Pete Prisco, about whom I have no strong opinion either way, had thought the Bucs would continue last year's trend of being terrible, and I guess he told Derrick Brooks about it. When he went back and spoke with Brooks again last week, Derrick made sure he remembered the conversation.

"I told you," Bucs linebacker Derrick Brooks said last week. "I told you this team was close. I knew what we had. I knew that we lost a lot of close games last year and this team could be a good one. I told you."

So I guess he told him. Someone should have told him about the injury report, too.

Then backup Michael Pittman was lost for the season, leaving unproven Earnest Graham in the role of starter.

Pittman was not lost for the season and he's even practicing now. Say, maybe I am forming an opinion about the guy after all.