Approach from the sea - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - (M15)

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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I've never used the Buccaneers as my own team and figured I could use them as a new experience

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Glazer family announces Gruden's return to the Buccaneers

The Buccaneers will definitely remember Jon Gruden for the glory days brought about by the now analyst whom led the Tampa Bay squad to super bowl victory over his previous team, the Oakland Raiders in a game that saw the Buccaneers steamroll their way to victory. Jon Gruden's return was announced shortly after the team announced the signing of veteran coach, Lovie Smith's arrival as head coach.

Gruden will simply take over in the front office, serving as a proxy for the Glazer family which is opting to relax back with their accrued sums while maintaining a large interest in a team they've groomed. Gruden will have entire control over everything from pricing to front office decisions and onwards. He is the Jerry Jones of the Buccaneers essentially, as he is expected to play a heavy hand in the football side of things, hopefully this goes over better than the forever .500 Cowboys.

"This is an exciting opportunity that allows me more freedom than a coaching position would allow for, I'm done with coaching, but being able to lead operations and work from a desk at a 9-5; that is perfect and to be able to directly influence football activities, it was too tempting to pass up."

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Gruden announces first round of cuts ahead of preseason

Quarterback Alex Taney, halfback Mike James and receiver Skye Dawson were all waived at the end of summer camp to trim the roster to the league mandatory 70 players ahead of their preseason opener and the team will have some difficult decisions to make going forward, and the focus will be entirely upon this squad which sees positional battles across the board.

Gruden stated in terms of the quarterback race; "It will come down to whomever can impress me and Lovie [Smith] in the preseason. That is the answer, Glennon has his talents and we didn't bring in Josh [McCown] to ride the bench, it's very likely that the loser will be worked out of the organization as we move to further our progress towards a Super Bowl."

On the defensive ends; "Adrian Clayborn and William Gholston are both excellent talents and coming from similar regions as they have played in big ten schools, they have a fairly similar style. Again, we will evaluate it as we go but we feel comfortable starting Clayborn and bringing Gholston in as a rotational player. There is also end, Larry English who could start over both of them if he performs well enough if the preseason. Again, on the strong side, the entire battle is open."


On their linebackers; "We are told that outside of Lavonte [David] there isn't much talent but I'd contest that we have an excellent group of linebackers. Mason Foster and Dane Fletcher are both very capable; ideal sized inside linebackers and Jonathan Casillas is a talent at the outside slot. I'd see a battle between Foster and Fletcher for the inside spot, and while we plan to work closely with our linebackers, calling it a weakness is farfetched."

On releasing Revis; "He didn't fit well for the system that we were building and I wish him the absolute best in New England. He fought for his spots and he did what he could but we are looking for a new culture with this squad following the recent forgetable melt down between the coaching staff and players and he was a part of that, it was time to move on."

On Mike Evans; "He is a huge talent, he was Manziel's favorite target in Texas and I can see why, he was tearing apart the defense in practices, but those were non-contact. Now he'll get his shot at beating another team."

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Tampa Bay announces cuts as they trim roster to 53

The preseason has rolled it's course and the team announced it's cuts as they trimmed their rosters down to 53.

Fullback Javorskie Lane couldn't make the cut as the squad opted to retain Lonnie Pryor whom displayed superior athleticism throughout the preseason.

Wideouts, Tommy Streeter and Eric Page left the squad after the team decided to cut down on their roster in that regard. Neither were expected to be much of a competitor and beyond their top two, there are some worries as to what can be expected from their slot wide out.

Tight end Brandon Myers was released in a somewhat shocking decision, the move cleared quite a bit of cap space and he underperformed with the squad thus far.

Centers Josh Allen and Jason Foster were both let go, the team entered the preseason with four centers and while depth behind Evan Dietrich-Smith is a huge question mark, neither were a solution to that problem.

Defensive ends, Steven Means and Scott Solomon were both let go as the team condensed it's group of defensive ends to a mere four, opting to rotate each with a primary backup.

