ESPN has put the Buccaneers at #15 in their offseason Power Rankings. It's not that I mind these kinds of exercises in time-wasting. It's May, after all, and these guys have to fill their time somehow. But why do the Buccaneers get zero love, year after year? This time they put four teams that didn't make the playoffs last year ahead of the Bucs. This includes Philadelphia who, aside from signing Asante Samuel, did nothing to really improve their team. On the other hand, they had the GIants ranked at #9 at the end of the 2007 regular season. The Giants go ahead and run the table to win the Super Bowl, and only move ahead to #6? And who is #1 heading into the offseason? I'll give you one guess. That seems to be the only real requirement of the list. Stick the Patriots at number one, and slot everyone else based on the same silly criteria you always use.

Ehh, I don't know why I'm getting worked up about it. Last year they had the Ravens, Saints, Broncos, Eagles, and Bengals in their Top 10, none of whom made the playoffs. Here was their comment on the 2007 Bucs, which they had ranked at #27:

How many QBs does a team need? Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms, Bruce Gradkowski, Luke McCown and, just for fun, maybe Jake Plummer. Clipboards for everybody!

Watch for this same joke sometime during training camp this year.