Martin inks pact with Bucs, only Mark Barron remains unsigned

With Doug Martin (right) under contract,
only Mark Barron (left) remains unsigned
from Bucs 2012 draft list

And now they are down to one.
The Tampa Bay Bucs today signed the Boise State running back Doug Martin to a five year deal, leaving only one of the players it drafted in 2012 unsigned.

Martin was a person the Bucs coveted. They moved up into the first round to get him (31^st overall pick) as their number two pick after indirectly giving up a chance to take heralded cornerback Morris Claiborne.

The Bucs have now signed six of their seven draft picks leaving only top pick, safety Mark Barron (7^th overall pick) from Alabama as the only one who has not put his name on a contract. He has been working out with the team, but unsigned draft picks are not allowed to report to regular camp without a signed contract.

New Tampa head coach Greg Schiano has repeatedly stated he wants to improve the Bucs running game and considers Martin essential. LeGarrette Blount, last year’s featured back, has been a disappointment with his fumbling and inability to play on third downs because of deficiencies in blocking and understanding the plays.

Martin ended his college career with 3,431 yards and 43 touchdowns (5.6 avg). Last season he ran for 1,299 yards and 16 touchdowns. The only questions marks with him regard Boise’s weak schedule, which allowed the Broncos and Martin to put up numbers that might have more to do with a poor quality opponents than anything else.

Bowers injury a major blow to Tampa Bay Bucs

Da'Quan Bowers could miss all of 2012 season

One of the brightest off seasons in a long for the Tampa Bucs quickly turned dark Thursday when the club annoucned that second year defensive end Da'Quan Bowers tore the Achilles tendon in his right leg.

Though he tweeted that he will play in 2012, the second year product out of Clemson  is expected to be lost for the entire season and surgery has been scheduled for Friday. He suffered the injury will participating in the Bucs' off season conditioniong program.

Its the second major injury for Bowers, who slid into the second round of the NFL draft last year because teams were leery of a torn ACL he suffered in his left leg. Bucs GM Mark Dominik decided to take a chance and gambled on Bowers with the 51st overall pick, while most other teams felt he was not worthy of the second round because of his ACL injury.

Bowers head 25 tackles and 1.5 sacks last season. Fortunately for the Bucs, they signed defensive end Michael Bennett to a one year deal before the start of free agency. Bennett played in 14 games last season, starting in 10.

With major injuries on both legs, Bowers future has to be considered questionable and it is unlikely he will play next season, though he insists otherswise.

Are we hearing Double Talk out of One Buc Place

Are we hearing some double talk from Mark Dominik?

When announcing that Butch Davis would join the Tampa Bay Bucs as a senior special adviser instead of defensive coordinator general manager Dominik said it had nothing to do with a $2.7 million buyout the University of North Carolina owed Davis after it fired him last summer.

If Davis coaches he would reportedly lose that money. Of course, the Bucs could pay his buyout off or negotiate a deal with North Carolina, but he said he doesn’t want to coach.

So why is Davis assuming a role that would not allow him to talk with players and be on the field.

"The main reason Butch Davis wanted to come here was to work with his good friend, Greg Schiano and to help him because he understands the pressures and how hard it is as a first-year NFL head coach,” Dominik told the media this week.

That is fine and dandy as it stands, but it goes against what Dominik said when he hired Schiano who was the Rutgers head coach the past 11 years.

At the press conference to announce Schiano’s hiring last month Dominik said he wasn’t concerned that Schiano had coached college for the last 11 years.

“He (Schiano) was putting up NFL caliber players (at Rutgers). He was certainly playing against good competition, but the main thing for me was I felt very comfortable (we felt ownership included) felt very comfortable that that was something that was not going to be a concern,” Domink said.

Remember when Dominik said last year it wasn’t a good idea to get involved much in free agency because it can disrupt the harmony of a team.

At his introductory press conference with the Bucs on Thursday Davis said his advisory role had nothing to do with his situation at UNC. He reiterated that he wanted to help his friend Schiano and there were many ways he could do that without being the defensive coordinator.

The newsobserver.com reported that because he's joining the Buccaneers as a consultant, Davis still is eligible to receive what UNC agreed to pay him as part of his buyout, according to his lawyer and that UNC has paid Davis $1,203,917 as part of his buyout and that the school owes Davis an additional $1.77 million.

If he accepts a coaching position between now and Jan 15, 2013, his buyout would be affected and he would receive a prorated amount depending upon when he accepted a given coaching position, according to Jonathan Sasser, one of Davis' lawyers, the newsobserver.com said.

The Bucs say this is not about money and you want to believe those who run things at One Buc Place. But history has taught us to be cautious in those matters.