My season preview is up at the AOL site, along with all of the other 31 team previews.The Bucs are the Adrien Brody of the NFL. Both were rarely watched during their early years. Both have been overlooked for their more star-studded counterparts despite consistent strong performances. The Bucs and Brody even won their profession's top awards in the same year (Lombardi Trophy and Oscar for Best Actor respectively). But unlike Hollywoodland the Bucs are not garnering the type of accolades you would expect from a defending division champ returning 21 starters from last season.
And synching in nicely with my preview, the Panthers have garnered 67% of the vote in the division champ poll on AOL. The Bucs come up short with 15%, narrowly edging out the Falcons with 13%.
My quarterback preview is up as well. Find out which quarterback I think should start this season.
2 comments:
Great breakdown on the AOL blog. One of the concerns that I had (and still have, really) for the season was that if Simms hit a bad patch people would start calling for Gradkowski to take the healm, which would probably be a bad move right now. Unless, of course, he *was* indeed "The Next Marino", as I've too often heard. Then again, maybe he'd end up being more like the next Shawn King (Who I'd still like to see in a Bucs uniform.)
The thing is, I almost see a Montana/Young situation possibly occurring here. (Yes, I know, optimistic, but I'm more interested in the possible interrelationships). While Simms is still in his prime, Gradkowski is just learning, but doing so from one of the best, Gruden. Like Dungy before him, I think Gruden is about to start churning out coaches and great personel to the rest of the league, thereby leaving his stamp that way.
As for this: "the Bucs are not garnering the type of accolades you would expect from a defending division champ returning 21 starters from last season", that's still a point of contention I have against just about anyone doing NFL previews. Everyone is super excited about the Panthers, but I don't think anyone is giving the Bucs a fair shake. I expect that at the end of the season, the Bucs will again be division champs.
Being down here in Miami, I'm also pretty excited. Looks like the Fins are really gathering a lot of momentum. Would be interesting (though unlikely) to see a Bucs/Dolphins Super Bowl down here in Miami.
thanks GNorb, and you're right...fans always love the second string quarterback until he plays.
Montana/Young is a bit of stretch but then again I have no problem with Gruden keeping a young talented QB on the bench. the potential controversy is worth it if your starter goes down, but then again how often does your starting quarterback get injured? (*cough, Griese*)
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