I know. I know it's only one game, but for some reason I don't think last week performance will be an anomaly.  Byron Leftwich look as if he may have, dare I say it, a Drew Brees transformation of a season.  Whoa! I'm not saying he's going to throw for 30 or so TD passes, and before I get labeled as a little cuckoo, allow me to take you back when Brees was in San Diego.  After a nice college career at Purdue he was looked upon as a very promising qb prospect and drafted 33rd overall, could have easily been a first round choice.  He was giving a year to sit and soak it all in and then started the next 2 years.  I recall those first two years he was not that good of a quartback and the media, fans and the Charger organization wrote him off as a lost cause, a bust and drafted Eli Manning who they eventually traded for Phillip Rivers.  Like most teams do when they draft a "franchise" qb they wanted to bring Rivers along slowly so he sat behind Brees given time to grow.  But something happen in southern California, I don't know if it was a change in coordinator, or if it was just that Brees felt slighted and came into that season well prepared with a chip in his shoulder.  Drew went from completing about 58% of his passes to completing 65% and he went from a qb rating of about 74 to a qb rating of 104, and went from 14 TD passes to 15 INT ratio to  a 27 TD to 7INT ratio in one season, and in the process won comeback player of the year and stirred up a QB contreversy.  Brees was traded to New Orleans and hasn't looked back sense.  I saw something special in that game against Dallas in Byron.  He looked like a man on a mission, a man who appeared to be in great command of the offense, it seem as though he made all the right decisions even though he didn't executed them all well, he still new where he wanted to go with the ball on almost every play.  I think Lefty wants to prove he's still a pro-bowl calibre qb and wants to shut all his critics up, not to mention make Freeman taste his own sweet toe jam.  Remember Freeman comments after he was drafted "Oh yeah. I felt that all along. Even when they picked up Byron Leftwich. It was something they told me -– they told me it was a smoke screen, everybody would think they didn't want a QB. They said they were ready to trade up. I think it worked out great. I was sitting there with my family and enjoying it, and I got to go to the team that I wanted to go to."  Can big L possibly do the what Brees did and cause some qb contreversy in Tampa the good kind?

The second nominee Michael Clayton.  After almost winning rookie of the year Clayton dropped like the market after the Lehman brothers collapse.  I don't know if it was due to injury or maybe being misused and abused by Gruden, but for some reason the production wasn't there.  When the Bucs resigned him in the offseason most people, including myself, were saying what da buc are they doing.  Clayton was somewhat outspoken after Gruden's departure and seemed to have felt that Chucky was holding him back and perhaps he was right.  He came in with a new contract and renewed enthusiasm.  He perform solidly in the preseason and in game one put up some pretty impressive numbers catching passes across the middle taking viscious hits and actually holding on to the ball, which he was criticised for the past few seasons.  He like Lefty seems to be playing with a chip on his shoulder, wanting to prove to his pundits that he can still play this game at a high level.

Last but certainly not least is Caddy.  He just like the other two drop off in production was due to injury.  Unlike the above mention players, it wasn't a question of his ability to play but his ability to stay healthy.  Its has been one game so that question still remains, but if he does, watch out this guy can easily rush for 1200 to 1600 yards this season with two other backs sharing the load.  This guy isn't thinking about his knee that has been broken in one of the most gruesome manners.  This guy was cutting without hesitation, and went looking for contact.  How often in the last... as a matter of fact I can't recalled the last time I could say, "Man! I'm really excited about our offense!!!"

If these guys stay healthy and the offense continue to grow and be consistent we may monopolize the comback player of the year nominees.