The Buccaneers finally signed a really good football player in free agency.  June played in all 16 games for the World Champion Indianapolis Colts and he made 142 tackles, had a sack, defensed a pass, forced 2 fumbles and recovered a fumble.  Look for June to add speed and a sure tackler to the Buccaneers defense.

The Bucs have signed Sammy Davis to provide depth in their defensive backfield.  He played in 13 games last season and he made 30 tackles and defensed 6 passes last season for the San Francisco 49ers.

The Buccaneers have signed reserve DT Lance Legree to a one year contract.  The 6’1″, 300 pound Legree only played in two games last season for the San Francisco 49ers.  He has played six seasons in the NFL and he’s played in 77 games and he has made 134 tackles, has 7 sacks, defensed 1 pass, forced a fumble and recovered two fumbles.  If Legree is anything more than a back up for the Bucs then things have really went wrong for them in 2007.

The Bucs have signed OT Luke Petitgout to start at the tackle position opposite of Jeremy Trueblood.  No one can question Petitgout’s talent but he’s coming off of a broken leg and he has a history of back problems.  The soon to be 31 year old started 9 games for the New York Giants last season.  Over his 8 year career, he’s played in 113 games and started 106 of them, all for the New York Giants.  He will help the Bucs if he can stay healthy, and that’s a huge if.

The Bucs have signed Kevin Carter to a 4 year, $25 million dollar contract.  Carter is starting to get up there in age but the Bucs were desperate for pass rush help and Carter to advantage of that and got paid.  He played in all 16 games last season for the Miami Dolphins and he made 45 tackles, had 5.5 sacks, defensed a pass and recovered 2 fumbles.  Look for him to be productive for a couple of seasons for the Bucs.

The Bucs have brought in FB B.J. Askew to compete with Mike Alstott for the starting job.  Askew has said that he doesn’t want to play fullback anymore, but, he’s not going to start over the Cadillac.  Maybe Askew was promised a shot to back the Caddy up.  He played in 13 games (5 starts) with the Jets last season and he carried the ball 6 times for 11 yards (1.8 ypc).  He also caught 9 passes for 50 yards (5.6 avg).

This is a puzzling move by the Buccaneers after on Friday when Jake Plummer said he’d rather retire than play for the Bucs and they traded for him anyway.  He is officially retired but the Bucs will still have to give the Broncos a draft pick based on how much playing time he gets.  The way the Broncos are going to try to stick the Bucs for a decent draft pick is that they are going to make Jake Plummer pay over $5 million bucks back to them if he doesn’t play, which is the pro-rated signing bonus that he didn’t earn by quitting.  It’s possible that Plummer could be stuck on the Bucs if he decides to play and they aren’t able to trade him.  Another reason this makes no sense is the Bucs could have over $15 million bucks of their salary cap tied up in QBs Jeff Garcia, Chris Simms and Jake Plummer.  That’s insane seeing how none of those guys are capable of winning a Super Bowl for the Bucs.

Plummer lost his starting job to rookie QB Jay Cutler last season in Denver.  He still played in 16 games (11 starts) and he completed 175 of 317 passes (55.2%) for 1,994 yards with 11 TD passes and 13 interceptions (68.8 QB Rating).  He also carried the football 36 times for 112 yards (3.1 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He started looking like he was starting to lose his skills a bit last season and he isn’t getting any younger.  Over his career, Plummer has played in 143 games (136 starts) and he’s completed 2,484 of 4,350 passes (57.1%) for 29,253 yards with 161 TD passes and 161 interceptions (74.6 QB Rating).  He also has carried the football 428 times for 1,853 yards (4.3 ypc) with 17 TD runs.

 

The Buccaneers have signed free agent QB Jeff Garcia to a two year contract.  He will come into camp with a chance to compete for a starting job with Chris Simms.  Garcia was fantastic last season after Donovan McNabb was injured.  Garcia showed great leadership and he played great in 8 games.  He started 6 of those games and he completed 116 of 188 passes (61.7%) for 1,309 yards with 10 TD passes and only 2 interceptions (95.8 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 25 times for 87 yards (3.5 ypc).  Chances are that Garcia will beat out Simms if they start out on equal footing in Training Camp this year.  Over his career, Garcia has played in 99 games (92 starts) and he has completed 1,811 of 2,973 passes (60.9%) for 20,385 yards with 136 TD passes and 73 interceptions (86.4 QB Rating).  He also has carried the football 395 times for 1,878 yards (4.8 ypc) with 24 TD runs. 

The Buccaneers have re-signed Phillip Buchanon and Torrie Cox.  Buchanon played in 14 games and he made 26 tackles, 2 interceptions, defensed 6 passes and had 1 fumble recovery.  He also returned 5 kickoffs for 106 yards (21.2 avg) and 14 punts for 95 yards (6.8 avg).  Torrie Cox played in 16 games and he made 30 tackles, defensed 3 passes and recovered a fumble.  Cox also returned 18 kickoffs for 387 yards (21.5 avg).

The Buccaneers signed Chukwurah, who was a back up for the Broncos, to possibly start as an edge rusher for them.  He played in 14 games last season and he made 25 tackles, had 4.5 sacks, defensed a pass and forced a fumble.  Look for him to be a decent contributor on the defense for the Bucs in 2007.