Jon Gruden is ready to hand the job to Garcia

It looks like the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on opening day might just be Jeff Garcia. According to ESPN's Len Pasquarelli, Jon Gruden has said that Garcia is in the lead and his other qb's have a lot of work to do if they have hopes in overtaking Garcia as the starter.

"There's not a lot of controversy in my eyes right now," Gruden said. "If you want to catch up to Jeff Garcia, our young quarterbacks have a lot of work to do."

Jeff Garcia, 37, is entering his eighth season and will be playing with his fifth different franchise in five years(Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco, Philadelphia and now Tampa Bay). He generated a lot of heat for him self after leading the Eagles to a 5-1 record in six starts and led them to a division title and a playoff birth after Donovan McNabb tore his ACL. In his six starts, Garcia threw for ten touchdowns and just two interceptions.

"He understands the position," Gruden said of Garcia. "He's moved offenses wherever he has been. And right now, Jeff Garcia has a big lead, to me, on the quarterback position. He brings a lot of juice and enthusiasm to our offensive team."

"I'm not discounting that it will be competitive in camp. . . . But Garcia is clearly the leader in the clubhouse right now, and we are excited about that." Gruden said of the quarterback battle.

Still looking to win over the starting job is last year's opening day starter, Chris Simms and Bruce Gradkowski, who started majority of the season after Simms' appendix bursted against the Carolina Panthers. And then there's always Jake Plummer, or is he really retired.

Side Note: Jeff Garcia played great last year and his new wife, Carmella DeCesare, is smoking...but at the end of the day he still looks like an albino.

Buc's sign another tight end and this one as useless as the last

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have added their 5th tight end to their roster late last night by signing former Seattle Seahawks veteran, Jerramy Stevens.

Stevens was an unrestricted free agent and was the Seahawks first round pick in 2002 and had played his entire five-year career with them before entering the free agent market nearly two months ago. The terms and financial details of the contract were not immediately available, but they should be released soon enough.

The former University of Washington star has recently been been having more off-the-field problems when in last March he was arrested for a DUI and marijuana possession and is facing charges in Arizona. Stevens also previously pleaded guilty to a reckless driving charge in 2003 and served two days in jail for that offense. In 2000, Stevens was convicted on hit-and-run charges after driving into a nursing home. There was also a string of team-related offenses for which Stevens was disciplined by coach Mike Holmgren.

From Deadspin:

Stevens agreed to perform field-sobriety tests, but declined after an initial "walk-and-turn" test. He also declined a portable breath test, and the officer indicated that was when Stevens was placed under arrest. The officer stated in the report that there were paper napkins with a loose clump of "green leafy substance" in Stevens' back pants pocket. A second officer indicated he smelled the odor of marijuana in the driver's-side seat.

Stevens has also been having plenty of troubles on the field. He dropped several easy passes in the Super Bowl which the Hawks eventually lost to the Steelers then in 2006 he was then kneed in the crotch by former Raider's 2003first-rounder, Tyler Brayton.

"On Monday November 6th, 2006 in a game against the Seattle Seahawks, Brayton issued a knee to the groin of Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens, after Stevens kneed him and was ejected from the game. Brayton was later fined $25,000 by the NFL. Stevens was fined $15,000. This incident led to Brayton's nickname of 'Nut Cracker'."

Stevens caught a total of 130 passes for 1,458 yards and 15 touchdowns in 71 career games at Seattle and is coming off of another poor season in which he caught 22 balls for 231 yards and 4 touchdown.

"He's a former first-round pick and he's had some off-the-field issues that have hampered him a little bit," Bucs general manager Bruce Allen said. "He had a recent public mistake. . . . [But] we brought him in [earlier] in free agency and we had a great understanding of what he is. We've talked to him since the [March] incident and we had a very serious talk with him today. I think Jerramy Stevens is a good young man, and he's focused on doing things right. More importantly, he understands he has to do the right things."

Stevens will be joining an already lengthy depth chart in Tampa Bay, on the Buc's depth chart they have Anthony Becht, Alex Smith, Keith Heinrich and T.J. Williams.

More Breaking News: Plummer traded to the Bucs.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Denver Broncos have agreed to a deal that would send veteran quarterback, Jake Plummer to the Bucs for a 4th round pick in this years draft. The Buccaneers have been looking for someone that could back-up Chris Simms and if he isn't ready to go, start in his place.

After Mike Shanahan benched Plummer in favor of rookie Jay Cutler last season it has been reported that Plummer has been looking to be traded or released so he could have the opportunity to start else where. Look for the Bronco's to look to sign Jeff Garcia to back up Cutler now.


