The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may not win many games, but they appear undervalued as a decided home underdog in this spot. The Bucs have the defense to contain Dallas and stay close.
The Tampa bay Buccaneers have an opportunity of starting from a clean slate. They canned head coach John Gruden and General Manager Bruce Allen and brought in the youngest coach in the NFL Raheem Morris and new general manager. Mark Dominik.
There is no more Jeff Garcia, Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn, and Joey Galloway. They brought in Kellen Winslow at tight end, who was disgruntled with the front office in Cleveland and now has a chance to flourish here in Tampa Bay and also picked up the lightning from the Giants thunder and lightning duo of Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward.
Ward should fit very nicely in this system. Byron Leftwich is also a new face who will be starting at QB. He is a 7 year veteran behind center and will hold this job until rookie first round pick Josh Freeman is ready to run the show someday in the future.
There running game looks to be one of the strongest in the league with the triple threat of Derrick Ward, a healthy Cadillac Williams, and Earnest Graham. Leftwhich has a blue collar receiver corps to work with led by Antonio Bryant who is fresh off a 1,248 yards, seven touchdown season. Mixed in with Winslow are Michael Clayton, and two younger players Maurice Stovall and Sammie Stroughter, who really impressed us in preseason. Overall this is solid group to work with.
We're not too concerned with the late firing of offensive coordinator Jeff Jadodzinski, since quarterback coach Greg Olson was here last year and got the upgrade to coordinator. He is familiar with the system Jadodzinski was implementing and he has added his spin to it, but things should run relatively smooth.
The Dallas Cowboys have many questions of their own to answer. Outside of Roy Williams and Jason Whitten, it is a very average receiver bunch. Tony Romo has yet to take it to that next level that has been expected of him at the quarterback position. Their defense overall is very middle of the pack and not an upper echelon bunch. They have a pretty good offensive line and a solid running game but this Tampa Bay defense is not to be overlooked.
The Bucs are led by guys like Ronde Barber, Barret Rudd, Gaines Adams, Aqib Talib, and mixed are in guys who are solid but not as known like Quincy Black at line backer and safety Jermaine Phillips. There are many unknown but talented players on the defensive side of the ball in Tampa this year.
Tampa Bay isn't a playoff team but they may be a profitable team in certain underdog situations like this one. They aren't a team we would want to lay any chalk with but we'll take the points at home with them in a game where they start fresh and should be fired up.
We feel this will be a competitive ballgame and back the Bucs to get the cover.
Free Pick: Buccaneers +6 (-110)