaning I’m not as familiar with the team.
However, that’s the intended point for the Bucs in a way.
When you truly rebuild in the NFL without concerns about gaining immediate results, the best way to do it is to gut your roster of expensive players and start from scratch with the draft. The problem is that most expensive players are experienced players and your best players, so you lose many more games than your fans would like to see.
The Bucs have started to realize this by cutting ticket prices and promoting the youth movement.
The growing pains will continue but does the franchise have any hope for the near future?
Biggest Offseason Change: The true changes really started last season with the two biggest indicators that your franchise is rebuilding. Last year, the Bucs hired a new head coach, Raheem Morris, and drafted quarterback Josh Freeman in the first round.
Both of those men experienced the same issues you would expect for someone in the first year in the NFL as a first-time head coach and professional quarterback.
The biggest problem last season was the release of both coordinators before the year even started, causing a lack of continuity for the franchise. This isn’t an issue now.
In this year’s draft, the Bucs took tackle Gerald McCoy in the first round, nose tackle Brian Price in the second round and wide receivers Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams. All four players are expected to contribute and even start this season.
Uniform Grade: The worst uniforms in the NFL maybe outside of Buffalo. The combination of the dark orange and that shade of grey is disappointing because the team had a unique look with the light orange jerseys the franchise started with. I liked the old jerseys. Grade: D
Best Player: If the Bucs can hang their hat on anything this year, its that they won’t struggle defending the pass with one of the top corners in the NFL, Aqib Talib. He has the size and maturity to become a shutdown corner.
As far as overall talent, running back Cadillac Williams and tight end Kellen Winslow would be the obvious players in consideration for this choice but both have struggled in some form to come back from knee injuries. Some of you may point that Williams played all 16 games last year and Winslow had solid numbers but the missed time that both guys have had over the years have hurt the Bucs in many ways.
Most Important Player: Whenever you draft a quarterback in the first round, he automatically becomes your most important player most of the time. This is one of those cases.
It was hard to read Freeman’s season last year. If the Bucs had their way, he would have watched all of last season from the sidelines but the other options were terrible so Tampa wanted to see what it had.
Freeman is athletic and can make many throws but has to cut down on interceptions. To be fair though, we’ve hailed Matt Stafford as a blue chipper and he had 20 picks while Freeman only had 17.
A close second place was McCoy because if he can help control the defensive line, the Bucs can improve their rush defense which was terrible last season. If that happens, than the entire defense can grow into a competent unit.
Best Case and Worst Case: I combined these two because it’s the same but different. Wins and losses aren’t going to be an issue because the Bucs aren’t going to win more than four games this season. The organization needs to find out if they have a head coach and quarterback that it can build around for the future. Best case, the draft picks develop into front line NFL players. Worst case, the young players are overrated and the head coach doesn’t improve himself.
Coaching: I’ve talked about Morris enough but his success would be against the grain. He’s only 34 and a head coach. Shoot, he’s only five years older than me. If a Division I program hired him, people would question his age. An NFL team gave him the keys to the franchise.
Furthermore, he only had six years of experience in the NFL prior to becoming head coach of the Bucs and had no NFL coordinator experience.
I’m not saying that Morris can’t succeed but looking at this as an outsider, I don’t see it happening.
First memory of team: The Bucs used to be one of the worst franchises in the NFL when I started following football in the late 1980’s. However, when Tony Dungy arrived in 1996, you could see improvements, especially in the defense.
When the Bucs finally won the Super Bowl in 2002, I remember feeling happy for the fans.
If you were a Bucs fan since the early 1980’s, you saw some terrible football and had to deal with being the butt of jokes for other NFL fans. I feel the same way about Browns fans today. I like it when a franchise has a fan base that has been through struggles finds happiness.
Schedule: The Bucs will have to deal with Atlanta, New Orleans and Carolina in the division.
The home games are against Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Detroit and Seattle. The away games are at Cincinnati, Arizona, San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington.
City Nicknames: I found none.
Fantasy Focus: Run away from this squad.
Overall Outlook: Its going to be a long year for the Bucs, but there hopefully will be better times ahead for the squad.
Final Record: 3-13
Gridiron Blitz 2010 Season Previews:
AFC East:
AFC North:
AFC South:
AFC West
NFC East
NFC North
NFC South
The Sports Inquirer 
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