Standing Pat The Best Way Forward For The Bucs In the olden days of the NFL, before free agency and that god awful franchise in Carolina, the time honoured tradition was to slowly build a roster. The off-season featured little player movement and players largely remained within the same teams and systems which made them more familiar with their coaches, and the team’s particular ethos on offense or defense. Looking at the Bucs free agent policy this spring, it looks like we have harked back to the “better the devil you know” policy of the past in restricting player turnover and proceeding with players, Gruden and Kiffin are familiar and comfortable with, based on past production with the Tampa Bay franchise. Rather than go out and splash money silly money and overpaying for average players – see Snyder, Dan of Washington DC – the Bucs have simply elected to retain our own key free agents to lessen the turnover of players this off-season, and effectively ensure we hit the ground running come training camp. The returns of Chris Hovan and Matt Bryant were a must for us, but to also see the likes of Mike Alstott, Juran Bolden and Ike Hilliard also resign represents a bonus; I’ll leave Kenyatta Walker out of this equation as his return was the most surprising and further confirms a long held theory that he has in his possession some dirty photos of Bruce Allen. Bonus Section – Spotters Guide to The Carolina Panthers Training Camp 2006 Instructions – All you need do is watch on in earnest, and tick off the time and date when the following events occur with The Twits this July. All events guaranteed based on team history and brain capacity of it’s employees. 1. Any number of Carolina Players anoint themselves “Best team in the NFC” and favourites for the Superbowl. 2. Jake Delhomme mentions he’s from Louisiana and an old country boy (read Numnut) at heart 3. John Fox is referred to in the press as a “Defensive Guru,” “Bill Parcells Disciple,” or “Up and Coming Genius.” Note - In reality the only title Fox has ever won is a Keith Barron (from 1980’s series Duty Free) look-a-like contest 4. The best three games a season player in the NFL, Kris Jenkins announces he is back and refers to himself as the best DT in the league 5. Seven days after said statement, Jenkins suffers his latest, “season ending before it starts” injury to his knee/shoulder/back/who gives a toss (delete as appropriate) 6. Star wideout Keyshawn dishes Jon Gruden in the press and calls Keith Barron a better coach. Surprisingly after being cut for the second time, “legend in his own mind” Keyshawn is said to be recovering well from recent surgery to have his tongue removed from Bill Parcells ass 7. Panthers media guide reveals team record score of 4 on the famed Wonderlic test by their top draft pick. Note – 5 points are awarded for correct spelling of personal details on the cover of the test 8. Carolina’s Top Cat’s Cheerleader camp venue is unveiled for 2006 – The Bunny Ranch in Nevada will host this Dog eat Dog competition. Kevin Whately will try out for the team this year due to Jimmy Nail’s previous success in 2005 9. Panther’s unveil new uniforms to match the team ethos – the dog shit brown jersey’s become a big hit with the local hicks, and are given away free with any purchase of a big bad ass pick-up truck, by local area Chevy dealers 10. Squad car arrives to arrest a Panther player so he can keep Rae Carruth company in the slammer Indeed the only player who left of note, Dexter Jackson, was willingly allowed to do so given we have a younger replacement in Will Allen chomping at the bit to step into his shoes at the Safety spot. In summation we will return all bar 1 starter to a team that went 11-5 last season. Throw in the salary cap dollars saved by not spending willy nilly, and the natural infusion of at least 10-15 rookies and things look a lot rosier in the garden. The impression left is that we now have an overall structure in place and a set plan for team development over the next five years, rather than the desperation short term signings of the likes of Todd Steussie, Derrick Deese et al who bled our salary cap dry and provided zilch production in return. Looking at what remains on the free agent market I’d largely not bother to be honest. Being linked with Charles Woodson doesn’t exactly thrill me, and unless a very salary cap friendly contract is possible I wouldn’t touch Mr Woodson with a barge pole. Lessons from the Charlie Garner, Tim Brown and Matt Stinchcomb affairs need to be learned here – Raider cast-offs have been a disaster in Tampa, so lets not add another to the list please. Going in to the draft build-up it’s fairly obvious where our needs lie; on offense a decent RT to protect Simms' blindside, and wide receiver are the priorities, whilst on the defensive side secondary help and lnebacker depth are the primary concerns. In the first round I’d select the best player available of the offensive tackles or cornerbacks left on the board, and focus the rest of our draft mainly on the positions highlighted above – though what the hell do I know? We’ll probably draft a quarterback if my predictions are anything to go by. One word of caution though is to beware the pre-draft workout demon who rises up the boards based on how fast he can run 40 yards, or how much weight he can bench press. This years darling appears to be Winston Justice, an offensive tackle from USC who features specifically in a position of need for us. Remember the last OT we traded up for was Kenyatta Walker so that should send chills up anyone’s spine. I’ve watched a hell of a lot of football over the past 23 years and I’ve yet to see a game where any player has to run 40 yards in running shoes without any pads on, or lift a 220lb opponent up and down 25 times during the course of a play. Workout stats are for geeks like Mel Kiper and tread carefully those who read too much into them. The draft is only just over three weeks away, and then we face a further two-,onth wait before normality returns and training camp is upon us. Lets hope our draft unearths some gems and we can remain injury free going into camp itself. Nod of Acknowledgement to…… Derrick Brooks. Granted he isn’t in the poor house but our living legend took a salary hit, swallowed some pride and safely ensured he will forever be remembered as a Buc for life. Get in the Real World (Dan Snyder Award)….. $31M over 7 years for Randle El, along with other big bucks wasted on gridiron legends like Brandon Lloyd, Adam Archuleta and Todd Collins? Your not in this for the W’s are you Dan?