Sears will take time to return to field

Though there is no question it existed, the disconnect between beleaguered left guard Arron Sears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was never quite as great as it might have seemed.

Through text messages, phone calls and the occasional chance meeting away from One Buc Place, Sears has stayed in mostly regular contact with his teammates since he first walked away from the team in April.

That's why no one inside One Buc Place was all that surprised to see Sears walking around the facility again on Wednesday, a day after the third-year pro was reinstated by the team.

"I ran into him about three weeks ago," left tackle Donald Penn said of Sears. "We talked for about 10 minutes and (his return) was one of the things we talked about. He told me he couldn't wait to get back."

Sears' wait is far from over. Overweight and out of shape, Sears won't return to practice until next week at the earliest, and it could be next year before he sees action in a game again.

"In my mind it would be wishful thinking to think he can contribute this year," Bucs general manager Mark Dominik said of Sears, who immediately moved into the starting lineup as a rookie in 2007.

"He has to get himself into really good shape, and he has to get himself comfortable with a playbook that he really doesn't know. That's a lot to ask over the last seven weeks of the regular season."

The only thing the Bucs are asking of Sears right now is to get into shape. As a result, their plan for him is to spend all of this week working one-on-one with strength and conditioning coach Kurtis Shultz.

There are no plans for Sears to attend team or positional meetings, and it will be next week at the earliest before the Bucs ask Sears to speak to the media and address the reason behind his extended absence.

"We're going to take it slow with him," Dominik said. "It's important for us to let Arron feel comfortable coming back into the building and getting reacquainted with the team."

Dominik first started to get reacquainted with Sears last week, when he took advantage of a league rule that allowed him to bring the Bucs' 2007 second-round draft pick to One Buc Place for a workout and a physical.

Now that he has been reinstated, the Bucs have two weeks before they have to decide their next move. At that time they can activate Sears or move him to one of any number of reserve lists.

Which way the Bucs go will be determined largely by how quickly Sears can get into shape and learn the offense, because the Bucs are convinced he has regained his passion for football.

"In talking to him, I got a sense of hunger and desire in him," Dominik said. "I know he wouldn't be here if he didn't want to be here. I know he's very excited, very happy to be with Kurtis today. He's fired up about it. But that guy hasn't played organized football now since last April.

"So we'll see how the whole test progresses, how he does. Then we'll sit down and make a determination."

Penn said Sears has a "hard, uphill battle" ahead of him. In addition to getting into shape, Sears also will have to rebuild his strength and regain his footwork, Penn said.

"If it was me, I wouldn't want to go through that," Penn said. "But I'm happy he's back. I mean, that's one of my guys. Every time I see him I just smile and start cracking jokes on him, like the old days.

"I mean, he seems like the same old Sears to me. When I first saw him after I caught that pass (against Philadelphia), the first thing he said was, 'Oh, so you're catching passes now, huh?' That's the same old Sears."

The Bucs probably would benefit from having the same old Sears back. Though they say Jeremy Zuttah has played well in Sears' stead, Sears was an integral part of the team's core.

"He was one of the guys we were looking at as a building block to what we were doing," Dominik said. "He's a talented player.

"He proved that his rookie year, and anytime you take that out of your organization you're hurt a little bit."