Bucs Ready For Saints

by williams24 on Aug 31, 2008 5:07 PM EDT

Obviously we had some tough decisions but we’re excited to get the season going,” Gruden said. “New Orleans is going to be a great challenge in itself, but we feel like we’ve got 53 quality football players and now we’ve just got to prove it.”

Some of the most difficult calls for the Buc management involved familiar faces that have done a lot for the franchise, both on and off the field. Veteran players such as Chris Simms and Ryan Nece were hard to let go, Gruden said, but making such moves is in the nature of the business.

“We had some tough decisions,” Gruden reiterated. “It’s hard to say goodbye to Chris. He laid it on the line here and did some great things for us and I’m confident that he’ll get another opportunity. I can’t really speak on every single player, but we had some tough decisions. With that being said, it was emotional, to a degree, and hard. But it is every year. Ryan Nece is a guy that played a lot of football here. I wish all those players the very best. Unfortunately we’re only allowed to keep 53 guys.”

Those 53 players are now preparing for the New Orleans Saints. Although the Saints are a familiar NFC South foe, they also have some new faces on their 53-man roster, and Gruden said the Bucs have been preparing for the opener for some time now.

“You have to look at New Orleans,” Gruden said. “They’ve made multiple changes. They have some new players in key positions — Jonathan Vilma, Sedrick Ellis; they’ve added some corners; Jeremy Shockey; they’ve got a great quarterback; and they’re well-coached. We tried to moonlight a little bit and see what’s going on. There have been some changes in there structure, and I’m sure they’ll have some changes they haven’t shown waiting for us.”

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