Gruden Preaching Aggression This Season

By ROY CUMMINGS

Published: Aug 5, 2007

LAKE BUENA VISTA - There's a new buzzword at Bucs camp this year. And no, it's not proprioception, though that word did create quite a buzz around here last week.

The hot topic here is aggression, and Coach Jon Gruden wants a lot of it from the Bucs this season. He wants to see it from everybody on every play and in every game. Here's why:

Nobody in the NFL, Gruden and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin included, is doing anything really innovative these days. Everybody runs an offensive or defensive scheme that most everyone else recognizes. And while some of the league's players are clearly more talented than others, no team has an overwhelming majority of those more talented players.

What winning and losing comes down to is who plays better on any given Sunday. And oftentimes the team that plays better is simply the team that is more physical.

"The best way to explain it, I guess, is to say that everybody on defense has a gap that he is responsible for," linebacker Barrett Ruud said. "And if you own that, if you really enforce it, that's how you win.

"I mean, there's a couple teams that play a 3-4 defensive scheme and a couple that run the run-and-shoot on offense, but for the most part it's all man-on-man and it's individual battles and [that decide games].

"And that's what he's enforcing - that every guy has to win that battle. Everyone has to stake a claim to his gap, and that's going to have a domino effect for the whole offense or defense."

Gruden has been preaching the aggression theory more aggressively since the end of last season. He made it a big part of his pre-camp address to the team and has been hammering the point home since.

"We've got to be a more physical football team," Gruden said flatly. "That was an area that got away from us a bit last year, mostly because we had a number of injuries and we couldn't be aggressive in practice.

"This year, I want to see us hit in most every practice. And I want us to hit hard. We've added some guys who are stout, physical men who are going to play the game that way. And that's what we want to be known for here."

MONEY MATTER: Citing the Bucs request that he take a $2.5 million pay cut, former Tampa Bay defensive end Simeon Rice continues to insist that his release was financially motivated.

Well, money wasn't the biggest reason Rice was let go. But it probably did factor prominently into the situation. In fact, it may be the reason Rice was dumped so unceremoniously.

Had the Bucs cut Rice before signing first-round draft pick Gaines Adams, they would have given up a lot of leverage in their negotiations with him. Adams, in fact, might have even gained the upper hand in those talks.

If Adams had known Rice would be let go and that the Bucs were going to lean on him even more than expected, the fourth overall pick in the draft might have held out for far more than the $18 million in guaranteed payouts he settled for.

As long as Rice was still on board, the Bucs still had the upper hand. As a result, they were able to quickly negotiate a deal with Adams and then turn their attention back to Rice, who had more or less outlived his usefulness.

The last thing he did for the Bucs was provide them with leverage against Adams. Once Adams was on board, Rice became expendable, and by dumping Rice, the Bucs saved $7.25 million.

Throw in the $3 million or $4 million that Adams might have asked for had he known Rice wouldn't be around, and the savings goes well beyond $10 million.

So maybe Rice was right. Maybe his release was all about the money. The likelihood is that it still had a lot to do with his play on first and second down, but it seems money was a factor, too. A big factor.

CADDY CONSISTENCY: As he prepares for his third NFL season, running back Cadillac Williams is seeking consistency.

"I want to be productive Sunday to Sunday, not have a game of 100-plus yards here and then have a game of 20 or 30 yards there," he said. "It's just too many times I've been up and down."

Williams was mostly down last year, running for 100 or more yards on two occasions but for 40 or less on six occasions.

Better play from the offensive line is probably the key to his success. Williams was stuffed for a loss 27 times last year, 10th-most in the league. His 64 total yards lost in those situations ranked fourth overall.