sometimes you write simply to write

It's been a week since I last updated this page (yet some how my site visits have been increasing) so I figured I would stop by with my two cents on the latest Bucs news...

For some inexplicable reason Scott, the proprieter of BucStats, has been handed his pink slip from TBO. In addition to his own site, Scott wrote for a Bucs blog at the Tampa Tribune's website, which was aptly named BucShots. Roughly a week back Scott wrote a post (and a well written post at that) joking about how he was denied entrance to One Buc Place (it's still called One Buc Place right?) despite his media credentials as a blogger for TBO.com. Apparently someone at TBO forgot that "media credentials for a blogger" is an oxymoron along the lines of jumbo shrimp or student athlete, and now BucShots has gone the way of the dodo. Which is a shame. The Tampa Tribune has sacrificed good writing for the phantom threat of decreased access.

In other news, we have a little less than three weeks to go before the draft and rumors are swirling about what the Bucs will do. Gruden is doing his best to spread misinformation about his draft pick, but it is clear by now that Gruden has his heart set on Calvin Johnson. Which is great except rumors are that CJ may not be available with the fourth pick. Supposedly the Lions are not set on any of the top four players (JaMarcus, CJ, Joe Thomas or Adrian Peterson) and wouldn't mind moving back in the draft to go after defense. In response Gruden has been telling the whole world he loves every player at the top of the draft not named Calvin Johnson, and has even gone so far to suggest he would draft Adrian Peterson.

If I'm Gruden I would quit suggesting I would love to draft a runningback or a quarterback (since nobody really believes that) and instead preach the greatness of either Gaines Adams or Amobi Okoye. It is much more believeable that the Bucs need to draft defense than it is they need to draft another qb or runningback. If you really want CJ to fall to you at four the Bucs need to convince every potential team which could trade up that CJ could fall to the fifth or even sixth spot. At this point in the game I'm not sure how believable that would be, but it could create enough doubt to prevent another team from giving up a king's ransom to move up to two or three.

And if for some reason CJ does not fall to the Bucs I have no problem with the Bucs drafting Joe Thomas instead. In fact, Thomas would be a much more valuable addition to the Bucs considering: a) the larger talent gap between Thomas and Davis compared to CJ and Clayton, and b) the greater value of elite left tackles compared to elite receivers. It would be a mistake to trade up for Johnson, which would, in effect be trading two starters for one starter. If the Bucs were close to making the Super Bowl this would be a good idea but for a team struggling to get over .500 it would be foolish.