I’ve been in and around NFL locker rooms for close to 20 years.
Generally speaking, the locker room tells the story of the season. Team is 8-1, everyone in the locker room is in a good mood. Team is 1-8, no one can be found in the locker room.
But this 1-8 Bucs team is different.
You walk into their locker room and players are cheery, optimistic, and they see a light at the end of the tunnel. More than a handful of players make themselves available to the media (which is quite a bight by NFL standards) and they are more than willing to answer questions truthfully.
This is a good sign. A sign that this team, despite its awful record, believes in one another, and believes in the system and attitude Raheem Morris is attempting to instill.
But hope and attitude are only two pieces to this big puzzle. The biggest piece being talent. And quite frankly, this team is lacking it in many key areas. Take the defensive line for instance. Four pylons would gave gotten just as much pressure on the QB as the Bucs front four did last week in Miami. No pressure up front, puts your defensive backs in peril of getting burned….and we’ve seen that happen on more than one occasion this year, most recently on the Fins final drive to victory.
Maybe these players are so cheerful because many of them know they are lucky to be getting an NFL check. My guess is, many of them will not be cashing in next season with the Bucs. Bucs D-Coordinator Jim Bates seems to agree. When asked if this team has the talent on the defensive side of the ball to execute his scheme, Bates in so many words said "...we will have to reevaluate everything at the end of the season."
