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Bucs Beat: Crippling Injury Had To Be At Guard

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 24, 2008

TAMPA It had to be a guard. It couldn't have been a safety or a running back or even a quarterback.

The Bucs are deep at those positions. Very deep. They have former starters backing up current starters. Not so at guard.

It had to be Davin Joseph. He is arguably the best lineman on the best offensive line the Bucs have ever had.

Some scouts watch him and see Pro Bowls in his future. Right now, his future is cloudy. Same goes for the Bucs'.

As long as Joseph is on the sideline mending a broken right foot, the Bucs are a weaker football team.

Their run blocking is weaker; their pass protection is weaker; add it all up and their chances of repeating as NFC South champs are weaker.

It had to be a guard. It's one of the few areas where the Bucs were truly vulnerable to injury this season. Or are they?

Long before Joseph went down, the Bucs were raving about Jeremy Zuttah, the rookie whiz-kid out of Rutgers.

He learns fast, the Bucs say. He moves fast, too. Zuttah needed less than a month to move past Chris Denman on the depth chart.

Current plans call for Zuttah to start in place of Joseph for as long as Joseph is out. It's not necessarily a worst-case scenario.

The Bucs have had success with rookie guards before. They did so last year, when they won their division with rookie Arron Sears at left guard.

They did the same in 2005, when rookies Dan Buenning and Sean Mahan started at left and right guard, respectively.

Oddly enough, the one year a rookie guard didn't pan out for the Bucs was 2006, when Joseph replaced Mahan. Tampa Bay went 4-12 that year.

Back to Zuttah. The Bucs watched him on tape before the draft and thought they saw a lot of Joseph and a lot of Sears in him.

Intrigued by that and his versatility, they spent a third-round pick to get him in April. Some say it was a reach.

Had the plan been to leave Zuttah at tackle, the position he played for Rutgers last year, it might have been.

The plan all along, though, was to play Zuttah at guard, or maybe center. It's where his skill set fits best, the Bucs say.

There's just one problem. Zuttah is still learning the guard position. Now he has to cram for it. It's not necessarily a best-case scenario.

Coach Jon Gruden admits there "will be some growing pains" with Zuttah in the lineup. That figures. But it didn't have to be that way.

The Bucs filled a lot of holes via free agency this offseason. They added a lot of depth, a lot of quality depth.

Former starters were brought in to back up, or possibly replace, current starters. They did it at wide receiver and running back, at defensive end and safety, at cornerback and quarterback. They did it everywhere, it seems, except the offensive line.

The Bucs rolled the dice there. They left themselves thin where they appeared to be strongest - at guard, at tackle, at center. Now it might cost them.

How much? The guess here is a victory, maybe two. That may not seem like much, but in a 16-game season, one or two losses could prove substantial.

It could also prove devastating. If 9-7 becomes 8-8, it could mean missing the playoffs. That's what the Bucs are suddenly faced with.

If it were a safety, a running back, even a quarterback, the situation might not be so dire. But it's a guard. Figures. It had to be a guard.

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

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