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Bryant's Starting, So Galloway's A Healthy Observer

Tribune photo by CLIFF McBRIDE

Bucs receiver Joey Galloway, warming up before the Dallas game last month, is healthy but still isn't getting on the field.

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By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 25, 2008

TAMPA - Time doesn't stand still in the National Football League, but Joey Galloway does. At least that's how it has been lately for the guy who made a name as the fastest receiver for the Bucs.

He is apparently healthy - normally big news – but it hasn't mattered. He has lost his job to Antonio Bryant, so Galloway has been on the sideline for all but a few plays of recent games.

It's a bit of a touchy subject around One Buc Place.

Coach Jon Gruden just shrugged and said "they both play the same position" when he was asked about Galloway. He said the Bucs tried to use Bryant and Galloway at the same time Sunday at Detroit, but Galloway finished with no catches. He has only a single reception in the last three weeks.

Bryant is certainly playing well; you can make a case that he is having a Pro Bowl season. He isn't in Galloway's speed class, though. Since the Bucs' ground game needs help because of the injury to Earnest Graham, it would seem Galloway's speed could stretch opposing defenses and make life easier on the running backs.

So goes the theory.

"It's something we're trying to work through," Gruden said. "It's not as easy as it looks."

Both Galloway and Bryant play split end, which is the speed position in Gruden's offense. The flanker is more of a possession guy; hence, Michael Clayton and Ike Hilliard.

The Bucs don't often go to three wideouts, so that leaves a guy who should be one of the Bucs' best offensive weapons with a lot of time to ponder the meaning of it all. That's not saying he should play ahead of Bryant, but it is worth wondering how we got here and what, if anything, can be done about it.

I mean, it's weird.

Gruden basically has given Galloway his own set of rules for training camp and practice. The guy has been fragile, but Gruden has gone to great lengths to keep him healthy and as fresh as possible for Sunday afternoons, which seemed to work. Galloway had three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons prior to now.

But there's that fragile thing again. Galloway missed five weeks this season with what the Bucs kept calling a right foot sprain, although Galloway said on his radio show it was a broken foot. That was after he missed all of training camp and the exhibition games with a strained groin.

You assume he is healthy now, but it hasn't mattered. It could just be like Gruden said; Bryant has taken over, and Galloway is a man without a position.

"We're hoping to get them on the field more and more, but the bottom line is for us to find a way to win a football game," Gruden said.

That doesn't really answer the question, but maybe he doesn't need to. This is the NFL, and we know what that means. Yesterday's hero is today's spare part.

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