Captain Freeman

September 08, 2010 at 09:58am by Scott   •  3 Comments »

The Buccaneers have announced team captains for the 2010 season. Anwar Richardson was the first to report them on Twitter.

Anwar: #Bucs captains for this upcoming season are Jeff Faine, Josh Freeman, Ronde Barber, Barrett Ruud and Andrew Economos #NFL

Ruud, Barber and Faine aren’t surprises at all. Economos is a little weird since he’s only in on kicking plays. You’d think the special teams captain would be someone who was in on coverage, too, but Economos has been around a while and I guess he’s earned everyone’s respect, so that’s cool.

But for Freeman to get voted a captain by his teammates in his second season, especially since he only started nine games in his rookie year, is huge. It’s a testimony to all the work he put in in the offseason and the leadership skills he has demonstrated. Davin Joseph could have easily been the other offensive captain. Cadillac Williams, Earnest Graham… all those guys have been around longer and are all leaders and motivators in their own right. But they picked Freeman and that’s awesome. I would give Freeman a thumbs-up in approval, but I don’t want him thinking I’m making fun of him.

Steve White Says Barrett Ruud Is Good

August 25, 2010 at 01:09pm by Scott   •  9 Comments »

I better hope Steve White doesn’t start posting pictures of hot chicks or making hooker jokes because then I’ll have no reason to exist.

In the latest entry on his blog, White makes the argument that Barrett Ruud is actually doing very well and that, despite everyone shouting him down for making his tackles too far downfield, that is often a position he is forced into. White breaks down four specific plays in detail. And by “detail”, I don’t mean down and distance. He knows where everyone’s assignments are and what they did right and wrong on each of them and spells it out. The last one is the most interesting, which I will quote here in an edited fashion:

On the third drive the Chiefs ran a simple one back zone play. The ball started strong and then cutback. They didn’t have a safety in the box so they still should have slow played it a little and then ran through their gaps.

Geno Hayes, as he is wont to do, instead flew right through his gap. Unfortunately the guard blocked him. Barrett read it correctly and started towards his strongside A gap. The problem was that Roy Miller slipped and fell down so he wasn’t in position to make the tackle when the ball cut back in his weakside A gap. Now had Barrett run through his strongside A gap as Geno ran through his backside B gap, the running back would have had a clean look at our safety about 7 or 8 yards up the field and would only have to beat him for a major gain. Instead Barrett throttled it down, came back and helped make the tackle.

White’s conclusion is the best part of the entry and echos what I’ve been saying for a while now.

Now some folks will look at that play and say “Look at Barrett making plays 5 yards down the field again” never realizing that he was doing his job AND somebody else’s job so that we didn’t end up having a breakout run against our defense.

As the middle linebacker in a Tampa 2, Barrett has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. Part of that responsibility is to evaluate the play to make sure he doesn’t have to drop into coverage before he hits his hole. Part of it is to make sure everyone else is in their spots and knows their assignments. And part of it is to look good with his long hair and scruffy beard. By all accounts from people who know (part of White’s larger point), Ruud is doing all those things well. He doesn’t destroy runners like Ray Lewis does (or did) but few do. People who continue to hate on Ruud in the face of experienced evidence to the contrary either have something personal against him or are just being thick.

REAR ENTRIES: Bow Chicka Wow Wow

August 18, 2010 at 10:58am by Scott   •  1 Comment »

GREG WHITE’S MANCRUSH: I’m not the only one. Greg White has got his, too, and I never said anything quite like this.

Barrett looks like a rock star with the long hair. He wears tight jeans and tight cut off shirts. It looks good on him. I could never pull that off.

“Oh, but how I’d like to pull that off, if you know what I mean.” My god, all that’s missing is the cheesy music and a flimsy reason for White to overcome his inhibitions. *ding dong* And who’s that at the door? A ripped and oiled pizza boy in short shorts?

NO, BUT SERIOUSLY, GREG KNOWS ABOUT THE RUNNING GAME: In the same piece, Greg talks about the runs up the middle being a weakness for the defensive line.

We did an okay job of shutting down the run, but we can do better. Those runs by Ronnie Brown up the middle don’t sit well with us. We have to get better. It wasn’t good enough.

So he’s aware of the poor performance and lack of penetration and will do his best to improve next time, which is pretty much the same thing I said to every chick I’ve had sex with.

