I have been there for three straight days. every day they put up a new sweet video, and that niko guy used to put the same videos up here before scott quit/was let go (whatever happened).

Every since this site now sucks. there is never nuthin new, and the cool videos? are over there now.

I aint getting nothing for doing this, iM just saying that, but if that site only had more people, it would be BANGIN!

Seriously check it out, because this post wont stay up for long, but I dont care, there aint nothin here anymore anyways.

Kevin

Dear Bucs Fans,

I am doing my MBA at USF Tampa. I need to write a Marketing Strategy plan for the Bucs. As a part of this Project, I need to survey about 30 fans. I have a two page questionaire put together. It should not take more than 5 min. If you are interested in helping me, please email me at dvayalur@mail.usf.edu and I will email you the survey.

Thanks in advance for your help and Happy July 4th.

Dham

There seems to be a lot of skepticism about the Buccaneers this year.  

There isn't a lot to be confident in when your team loses its head coach, general manager, defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, quarterback, and five other essential players from the previous year.  Sports Illustrated said that the Bucs had the worst off-season in the NFL. In 2009, there will be a new offensive scheme and, for the first time since 1996, a new defensive scheme.

But when defensive coordinator Monte Kiffen announced after Week 12 that he was going to be joining his son Lane Kiffen at the University of Tennessee, many fans were left to wonder what the Bucs defense would do without their leader.

(On a side note,  Lane Kiffen is the only man on the planet who actually made Al Davis look sane.)

Personally, Kiffen's departure came about four years too late.

Let me ask you,  what do Matt Moore, Cody Pickett, Shaun Hill and Quinn Gray all have in common?

...besides the fact that you couldn't pick them out of line-up if any of the mugged you.

They all beat Monte Kiffen.

That's right. They are NFL quarterbacks who got over on the Bucs' defense. And who are they again?

When you start talking about Kiffen, saying anything critical will, at the very least, raise an eyebrow. At the very worst, it gets you a punch in the gut.

That being said, I think Kiffen was overrated as a defensive coordinator. But how can anyone call Monte Kiffen, the architect of the Cover/Tampa 2 defense, overrated?

It's not like the Bucs caught Tom Brady early in his career. These guys are career back-ups. If Kiffen is such a genius, how come he can't get a game plan together to beat them?

I'll give you some examples from the 2007 season:

• Against Jacksonville, Quinn Gray, filling in for an injured David Garrard, completed 7-of-16 passes for 100 yards. That's a 46.3% completion percentage. Gray in his first start, on the road, against a top Bucs defense handed off to Fred Taylor, Labrandon Toefield, and Maurice Jones-Drew for 128 yards of offense. Instead of loading up the box and taking away the run, Kiffen stays back, relying on his overmatched front four and failed to stop the run. The Bucs lost 24-23.
• Against Houston, Sage Rosenfels, filling in for an injured Matt Schaub, completed 75% of his passes. He was a 10 for 17 on third down conversions as well. It was Rosenfels second start of the season and he was darn near perfect despite not having a running game to support him. Unlike the Jaguar game, the Texans WERE one dimensional - Darius Walker and Ron Dayne averaged 2.7 YPC on 23 touches. With no threat of a run, Rosenfels sat back and picked the Bucs apart.
• The Bucs traveled to San Francisco to take on the 49ers but lost to the heir-apparent to Joe Montana, Shaun Hill. Hill tossed three touchdown passes and only completed 11-of-24 passes, but the Bucs D is not able to stop Frank Gore who ran for 89 yards. Hill is a seven year veteran who played in exactly one game in his career and did not attempt a pass - ever.
• In the final game of the season, Matt Moore and the Carolina Panthers beat the Bucs 31-23. Moore, in his third start, spent most of the day unhurried as the Bucs back-ups were unable to touch or hurry him. Moore completed 15-of-24 passes for 174 yards. The Bucs didn't stop the run giving up 180 yards to the Panthers and Moore's rather pedestrian day was enough. Moore was so unheralded as a quarterback that ESPN.com did not have a picture on his player profile and listed his height and weight as "0'0"" and "0 lbs."

Four winnable games against four less-than-impressive quarterbacks who were all facing what the Bucs marketing department would tell you is a fearsome NFL defense. All four came away with victories. And while it is true that Carolina and San Francisco faced a lot of the Bucs' back-ups, Kiffen can't scheme to beat these guys? Why not?

Winning these four games makes the Bucs 13-3 and vying for a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Maybe the Bucs let Galloway, Hilliard, and Garcia rest and put up a better fight against the Giants. But they lost all three games. These were gimmies - tap ins, if you will.

