I watched practice AND I met Doug Williams!

OK folks, I am a total geek. You already know that. But getting my picture with Doug Williams was awesome. As a kid, I remember storied my dad told about guys having to make sure they used their hands to catch the ball he threw because if they didn’t, it might crack a rib. (Might be exaggeration, my dad did those things) While a few of us were at practice this evening (Captain Bones (with a young lady friend), BucaManiac, Gigi and Gigi’s folks)), Doug Williams came out to sign autographs.

<NOTE: That parentheses thing I did above is a tip to what I do for a living. Very geeky, but I balanced my parentheses>

At any rate, I went over and got a ball signed for my wife’s friend’s son who is an avid Bucs fan. He has NO IDEA how important Doug was to the Bucs nor his importance in the game overall. One day he will. I capitalized and got a picture with him as well.

As for the practice, it was slow. A very light crowd got to see more of teh install process but no hitting. Given our mounting issue with injuries, a light practice was probably the right call.

An oddity today was that Josh Johnson got some time in 11 on 11 drills. Each QB got a crack at leading the team down the field. At the risk of sounding like a fruitcake, Josh Johsons looked the best. Now, he was going against 2’s and 3’s on defence, but he made quick reads, delivered accurate throws and got the team in teh end zone via a nice pass to Maurice Stovall who had his corner on an island (and should be an easy completion anytime we have that situation.)

Speaking of Maurice, as I said earlier, I would be watching him. He was running as first team tonight with AB and M80 out of the lineup. He had a number of nice catches and overall, did quite well. Did he make a huge impression? No. Did he gain some confidence? I think so.

Aside from Maurice, the other receivers had a pretty good practice as well. A few drops happened, but they were by Cortez Hankton and Patrick Carter who are beyond long shots to make the squad. Newcomer Mario Urrutia showed his human side by dropping a couple as well as John Gilmore (K2 was not dressed for practice).

The second team OLine stepped up this evening and played quite well. Bates threw people at them, but they were able to give even Byron enough time to deliver the ball (most of the time).

We hit rocky waters in the secondary. Now, with no contact, these guys have little choice but to try and get teh pass break up, but I saw too many open guys and too many corners reading the name panel of the receivers jersey. EJ Biggers stepped up and had a nice INT on a very poorly thrown Josh Freeman pass, but aside from that, the secondary was ineffective.

 

QB Race Update

1. Luke McCown
2. Byron Leftwich
3. Josh Johnson
4. Josh Freeman

Before you all tell me I am nuts, I KNOW that Freeman will make the team. I also fear he may start based on Coach Morris’s statements. But my honest review is that Johnson, right now, is better than he is. Does he have more upside potential? Doubt it. That is not the point. The point is, Freeman is not making the throws consistently, he is locking into a receiver and telegraphing the target and he is not getting the job done. We can and will work on all those things. This Saturday we will learn a PILE more about these guys.

We will be live Thursday RIGHT HERE to discuss the Tennessee Titan and what we will be looking for in that preseason matchup.

Can you believe it? Football season is BACK!