HOLDER PREDICTS SAMMIE STARTING: Because of Raheem Morris‘s comments about Sammie Stroughter and Reggie Brown, Stephen Holder predicts that Stroughter will start on opening day.

“In the preseason, we kind of know what we’ve got in Sammie,” Morris said. “And Sammie probably can give you more. We want to see about Reggie a little bit. We want to see about some of these guys we don’t know as well, Arrelious Benn and some of those people. . . You don’t want to play Sammie too much.”

I think those comments indicate a level of confidence in Stroughter, but I don’t know that it’s enough to say that he’s going to start. And it probably doesn’t matter. Wide receivers will be switched in and out based on the situation and Strougher will certainly get a lot of work. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Mike Williams and Maurice Stovall get the first snap of the regular season, but that’s just a hunch.

HERE’S HOW YOU DO IT, JOE: Joe Henderson, a paid reporter, wrote an article about how Gerald McCoy‘s performance in the Miami game wasn’t flashy, but it still showed promise. And then Steve White, a former defensive end, wrote the same thing, except about 100 times better and for free.

The only point I’m making is that had it been Ryan Sims or any other undertackle on the team they would have gotten double teamed on the same plays too. So the double teams in and of themselves were not all that impressive.

Ha! I read that yesterday and hadn’t looked back at it until right now, and evidently Steve also noticed Joe’s angle on the story and didn’t agree with it.

Update: Whoops Looks like Joe Henderson needs to be reading Passing On The Game

Any Bucs fan who enjoys more than just a cursory overview does. Any of the local papers would do well to hire Steve as a Bucs analyst.

WE REALLY HAVE A BLACKOUT: Everyone is making a big deal about this blackout, and I guess it is since it’s the first one since 1997, but keep your pants on, people. Oh no! You might miss Chris Brooks dropping a pass on a crossing pattern! It’s a preseason game and NFL Network will show it after the fact anyway. Go do something normal on your Saturday night, which if you’re reading this site, I guess means to play video games in your mom’s basement until your eyes melt or print out fake lap dance coupons to take to 2001 or bark for four hours and then bomb at the Chuckle Hut or something.

Since it’s already cliche to post the Scorpions’ song in honor of this occasion, here’s Halford (not Judas Priest) doing a cover of it. So we started this post with gay innuendo and ended on actual gay. Or, as I like to call it, Wednesday.

Preseason Game 1: Dolphins

August 15, 2010 at 03:29pm by Scott   •  8 Comments »

Thanks to everyone who hung out in the chat for the game last night We probably had about 20 different people in and out for the duration. It was a good time and think we can all agree on one thing: Derrick Ward should be waiting tables. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Quarterback play was exactly where you might expect it to be. Josh Freeman looked pretty awesome. He was 4 for 4 on the first drive and had that sweet pass to Mike Williams on the second, a spectacular play by both guys. Josh Johnson looked like dog shit. He threw high and behind all night, fumbled, and caught his own batted pass which almost never works. The only thing he does well is runs. Rudy Carpenter looked like slightly less dog shit, but with a much weaker arm. Even when he makes the right decision, the ball takes so long to get to the receiver that the defender has time to close. We had a discussion about depth on the chat toward the end of the game and quarterback is undeniably in a terrible depth position.

Cadillac Williams looked strong and had no problem cutting on those knees. Derrick Ward was fucking awful and no one would miss him if he was abducted by aliens. Kareem Huggins has all the speed that has been advertised and, based on this preseason game, needs to be the #2 running back. Somehow, holes that Ward just couldn’t find were right there for Huggins.

Earnest Graham looked great as a lead blocker.

Mike Williams is as advertised. Fast, good feet, good hands. I didn’t see that elusiveness that Arrelious Benn is supposed to have, at least not on the end-around. I’m guessing Mike Nolan is a regular reader of this site and knew that the Bucs were going to use Benn in that way. Micheal Spurlock is likely in the lead for the first non-lock receiver position, ahead of Terrence Nunn or Chris Brooks or any of those other guys. Preston Parker showed up okay, but the best he can hope for is the practice squad.

