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Rice's departure changes everything

By Gary Shelton
Published July 27, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Complete coverage Watch video report Stroud: Bucs sack riled Rice Bucs camp: Blog | Audiocast | Photos Sign up to get Bucs news alerts Later today: Training camp video [James Borchuck | Times] Simeon Rice, who is recovering from left shoulder surgery, was scheduled to earn $7.25-million this season. The 12th-year veteran ranks second in the NFL among active players with 121 career sacks.

CELEBRATION

And so the season starts off with a loss.

Simeon Rice has left the building. This time, it may be the Bucs who have been sacked.

Tampa Bay, a team in desperate need of a pass rush, fired the player who has been most responsible for providing one over the last half season. Evidently, Rice's bad shoulder was still bothering him, especially when he was asked to reach for his wallet to return some of his contract.

And so he is gone. The poetry of the way he played the game, and the way he talked it, is over.

As he leaves, the only thing that changes is ...everything.

For the Bucs, winning just got a little harder. For Gaines Adams, the pressure got a little greater. For Monte Kiffin, the job got a little more difficult. For Jon Gruden, the heat increased a bit more. For opposing quarterbacks, the pocket got a little more comfy. For opposing tackles, the workday got a little easier.

In other words, this was a bad way to start a training camp. To have a worse day, one must be a Falcon.

Let's agree on this: Rice was awful last year. Long before anyone mentioned a shoulder injury, Rice seemed disinterested in the mess that was Tampa Bay's season. For all of his crowing about his ability, as if he were the person who first decided that rushing the passer was a good idea, the book on Rice is that he always needed a reason to stay focused. Without his personal motivator Rod Marinelli goosing him game-by-game, Rice spent much of his eight games as a witness. There was a reason the Bucs drafted Adams as his eventual successor, and there was a reason no one slapped their cheeks in surprise when they did.

That said, Rice has a highlight reel full of plays in the name of the Bucs. And when have they ever needed playmakers more?

Because of it, the thought of Rice in a contract year, of Rice trying to hold off a talented rookie, was intriguing. If anything was going to get Rice's attention, it seems that money and playing time would have. After all this time, he was still the Bucs' best bet to get to an opposing quarterback.

Goodness, the Bucs could have used a re-interested Rice. Last year, waiting for their pass rush was like waiting for a bus on the wrong street. Opposing quarterbacks had all the time of a guest during a Club Med weekend. The Bucs had only 25 sacks, the least of any season since Kiffin came on board. The opposing quarterback had a rating of 91.0, the best any quarterback has had. And the Bucs won four times.

It's as simple as this: If the Bucs are going to be better this year, we all know it begins with the defense. And if the defense is going to be better, it begins with the pass rush. Ask yourself this: What do you think Matt Hasselbeck and Drew Brees and Jake Delhomme and Vince Young and Peyton Manning and the rest of the quarterbacks who will face the Bucs think about not having to play Rice. I'm betting they're all for it.

As we all know by now, the NFL is a hard factory for a man to draw a paycheck, and there aren't a lot of happy endings and grand exits to be had. No one expected Rice to retire from the Bucs. He was a hired gun when he came, and no one expected him back after this year.

Still, there was a money factor to this decision that is unsettling. The Bucs evidently were willing to pay Rice if he had been healthy, but if his presence wasn't guaranteed, they didn't want his $7.25-million paycheck to be either.

Shouldn't that decision have been made before reporting day? Why not do this after the draft? And if you were going to wait this long, why not wait a few more weeks? After all, Bucs general manger Bruce Allen said he wouldn't be surprised to see Rice play this year? Why not wait to see if he could play for the Bucs?

Yeah, yeah. Adams is on board now, and the Bucs signed Patrick Chukwurah from Denver. But there are easier positions for rookies than defensive end. Wouldn't it have helped Adams to have Rice as his personal Obi-Wan? Wouldn't it have helped Kiffin to design plays with the two of them racing to the quarterback?

Say this for Rice: His legacy will be as one of the great pass-rushers of his time, and with liberalized holding and mobile quarterbacks and quarterbacks being free to throw the ball away to avoid a sack, his was one of the most difficult times to rush a passer.

Is Rice the guaranteed Hall of Famer he said during his chest-thumping sessions? No. He's going to get a lot of talk, and he has a lot of numbers. But the feeling here is that he's going to wind up just short. There are too many knocks on how he played the run, too many questions about his fading focus.

Still, if you put the guy next to a great tackle, a Warren Sapp, he could ruin an afternoon for a quarterback. At his best, he had incredible speed and an unbelievable reach. He was capable of taking over games. He was a delightful character and a dazzling player.

Perhaps you will remember him that way.

Or, perhaps, you will remember him as another player the Bucs let leave too soon.

[Last modified July 27, 2007, 01:13:39]