All's Quiet On The Buccaneer Front, For Now...

The silence is deafening.

All is so very quiet on the Tampa Bay Buccaneer front.

Seven days from now, a very short seven days, the Buccaneers will take the field under the blazing heat of a Florida August sun.

All's quiet for most NFL teams as the waiting game gets closer to the boiling point as first round draft picks wait for their deals.

First pick Matthew Stafford is on board with the Lions, fifth pick Mark Sanchez is a Jet.

Things began to unfold a bit Saturday as the NFL Network announced that Cleveland has signed 21st pick Alex Mack and Pittsburgh got its deal done with Ziggy Hood, the 32nd selection.

That makes 28 still to sign, including the future of the Tampa Bay franchise, Josh Freeman. Freeman was picked just four spots from Mack so the mechanism has begun to roll.

Linebacker Larry English, drafted by San Diego just ahead of Freeman, is waiting. Robert Ayers, a defensive end selected by Denver, is just after Freeman at 18.

Look for contract action to come to a full boil this week.

If and when Freeman does sign, Tampa may not have to release any players to reach the 80-man training camp limit. There are strong signs that offensive lineman Arron Sears will not report for camp.

Then the Bucs have to decide what to do with him. He could possibly be destined for the non-football injury/illness list. At some point that decision will be made and it could happen next Friday when the team reports.

In the meantime, it's so very quiet. It won't be next Saturday night when Raymond James is the scene of a night practice with no limits on attendance by fans.

Should be quite a scene, not a quiet scene.