Jeremy Zuttah looked outmatched on all but a couple plays he was in. When he was in at center, he never looked comfortable after the snap and Keydrick Vincent was better than him at left guard. Jonathan Compas looked like hell at guard, but all right at center. Maybe the o-line backups aren’t as versatile as we think. Everyone else on the starting offensive line looked pretty good after the first series. The third-string offensive line looked better than the second-stringers, especially in the running game. It could be that Huggins was making them look better than they were, but there were definitely holes being opened. Lots of penalties: holding, false start… that shit has to stop. James Lee was good as Donald Penn‘s backup. Xavier Fulton better watch out.

Meet the new defensive line — same as the old defensive line. It was only the first preseason game, but the starters were having trouble stopping the runs up the middle and were doing fine shutting them down to the outside. I remember one good play by Gerald McCoy, but otherwise I wasn’t impressed. To be fair, he was being double-teamed a good deal. Michael Bennett looked very good as a backup — constantly in the backfield. Tim Crowder also had a good game. As the game went on, the defensive line got pushed back pretty bad. There was one series in particular where it looked like Tyler Thigpen was moving the offense at will against them.

Barrett Ruud was in on some stops, but also missed a tackle or two. If the defensive line is the same as they were last year, Ruud isn’t going to look much better than he did, either. Geno Hayes showed up big in the first quarter and looks like he has great instincts. And I really like Dekoda Watson. These FSU linebackers might amount to something.

I had all but written off E.J. Biggers, but he was the star of the secondary last night and made a hell of a case to be considered for the nickel spot last night. He had some key tackles on Ricky Williams and a fumble recovery. He held up in coverage last night against Brandon Marshall, but it’s hard to tell if that was because of Biggers or Marshall. But compared to Elbert Mack last night, Biggers is in the prime spot for the nickel job.

Cody Grimm has been the star at camp, but Corey Lynch did his thing in special teams again last night. He also had some nice stops in the secondary. I just don’t know how you keep this kid off your team, even if it’s just on special teams. Sabby Piscitelli was, again hot and cold. Great stops on a couple plays and also a HUGE personal foul at a critical time. Sean Jones was more consistent. Solid but nothing spectacular last night.

Great punting from Brent Bowden (hears “Crazy Train” in the background) and a good kickoff from Connor Barth. Hunter Lawrence missed his only field goal, but that couldn’t possibly matter any less.

Okay, anyone who watched the game last night, let’s hear what you think.

Roster Breakdown: Linebackers

August 13, 2010 at 02:19pm by Scott   •  No Comments »

Barrett Ruud: Lock. Looking good both in coverage and on blitzes. Groin tweak kept him out of a couple practices, but he seems to be full speed again. Also, I highly recommend the Groin Tweak at your local Asian massage parlor.

Quincy Black: Lock. Has re-dedicated himself to the program after admittedly coasting (8:07) through his first couple years. May be the best overall athlete on the team. Can keep up with wide receivers without a problem. He has been used in several blitz packages. May still be scraping pieces of Preston Parker off his shoe.

Geno Hayes: Lock. Gets in the backfield fast. Has had a couple missed tackles, but I can’t tell if it’s because of lack of wrapping up or because of the nature of the practice (or if the running back is just very strong). Very Derrick Brooks-ish in anticipating routes and cutting in front of them.

This will be the first year all three of these guys start at their positions for the entire year. If they can work together for a year or two and get instinctive in working off each other, I think they can be the dominant linebacking corps in the league. I’m not even joking.

Adam Hayward: Probably. Has had a good camp; I haven’t heard about him getting beaten. Played a ton of special teams and even a little at fullback.

Niko Koutouvides: 50/50. He’s playing mostly against the backups and has been blocked out of plays enough that he is on the bubble. Is a solid special teamer, though.

Jon Alston: Probably. Strong and can cause fumbles. Solid backup who has been getting a good amount of playing time with all units. Gets matched up against Kellen Winslow a lot, which may be a sign of confidence in him, but Winslow generally wins those battles.

Rico McCoy: Probably not. I can’t bear to put the meat tag on my guy from Tennessee, but Alston is simply having a much better camp. Rico has always played MLB and now he’s listed on the outside which I never thought was a good match. I’d love to see him on the practice squad for development.

Dekoda Watson: Almost lock. Great athlete, hard hitter and will provide good depth on the strongside, but will mostly play special teams. The coaching staff is said to be high on him.

Lee Robinson: Probably not. Good against the backups but not against the starters and not all that fast. If he had a little more speed, he’d be a nice swing linebacker who could backup at a couple different spots, but if I’m picking Watson to be the backup strongside, Robinson has to go.

