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Bucs cut Dexter Jackson, last year's 2nd-round pick

Tribune photo by CLIFF McBRIDE

Dexter Jackson briefly loses the ball during a kickoff return in the preseason opener at Tennessee.

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 31, 2009

Updated: 08/31/2009 06:30 pm

TAMPA - The decision to spend a 2008 second-round draft pick on wide receiver/return man Dexter Jackson has always been considered controversial. Now it can be defined by another word: mistake.

Validating what many of the fans have been saying for months, the Bucs on Monday admitted to reaching too far on Jackson and released him in an effort to reach the league's 75-man roster limit.

"Some of it had to do with other people coming along, with other people emerging, but it was really just time to go in another direction,'' Bucs coach Raheem Morris said.

The Bucs couldn't envision a scenario where Jackson made the team as either a return man or a receiver, despite the fact he'd made strides in both areas this year.

After playing what Bucs coaches described as "scared'' and losing his returner's job to Pro Bowler Clifton Smith after seven games last year, Jackson returned to the Bucs with a new approach to the game this season.

He was credited with playing tougher and more physical during training camp, but proved to be unreliable as a pass catcher and blocker. He also was hurt by the emergence of rookie receiver/return man Sammie Stroughter.

"We wanted to look at him as a slot receiver and as one of our speed guys, somebody who can take the top off,'' Morris said. "But he didn't fit the whole package of where we wanted to go, and we found some other people that we like better.''

Stroughter appears to be at the top of that group. The rookie leads the Bucs in kick returns this preseason with seven for 213 yards and has five pass receptions for 38 yards.

Against Jacksonville, Stroughter returned a kick 75 yards to set up a touchdown and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass.

In addition to Stroughter and projected starters Antonio Bryant and Michael Clayton, the Bucs have Maurice Stovall, a former third-round pick who is having another good preseason, and Chamberlain High product Brian Clark.

Stroughter and Stovall are seen as virtual locks to make the roster, while Clark is the apparent leader in a battle for the fifth, and possibly final, receiver spot with Cortez Hankton, Mario Urrutia and Marcus Maxwell.

"Dexter may be a guy that just needs a new start with a different team,'' Bucs general manager Mark Dominik concluded. "But we feel good about what we have in the return game and at receiver right now.''

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