Sep 09, 2009 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Raheem Morris was thrilled to see his two starting wideouts, Antonio Bryant and Michael Clayton, running around without limitations on the practice field on Wednesday, four days before his team was set to open the 2009 season against Dallas.

Bryant is returning from arthroscopic knee surgery performed a month ago and Clayton is dealing with a hamstring strain that kept him out of much of the preseason action. The Bucs targeted the beginning of the regular season when treating both players' ailments and it appears as if that goal will be met. Still, Morris concedes that Bryant's limited work since early August means he's not quite as prepared as he could be to get things started.

Further complicating matters is that Dallas, Bryant's original NFL team, boasts a secondary that finished fifth in the league in pass defensed in 2008.

"It's more difficult who you're going up against," said Morris. "You're starting off, coming back, not having the preparation you need, and you're going against Dallas. You're going to play against a very talented secondary, with Terrence Newman, [Mike] Jenkins, [Orlando] Scandrick and all those guys. They're a talented football team. Any time you're getting ready to go play a talented football team, you want to be at full strength and obviously he's not right now. He's getting there. He's working his way back and hopefully he can get there so we can go out there and play our very best."

Bryant and Clayton were listed on the injury report on Wednesday, but both were marked as having participated fully in practice. As was instituted last season, team injury reports are no longer required to include evaluations such as "doubtful" or "probable" until Friday. On Wednesday and Thursday, teams must list any player who didn't practice, was limited in practice or was able to practice despite a notable injury.

Thus, the Bucs will reserve final judgment on Bryant, Clayton and their other injured players until the end of the week. However, Morris obviously liked what he saw from his two primary pass-catchers on Wednesday.

"I'm fired up about that," he said. "We'll update [it again] tomorrow and Thursday."

The Buccaneers had three players that did not practice on Wednesday, none of them starters. John Gilmore, perhaps the team's best blocking tight end, missed the last two preseason games with an ankle injury and has not yet practiced this week.

Linebacker Adam Hayward was also held out due to an ankle injury, while rookie cornerback E.J. Biggers missed Wednesday's session due to a shoulder ailment. Morris said it is not yet certain whether or not any of those three would be question marks on Sunday.

"That's just the injury report for practice," he said. "It's day-to-day with all those guys. We'll get a better feel for that tomorrow and also Friday."

Assuming Bryant and Clayton play on Sunday, the Bucs could field up to five receivers, including Maurice Stovall, Brian Clark and rookie Sammie Stroughter, if they are all deemed worthy of being on the 45-man game-day active list. In recent years, the Bucs have had a very clear third receiver, often Ike Hilliard, or Clayton if Hilliard was in the starting lineup. This year, that role may not be as well-defined, and that's actually a good thing. Morris believes Stovall, Clark and Stroughter can all bring something valuable to the table.

"You've got Maurice Stovall who's very special at something, whether it's red zone, whether it's down-the-field throws, whether it's a big body working the middle of the field. You have Sammie Stroughter who has some quickness and dynamic [talents]; he's going in and doing some different things as well. But you also have B.C., who's kind of a mixture of both of them and has a little more jets at the top end of that thing. I'm just happy they're all on the football team. We just want to get the best 53 men and they're part of it. If they're going to have their helmets on on Sunday, we want to use them all. I don't know if there's necessarily a three, a four or a five. What's the situation? What are we calling? Who's best for what? What play do they do well? And let's go out there and do it."

The Cowboys' injury report was just three players long, though all three were held out of practice Wednesday: Cornerback Michael Hamlin (wrist), linebacker Curtis Johnson (hamstring) and linebacker Jason Williams (ankle). None of the three are listed as starters on the Cowboys' depth chart.

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Captains Chosen

Before he left the room to allow the Buccaneers to vote for their own captains on offense, defense and special teams Wednesday morning, Morris had some advice for his players:

"You guys voting for captains, you pick the guys who have been doing the right things, the right things around here, the right things off the field, the right things with the media, the right examples in the lunchroom, the right examples in the classroom, the right examples on the football field."