And it's not just 2007. In Week 5 of the 2005 season, Vinny Testeverde prepared for the Bucs in one week after the Jets coaxed him out of retirement. Testeverde attempted 19 passes and no picks with no training camp, preseason, or warm-up game. Facing the Niners in 2005, a team with the 31st ranked offense, Cody Pickett and Ken Dorsey combined to beat the Bucs 15-10. The Bucs gave up 158 rushing yards and forced no turnovers. The Bucs also couldn't force Kyle Orton into an interception in a 13-10 loss. Orton, who lost his job to Rex Grossman (how bad are you when Rex Grossman is considered an "upgrade?") couldn't be coaxed into an errant throw by the Bucs D. There's three more wins to tack on to a 10-6 season. There's another bye in the playoffs. The Bucs might have had a good shot to get to a second Super Bowl and beat a Steelers team that needed two awful ref calls to beat a very underwhelming Seahawks team.

This is the difference between "good" and "great." Nine, ten wins... it sounds nice. Twelve, fourteen wins means you are something special.

But yet, Monte Kiffen can't come up with a scheme to figure out the Quinn Grays and Kyle Ortons? Why?

Well for one, Kiffen hated blitzing. The Cover 2 defense is predicated on the fact that the front four gets pressure on the quarterback on their own. Assuming an offense doesn't keep a tight end in to block, that's five guys blocking four. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if your four are going to get by their five, your four better be studs. One guy will get double-teamed so the other three are left to beat one-on-one blocking. The Bucs D hasn't had those studs since MacFarland, Sapp, Rice, and Spires played together.

Despite the depletion of a defensive line that could pressure the quarterback on its own, Kiffen basically pretended like he still had that talent.

But blitzing isn't going to help the Bucs if the quarterback doesn't have to throw the ball. When faced with these pedestrian quarterbacks, Kiffen very rarely dropped a safety into the box to help stuff the run.

Bottom line: Kiffen failed to make adjustments when adjustments were needed. He failed consistently.

Was he that concerned with the arm strength and prowess of Kyle Orton? Of Shaun Hill? Matt Moore? Are you kidding?

If Kiffen was the genius he was made out to be, he would think that Kiffen would abandon the Tampa 2 in favor of something that might, oh, I don't know, rattle Matt Moore. How hard would have that have been?

The Bucs have had a top 10 defense for over a decade. Because of that stability, Kiffen gets an awful lot of respect. But look at the forest for the trees. Some of the NFL's bottom-dwellers have gotten over on Kiffen. Seasons that could very well have ended as 14 and 13 win seasons ended up as 9 and 10 win season. Rather than sitting home in the first week of the playoffs, the Bucs sat home for all of the playoffs.

The MGM Grand has the Bucs as a 40-to-1 shot to win the Super Bowl. Maybe I'm drinking the Kool Aid, but I like hearing that new defensive coordinator Jim Bates plans to keep the 4-3 defense, but wants to more man-to-man, press coverage on the outside with more blitzing and defensive tackles who play more heads-up on the guard and center.

I say bring it. Bring the house. Get after people. have the attitude that "we're coming after you." Mike Tyson once said, "Every boxer has a plan until they get punched." Well, Bates sounds like he wants to punch first.

Maybe the future is a little brighter. Enough "good." Bring on the "great."

Hey guys. I don't know if you guys are big fans of Twitter or not. I just recently started trying it out but I did manage to find a few Buccaneers on there. The only two current players I was able to find were Earnest Graham and EJ Biggers. Warren Sapp and Warrick Dunn both also have accounts though. There are quite a few players from around the NFL on there. I was able to find Peyton Manning, T.O., Champ Bailey, Shawn Merriman, Jason Witten, and last but certainly not least Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson. Be careful if you start following him though because the dude literally "tweets" every couple of minutes. Within minutes of following him he took up my whole screen with asinine, rambling tweets. You would think the dude would want to be training for the upcoming season. haha. Well I put this up here to let you guys know that you can follow some of the players if you want to. Also: if anyone knows other players that have Twitter accounts please feel free to tell us in the comments section.