Brookskakke

August 13, 2010 at 10:50am by Scott   •  1 Comment »

Here’s all the relevant articles about Derrick Brooks‘s retirement announcement yesterday all in one spot. Most everything else out there is just repeating the same stuff — he was in the Super Bowl, caught an interception in it, career stats, foundation work, etc.

News report covering the press conference.

Interview on Buccaneers.com with Brooks and Joel Glazer. Key quote of the interview is from Glazer: “He can walk through our front door any day.” Someone read Pat Yasinskas‘s story. Or mine. Probably mine. And just from Glazer’s tone when talking about the Ring of Honor, it sounds like Brooks will be the next one in.

NFL Network interview with Randy Moss (not that one). Brooks admits he was displeased at how he was released, not the fact that he was. Warren Sapp interjects that Brooks needs to be a soccer dad because it’s “in style”.

Retrospective article on Buccaneers.com.

Joe Henderson‘s article on Brooks. Brooks says he forgives the Bucs for the way things went down last year. “If God can forgive, who am I to say I can’t forgive?”

Ira Kaufman‘s article on how busy he is now. And something about Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Barrett Ruud and Shelton Quarles talk about Brooks.

Brooks discusses the differences between Raheem Morris and Tony Dungy. Is one of them winning percentage?

REAR ENTRIES: Salty Oatmeal

August 06, 2010 at 12:47am by Scott   •  5 Comments »

BUCS HAVE SALTY OATMEAL: Peter King is doing a cross-country tour of every training camp in the NFL. When you’re a crack reporter like King, you don’t mind all the plane travel and time away from your family to bring your readers the inside scoop they have come to expect. And in King’s case, he means scoops of raisins.

I had the oatmeal in the Bucs’ cafeteria. I’m an oatmeal expert, and this appeared to have the perfect consistency. I added a touch of brown sugar and a load of raisins (raisins on the bottom for three or four minutes, so the oatmeal would soften them up and make them juicier). Was really looking forward to it. But then the salt interfered. Would have been terrific oatmeal, but it was actually salty. Grade: D.

The oatmeal is all well and good, Peter, but what about the omelet bar? GOOD GOD MAN, YOU SAID NOTHING OF THE OMELET BAR. Leave it to King to give us the lowdown on food and come up empty on the actual, you know, training part of training camp.

Due to me having to be in New York by 3 p.m. for NBC Football Night in America meetings, I’m forced to eschew watching the Bucs’ practice today.

But at least he talked to people about the players’ ages. Did you know this team is young and building through the draft? Well, that’s the kind of insight Peter gives you on the Buccaneers. Now pass the fucking preserves, I have a bagel that’s too dry. And lord help you if you don’t have boysenberry.

PROS VS JOES: It’s a Buccaneer reunion on Pros Vs. Joes next week! Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn and Jeff Garcia take on two douchebags and a former Marine next Wednesday at 10:00. Here’s a preview of the episode. The Joes’ job is to score a touchdown from a couple yards out. Derrick Brooks is charged with the task of tackling the ball carrier. Think he can handle it?

The funniest part is the smack talk the Joes give Garcia when he comes out. They make fun of his stupid, balding head and call him grandpa and all the normal shit. He dishes it back a little, but not much. He’s perfectly content to sit back and wait it out patiently. That’s the quiet confidence of a man who goes home to this.

RUUD BY THE NUMBERS: Here’s a link I was forwarded for an article about Barrett Ruud‘s 2009 season as told by the Football Outsiders statistics. The article is written by “Sander”, who is probably the same Sander who comments on this site frequently, although he wasn’t the one who sent me the link. It’s an interesting analysis if you have the stomach for this many stats. And since I know most of you have the attention span of a retarded goldfish, here’s the bottom line.

Looking at all this data, I think the idea that middle linebackers suffer from poor D-line play is given some credence and that Ruud should not be held fully accountable for his tackles being so far down the field.

Since his conclusion agrees with what I’ve been saying all along, I completely endorse the article. But in fairness, when you get this deep into football statistics, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. This isn’t baseball where everyone is on an island and one player’s behavior can be reasonably isolated. They call football the ultimate team game and it’s true. So much of one player’s performance is dependent on everything else that’s happening on the field. A missed tackle is easy to see and tally, but if a linebacker looks out of position or seems late getting to the ball, there could be a hundred reasons why, many of which he has no control over. The article’s stats try to compensate for that, but even the guys at Football Outsiders can only go so far before their measurements become absurd. But it’s a great job by Sander to try and wrap his head around it and give a thorough, serious analysis to a Buccaneer topic that most analysts (especially the professional ones that get paid a lot of money) will gloss over with cliche and unsupported hearsay. Bravo.

