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Bucs' Piscitelli ready to make an impact

Tribune photo by CLIFF McBRIDE

With Jermaine Phillips making the transition to linebacker, safety Sabby Piscitelli (21) has a golden opportunity.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 18, 2009

Updated: 06/18/2009 09:41 am

There is the body, carved from steel, and ... there is the incomplete body of work. There are the marrow-spilling hits straight from the John Lynch designer collection ... and there are missed plays. There is what he is for now ... and what he aims to be.

"I want to be the best," Bucs strong safety Sabby Piscitelli recently said. "You don't play to be average. If anybody tells you they're not trying to be the best in the game, then they shouldn't be playing the game."

He'll get this chance in this, his third NFL season, as Jermaine Phillips moves to linebacker. I'm not sure what we'll get - the Sabby in the right place at the right time or the Sabby who isn't. He was all or nothing in 2008. In many ways, people are waiting on him as much as they're waiting on Gaines Adams up front.

Piscitelli's coaches and teammates see closing speed, power. They see a quarterback, a leader waiting to happen.

"Now you've just got to go do it again for the full season," Bucs coach Raheem Morris said.

"He's getting a golden opportunity to go out there and be the man," Bucs defensive tackle Chris Hovan said. "What does Sabby want to do with it?"

His rookie season was all but wiped out by injury, so this amounts to his second pro season. Only his team doesn't need him for a few games this time, like the five he started in 2008. It needs him all the time. It needs him now.

"It's a big shot for him," Phillips said. "Sabby is ready. He did a great job last year. ... We're not going to put any pressure on him to be John Lynch. Let Sabby be Sabby."

It's easier said than done. Lynch set the standard. Lynch is Piscitelli's hero.

"I don't think anybody should ever get compared to Lynch, let's just get that clear," Piscitelli said with a laugh. "Lynch is Lynch - future Hall of Fame, Pro Bowls, everything. I don't think it's fair for any media or players to compare anyone to Lynch."

He added, "I think I can be a playmaker and game-changer in this league. Absolutely this year is the challenge. Are you going to rise up or not? That's the question."

He has always been driven to answer questions. He was doing push-ups and sit-ups when he was 5. He was just 5-foot-6, 120 pounds his freshman year in high school, but he kept working. "I grew late," Piscitelli said. They couldn't get him out of the weight room at Oregon State. Piscitelli walked on air last season when John Lynch himself came up and told him "Nice hit."

But he played only three games before going on injured reserve as a rookie. And he was wildly inconsistent last season. Piscitelli made his share of big plays, with 59 tackles, some of them jarring, as well as two interceptions. But he also went missing at times. Most everyone on the Bucs defense did down that infamous final stretch.

"You ask me what plays I want to take back and I say just about every play those last four games," Piscitelli said. "We all do. It's fuel for the fire."

Even more fuel? Being doubted.

"You guys wondered about Ronde Barber - and Ronde is the best player on the field." Piscitelli said of the veteran cornerback. "So how does my name not come up? My dad always told me they'll love you one second, hate you the next. It doesn't matter. ... There's no doubt in my mind that I can get the job done. To me, it's a matter of time, just a matter of time."

This season would be a pretty good time.

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