Morris thinks the players got it right with their selections. On defense it's two highly-respected veterans – cornerback Ronde Barber and defensive tackle Chris Hovan. On offense, it's the team's new quarterback, Byron Leftwich, and the leader of the team's talented offensive line, center Jeff Faine. And for the second straight year the special teams captain is safety Will Allen.

The defense will look to a pair of captains who set a prime example with their shared work ethic.

"You've got Ronde Barber, who's just going out and trying to play bump-man when everybody said he couldn't," said Morris. "He may have gotten a little quiet there for a second, but then he came back and he just practiced harder, and practiced harder. He worked on every detail and technique thing that you can have, and you've got Ronde Barber as a captain.

"You look at Chris Hovan. Chris Hovan has been here every day – OTA days, offseason workouts, in the building at 6:30 every day, works his butt off on the D-line, drives the bus for his room. You look at those kinds of guys being picked, that’s what you want."

The two offense captains are players who arrived over the past two offseasons, Faine in 2008 and Leftwich in 2009. It didn't take either of them long to gain a high level of respect in the locker room.

"You look at Jeff Faine going through an injury," said Morris. "He came back and practiced more, played in the games. He's been here for every mini-camp, every OTA day. Those are the guys you talk about when you talk about picking captains.

"You look at Byron Leftwich, coming in here off the streets and battling for the job at quarterback. He earned the respect of his teammates to get enough votes to become a captain. He earned the respect of the coaches to be named the starting quarterback. You go into a room, get a number-one draft pick and lead him, direct him, show him the way, not be selfish. That's hard to do. For these guys to recognize that and to see the credit that guys are giving them is special for the whole team."

Allen was drafted in the fourth round in 2004 and was in the starting lineup by his second season. However, he lost his free safety job to Tanard Jackson following the 2007 draft and became primarily a special teams player for a couple years. Allen made the most of that situation and kept his roster spot secure by becoming one of the team's top performers in the kicking game. Even though he's expected to see more playing time in the secondary in 2009, he remains a very important figure for the Bucs on special teams.

"He came here and had some adversity, became a starter, got benched, became a special teams captain, led our team in special teams tackles and now he's here leading every day," said Morris. "And now he's back in three-man rotation as far as safety."


**

Paying the Penalty

The Buccaneers committed a total of 36 penalties in their four preseason games, 10 more than their combined opponents and an unhealthy total of nine per game. Those flags officially cost the team 306 yards, but undoubtedly the damage was even harsher when one considers yards that may have been lost on good plays erased by penalties.

Of course, that's not an uncommon occurrence in the preseason, when teams are using up to 75 men on any given night and many of those are players who will not be around when the regular season begins. The Buccaneers' 1999 set a franchise record for fewest penalties in a 16-game season, 75, but in the preseason that summer they were flagged 30 times, or 7.5 per game. There's no reason to assume that the blizzard of yellow that plagued the Bucs in the preseason will continue into the games that count.

Still, Morris isn't taking anything for granted, and he made a point of addressing the penalty issue with his team earlier in the week.

"The way you lose games is penalties," he said. "Penalties never help. You've got to be able to limit those things, you've got to be able to limit the foolish ones especially. We've done everything we can. We've brought it to their awareness, we had officials in there, we've got [officials] out there in practice all the time. We've just got to clean it up to get better, and we're trying to do that every day."

Of course, Morris believes it's equally important how one reacts to a penalty when it is called. Differences of opinion about calls are inevitable between officials and players in any sport, and neither side is right all the time. Morris wants his players to refrain from making a small problem into a much bigger one.

"There are going to be some that you can't control," he said. "They're going to call those. 'Hey guys, you can't worry about those. Don't blink. Keep moving.' I don't even like when my coaches, I don't like when my players – anybody – talks to an official. That's just a sign of mental weakness because you're probably going to get another one on the next play and let it keep going. Move on, gather yourself, no excuses and don't do it again. When the fatigue gets to you that's when the penalties really show up. That's part of the plan as well, keeping us fresh, keeping us healthy."