One of the overlooked factors in any team's season is how the relative strength of their opponents can affect their records.  It stands to reason that if you are a mid-level team and play the bottom of the barrel teams, this should inflate your record, given that you are playing lesser teams.  Same holds true if you play only elite teams, your record would probably indicate you are worse than you truly are, given the level of competition.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rolled into last season with a strength of schedule (SOS) that fell somewhere in the middle of the league.  One major caveat to strength of schedule as it is viewed before the season starts; it's completely based on the prior year's results.  This doesn't account for surprise teams or any deviation from the previous year.  For example, in 2008, most of Miami's opponents, based on strength of schedule, saw an easier run during the year.  Miami had been a doormat in 2007, going 1-15.  So every team that faced them had a strength of schedule brought down by Miami's 2007 season.  Obviously, Miami did much better in 2008, giving their opponents a much more difficult challenge than their SOS would indicate.

To clear up any discrepancies, SOS is calculated by taking all opponents wins and dividing by total games, thus giving you the win percentage of the respective team's opponents.  The Bucs SOS going into 2008 was .469.  The teams they were facing were collectively under .500 in 2007 which was good for the 19th hardest schedule. 

The schedule ended up being a bit more difficult by looking at 2008 results.  By calculating the win % based on a completed 2008 season the Buc's schedule had a win % or SOS of .480, slightly higher than projected.  What does this mean?  Truthfully, it shows the schedule was a bit more difficult than anticipated, but nothing egregious.  The Bucs were helped by playing the second worst division in football (the AFC West, second only to the NFC West).  I'll cover a more in-depth look at the schedule later, but want to come back to SOS and the 2009 season.

The Bucs have the 4th hardest schedule going into the year with a .580 SOS.  The NFC South actually has the toughest go of it this year, with each team in the NFC South falling in the top 8 with respect to SO (Carolina is 2nd with .592, Atlanta is 4th with .588 and New Orleans is 8th with .557).

How will the Bucs fare?  this obviously depends on too many factors to list.  For what its worth, Pittsburgh apparently had the toughest schedule last year (.598 pre-season, .519 after 2008 season) and still went to and won the Super Bowl, proving that SOS is not a predictive tool, more of a media tool to create conversation.

The SOS should be taken with a grain of salt.  It is based on the thought that each team will perform exactly similar to the year prior, which is very unlikely to happen.  It also doesn't figure home/road games and how teams perform historically in those venues.  We all know that the Bucs haven't fared well in cold weather, but there is no increase/decrease in our SOS to compensate for any late season cold weather games.  SOS is merely a representation of how a season would play out in a controlled environment, which doesn't exist in the football universe.

In the end, SOS can give you a glimpse into a season, but hardly tells the whole story.  The true story can come from looking back after the season and seeing how your team fared based on that respective season.  We know going into 2009 that the road appears tough (.580), but we won't know how difficult (or easy) our schedule is until the season is completed. 

http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2009/06/29/bucs-gm-says-team-would-prefer-josh-freeman-sit-and-learn-early/

I'll have to trust Niko's magic 8 ball prediction for McCown, because Leftwich will only slow this offense down.  I just don't get it.  Stafford will probably start and his team is horrible, Sanchez will start and he only started 19 games for USC...(Sigh) I need a valium.  We will see this kid at some point this season.

The 2008 season produced similar results in the passing game when compared to past years.  Our #1 Wide Receiver was the focus of our QB, eliciting more than double the targets of closest Bucs receiver.  There were some sensational grabs, down the field plays, and a highlight play for the world to see.  The difference?  The name on the back of the jersey read Bryant, not Galloway. 

Antonio Bryant, a Pitt product, a mercurial receiver who has bounced around the league due to perceived attitude problems and drug/drinking issues took a giant leap back onto the NFL landscape in 2008 with a productive season for the offensively challenged Buccaneers.  He totaled 83 receptions for 1,248 yards and 7 touchdowns.  This ranked him 11th in receptions, 8th in yards and T12 in touchdowns.  A banner year for anyone, but particularly for a guy we scraped from the trash heap.  Bryant’s 2008 season is remarkably similar to 2005 Galloway and 2003 McCardell.  This season also put Bryant’s name high on the Buc’s leader board, with the T5 total in receptions, 4th best in yards behind names like Carrier and Me-shawn in the Buc's annals.

Even more impressive was his ability to catch the ball. This seems like a simple task for a player who makes his living doing this, but as my previous article showed, AB performed better than most in this category.

The question now becomes not what did we have, but what do we have.  What can Bryant do in year 2 donning a Buccaneers uniform?  Can he repeat his career year?  Can he continue to find some of the magic that was on display as the only bright spot in Carolina?  A look back at his previous years shows some startling numbers.

