2011 NFL Preseason Schedule: Michael Koenen Crucial for Tampa Bay Buccaneers

There are a lot of Tampa Bay Buccaneers to keep your eye on Friday night when the Bucs play the Kansas City Chiefs out in steamy Kansas City, but let's talk about the one guy no one is talking about—Michael Koenen.

Oh, there was the standard whining and moaning when the Bucs signed him as their ONLY outside free agent. There was even more whining about his $19-million-over-six-years contract, but all you need to know from your "NFL General Manager 101" manual is that you need only look at the guaranteed money on any NFL contract, and you'll see that Koenen's is only $6.5 million.

One of the biggest question marks for the Buccaneers in this now-approaching season is something no one is talking about, and that is special teams play.

Rich Bisaccia is gone, and he was a crackerjack special teams guy. I spent time with him, and he's the man. He's the guy you want to play for and make plays for.

The Buccaneers are weaker without him, and that's why we need to take a long look at the special teams play Friday night. When you really scratch your head and think about it, that is part of the reason for the acquisition of Koenen.

The punter position has been a turnstile at One Buccaneer Place. There has been no stability there, and if you listen to the masses who think they know what they're talking about, free agency is supposed to fill holes, and that hole in the Buc roster was huge.

The Bucs had plenty of film on Koenen. They saw him up close and personal twice a year; they knew what they were doing on this one.

Now listen close, ladies and gentlemen: what they actually got here was a two-for-one, one of those great supermarket "Buy One, Get One Free" deals. Koenen has a huge kickoff leg.

With the change in rules, this guy should drive the ball through every end zone, and that's something else to watch on Friday night. No return opportunities means less plays the special teams have to make. And that's a good thing.

So while you're worried about the defensive line and the linebackers and the secondary, think about special teams. Special teams win and lose football games more often than not.

Koenen could and should be a game changer, a guy who can make a huge difference in field position.

And isn't field position what the game of football is all about?