Jeff Faine Has Opinions

August 03, 2010 at 11:34am by Scott   •  6 Comments »

I had no idea that Chris Harry was writing for Fanhouse. I stopped keeping with the Orlando Sentinel’s pathetic coverage of the Buccaneers a while ago, and now that I think about it, it was about the same time he left (last October). Harry has always been one of the top local guys who could get good and interesting interviews from high-profile players and I’m glad to rediscover him with this Jeff Faine interview.

The majority of the article is about the perception that the Glazers are cheap and Faine’s refutal of that.

“As a business owner, my heart wouldn’t have been open to giving out a lot of money, especially to guys who had been here and were part of that 3-13 team. So, it’s a tough situation, but I’m not ever going to say that ownership here is cheap.”

But the bombshell is Faine basically telling Barrett Ruud through the press to quit his bitching. It’s riveting.

“If you’re going to have issues with the last year of the contract, don’t sign the contract. I’m really tired of [that]. … This is me, as a player — and we’ve been taught [by the union] not to talk about the league and guys around the league — but as a player in that position [last year of his contract] , I came to camp, I did everything. I could have easily done the same thing and held out for an extension and wanted a new contract … but I signed the contract as a rookie and that was the last year of my contract. If I didn’t want a five-year contract, I should have signed a four-year contract.”

I find his position refreshing because it’s basically the same thing I think. It’s why I applauded Donald Penn‘s method of holding out — without a contract. But I’m not sure where Faine’s hostility comes from because Ruud did do everything. He came to all the OTAs and minicamp, he’s in camp right now, and he has said he’s going to give his best. And he played out his rookie contract just fine. He held out of the voluntary stuff last year, but that’s his prerogative per the CBA. Just because Ruud blew off some steam about his frustration doesn’t seem like a good reason to attack the guy.

More from Faine:

“Players complain when they get cut from a contract, but they don’t complain when they’re [under-producing] and already under contract. So it’s, ‘Hey, I’m already paying you $4 million this year — and you want more?’ You signed a contract.”

Mr. Faine needs to have a sit-down with Darrelle Revis and Chris Johnson.

There’s more in there on Faine’s opinions about the CBA, the proposed 18 game season, guaranteed contracts, etc. It’s gold. I want to marry this article. Bookmark Chris Harry’s stuff.

UPDATED: Barrett Ruud Speaks (And Speaks)

August 02, 2010 at 02:28pm by Scott   •  1 Comment »

So after I go and say how cool it is that Barrett Ruud is keeping quiet about his contract, he picks today to open up about it. He didn’t blow his top, but he made his feelings pretty clear.

“Obviously, I’m very disappointed,” Ruud said. “I’m not real happy about it. I’m very happy for Donald, very happy for Gerald (McCoy), very happy for all the guys who signed the last couple of years. But, definitely, it’s pretty frustrating on my end.”

Okay, that’s fine. That’s understandable. “Frustrating” is a good word. It doesn’t say that you’re going to throw the season, but it definitely expresses, umm, frustration. So, that’s it, right?

“You’d like the results to speak for themselves,” said Ruud, a second-round draft pick in 2005. “I think I’ve played pretty well for 48 games and I will play well for 72 games or whatever it’s going to be. I’m not going to stop playing well until I stop playing. You always want to be rewarded for your performance and that’s the bottom line.”

Well, this season makes 64 games that you’ll presumably start, but math isn’t important right now. And you’re right — you would like results to speak for themselves. And saying that you think you’ve played “pretty well” is an acknowledgment of your worth without making yourself sound like an arrogant prick, so score one there. The addition of a “keep on fighting” mentality is nice, and wrap it up with a “bottom line” statement that re-enforces the main point. Good job. *wipes off hands* Now we’re done.

“I don’t ever set any definite rules of any kind,” Ruud said. “As of now, I’m here working and kind of doing the same thing I’ve always done, just get a little bit better everyday. I’m going to keep letting my performance talk for me and whatever happens, happens.”

Just tell me when you’re finally through.

Ruud dismissed any talk that he would leave camp and become a holdout.