 2008 obviously stands out as his career year.  The other 5 seasons (2007 was a N/A as Bryant was on the sideline due to legal issues) are pedestrian as far as what you would want to see from a #1 receiver.  No individual season stands out.  In fact, some might point to his motivation to A) get paid and B) re-establish himself as a player in the NFL as to why he performed so well in 2008.  This is probably part of the equation, though only AB himself knows this.  The talent has been there, but it takes desire, work ethic, and a team to make a player great.  As a former 2nd round pick and Biletnikoff winner as a sophomore, the talent was there.  Perhaps he expected immediate NFL success or after securing a sizable contract, the desire and work ethic faded.

His re-emergence may have come from a different avenue, having a coach who gave him a chance and catered to him.  Without being privy to locker room conversations, and on the field discussions, this is all just hypothesized, but Bryant was dismissed from two teams, the 2004 Dallas Cowboys and the 2006 San Fran 49ers due to clashes with head coaches (Parcells and Nolan).  Gruden is/was more laid back than either of these guys in terms of being a disciplinarian and "father figure".  Any human being will tell you that more times than not, when someone gives you a chance after no one else does, you tend to try a bit harder.  Can you measure that?  Not in a way that I know of, but Bryant's desire to get back in the game, Gruden's ability to look the other way on past character issues, and a scheme that targets one primary receiver all led to a big year.  Can this be re-produced in 2009?

I expect to see a decline in Bryant's numbers for two reasons.  1) We will become a run heavy offense.  More running plays = less opportunities to catch passes (though it should open up the field).  2) The addition of a playmaking tight end/wide receiver.  More playmakers typically means the ball is spread around.  Bryant and Winslow should help each other out in terms of drawing coverage and freeing up zones.  A decline in Bryant's numbers won't necessarily mean he has regressed; it could be a product of several things, including the two listed above.

There are still some question marks surrounding Bryant.  Has he put past issued behind him?  Can he co-exist with a coach and a young QB?  Will he be able to handle another high profile name on the offense?  Can our young QB's (assuming they start) get him the ball?  Having made his way back into the NFL circle, will he still have the chip on his shoulder?

As Bryant saunters into the 2009 season, perhaps we as fans will get the best of him again.  He is, after all, on another one year deal (though it's a bit higher from his 08 pay, $605,000 to $9,884,000).  If he can continue on his "team first" path, accept his role in the offense, and look to capitalize on his opportunities, Bryant should lead the Bucs offensive attack again and produce another great year from the former Pittsburgh Panther. 

* As a side note, Bryant has played with current Buc’s QB’s for 4 regular season games.  All came with the Browns and Luke McCown.  In those 4 games, McCown and Bryant hooked up for 16 catches, 197 yards and 2 TD’s

Buccaneers Inform Jeff Garcia That No Team Ever Wanted Him

TAMPA BAY, FL—Shortly after ending a two-year relationship with Jeff Garcia, the Buccaneers front office notified its former quarterback that no NFL organization had in fact ever wanted or needed the 38-year-old. "It was hard to see that look on his face, but he needed to learn that no team—not even the Bears—could imagine a future with him," said owner Malcolm Glazer. "We were only stuck with Jeff for this long because nobody better was available." Glazer, who said the decision to make a clean break came after consideration of Garcia's arm strength, height, freckles, and male pattern baldness, admitted the Buccaneers only pursued the quarterback to see if it made other free agents interested in the team.

Naturally Garcia signed with the Raiders....officially ending his career.

For those of you who didn't get it, this was a little satire on my part. I don't know how else to spend this off season and make it go by faster.

Yahoo Sports yesterday, published a report that the Buccaneers were one of five teams to contact Plaxico Burress this week.  The Yahoo report describes the phone call as exploratory and was mainly to “check on Burress’ well being.”  The checking in on his well being part is quite laughable, but we’ll for this excercise take the phone call as a serious inquiry into signing Burress. This is according to Burress' agent Drew Rosenhaus. According Rosenhaus, via his Twitter account, Burress now has five NFL teams interested in him. And that list, according to Rosenhaus, could become even longer soon, Profootballtalk.com reported.

First and foremost, the legal issues that Plaxico faces from gun charges in NY are the most important factor in any team signing him, the Bucs or anyone else for that matter.  I have read lately that his lawyers are trying to reach a plea deal with the district attorney’s office.  Let us also assume for this that Plaxico ends up with a probation and community service type of plea bargain and serves no actual jail time. I mean he may be an idiot, but he didn't kill anybody (or animals).

Regardless of his eventual deal with the state/district attorney’s office, Plax is almost certain to face some punishment from Commisioner Roger Goodell.  Burress is most likely looking at somewhere in between 4 and 8 games.  Let’s say he ends up with an 8 game suspension, stays on good behavior and gets his suspension cut to 6 games.  

