We've hit the dead part of the NFL season where a few rookie minicamps and such happen, but nothing of substance. Given that the draft has come and gone and most of free agency has happened, why don't we start talking about the 2012 season. We saw a 4-2 team turn into 4-12 last year, though I'm not sure anyone, even CrackerBall thought that was possible. So let's hear what your early thoughts are on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2012 season. Vote in the poll below and let us know how you think the season unfolds.

I don't know that I saw both a trade down and a trade up happening for the Bucs in the first round, but that's exactly what Dominik did. He traded from #5 to #7 and got a 4th rounder in the process to move back. He also gave up a 2nd rounder and swapped 4th rounders to move from #36 to #31.

So what's the consensus on these trades? Do you think Dominik handled the trading process well?

Alright Bucs Nation, what is your reaction to the first round action where we saw Mark Dominik and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selects Mark Barron out of Alabama at #7 to play safety and Doug Martin at #32 out of Boise State to play a little running back. Did you like both picks, hate one and love the other or think they both suck?

Having never seen either play a down as a Buc, we want your initial reaction to the picks in the poll below.

It's finally here! All the talk, discussion, arguments and hyperbole has led to tonight. The NFL Draft will certainly be a must watch for most NFL fans, especially Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans who are ready to see our franchise turn around, again.

As we prepare for the draft, what is your particular NFL Draft ritual? Do you don a Bucs jersey? Do you pace the room screaming at the TV? Do you settle in with some friends at a local bar? Sound off in the comments section and let us know what your draft day ritual is.

And of course, it wouldn't be draft day without one final poll. Let it be known BucsNation who you think the Bucs will pick.

Happy Draft Day!

With just a few days and a few picks remaining until the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pick, draft talk is in high gear around here. It's no surprise that the draft generates so much interest and debate, particularly on a losing team. We all have our opinions on what the team needs to do to improve and until that pick is made, we can all theorize and fantasize on what should be done, how it will affect our team and what impact it will have in the 2012 season.

See, that's the best part about the draft. For those with a high draft pick, it's a chance to pick up a stud player that can turn a franchise around, provide some highlights and a reason to watch a game. We can discuss who would be the best fit and why, which players don't make sense and come up with countless scenarios. It's essentially a fantasy football aspect to a real team.

Us Bucs fans have been waiting for draft day since about Week 10 last year, being on full "Draft Watch" as we lost 10 straight and wondering what type of player it would take to turn around this team. We'll get a lot of answers to a ton of questions starting this week and I look forward to talking shop with everyone as the draft unfolds.

This poll probably doesn't need a story to explain it, so I'll keep it short. We drafted Aqib Talib from Kansas to be our #1 shutdown corner for years to come. He had some skeletons in his closet we knew about, and they became ever more evident after he bashed a fellow rookie at the symposium, used his helmet as a weapon, smacked a cabby upside the head (allegedly) and may or may not have fired a weapon in Texas. Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik continued to give Talib leeway even after he allegedly accosted Rah in London.

Now, with the draft just a short time away, a trial that was supposed to take place prior to the draft has now been bumped back at Talib's insistence, or at least at his lawyer's insistence. This puts the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a tough spot as they had hoped to know his availability from a criminal standpoint prior to the draft. Goodell could always lower the boom from an NFL standpoint, but Texas seems to be the first hurdle.

Prone to mental lapses on the field, Talib has been relatively solid, but not spectacular. He can play well for 90% of a game, but make one mental mistake that ends up costing us points. I personally believe he would fare better under a disciplinarian rather than a familiar position coach turned head coach.

With that being said, what do the Bucs do with Talib? Vote below and sound off in the comments.

Sean Payton suspended a year

Gregg Williams suspended indefinitely.

Ouch.

More to come.

Update # 1

Thanks to some Bucs Nation commenters more information has come in. Goodell has also taken away their 2nd round pick this year and their 2nd round pick next year. That means the Saints do not have a draft pick until the 3rd round this year.

Also, GM Mickey Loomis was fined $500k in addition to being suspended 8 games.

Full text of the announcement after the jump (Warning: It's long, but contains all the details. Look for the bullet points)

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I posted this in another thread, but I think it's worth a look here. If you finish in the top 5 defenses, you are almost an 90% chance to make playoffs. If you finish outside the top 10 in rushing (team and/or individual) you are better than 50% to make playoffs.

Playoff team rankings for last few years.

This lists their D ranking PPG, O ranking, and Rushing Ranking followed with individual top rusher. Given the amount of data, I’m using basic stats. SB teams in bold

2011
Texans – 4, 10, 2, 5
Broncos – 24, 25, 1, 8
Bengals – 9, 18, 19, 12
Steelers – 1, 21, 14, 21
Patriots – 15, 3, 20, 27
Ravens – 3, 12, 10, 2
Saints – 13, 2, 6, 33
Lions – 23, 4, 29, none in top 50
Packers – 19, 1, 27, 38
Giants – 25, 9, 32, 29
Falcons – 18, 7, 17, 3
49ers – 2, 11, 8, 6

Top 4 defenses made it, top 4 total offenses made it, 4 of top 10 rushers made it, 7 teams with no top 10 rusher made it. No good running game here

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It's the slow part of the offseason (i.e. no signings, trades, draft on the horizon), so why not address the hottest rumor that's out there. That would be the potential free agent signing of Mario Manningham, who has said he is 75% sure he will find a new team this year and has targeted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as that new team, allegedly. Of course, the Bucs would have to want him too, but that's another story.

