Let the interesting part of the offseason begin

I tell you, when your team doesn't make the playoffs, it feels like a long damn time between the end of the season and the start of free agency. Especially if your team doesn't have compelling characters who will piss themselves for police or incite a riot while throwing singles at strippers or get ejected from a high school girls basketball game or knock up hot TV stars while banging supermodels. The Buccaneers, by comparison, are pretty boring. So, it's always nice when March rolls around and washed up players with expired contracts and bad knees start whoring themselves out for the veteran minimum. Welcome to the 2007 NFL season!

Pewter Report has a story about Jeff Garcia being interested in playing for the Bucs. Garcia's agent says that Jeff would like to play for the Buccaneers and Gruden. Replace "Buccaneers" and "Gruden" with any other team and their head coach and the statement is still true. That's not to say Garcia won't be a Buc... maybe he will. But I'd think he'd first explore the possibility of signing with a team that has a chance to win it all next year so he can get his ring before retiring. When he signed with Cleveland and Detroit, he must have known they would never sniff the playoffs. But they were his best opportunities to be a starter, so he took the cash and the glory of being the starting quarterback for losing teams. But at 37, your priorities change. Super Bowl contenders that have shaky quarterback depth? If I were Garcia, I'd be telling my agent to call Carolina and Dallas.

Pro Football Talk is reporting that Luke Petitgout came to One Buc for a visit (PFT.com doesn't permalink their rumors, so that link is only good for a while.) It makes sense. Petitgout is good, there's not much chance of Joe Thomas being available at the #4 slot and Anthony Davis just isn't getting it done on the left side. I bet Petitgout wouldn't cost all that much either.

The Vikings released Brad Johnson yesterday, putting their offense in the hands of... wait, who? Tavaris Jackson? I still say that if Garcia doesn't land in Tampa that Gruden at least gives Johnson a workout.

Of course, there will be wild trade rumors and incredulous stories about teams moving up and down the draft to snag picks and/or players. Just keep in mind that most of the big rumors probably won't happen, at least where the Bucs are concerned. Bruce Allen has been relatively conservative in his free agency and trade dealings and them having a good chunk of cap space this year isn't going to change that considerably. Remember, when news doesn't happen, you heard it here first.