A few weeks before free agency started, you and I took a look at the list of big-name players who could possibly hit the market, trying to predict which ones would be most coveted league-wide.  Since I know you’re going to throw it in my face anyway, I’ll go ahead and remind the readers that you’re first choice was safety Dashon Goldson, who is now a Buccaneer.  We weren’t specifically trying to pick good free agent targets for Tampa Bay, but the Bucs’ instant and successful wooing of the former 49er made it clear that, yes, Goldson was quite coveted.

Both of my picks in that particular point/counterpoint exercise – Bears DT Henry Melton and Cowboys DE Anthony Spencer – got franchise-tagged before they could hit the market, which left me with a big bowl of fail soup.  On the other hand, your second choice, former Miami running back Reggie Bush quickly found a new home in Detroit.  Aargh.  Why am I still writing about this?

Like Goldson and Bush, most of the biggest names got the biggest contracts within the first few days of free agency.  (And like Melton and Spencer, some of others never even made it to the market.)  That’s the way it is every spring, of course.  Last year, the Bucs had Carl Nicks, Vincent Jackson and Eric Wright in the bag before free agency was 36 hours old.  However, it should be noted that a whopping 524 players began some sort of free agency on March 12, most of them of the unrestricted variety.  Some of them undoubtedly will be riding off into the sunset, and new careers, but many others will quietly either re-sign with their original teams or find a new opportunity that is accompanied by little fanfare.

These are the players I want to talk about today, Andrew.  Continue reading →

The Buccaneers had a nice rebound season in 2012 under new Head Coach Greg Schiano, after a very tough 2011 campaign.  While the team faded from the playoff race down the stretch after a heady midseason run, it definitely sparked a lot of optimism heading into this year’s campaign.

When the dust had settled on 2012, it was legitimately hard to decide which player was the team’s MVP.  While there were a number of potential candidates, it probably boiled down to five men: Lavonte David, Josh Freeman, Vincent Jackson, Doug Martin and Gerald McCoy, the latter three of whom ended up in the Pro Bowl.

If you think it was hard to pick the one winner from among that group last year, I’ve got an even tougher task for you, Andrew: Predict who will be the Buccaneers’ MVP this coming season.  Continue reading →

Andrew, the NFL schedule is due to be released on April 16, less than three weeks from now.  When that happens, we’ll find out such things as when the bye week falls, how often the Bucs will play in prime time and how the intra-division games are distributed.  And the first thing everybody looks for, of course: Who’s the opponent on opening day?

That’s anybody’s guess.  There’s no real formula to it.  Here are the Bucs’ last 10 openers: Carolina, Detroit, Cleveland, Dallas, at New Orleans, at Seattle, Baltimore, at Minnesota, at Washington, at Philadelphia.  That’s a mix of AFC and NFC, in and out of the division, home and away.  The last time the Bucs’ opening game was somewhat easy to predict was 2003, when they were defending champs and a rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles, their NFC Championship Game foes, on a Monday night was too good to pass up.

So, rather than try to guess who might be on the Bucs’ schedule on Week One, let’s debate which game we would like to see in that spot.  Like every team in the league, Tampa Bay has known who all 16 of its opponents would be and where those games would be played since the last game of 2012 ended.  So, choosing from that list, pick the destination – or the home opponent – that would be the ideal way for the Bucs to begin the 2013 season. Continue reading →

Every offseason, amid the free agent acquisitions and mock drafts, in some corners of the NFL it is time to get down to a different kind of business. The NFL is always searching for ways to make the league more entertaining and, especially, safer for all of the players, as is illustrated so beautifully in one of my favorite commercials.

On tap this season, we see six proposed rule changes that the NFL’s Competition Committee have either already voted on or will likely do so at some point. Some have already been past in the last 24 hours.

1. The Jim Schwartz Rule. Basically, if a play is supposed to be automatically reviewed, it will still be reviewed even if the coach illegally tosses his red flag. This was not the case last year, which baffled some Thanksgiving football viewers. The coach will, however, be either charged a timeout or penalized 15 yards.
2. On field goals and extra points, no more than six defensive players can be lined up to either side of the snapper. (This one has already passed.)
3. Get rid of the tuck rule. Long time coming, Raider Nation.  (Also passed already.)
4. Allow tight ends and H-backs to wear numbers 40-49. (Goodness, it’s about time, don’t you think?!)
5. Offense not allowed to block low when going toward their own end lines in the tackle box. Can’t go low when peeling back. (Also passed already.)
6. The one you’ve likely been hearing about all week: Runners may not initiate contact with the crown of their helmet when outside the tackle box. (Passed)

If you’d like to get more in-depth descriptions, or really want to nerd out and read the proposed bylaw changes and emphasis points, you can check it out here on NBCSports.com’s Pro Football Talk. But for this exercise, I think I did a decent job summing things up.

So, Scott, I’ll let you be the first to take a crack at the proposed rule changes. The question is a simple one: Do you like any of the proposed (or already accepted) rule changes being considered by the Competition Committee?

Have at it. Continue reading →

The NFL Draft is still two months away.  Your fantasy football drafts even longer.  Maybe you pass the time in March with a fantasy baseball draft or too, but we all know that’s not the same thing.

Here at the CB, we’re jonesin’ for some draftin’ right now, so we came up with this idea: What if two G.M.s were to split the current Buc roster in two by holding a back-and-forth draft of the 60 or so available players?  Who would be the most coveted player?  How would the two G.M.’s go about building a foundation for the future?

Let’s not speculate; let’s do it.  You and me, Andrew.

Here are the ground rules: Continue reading →