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Time For Bennett To Show His Speed

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 18, 2007

Updated: 10/18/2007 12:12 am

TAMPA - Michael Bennett still has it. He still doesn't flaunt it. His mother would never allow it.

That story about Bennett, the one-time Olympic sprint candidate, tattooing his NFL combine 40-yard dash time on his ankle, it's a myth. The report on the 40 time, that's no myth.

'I ran a 4.18,' Bennett said Wednesday. 'But I don't have any tattoos - anywhere. My mom would kill me if I got one.'

She'd have to catch him first. No easy task there. Seven years after he ran one of the fastest 40 times ever recorded at the combine, Bennett says he still can cover 40 yards in 4.27 seconds.

That's Joey Galloway fast. All of a sudden, both are Buccaneers, Bennett coming here Tuesday from Kansas City in a trade for two conditional draft picks.

Now the race is on. Not between Bennett and Galloway, but between Bennett and the Bucs playbook. He has until Sunday to learn at least a portion of it. No easy task there either.

'It's like me trying to learn Chinese in 48 hours,' he said. 'It's just not going to happen. So I think we're maybe going to put a package of plays together and try to do something with that.'

The Bucs don't have much choice. They're down to their third tailback, their third fullback, and to no one's surprise their running game is at a standstill. It has produced 47 yards the last two weeks.

Bennett has produced 52 rushing yards all season. Sort of makes you wonder if he can make a difference here. According to wide receiver Ike Hilliard, he has to.

'We've got to get our running game going,' Hilliard said Wednesday. 'We've got to pick it up there.'

Bennett feels a need to pick things up as well. He's in his seventh season as a pro now, but the only one of those seasons really worth talking about was in 2002.

Bennett ran for 1,296 yards and five touchdowns and earned a trip to the Pro Bowl as the lead back for the Minnesota Vikings that year. He hasn't come close to matching that season since.

Injuries are one of the reasons. Foot and ankle problems limited Bennett to eight games in 2003, and a right knee injury hampered him throughout the 2004 season, limiting him to seven starts and 70 carries.

By 2005, the Vikings started turning to Mewelde Moore as their feature back, so Bennett spent that season splitting reps with Moore and deciding the time had come to move on, which he did the following spring.

It wasn't long after he signed a free-agent contract with the Saints, though, that the Houston Texans passed on Reggie Bush, letting him drop to the Saints, who suddenly had no use for Bennett.

'I understood the situation,' Bennett said. 'I was brought in to do everything he's doing now, but he was the phenom. So I talked to the GM and he said they were going to treat me right.'

Bennett was in New Orleans long enough to get a bowl of jambalaya and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. Before the pads went on in training camp, he had been traded to Kansas City.

The Chiefs gave up a fourth-round pick for him, which is kind of curious. After all, the Chiefs like their backs to be big and powerful, like Larry Johnson and Priest Holmes, and Bennett didn't fit the mold.

Not surprisingly, he spent last season and the early portion of this season playing sparingly. When Holmes became eligible to come off the physically unable to perform list this week, Bennett became expendable.

'It definitely came as a shocker,' Bennett said of the trade. 'But I'm definitely thrilled about the opportunity, definitely happy to be in a great organization and playing for a hell of a team.

'But these last 48 hours have been crazy. I got here about 11 a.m. Tuesday, and from the airport I came straight over here, and from there I got straight into the playbook.'

Bennett says he stayed in that playbook until about 8 p.m. Tuesday. He planned to do the same Wednesday, today and Friday.

'He's got a lot to learn right now,' said Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who may not know the half of it.

Bennett got lost driving from his Tampa airport hotel to One Buc Place on Wednesday morning. Then he got lost trying to find the locker room after he finally arrived.

In Bennett, though, the Bucs believe they may have found a solution to the problems that have developed at running back. In addition, they found some of the speed they lost when Cadillac Williams went down with a knee injury three weeks ago.

'Oh yeah; he's fast,' said nose tackle Chris Hovan, who played with Bennett in Minnesota. 'If you can get him going in a straight line from point A to point B, he's really fast.'

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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