There will be no playoffs
There will be no wild card.
There will be no .500 record
Quite simply, this team now blows as bad or more than last season’s model.
I was right there with many locals over the past three weeks - enjoying the three consecutive wins, albeit against incredibly marginal opponents.
As the Saints and Falcons started off weakly, there was a glimmer of “Hey we could win the Division!”
lol....NFL Myopia can be a wonderful affliction, though the withdrawal symptoms can stir up the brain and body like no other.
Let’s compare the current roster to last years
QB - Jeff Garcia vs Bruce Gradkowski = WIN for the Bucs
OL - Maturation of Joseph and Truelove seems fair, but losing Petigew for season pretty much puts this bunch at little better than 2006
RB - Dismal for sure now that Pittman and Williams are done. Yeah, MP might be back in December - which is when TBay may nab two of their remaining three wins for the year.
WR - Absolute wasteland and nothing different from 2006. #1 pick from four years ago Mike Clayton has been officially AWOL since midseason 2006.
DL - #1 pick G Adams is getting manhandled in the middle by opponents O-lines and there’s little else of note. Kevin Carter, a 13 year experienced and pretty slow veteran makes little impact.
LB - Adding Cato June doesn’t hurt, but here’s a news flash. EVERY NFL TEAM upgrades their LBs with a fresh body or two every year. So any net gain by the Bucs is cancelled out by every other team having made similar upgrade.
Meanwhile, Derrick Brooks another year older and another step slower.
DB - Brian Kelly playing no more than last year. Phil Buchanan is still a nickel D spare that was rejected from OAKLAND for chrissakes.
Meanwhile, Ronde Barber another year older and another step slower.
Tampa Bay’s offense in regular season since winning the Super Bowl after 2002 season averages 14.1 pts per game. This year’s version got loose with 31 versus the (once again) lowly Saints, but overall are just 18 ppg and there’s nothing to give rise to thinking they will maintain even that meager number during the final 11 games of 2007. They’re currently 25th overall and quite likely to drop even further. Not exactly the hallmark of a “Division contender”.
The defense is one year older and slower than last year’s version which ranked 17th in the league.
There will be no wild card.
There will be no .500 record
Quite simply, this team now blows as bad or more than last season’s model.
I was right there with many locals over the past three weeks - enjoying the three consecutive wins, albeit against incredibly marginal opponents.
As the Saints and Falcons started off weakly, there was a glimmer of “Hey we could win the Division!”
lol....NFL Myopia can be a wonderful affliction, though the withdrawal symptoms can stir up the brain and body like no other.
Let’s compare the current roster to last years
QB - Jeff Garcia vs Bruce Gradkowski = WIN for the Bucs
OL - Maturation of Joseph and Truelove seems fair, but losing Petigew for season pretty much puts this bunch at little better than 2006
RB - Dismal for sure now that Pittman and Williams are done. Yeah, MP might be back in December - which is when TBay may nab two of their remaining three wins for the year.
WR - Absolute wasteland and nothing different from 2006. #1 pick from four years ago Mike Clayton has been officially AWOL since midseason 2006.
DL - #1 pick G Adams is getting manhandled in the middle by opponents O-lines and there’s little else of note. Kevin Carter, a 13 year experienced and pretty slow veteran makes little impact.
LB - Adding Cato June doesn’t hurt, but here’s a news flash. EVERY NFL TEAM upgrades their LBs with a fresh body or two every year. So any net gain by the Bucs is cancelled out by every other team having made similar upgrade.
Meanwhile, Derrick Brooks another year older and another step slower.
DB - Brian Kelly playing no more than last year. Phil Buchanan is still a nickel D spare that was rejected from OAKLAND for chrissakes.
Meanwhile, Ronde Barber another year older and another step slower.
Tampa Bay’s offense in regular season since winning the Super Bowl after 2002 season averages 14.1 pts per game. This year’s version got loose with 31 versus the (once again) lowly Saints, but overall are just 18 ppg and there’s nothing to give rise to thinking they will maintain even that meager number during the final 11 games of 2007. They’re currently 25th overall and quite likely to drop even further. Not exactly the hallmark of a “Division contender”.
The defense is one year older and slower than last year’s version which ranked 17th in the league.