The availability of a player who had such an impact on a team winning the Super Bowl two years ago is something that every team would be looking at if Burress wasn’t such a head case.  He is though, and that is something that every team, including the Bucs would need to take into consideration if they were to sign him.  His production on the field though, can not be disputed.  In 3 full seasons with the NY Giants, him and Eli Manning connected for 29 touchdowns.  Everyone just assumed that Eli Manning had become a great quarterback during this time, but with Burress out last year, Manning looked average, and in my opinion, that’s is just what he is.  Burress ability to stretch the defense vertically on go routes, run routes to perfection, catch just about anything thrown his way and mostly his ability to be a huge redzone target was key to the so called “progression” of young Elisha Nelson Manning.

If the Bucs plan were to let Luke McCown or Byron Leftwich captain the ship this year while rookie Josh Freeman learns the ropes, than signing Burress to me seems to be a no brainer.  The tandem of Antonio Bryant and Burress coupled with the arm strength of both McCown and Leftwich would make our offense downright scary. Add in the deep running back corps, Kellen Winslow and our young impressive line, and the Bucs would have the chance to be a top tier offensive team. I think everyone is overexaggerating the loss of the older players on our defense, because if I remember correctly, most of the pundits felt this was our downfall defensively last season. We have old guys and we are too old, we get rid of them, and now most people think we have no defense.  Our secondary is one of the young bright secondaries in the league.  Barrett Ruud, Quincy Black/Angelo Crowell and Jermaine Phillips/Geno Hayes is a more than competent group of linebackers and if the defensive line can get some more pressure on the QB we have the chance to be as good as we have at any point during the last decade. People forget that until we lost to the Panthers in Week 14, the Bucs were the number 2 ranked defense in the league.  

On the other hand, if the plan is for Freeman to play, I think this would be a terrible signing by us.  I loved how Antonio Bryant behaved last year, but the combination of Bryant, Winslow and Burress is a frightening thought for me in regards to a rookie QB and his psyche.  Three guys who demand the ball and aren’t afraid to act out when they don’t get their way isn’t really the way you want to “raise” a quarterback in this league.  

It’s an interesting pickle for our team in all honesty, and one if it were to happen, will probably tell you the direction in which the front office and the new coaching staff feel this team is headed for the upcoming season. I, for one, hope we sign Plax. I'd have no problem seeing 17 setting of cannons. So please Raheem, let Plax walk the plank...

  This is my very first time speaking my mind to my fellow buccaneers fan's. I love this team so much it makes me sick at times. I love my team and i'm not one of those people that have low confidence. I believe in my team and my head coach, and i trust the owners. They know what there doing. They would'nt own manchester united and the bucs and many other businesses if they didn't know what they were doing. I love Raheem and Marc. I believe in there vision of what the Bucs should be.

            After that horrific December, and the end of the season plus the super bowl ending in tampa bay with the steelers winning with former bucs ass. coach Mike tomlin, love the man. Now fast forward to June 27, 2009 the Bucs season starts in  nearly one month i repeat myself one month. When training camp starts and the pads come on, man that gets me going. We see who is for real and who was just all show and no play. This preseason actually has me waiting in suspense I can't wait to see who win's the QB job. I can't I mean i can't wait to see how D. Ward looks in that Pewter and Red, and the same with Winslow 2.

        I am really happy with the way the team is going. I think it was time for change plus it was a positve change. I think we are going to see alot more of willing to do the dirty things to win out of all are player more than what we are used to. I just think that the players are going to want to play for Morris. Plus he has surrounded himself with great teachers on offense and defense. We as fans are going to see alot of new names being said alot more then what we are used too.

         Players that i look up to and i want to see play good on defense are T. Jack, Sabby, Gaines, Ronde, Ruud, Jimmy W., Talib, Dre Moore, and E mack.

          Players that i know who already ball on offense are A.B, D. Ward, K2, M. Clayton, J. Steve, Cliff Smith my boy #22, Freeman i hope, the whole o-line, plus i can't forget Earn-it Graham, Carnell williams i hope you come back man and have a positive year without injuries. Luke god bless you. Leftwich please don't bring the ball that low when you realese the ball. Its stupid why do it.

         I thank you all who read this far. I bleed Pewter and  Red. I will be cheering from my grave. I love the bucs and lets go out and have a great year, and support our team no matter what.                                           TAMPA<---------  --------------> BAY. Love that shit...