Bonus Pic time:




Update: The "stache" (NFL version) may not be heading to Florida after all, the trade between the Broncos and Buccaneers is currently on hold after Jake Plummer said " I may just retire". He also said he didn't want to move to a different city.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-12)

2006 record: 4-12
Head Coach: Jon Gruden
Offensive Coordinator: Bill Muir
Defensive Coordinator: Monte Kiffin
Pro-Bowl: Ronde Barber (CB)

Offense

Like alot of the years in the past, the Buc's offense was yet again, bad. Chris Simms ruptured his appendix in week 3 and it caused him to miss the rest of the season. But even before his injury he was off to horrible start, he had a QB rating of 46.3 and 7 ints to just 1 TD. His replacement was Bruce Gradkowski, rookie out of Toledo. Although he was a little better, it wasn't by much. Their running game wasn't nearly as good as it was last season. After his impressive rookie year, Carnell Williams had quit a sophomore slump gaining only 798 yards and just 1 touchdown. I also should mention that I drafted him in one of my fantasy leagues...yeah, that didn't turn out to well. The only player that had somewhat a good offensive year was 12-year veteran, Joey Galloway. He caught 62 balls for 1,057 yards and 7 touchdowns. They need help at quarterback, widereceiver and maybe even a little offensive line help.

Defense

Unlike the Buc's offense(which is usually bad) their defense is always at the top in the league. But not this year, they ranked 17th overall and gave up 22 ppg and 330 yards per game. Although their individual defensive stats are good, their are severely miss-leading. The Buc's had 4 different guys reach the 100 tackles mark, including Pro-Bowler Ronde Barber, who had 100 tackles, 2 forced fumbles and 3 interceptions. Their biggest need this draft on defense will be defensive end. Simeon Rice will most likely depart Tampa and test the free-agent market and they currently don't have anyone that can match his production. Even though he had a bit of an off season because of injuries. He missed the final 8 games.

Special Teams

They definitely don't need a kicker. Matt Bryant hit 77% of his field goals this year and included in that was a game winning 62 yard FG at the end of regulation. From the punter position, Josh Bidwell did a fine job, averaging almost 44 yards per punt. In the return game their is a some questions. Not necessarily lack of production, it's more like they have too many guys returning kicks/punts in stead of having a set group. Michael Pittman and Torrie Cox took care of the kick-off returns, both averaging 22 yards per return and Ike Hillard and Mark Jones shared punt return duties. Both of which were not affective. Ike and Mark both averaged less than 8 yards.

Draft Notes

They could have either the 3rd pick or the 4th pick(depending on a coin flip with the Browns). The consensus is that they will take WR Calvin Johnson(GT) no matter where they are at. But if for some reason he isn't there than they will likely choose DE Gaines Adams(CLEM). Besides Defensive End and Widereceiver, other needs for Tampa Bay include Defensive Tackle. Ever since Warren Sapp and Anthony McFarland left they have struggled to fill that hole which resulted in failure to stop the run. They would also like to add a cornerback to go along side of Ronde.

Positions that need to be addressed:

1. Widereceiver
2. Defensive End
3. Defensive Tackle
4. Cornerback
5. Quarterback

WR:

One of their biggest weaknesses was a big-time play-maker on offense. Calvin Johnson(GT) would fill that need no doubt. He is thought by many including Mel Kiper, the #1 overall player in this draft. He is big, strong, great hands, good speed and great understanding of the game. He will be a pro-bowler and instantly become TB's #1 target. In the later rounds they might want to look at getting a speed WR to add to more big plays, possibly someone like Chansi Stuckey(CLEM) or Yamon Figurs(KSU).

DE:

Like I said earlier, it is in all likely hood that Simeon Rice will be a free-agent. If that does happen, Tampa will have another big hole that will need to be filled with the draft. Obviously if Calvin Johnson, for some reason, isn't available at the 3rd or 4th pick, then the guy the Buc's will take is Gaines Adams(CLEM). Others to consider would be Charles Johnson(UGA) or Anthony Spencer(PUR).

DT:

Chris Hovan had a great year at DT and Ellis Wyms had a decent year. But Wyms could be a free-agent soon so they would have to find a replacement. I really think Marcus Thomas would be a great fit. He has all the talent in the world but he was kicked off the Florida Gators because he couldn't stay out of trouble, but if he can grow up and act like an adult, he could be a force to be reckoned with. Others that could draw some interest are Jay Alford(PSU), Derek Landri(ND) and Antonio Johnson(MSU).

CB:

Ronde Barber is still great, but he isn't getting any younger. They could use another good CB to play along side of Barber for then next couple of years. Some guys that draw some interest are Marcus McCauley(FRES), Daymeion Hughes(CAL) and Tarell Brown(TEX).

QB:

They did re-sign Chris Simms to "starter type" money but it is still uncertain that he can lead this team back to the playoffs. And it was proven that Bruce Gradkowski couldn't either. So to me that throws up some red flags. Possible guys that would improve them are Drew Stanton(MSU), Troy Smith(OSU) and Kevin Kolb(HOU).

If they have a good draft and barring more injuries, they Buc's could be set for a 7 or even 9 win season this year. But they must get healthy and Cadillac must snap out of his slump and return to his rookie season.