A VIEW FROM NORTH OF THE BORDER Excellent article by Lee Broomfield. It echoes many of my sentiments and, I'm sure, many other Bucs fans. One point which doesn't work in our favour, however, is that this is the final year of the Gruden trade deal, ie the Al Davis pound of flesh. We lose our second round pick to the Raiders again this year, so, although we have a first round pick for the first time in 3 years, we then miss out until the third round, unless the new GM can work a trade and maybe rescue a second rounder for, say, Keyshawn Johnston. There actually is a fair amount of young talent around the squad (Nece, Wansley, White to name but three), so all is not yet lost . I agree that John Lynch may not be the force he was a couple of years ago, but is still one of the best in the business and I think his biggest problem will be steering clear of injury next season. A guy who hits as hard and as often as Lynch is bound to get banged up over the years and will take longer and longer to heal. In my opinion, we need to beef up in three specific areas, namely offensive line, defensive line and running back. We must either draft the best possible running back who is a real breakaway threat, or sign a top notch free agent. We can't afford to waste 3rd and 4th round picks on a back who is no better than Pittman or Stecker. The jury is still out on Jones, but he has a chance. As for Mike Alstott, I met him outside RJS after the Packers game in November and asked him if he'd be back next season. He just shrugged and said "That's the plan, but who knows." From that statement and his demeanour, I would not be surprised if the great man has a big decision to make in the very near future. Dungy and McKay built a Superbowl winning team on stud defensive linemen and we need to continue in this vein. We could have the best secondary in the land, but if you can't stop the run and then put pressure on the opposition QB with your front four, you're going to give up points. Offensive line is an enigma. It's been the single biggest problem ever since I started following the Bucs (17years ago). Apart from the three play off games last season, we've never had a dominating O line. Of course, after finally getting things together, Gruden dismantled it and made three positional and personnel changes. Yet again, we enter the close season thinking about renewing virtually every position on that line. Unbelievable ! Are we the only team in the NFL who can't seem to put together 5 decent guys up front ? This year we finally have the makings of a top 5 offense, but, due to O line inadequacies and penalties (2nd down and 35 against the Packers !!!!!!!!!) we are left watching the play offs from the outside. Gruden is now the man. He fought with Keyshawn, now Keyshawn is gone. He fought with MacKay, now McKay is gone. I have no doubt that he will have a say in who becomes the new GM. In a couple of years, there will only be one person to either congratulate or to blame. I have my doubts, but it's difficult to think positively after what we've seen this season. I hope to see the Bucs in another Superbowl soon. It could happen ! A final thought...........GET A NEW SPECIAL TEAMS COACH! Right, I'm off to watch my Superbowl XXXVII DVD again.