Maybe the name of Tampa Bay's National Football League franchise should be changed for the next season or two from the Buccaneers to some more appropriate - like the Lame Ducks.
Not for some sort of wrong-minded, abhorrent insult, mind you, but because that's what they are.
Coach Greg Schiano has made it very clear with his personnel moves and attitude that the Buccaneers are his team, and he's going to run it with his people, his way - so anyone who was not acquired via, draft, free agency or trade since the former Rutgers head coach took over in Tampa last season is probably not one of Schiano's people...
...because as we've seen through a more personal experience with Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick being close friends with Schiano, if a player wasn't brought in by his regime, he has no investment in them and, subsequently, will eventually either deal most of them off or just let them walk - hence, a roster filled with Lame ducks.
Patriots' fans have witnessed this first-hand, first when Belichick acquired cornerback Aqib Talib last Halloween for low round draft picks, and then when he traded a 7th rounder and sprinter Jeff Demps to Tampa for running back LeGarrette Blount on the final day of the draft - but the writing first appeared on the wall when Talib, who was under league suspension for ingesting the banned substance Adderall, was sent packing to New England...
...leaving the Buccaneers' players wondering not if the team was interested in winning now - as seems to be the case with many impatient GM's and owners - but if they would be around to win later. It rattled the depth chart to the bone, nearly causing a mutiny and certainly adding to Tampa's collapse in the second half of the season.
“We are disappointed to learn that Aqib Talib will be suspended for four games,” Schiano said at the time in a written statement. “I have spoken with Aqib, and he knows that he made a poor decision that let our team down. Certainly, other players will have the opportunity to step up while he serves this suspension.”
Translation: You're gone.
Blount had already been unceremoniously benched in favor of rookie Doug Martin last year after rushing for over 1,000 yards for the team the season before, so Talib's trade should have told them that Schiano was going to trim the previous regime's fat off the program, making room for his own people.
And if that didn't speak to them, then the fact that they let almost their entire defense walk away in free agency should tell them that they are complete gut-the-roster mode, and rebuilding as they go along.
In addition to trading Talib, they let their other starting corner, Eric Wright, walk - then both starting safeties and two key defensive linemen, replacing them with either high priced free agents like cornerback Darrelle Revis and safety Dashon Goldson or in the draft with the likes of corner Johnathan Banks, defensive tackle Akeem Spence and defensive end William Gholston.
And the fact that they selected quarterback Mike Glennon in the third round - a kid that many analysts thought was the most NFL ready signal caller in the draft - should give pause to incumbent quarterback Josh Freeman, who is in a contract year but will likely not make it to the end of the year before being replaced by Glennon...
...and given the amount of self-serving blather coming from the Freeman camp, in the form of threatening to demand a trade, that might be sooner than later.
Soon enough to impact the game between the Buccaneers and Patriots at Gillette Stadium this Sunday? Maybe, but if Schiano is anything like Belichick - and he is - then we won't know who's playing where until about 11:30 on Sunday morning, because it goes without saying that both coaches will practice a little gamesmanship on each other.
The Buccaneers are winless on the season, but have been in both games to the very end, a trend that had been reported to have Revis frustrated enough to openly question Schiano's "Militaristic" approach - something that he denied earlier this week...
...the report adding another layer to the media fabrication that Schiano is losing the team, which is a bunch of mule muffins - that is, unless you count the Lame Ducks that will eventually find themselves on a plane out of town because they are not one of Schiano's people.
Tomorrow: What to expect when Tampa Bay has the ball...
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