Defensive tackles, Ronald Talley and Matthew Masifilo were let go as well as the team opted to retain five defensive tackles including youngsters Euclid Cummings and DuQuan Bowers, hoping to develop the pair and maintain youth at the position.

Linebacker, Danny Lansanah was let go following a poor showing in week three, the team deciding to move forward with Brandon Magee, the one year linebacker from Arizona State.

Cornerbacks, Danny Gorrer, Quinton Porter and Deveron Carr were all let go as the team lowered it's total amount of defensive backs available on the roster deciding to move forward with young talents, Anthony Gaitor and Rashaan Melvin.

Safeties, Kelcie McCray of Arkansas State and Bradley McDougald of Kansas were terminated as neither seemed to be NFL ready talents and the team didn't wish to carry them on the roster for any more time.

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Lovie Smith releases Week 1 Depth Chart

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Depth Chart - 2014
Regular Offense
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
WR	Vincent Jackson	Louis Murphy	Chris Owusu
TE	Luke Stocker	Austin Seferian-Jenkins	Tim Wright
LT	Anthony Collins	Kevin Pamphile
LG	Oniel Cousins	Kadeem Edwards
C	Evan Dietrich-Smith	Jace Daniels
RG	Jamon Meredith	Patrick Omameh
RT	Demar Dotson
WR	Mike Evans	Russell Shepard
QB	Josh McCown	Mike Glennon	Mike Kafka
FB	Lonnie Pryor
HB	Doug Martin	Bobby Rainey	Charles Sims	Jeff Demps
Base 4-3 Defense
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LDE	Michael Johnson	Adrian Clayborn	William Gholston
LDT	Gerald McCoy	Akeem Spence	DaQuan Bowers
RDT	Clinton McDonald	Euclid Cummings
RDE	Larry English	William Gholston
WLB	Jonathan Casillas
MLB	Dane Fletcher
SLB	Lavonte David	Brandon MaGee
CB	Alterraun Verner	Johnthan Banks	Anthony Gaitor
SS	Mark Barron	Major Wrightt
FS	Dashon Goldson	Keith Tandy
CB	Mike Jenkins	Leonard Johnson	Rashaan Melvin
Special Teams
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
K	Connor Barth
P	Michael Koenen
H	Mike Glennon
PR	Jeff Demps	Chris Owusu
KR	Jeff Demps	Chris Owusu	Johnthan Banks
LS	Evan Dietrich Smith

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Mike Glennon will be starting, not in Tampa

It seems after Josh McCown came out on top from the preseason, that Mike Glennon was likely being seen as a failed experiment and the team adjusted for as such as they came to terms with another squad that was seeking a player to take over their quarterback spot.

Mike Glennon will be playing in Houston this season where he will be the probable starter for a side that had Ryan Fitzpatrick penned in as the starter, but will likely deviate from that plan as Glennon should take over being the main man under huddle, shockingly this move came at the end of the preseason which gives them much less time to prepare, but it seems the Texans finally have their man under center, and with his youth it definitely will give them upside in the future.

In return, the Buccaneers bring in Quentin Groves, the Auburn linebacker will figure to start on the left side over Casillas and should provide a boost for the squad coming out of the gates, Groves brings in a source of power and energy and should grow at the outside linebacker spot, but that was really just a bonus, as the team also landed the Texans second and third round picks as part of the deal as well. Groves lost his starting job to Clowney and became expendable.

To back up Josh McCown, the Buccaneers traded Euclid Cummings to the Indianapolis Colts for career backup, Chandler Harnish, Harnish provides a young presence that should serve as a capable back up. McCown provides a bridge gap for a few seasons to allow the Buccaneers time to pick out an ideal player to be under center, and McCown if he plays as he did for the Bears last season, he will turn some heads.

