Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Tommy’s out of town and away from the intertubes so I will be doing my best to fill in until he returns. As I began writing on this site about the Bucs I figure I will stay in my wheelhouse for this post. And I will try to refrain from making anymore Nazi references (too soon I guess).

Two of the Bucs key players from last season have given their best “Show Me the Money!” pitches and so far GM Bruce Allen has done his best job to ignore them. Jeff Garcia is in a difficult situation since he has at best two or three more years of football left to play and he likely realizes this is his last chance to cash in. But considering he will be paid a base salary of $2 million with a $750,000 bonus I would be surprised if Bruce Allen reworks Garcia’s contract to add a good deal more money.

Earnest Graham’s contract squabbles are even more unlikely to be solved since Graham seems convinced he is better than he really is. The Football Outsiders had an interesting article on Graham where they basically conclude he is a power runner who owes most of his success to a dominant offensive line. Grahams runs well between the tackles and is an above average receiver for a running back but needs to be paired with a smaller, speed back to be successful. In essence Graham is the same runner as Mike Alstott, which is probably why Jon Gruden brought in Warrick Dunn.

On a positive note ESPN.com pays some glory to Derrick Brooks, naming him among the greatest linebackers ever. I will go one step better and name Brooks the greatest Tampa Two linebacker ever. Before Brooks the great linebackers were either bigger run stuffers (i.e. Dick Butkus) or pass rushers (i.e. Lawrence Taylor). Brooks is undersized for his position and fits neither of these categories of all time great ‘backers. Instead he belongs to a newer generation of ‘backers who have developed in response to west coast and other pass-heavy offenses.

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