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Letter to the editor

Bucs

Patience may earn Buc fans a reward

By GARY SHELTON
Published May 1, 2005

The farther you fall, the more familiar it feels.

Plummet long enough, have enough wind rush through your hair, and it is almost like flying. Pass enough angels on your way down, and after a while, you get used to not being on the mountaintop. You simply try not to think about the big splat to come.

Here, then, are the Tampa Bay Bucs, and a simple question:

Have they hit the bottom yet?

This is what you really want to know about the Bucs' draft, about the Bucs' free agent search, about the players who have left and the players who may yet arrive. You want to know if the plunge toward Death Valley is complete. You want to know if more misery is on its way. You want to know if it gets worse before it gets better.

Give it to us straight, Doc. We can take it. How bad is it going to be?

The bad news? The Bucs aren't cured yet.

The good news? Eventually, this may be remembered as the time when a franchise started to get healthy.

The Bucs need more help than the draft provided, more help than they can afford with their salary cap situation. The Bucs need another veteran receiver, more offensive linemen, another safety. They need to be healthier, smarter, more disciplined. They need to play better. They need to coach better. They need to select free agents better. A lot of question marks are between this team and a winning record.

That said, there are some positives, too. Perhaps it is the optimism of spring, but you could feel a newness, a freshness as the Bucs ran through their drills at the team's rookie minicamp. For the first time in years, the Bucs have had a complete recruiting class, and it is more than the midafternoon sun that seems bright.

Losing is tough on everyone. Blame Jon Gruden if you wish. Blame Bruce Allen. Blame the firing of Tony Dungy or the quitting of Rich McKay or the cutting of John Lynch or the aging of Warren Sapp or the work of that accursed media. Blame everyone. With 12 victories in two years, everyone is guilty.

Still, this has been a franchise hamstrung by thin drafts, fat wallets and aging players. The lack of draft choices has not only been a drain on the team's depth, but a shackle on its ability to spend. When a team can't bring in top-shelf players during the draft or in free agency, how can it help but unravel?

Now, you can imagine a huddle that has Michael Clayton and Carnell Williams, a pair of playmakers to build its huddle, and its locker room, around. Remember the last time the Bucs improved their image? It was largely because they brought in a pair of rookies, Sapp and Derrick Brooks. Sapp, with his enthusiasm, and Brooks, with his excellence, changed the energy in the room. Standards were raised. Excuses were ignored. And things changed.

This decade, you can imagine Clayton and Williams in those roles. In his first season, Clayton showed he has that kind of impact. His college resume suggests Williams has the same.

Okay, okay. Rome wasn't rebuilt ... well, at all. When it comes to the NFL, both San Francisco and Dallas are spreading spackle.

As for the Bucs? Ask the next 10 people you meet to predict the Bucs' won-loss record next year, and if they're objective, the average will come out to about seven wins. It could take another year of lumps, another draft, a free agency period where there is a little cash available, before the team truly turns around.

Oh, you won't get the Bucs to admit that, of course. Gruden says he believes his team will be better next year. It had better be.

"So, Jon, what would you rather have happen? You lose a finger, or you go 5-11 again?"

"Lose a finger," Gruden said.

"How about a hand?"

"I don't know about a hand," Gruden said. "I don't take it that seriously."

Allen isn't conceding next year, either. Hey, his father was George Allen. George invented "The Future is Now," remember?

"I had my root canal without painkillers last year, thank you," Allen said.

How, then, does it get better? It gets better if a sufficient number of young players can contribute, if a sufficient number of old players can stay out of the training room. It gets better because Anthony Becht and Alex Smith might be the best combination of tight ends the team has had. It gets better if its young offensive linemen can play their way off the game day inactive list. It gets better if the Bucs are a little more controlled, a little less desperate and kick a little more accurately at the end of games.

"I look at some of our games last year, and I still don't know how we lost them," Gruden said. "If you can get in at 8-8, that gives me some hope. We need (Anthony) McFarland to play better. We've got to address some positions."

Still, that might be difficult given the cap situation, Gruden admits.

"The woodshed is closed," Gruden said. "Bruce has taken my cell phone away. He won't let me call anyone, he won't let me accept any calls from anyone."

Next offseason, Allen said, the cap situation will be better. Next offseason, there will be another draft class. On the other hand, the defense will be another year older, too.

This year, the Bucs might slow the fall.

The year after, if you can afford the fingers, they might be climbing again.

[Last modified April 30, 2005, 23:59:18]