Welcome To The New Offseason, Same As The Old Offseason

March 10, 2009 at 10:31am by Scott   •  6 Comments »

Let’s see how long this internet connection lasts.

Despite the entirely new front office and coaching staff, this offseason is pretty much the same as last year. The team made a big splash on opening day: last year with Jeff Faine and this year with Kellen Winslow. And then after that, smaller signings of role players and free agents whose names you think you remember but aren’t exactly sure. Last year Warrick Dunn and Antonio Bryant were a couple of those guys. Dunn was supposed to be out of gas and Bryant was supposed to be an asshole — neither turned out to be true. This year, despite another glaring lack of fireworks, we could be in for some more pleasant surprises.

In my mind, the Bucs signed three of the best players available at their positions: Antonio Bryant, Derrick Ward and Jermaine Phillips. Seriously, can you name a better wide receiver, running back or safety that was available in free agency? Mike Nugent may be able to put some points on the board in areas where Matt Bryant couldn’t — like anywhere past the 40. There’s still a lot of work to do, especially on the DEFENSIVE LINE, and I don’t know why they’re waiting so long to address it. But the offseason isn’t the complete trainwreck that a lot of people are making it out to be.

Still, it’s disappointing to see so much cap space go to waste, especially considering the pain everyone went through a few years ago when the Bucs were pressed up against that cap ceiling and had to try to make something out of nothing. It would be nice to be able to experience the opposite of that — the same feeling the fans of the Giants or the Redskins must be feeling now. We had heard a lot about re-signing a lot of the Bucs’ own players so they didn’t get into the market, but that was only true for Luke McCown and Ryan Sims. Everyone else made it out into big, bad free agency. To the Bucs’ credit, only two of those guys was signed by another team: Jovan Haye was signed by Tennessee and Phillip Buchanon went to Detroit. But I had been hearing from several sources (both published and not) that Buchanon was a top priority. How did he decide to go to the worst team in the league and spend much of the next year in a city that has been desimated economically, when he was supposed to be a priority for the Bucs with all this cap room and a need at the position? That’s the part that worries me.

It’s obvious the Glazers are holding on to much of their money. Whether they’re strapped because of the United or just being prudent in a weak economy, I’m not sure. No one else is, either, so don’t let the fuckers on the airwaves try to convince you that the Glazers are abandoning their real football team for the one where the guys wear those gay shorts. No, I’m concerned because they are playing dangerous games with the players that actually mean something to the team. Phillips could have easily been signed away and his absence would have weakened the team (sorry, Sabby) at least in the short run. This is Barrett Ruud‘s last contracted year. Same with Antonio Bryant. Same with Jeremy Trueblood. There may be another one I’m forgetting, but how are they going to treat these “priorities” next season, especially if next season really is uncapped? I’d like to believe that there is some great plan in place to hold on to the key guys and that all the ones that get away are by design. But I think there is at least a little bit of evidence that they are rolling dice and seeing what happens.