Rookie McCoy's growth should be measured over time

Rookie first-round draft pick Gerald McCoy is off to a slow start this year, and his frustration with that came to a head recently when he spoke out about the endless comparisons he draws to Bucs legend Warren Sapp.

Pointing out that he and Sapp are built differently and suggesting those builds ultimately will result in different strengths, McCoy said he "can't be Sapp'' and that he wishes everyone would stop expecting him to be Sapp.

Unfortunately for McCoy, the comparisons aren't going to end. He is playing the same position as Sapp and since both players were first-round picks, the Bucs are expecting similar results. Surprisingly, perhaps, they're getting them.

A look back at Sapp's first year shows he struggled as a rookie, too, enough so that he was replaced as a starter by Santana Dotson for a stretch of eight games midway through the season.

By the time that 1995 season ended, Sapp had 27 tackles, three sacks, one forced fumble and one interception return for a touchdown, which is actually very McCoy-like.

No, McCoy doesn't have a sack, but after six games he has 10 tackles and a forced fumble. Given time to develop, then, there's still a good chance McCoy can grow into the Sapp-like entity the Bucs envision.

The key, of course, is growth. As his stat-line indicates, Sapp didn't play like a Hall of Fame candidate right off the bat. It took him a year or two to get there, and that time to grow is what McCoy seems to be asking for.

"It's a learning process, a growing process,'' he said. "Yes, they drafted me this year to make a change. But just like when they drafted Sapp there is a growing process.

"I have to grow to get that way. They brought me here so I could help this team grow and for us to grow together as a team. It's not going to be an overnight deal. It was the same with Sapp. I mean, Sapp wasn't always Sapp.

"He picked up on everything real fast and he became a Hall of Famer, but he wasn't always like that. Just like (Ronde) Barber and (Derrick) Brooks weren't always Barber and Brooks, and just like (John) Lynch wasn't always Lynch.

"Those guys, they all grew into that. And that's the same thing that we're doing here right now. They were young and then they got older and they just picked up on it. That's the same thing we're doing here.''

Pick-up artist

The Bucs have never had any concerns about RB LeGarrette Blount's ability to run the ball. The thing that was keeping them from giving the rookie a bigger role in the offense was their concern over his ability to recognize and pick up a blitz.

Those concerns were pretty much alleviated last week during a first-and-10 play early in the third quarter when the Rams threw a cornerback blitz at the Bucs that Blount recognized and stopped well enough to allow QB Josh Freeman to complete a 21-yard pass to Mike Williams.

"I think that gave (running backs) Coach (Steve) Logan a lot of relief,'' Blount said. "He said he nearly had a heart attack when he saw that corner coming because he didn't think I saw him. But I did. I saw him and I picked him up and he was happy about that.'' So was Bucs coach Raheem Morris. He gave a lot of the credit for the fact that Blount has been quick to pick up on the system to his coaching staff. But he also lauded Blount, who picked up one of the toughest blitzes a team can throw at an offense.

"The corners are the toughest ones to see,'' Blount said. "You can only see them out of the corner of your eye a lot of times, and they're not always blitzing. You can see the linebackers pretty well and there are protections where you check to the corners, and that was how we did it.''

Rapid development

Freeman will make his 16th NFL start today, and if the Bucs win he will have a .500 record (8-8) as a starter. That's a sign that Freeman is developing even faster than many expected, but Morris says he's not surprised by Freeman's growth as a quarterback.

"I saw him do it in college (at Kansas State, where he was the defensive coordinator during Freeman's freshman year), so I'm not as surprised as I guess everybody else is. For me, this was kind of expected, so I'm more just proud to see him continuing to grow and (eager) to see what he can ultimately become,'' Morris said.