Tampa Bay Buccaneers: There's a Lot to Like with This Talented Team

While many are still griping about the Bucs not plunging into that annual mud pit called free agency, your teams puts on the pads Monday and finds out who really wants to play football.

That's what Raheem Morris loves. Pads. Hitting.

You don't know what you've got until you put on the pads. It's real football.

Let's catch our breath for a moment and understand that there is so much to like about this 2011 version of the Buccaneers. They're not going to sneak up on anyone like they did last year but with Josh Freeman, well, they're just going to show up and do what they do.

I used to love when the great linebacker Derrick Brooks would describe the defense in the simplest of terms: "We just do what we do."

There are also two words that bode well for the present and future of this team: Josh Freeman.

It's a simple fact of life that in the NFL, there are the haves and the have-nots when it comes to a true franchise quarterback, one capable of taking a team to a Super Bowl. If he continues to do what he does, and that's work his behind off, Freeman will be one of them. He's already the best young quarterback in the league and is a leader, a workaholic and a model guy off the field.

I love this offense. The offensive line comes back healthy and intact. The backfield is crowded—so crowded that the Bucs bid farewell to Kareem Huggins and it was this time last year that everyone was looking to him to be a breakthrough guy.

He got lost in the crowd with LeGarrette Blount, Kregg Lumpkin, rookie Allen Bradford, Earnest Graham, Erik Lorig—who is going to work full-time at fullback—beastly Rendrick Taylor and the undrafted free agents. Yes, it's crowded back there. Who the heck says we need to bring in a bum like Tiki Barber?

The wide receiver corps is just as crowded. There will be a huge battle for jobs but this offense is loaded.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the defense doesn't need to be great just yet. Perhaps it needs to be just good enough to let the offense do its thing. Yes, defense wins games, but so do offensive touchdowns.

The most important offseason acquisition by the Buccaneers was not a player. It was defensive line coach Keith Millard. In case you've been living under a rock, Millard was an incredible defensive tackle for the Vikings in his playing days. He still holds the NFL record for sacks by a defensive tackle in a single season—18.

He will be the difference-maker with this defensive line, a line that did not improve during the 2010 season during the Todd Wash era.

You can also consider the fact that Millard is Warren Sapp-approved. Now Fatso might be a despicable guy but he sure knows defensive line play. Fatso also knows sacks and Fatso loves Millard.

Now that the greatness that was Barrett Ruud has tested the free-agent market and came up with the blockbuster one-year deal from the Titans, well, you can understand that Ian Beckles of 620 WDAE, the most well-known Ruud basher in the Tampa Bay area, was right.

No one was falling all over themselves for Ruud.

Tyrone McKenzie is the guy right now with third-round pick Mason Foster behind him.

There's all this talk about questions and "holes" on this football team.

Here's a question for you: what team doesn't have holes or question marks? Maybe two or three at best.

Memories are short.

The list of questions and holes this time last year was bigger than the federal deficit.

The Buccaneers answered them and answered them big time.

Wouldn't have said this last year but will sure say it today, August 1, 2011.

It's time to trust Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik.

They've done it the old fashioned way.

They've EARNED it.