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Panthers thrash Buccaneers in season opener

Losing 45-19 is never an ideal start to the season, especially to a team that witnessed it's top quarterback, Cam Newton get sidelined during the preseason for the remainder of the year with a tear of his pectoral muscles. It was a devastating blow to the Panthers who went from having one of the NFL's best, to having Dominique Davis under center.

Ironically, Davis ended up completing 90% of his passes and throwing just above 200 yards in the season opener with 3 touchdowns, despite getting sacked an obscene 8 times, four of which were less of a sack and more of Davis trying to sprint for yardage and getting caught up behind the line. Davis struggled through the first half, going for only 44 yards and one score before igniting behind a second half resurgence.

This reception would be overturned as Vincent Jackson puts one foot out of bounds

In the first half, the Buccaneers offense worked like clockwork, picking up yardage left and right and dominating the ball, scoring on the opening drive with Josh McCown hooking up with Mike Evans for the first touchdown of the game. McCown went 13/19 in the game, for 139 yards through the first half, but late in the half while running to make a throw, he would take a bad hit and would be lingering on the ground, he would have to be taken out by the cart and preliminary tests deemed it the worst possible news, he had torn his rotator cuff, just days after the team traded Mike Glennon, their starting quarterback would be IR bound.

In came Chandler Harnish who simply couldn't hold up to the same level of play, on short notice as well and would throw for 184 yards, a touchdown to Mike Evans on a fade, when the game was well out of reach for a gimme touchdown against a Panthers defense that had already known it was claiming victory.

The game went into the half tied at 10-10, after a Vincent Jackson touchdown reception would be overturned by a booth review and the injury absolutely deflated the Buccaneers, who would kick off to the Panthers; who in turn drove the ball downfield with ease. Dominique Davis would throw an ill-advised pass that would be intercepted by new linebacker, Quintin Groves, who would return it all the way to the Panthers three, but the Buccaneers couldn't convert and would turn the ball on downs after Doug Martin would get stuffed on the goal line.

The Panthers than went to work, scoring 21 unanswered, DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart dismantled a Buccaneer defense that lost it's second middle linebacker, Dane Fletcher in the first quarter Fletcher already had a sack and four tackles before breaking his rib in an injury filled affair for the team.

DeAngelo Williams tore apart the Buccaneers on Sunday

Williams finished the game with 142 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Stewart would add 117 more on them along with a single touchdown. At the end, even Dominique Davis made the Buccaneers pay on the ground, adding 68 yards single handedly, inversely, Doug Martin finished with 72, and Lonnie Pryor had only 8.

The loss starts the Buccaneers out adversely, and they will have a lot of work to do going into the next week of action, as they now need to find a quarterback or work Harnish into that starting role. The team also has Mike Kafka on the active roster but it seems at least in the present they don't intend to utilize him.

TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
CAR 3 7 21 14 45
TAM 7 3 3 6 19

Top Performers

Carolina Panthers
Dominique Davis 19/21 205 yards 3 TD 1 INT
DeAngelo Williams 28 Rushes 142 Yards 2 TD 3 receptions, 14 yards 2 TD
Jericho Cotchery 4 Receptions 44 Yards 1 TD
Josh Norman 2 Tackles 2 INT

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Chandler Harnish 13/28 184 Yards 1 TD 2 INT
Doug Martin 17 ATT 72 Yards 7 Rec 82 Yards
Mike Evans 4 Rec 64 Yards 2 TD
Mike Barron 11 Tackles 1 FF[/color]

News from Around the NFL

- Andre Johnson set to return for the Houstons
- Manziel throws 3 INT in debut, looks scared and struggles all around; Browns lose 26-0
- Matt Barkley steps in to lead Eagles over Jaguars with 3 TD
- Andy Dalton runs a game winning 2 minute drill to stun the Ravens
- Kaepernick throws for 327, but needs overtime to beat Cowboys 19-13
- Raiders move out of the NFL basement early on by beating the Jets 13-10
- Manning beats his old team 24-20 as Broncos start out season on top.

[kc2135]

Following, should have a fun young team