Didn’t See That One Coming

The Buccaneers made their roster cuts yesterday and many of them were just to make me look like an ass because there's no way they make sense from a football perspective.

- First and most obviously, they kept Chris Simms. So now they have four quarterbacks on the roster, but it's not like one of them is a Kordell Stewart clone who can split out wide or return punts or something. Luke McCown is the best athlete of the bunch, but I don't see him being on the field as anything but a quarterback. The only sense I can make of this is that they didn't want to let Simms go without getting something out of him in trade, which they can't do now because of his injuries. So they'll continue to work with him and get him healthy so he can be ready for some team desperate for a quarterback before the trade deadline.

- They only kept four running backs, letting Kenneth Darby go. I saw the final preseason game and he missed a couple key blocks. He wasn't a special enough runner to let that slide.

- They did keep seven linebackers, but the guy they just acquired, Leon Joe made it instead of Adam Hayward.

- Speaking of linebackers, they also released Jamie Winborn. That pisses me off.

- Only five wide receivers, eh? No Mark Jones to return punts now. And no return specialist on the team to take his place. I'm guessing Phillip Buchanon gets the nod for that.

- Alan Zemaitis is out, Sammy Davis is in. Zemaitis was getting torched all over the place, so I guess it came down to who made the least mistakes instead of who actually looked the best.

- The only surprise on the defensive line is that Ellis Wyms, the leading sacker in 2006, was released in favor of Ryan Sims who, by all accounts, has had a pretty bad camp. They also kept Greg White, the Arena League guy. I had debated about him but ultimately decided to leave him off the roster.

So, I had some right and some wrong, but I really didn't expect a couple of them. Winborn, Wyms and Simms were the biggest surprises. I'm guessing Winborn knew he wasn't going to be a starter anytime soon in Tampa, so he may have requested a release. Anyway, on to Seattle.