Signings, Visits, And Bears...Oh My!

The FA period continues to bring people in and out of One Buc Palace. Something I forgot to mention was the FB BJ Askew signed with the Bucs. He's a solid blocking fullback, but not much of a true West Coast type, as he hasn't been much of a receiving FB during his years while blocking in front of Martin for the Jets. He a solid pick-up, nevertheless, and should help us out, especially on those occasions when Gruden wants to run Alstott in a power set and needs another solid blocker to block for him. That was a problem last year when Alstott was the only decent blocking FB we had, which helped Williams and Pittman, but left a bit of a void when Alstott was the ball carrier.

The Bucs also have been apparently bringing in other players with Pewter Report stating C Al Johnson, from the Cowboys, is coming in. He's a solid Center who lost his job to Pro-Bowl Center Gurode. Since the Cowboys have a top flight player in the middle of the line, Johnson was allowed to explore FA. The Bucs were also interested in Petigout, as mentioned before, but now PFT.com is reporting the Redskins have interest in him. Needless to say, the Bucs won't overpay for his services, as there is still some question marks concerning his health and long term value to the Bucs if he were to sign here. The Bucs may opt to stick with Davis, and hope to draft an LT (Thomas would be nice) in the draft.

The pick-ups for defense haven't really taken off yet. With Dewayne White going to the Lions, the Bucs have even more holes on the D-Line. There really isn't a whole lot out there, in terms of FA's, while the draft is deep with DL talent. I expect to see the Bucs wait for the draft to take care of the DL. There are still two top flight safeties available for the Bucs to try and bring in; Doss and Hamlin. I expect the Bucs will probably make a push for one of these guys this week. The safety spot drew in some big bucks early, but now nobody is really willing to sign the guys available. That should cool the pricing a bit, and that's when I expect to see the Bucs really push for one. They still need to address this are, or it could be another long year on defense. I do believe that Phillips and Allen will play much better with Morris coaching them, but I still don't feel comfortable with them long term, especially from a health standpoint, and I can only imagine that the Bucs feel the same way.

And, of course, Plummer apparently retired in an official fashion, though the Bucs have stated that they haven't received the retirement papers. It's an interesting saga. I still expect the team to trade him to Houston or Oakland. Should be interesting to see what they finally get out of this. If they trade him to Oakland for a swap of picks, then the Bucs could get whoever they covet the most and the Raiders would still get a high pick and could likely get one of the two QB's that they need for long term development. We'll see.