Jay Fiedler Signs With Bucs

Well, the Bucs felt, with Luke McCown going down for considerable time, that they needed another QB to shore up the ranks. In this case, they decided to go with one of the only decent veterans left in Free Agency. Jay Fiedler is a solid QB, though unspectacler, who's managed to win more games than he's lost, going 37-23. His completion percentage is a couple ticks under 60, and his TD to INT ratio is nearly 1:1 (69 and 66). While not great numbers, he's a solid QB that can help the team if Simms goes down, assuming he picks up the offense quick enough.

What may help Fiedler out is the fact that he played under Gruden in Phily, when Gruden was the offensive coordinator there. So he's familiar with the offense, and should be able to pick it back up without too much difficulty. The biggest question mark is whether or not he'll be fully healthy by the time the season starts. The Bucs expect him to be fine in about another month or so, but the shoulder injury he has directly affects his throwing. So if he's not up to par, he'll be throwing ducks out there, much like Brad Johnson did in '04 before being benched. I'm pretty good with the signing overall, as it gives us solid veteran depth, but I would prefer not to have to try it out. It will also be interesting to see who sticks around when the cut to 53 hits, and whether or not someone will be displaced by McCown later on in the season, should he come back from the injury this year.