“I’m already here now,” Ruud said. “I’m here. I’m working. If I didn’t I wouldn’t tell you anyway.”

Ruud said that he wouldn’t necessarily have done anything different with regards to his situation as a restricted free agent.
“It’s too late for that,” Ruud said. “It has worked out like it has so far, which was frustrating for me.”

Done now? So I guess Barrett was saving all his words to just spew them out at once. But it’s an elephant in the room and he felt he had to address it, so fine. But now he has played this hand. Now he needs to ignore every other question about this and say he’s just concentrating on this season and getting better and whatever. If he goes on like this again, he’s going to come across as a whiner like Jeff Garcia did.

Why did Penn get a contract and not Ruud? There could be lots of reasons. The Bucs could think they have better depth at MLB than they do at LT, so they have more leverage. They could value the position of LT more than MLB. They could think it’s easier to replace a MLB than a LT. Or, frankly, they could think that Ruud isn’t good enough to lock in just yet.

That last one is a little hard to believe, especially since they waited until the seventh round to draft a linebacker, and Dekoda Watson is an outside linebacker, anyway. They got Rico McCoy, who is a MLB, as an undrafted rookie, and I happen to love him, but he’s had his share of injuries and at 220 pounds may not be an ideal fit. So if they thought Ruud was bad, you’d think they would have at least used a mid-round pick on a developmental guy. Unless they just really love Adam Hayward.

Okay, I think I’ve about exhausted this topic. Nothing is going to get done until the end of the season anyway, and I agree with the commenter who said that this would die down soon and Ruud would just get to business and worry about the contract later. You’ll know who the dicks in the media are when they continue to probe Barrett about his feelings on this as camp and the regular season continue. There’s nothing else that can really be done or said about it, so anyone who mentions it is really just trying to stir up shit and I hope Barrett shoves their voice recorders down their throats. God, I really hope Mike Florio asks Barrett about his feelings on Donald Penn’s contract.

UPDATE: Stephen Holder drops this little bit of info.

Linebacker Barrett Ruud considered walking out of training camp on the advice of his representatives but opted not to do so.

Ruud is simmering particularly because he was told in the spring of 2009 that an offer was forthcoming. That offer never materialized and Ruud staged an offseason holdout last summer as he went into the final season of his rookie contract.

…

Ruud briefly wrestled with the decision to pack it in after reporting for camp on Friday but decided it was too out of character for him to take such an action.

Holder doesn’t quote this — he’s just reporting it. Ruud just addressed the media and none of his quotes say anything about this, so I’d like to know Holder’s source here. He’s not usually one to report rumor as fact, so I’ll have to assume there are parts of Ruud’s quotes that I’m missing or he told this to Holder privately, which… seems weird. But anyway, the fact that he considered leaving camp but didn’t supports the position that he’ll probably get over this pretty quickly and this will become a non-issue until the end of the season.

UPDATE 2: Stephen Holder confirmed to me via Twitter that Ruud was not the source of the “almost walked out” comments.

Ruud didnt say it. A source did.

Sigh. “A source”. But I understand. A reporter can’t always reveal who he learns things from. But it would be nice to know if it was another player or an agent or a “Buccaneer official” or whatever. Ruud could have easily just said something to someone off the cuff in a half-joking manner and he never really seriously considered walking out, but whatever. For a story that I keep trying to close, this has dragged on to over 1,000 words now.

Selling The Drama

August 02, 2010 at 10:41am by Scott   •  7 Comments »

I’d like nothing more than to rip on the local media for their recent stories on the other RFAs’ reaction to Donald Penn‘s contract and paint them as anti-Buc by intentionally trying to be divisive, but it really is the obvious story here and it would be silly to ignore it. Speaking of ignoring it…

Barrett Ruud, who last year staged a boycott similar but not as lengthy as the one Penn staged this year, has politely refused to speak to the media since word of Penn’s deal came down. In a move largely out of character for him, he ran past reporters seeking comment Sunday, saying, “I got nothing for you guys.”

I wish more players and coaches would take Barrett’s approach and just shut the hell up sometimes. Ruud publicly supported Penn in his attempt to get paid, but he can’t possibly be happy that the Bucs chose to reward one guy and not another, especially when Ruud has done everything the right way. He could have refused to sign his tender and been in a pretty good position. Adam Hayward is a better backup than Demar Dotson, but he’s no Ruud. But he was a good soldier and signed and now the Glazers have all the leverage.