Manningham will be 26 years old at the start of the season and is entering what would be his 5th NFL season. He is a former Michigan Wolverine who has spend his entire NFL career playing with the New York Giants after being a 3rd round selection. He stands at a listed 6 feet even height and weighs 185 pounds. His potential decision to come to Tampa is probably a direct result of our hire of Mike Sullivan and has Manningham hoping he can play in a familiar season where he sees the field. He's leaving New York, in my opinion, based on his status as their third wide receiver and the fact that team's don't pay top money for third receivers. Hence, his desire to come play #1 or #2 in Tampa.

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Thank you Chip Kelly for becoming the latest "Yes he will, no he won't" contestant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For those who missed the last 12-16 hours, reports popped up during the NFC Championship Game that the Bucs and Oregon coach Chip Kelly had engaged in discussions to bring him aboard as the next head coach. Talks were supposeldy heating up after meetings the week prior with several people confirming it was to be finalized by Tuesday and a few places even saying it was a done deal.

The news sent waves rolling through the NFL landscape. Potential coordinators were being discussed, the draft become a hot topic and how he would adapt his offense to the NFL system were all items being talked about as people envisioned Kelly taking over the reigns.

But alas, it was not to be. Kelly supposedly had a last minute change of heart (which could be true, or he could have assurances he's getting more cash from Oregon). The rumor mill swept us all up and Kelly firmly hit the flush button to drown the dreams of a high powered attack in Tampa. It's worth noting that Kelly never said he would coach here and in fact, we have no idea what conversations took place. The talks sound like any other talks, due diligence followed by a "Let's see if we can work this out." Kelly may have gotten caught in the hype and as he had time to think about it, realized Eugene, Oregon was where he wanted to stay.

This shouldn't feel too unfamiliar for Bucs fans. Back in 2002, after Tony Dungy was canned we had a deal with Bill Parcells, or so we thought. Turns out he had a change of heart and left us standing at the altar. Of course, we would go on to get Gruden so there's hope in 2012, though I hope it doesn't include 4 draft picks this time around.

We can thank Twitter and other social media for letting this rumor mill get out of control. But the good news, at least as I see it, is people were excited to talk about the Bucs again. We were trending and being discussed in a positive light for the first time since October. Can't argue with that.

What's next? We sit and wait. There will be more interviews, talks of potential hirings, and finally, someone will sign on the dotted line. We'll move on and this whole Chip Kelly thing will be nothing more than a blip on the radar.

History does repeat itself and 2002 isn't a bad year to repeat for the Bucs. Let's see if this coaching fiasco has the same outcome.

I don't often link to other sites, but in this case I feel it's warranted. Over at JoeBucsFan, there's a quick blurb that discusses how the Glazers could feel like their hand is forced based on a report by Ira Kaufman. The quote looks like this.

At this point, [the Glazers] feel their hand is forced," Kaufman said. "They’re not competitive. They’re the worst team in football right now. Nobody can argue that.

It goes on to point out the willingness the Glazers seem to have in spending, citing Gruden's monster salary (but yet fails to mention an additional feather in the spending cap, the draft picks we gave up).

Last, but not least, here is the potential early Christmas gift for some. For all you Domink haters out there.

Kaufman said he believes Team Glazer will target a high-profile guy to be the Bucs next head coach and Mark Dominik could become a "casualty of war" if they hired a guy like Bill Cowher that might want complete control.

I should note that this quote is paraphrased from JBF and not a direct quote, however, you can see where the direction would come from.

I personally don't think Dom needs to go, but if the Glazers land their top target who insists on Dominik being gone, I'm not the one cutting the checks. I will say that if/when they let Dom go, it's a lot of wasted money between 3 years of paying Gruden to not coach, 1 year of Raheem (potentially) and 3 years of Dominik (potentially).

A quick rant on the last 36 hours of Bucs football. This is my take in the heat of the moment, not necessarily what anyone else here thinks. Feel free to sound off below.

I'd like to think that over the last 2.5 years I've been relatively supportive of Raheem and the organization. We all suffered through the 3-13 season, we continued to support the team, I kept my season tickets even though the team (in 2009 and 2011) is about as fun as watching paint dry, but there comes a point when you just have to walk away from certain aspects of an organization and realize change is needed. We've talked for weeks about what we think in regards to keeping Raheem or bringing in coordinators. We've debated Mark Dominik's status and talked about which players should stay or go. After the 31-15 loss to the Cowboys where we looked lost for 45+ minutes, I see the end for Morris.

How do I know it's the end? We've changed the level of acceptability. Morris no longer is discouraged with this play, but rather offered up this telling quote. He's pleased at the second half of football, specifically saying,

Fortunately, for us, the team didn’t die on us like last week

Uh, that's a problem. First, you acknowledge that the team quit on you last week (duh), but now, you are trying to make this a positive, the fact that the team showed some second half life. Whoop-de-doo.

Then, he offers up this beauty.

They fought back, they came back in the second half, they didn’t surrender, but they’ve got to come out faster.

Hey Raheem, that's YOUR job to get them out of the gate faster. For almost 30 games now we've been a slow starter. It is your job and your job alone to figure this out. The players play and execute but you have to put them in the right position. You've failed to do that.

We've lowered the bar in Tampa. No longer are we talking about competing for the playoffs, winning 10 games, causing some damage to other teams. Instead we almost laud the team for not quitting. Well congratulations guys, you didn't quit! Here's your participation trophy.

Those quotes right there tell me either Morris doesn't get it or is just trying to find words to get him through the next 2.5 weeks. Either way, the fans, including myself won't accept games like last night. We won't accept the team simply trying as being a success. We want to compete for titles and if Morris, the players, and others in the organization see not quitting as a sign of progress, please find the nearest exit and don't return. That's unacceptable.