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Simms Knocking Off The Rust

Tribune photo by CLIFF McBRIDE

Chris Simms looks for a receiver downfield.

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 27, 2008

Updated: 07/27/2008 12:12 am

LAKE BUENA VISTA - Poor Chris Simms. He always seems to be battling some sort of malady.

A few years ago it was a sore shoulder; last year it was the aftereffects of spleen surgery; Saturday it was nerves. And, boy, was Simms nervous. On one play he "choked" so badly that his dump-off to Warrick Dunn fell about 4 feet short of Dunn's feet.

Never before, though, has the still-disgruntled Bucs quarterback felt so good about an otherwise poor outing.

"I was as nervous as I was for my first NFL start or for a Texas-Oklahoma game," the former Longhorn said after his first workout in nearly a year. "But it felt good to be back out there again. Today was a big hurdle for me. I missed a few throws, but it wasn't because I was physically unable to make them."

The outing wasn't a complete bust. Overall, Simms probably made more good throws than bad ones. And while he didn't necessarily impress Coach Jon Gruden, he did impress his new quarterbacks coach.

"I thought he did a nice job for a guy who hasn't done anything in a year," Greg Olson said. "He was real sharp mentally in the meeting Friday night, and his attitude has been great. I was actually kind of shocked by his grasp of the offense."

So was Simms. As a result of his decision to skip all of the Bucs' offseason workouts in an effort to get traded or released, he didn't get his first look at the 2008 playbook until Friday night. That look was a real eye-opener.

"I opened the playbook and I was like, 'Oh, gosh; there's some new plays in here,'" Simms said. "I was stressing over that, but for the most part it was stuff that I'd done. There were just a few nuances here and there, so it shouldn't be anything too hard to pick up."

If Simms can pick up those nuances and start picking out receivers again, his chances of earning a roster spot somewhere should improve. That is Simms' objective in this camp: to re-establish himself as an NFL-caliber quarterback.

And while he has made it clear in recent months that he would really like to do that somewhere else, Saturday he sounded an awful lot like a guy who just might be content to stay in Tampa this season.

"If I get traded, so be it; if I get released, so be it; if I'm with the Bucs, so be it," Simms said. "I'm just going to continue to come out and get myself better and get in the swing of things.

"Remember, there was a part of me a year ago - around September, October - where I was wondering if I was ever going to feel normal again. So I'm just glad that I do feel normal and can hang around with the guys again."

He won't necessarily be hanging around with Gruden. Though the two parties met shortly after Simms' arrival at camp Friday, their relationship still seems a little icy.

No surprise there. Simms still maintains that Gruden mistreated him last year when he questioned whether Simms' physical limitations were actually "in Simms' head."

Throw in the fact that Simms believes Gruden has erased him from the Bucs' future plans and it is no wonder their meeting at the Celebration Hotel on Friday proved to be a rather awkward one.

"We didn't exchange Hallmark cards or anything like that," Gruden said of the meeting. "I'm interested in talking about Simms, but I can't keep commenting on what he said or what I think. I respect him a lot."

He'll respect him more if Simms can again display the form that made him the Bucs' 2006 opening-day starter. That form was still well down the road Saturday, but Simms said he doesn't regret the decisions he has made.

"The only thing you do regret is not having a chance to throw to NFL receivers and having the Derrick Brookses and the Cato Junes out there trying to break up your passes," said Simms, who spent most of the offseason throwing to friends and stationary targets. "Those are the things I have to get used to again. But I did what I did, and I've got a good reason for it. I'm here now and I'm just going to continue to work and let the rest of that stuff take care of itself."

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

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