“We’re not going to manufacture drama,” Raheem Morris said. “With Barrett, he signed his tender and we decided to move on, me and him both. We’re at the point where we’re going to go race for 10 (wins) and let the chips fall where they may. He understands the process. He’s a grown man and he’s handling it.”

You don’t have to manufacture the drama, Raheem. It blossomed quite naturally and it’s going to linger all season long. If Ruud doesn’t play well this year, the Glazers are going to look like the smartest owners ever. If he does, it’s going to be awkward offering Ruud a new contract and trying to convince him that they knew all along that he was the man. I’m envisioning Ruud walking into Mark Dominik‘s office and Dominik holding out his arms saying, “Hey, buddy!” and Ruud’s facial expression never changing. Especially after Dominik said shit like this:

“I think in any organization, you have to look at somewhat of a pecking order in terms of what you’re going to do for your organization,” general manager Mark Dominik said.

There are only two ways to take that. 1) Left tackle is more valuable than middle linebacker or 2) Due to backup situations, we need Penn mor than we need Ruud. In either case, it’s the wrong message to be sending to the guy who is going to make all the calls on the defense. “Pecking order”? Really?

Later, Dominik added: “I think every situation is different in the National Football League. At the same time, you can look at it and say this is part of (our) plan. We have a foundation that we really like. It’s not just the draft classes from 2009 and 2010. We have players on this football team that we really like.”

“It’s just that Barrett isn’t one of them,” Dominik did not add but might as well have. Has no one on this team learned the art of coachspeak? Here, this one’s free: “We saw an opportunity to get a deal done with Donald, so we wanted to get him locked in long term, and we’re very happy to have that done. Whenever other opportunities present themselves to get extensions done with key members of this team, we’ll definitely pursue them.” See how that works? Nothing concrete, but it sounds optimistic, like you’d really like to do the deal if only there was an opportunity. Leave out that shit about pecking orders and which players you like. That way you don’t piss off guys who can pound you into an accordion with one punch, like Jeremy Trueblood.

“Right now, I don’t know what (Bucs management is) thinking and I really don’t care,” Trueblood said. “I just want to get ready for the season. You’d like to say (Penn’s signing is good for the rest of us), but I don’t (know) that. His relationship with the Bucs has nothing to do with mine.”

Give Trueblood credit for not flying off the handle and going all bald-Hulk on everyone. He has been at this longer than Penn, started 61 of 63 games over the last four years, and probably feels like he has done just as much as Penn to earn an extension. He hasn’t, of course. Penn has been better in just about every way, but that’s not the point here. He came across as slightly frustrated, and that will do just fine.

Unlike Penn, the Bucs’ other RFAs all signed the one-year tender the Bucs offered them and are under contract for the 2010 season. Their futures are uncertain, however, and Morris said the fact that the Bucs’ decision may make them angry workers could be good for the team.

Are you ready for this?

“I hope so,” Morris said when asked if the Bucs’ stance on contracts will make the other RFAs angry workers. “I want all of them to be angry workers. That’s when you get the best out of yourself.”

He goes on to give an example of how Ronde Barber was always angry because he felt underdrafted and underappreciated and that’s why he did so well. It had nothing to do with skill or intelligence — it was all anger.

“I like the angry worker mentality. It transitions nice into a heck of a game-day player.”

You can’t be this simple. There’s a difference between angry and motivated. Sometimes a dose of anger can inspire some motivation and then maybe good things happen. But much of the time, anger is just anger and leads to sloppy play, penalties, ejections, injuries… lots of negative shit. Everybody is different. Some players need to feel like their job is in constant jeopardy in order to motivate them to play well. Other guys need to feel wanted — Penn said that specifically about himself the other day. If they feel you’re not on their side, they will be less inclined to play hard for you. And some guys don’t give a shit either way and just want to play ball. That’s why being a head coach is so hard. You have to be able to tell the difference and treat each player accordingly so as to get the most out of them. If you want a bunch of angry players, lace all their lunches with gun powder for week and you’ll have it, but I don’t think you’ll like the results.

Whatever happens, we’re all probably going to have to wait until January for it. I’d bet money that the Glazers aren’t going to hand out any more extensions until the end of the season. And by then, all the RFAs should be good and angry, just like Raheem wants them.