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Questions remain for Tampa Bay's linebackers

Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

Bucs head coach Raheem Morris will have several options to choose from at strongside linebacker.

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By ROY CUMMINGS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 11, 2009

TAMPA - The situation at linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is nowhere near as settled as it once seemed.

Though Barrett Ruud continues to have a lock on the middle linebacker spot and Jermaine Phillips is making a smooth transition to weakside backer, the starting strongside linebacker's job is suddenly back up for grabs.

The Bucs were hoping free agent signee Angelo Crowell would fill that spot, and he still may. Crowell, however, recently suffered a setback in his return from left knee surgery and that has created an opening at his spot.

"That one will be decided at training camp,'' Bucs linebackers coach Joe Barry said of the starter's job at strongside backer. "Angelo is still there, but we're looking at Quincy Black, and Geno Hayes is working there, too.''

The Bucs are very high on Black and Hayes, but they've been holding out hope that Crowell would regain not only his health but the form he showed when he led the Bills in tackles with 126 in 2007.

Crowell made a lot of those tackles while nursing a sore left knee, and he finally put himself on the shelf in the summer of 2008 when he opted to have season-ending knee surgery just prior to the start of the regular season.

The severity of the setback Crowell suffered is not known, but he has been on the field for most, if not all, of the team's voluntary workouts the last two weeks, Barry said.

With Crowell's knee problem a lingering concern, though, the competition for playing time at the strongside linebacker spot is wide open, and there's a good chance it will stay that way through camp and into the regular season.

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