One Buccaneer Place: Who's Calling the Shots?

Tuesday is the traditional "day-off" for players in the National Football League, although those who witnessed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' effort against the New York Giants last Sunday might argue that most of the team took that day off.

So, in the aftermath, amidst the wreckage at One Buccaneer Place, aka: La Casa de Depair, behind closed doors came a decision that surprised perhaps a few, but what was surprising is that it came after only three games.

Head coach Raheem Morris, the head of this jumbled asylum, declared after the Gigantic beat-down at Raymond James that quarterback Byron Leftwich was still his guy, still the starting quarterback.

Raheem told us that if he was to consider benching Lefty, then perhaps he should bench everyone. A novel idea!

Less than 19 hours later, Raheem, in a move reminiscent of the Glazers deciding that an untested defensive coordinator should become their head coach, declared "career backup" quarterback Josh Johnson his new starting signal caller.

Yes, Josh Johnson, the fourth-string guy at summer camp, has been tossed into that stinky pile of manure known as the Buccaneer offense.

Leftwich was not demoted to backup, he was thrown ungracefully under the bus and will be the inactive third quarterback at Washington on Sunday.

Which makes us wonder: Exactly who is calling the shots at La Casa de Despair on MLK Boulevard?

You might glance at the photo above and get an idea—Doh!

You might also get the idea that Raheem and his staff wasted the entire summer training camp. Their total focus at quarterback was Leftwich and Luke McCown. All the effort was spent studying those two to determine which would give the team the best chance of success.

McCown is now in Jacksonville and Leftwich is somewhere under the bus.

That's nothing but a solid waste of summer camp.

Doh!

Anyone who has watched more than a dozen football games in their lifetime knew that Leftwich would eventually be replaced, but the common notion was it would come sometime around week seven or eight. Few thought things could go so wrong so early in this season.

Doh!

With all the camp focus on quarterbacks now officially in the crapper, Morris has turned to Johnson, who spent little time taking snaps at camp, fewer than his majesty Josh Freeman, who is in no way ready to get abused from opposing defensive lines.

So Josh will be fed to the wolves for as long as he can stay upright. Morris knows that at least Johnson is equipped with enough agility and speed to run for his life, and no doubt we'll see a lot of that.

Thus comes the latest decision.

But we ask ourselves: Did Morris really change his mind that quickly or is some sort of "committee" running the show at the Casa de Despair?

Judging from the way things are unfurling before us, it's anyone's guess.

Doh!