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Simms Offer Won’t Change Starter

Posted Nov 28, 2006 by Scott Kramer

Updated Nov 28, 2006 at 01:17 PM

This report about the Bucs making Chris Simms a two-year offer throws an interesting twist in the 2007 offseason speculation. It makes sense, but isn’t all that meaningful in terms of who starts. Simms is a low-mobility, stretch-the-field kind of player… exactly the opposite of what this offense calls for. Bruce Gradkowski, on the other hand, is a high-accuracy (or so I’ve heard) scrambler that Jon Gruden constantly defends, something he rarely did for Simms. Simms is the better athlete and quarterback, but I don’t think that matters. Ask yourself this: Will Gruden keep the player with the better arm and adjust his offensive scheme to accommodate his strengths and weaknesses? Or is it more likely that Gruden will keep the player that is already better suited to his offense and try to coach him up to perform better? See how easy this becomes when you break it down?

Personally, I would love to see Simms as the starter and have Gruden make some adjustments to his offense. Simms’s natural abilities can’t be taught and that second half against Carolina left me optimistic that if he only had a better offensive line and some plays suited to him that he could really be good. But Gruden is about as likely to embrace major changes to his playbook as he is to embrace the tuck rule. Getting Simms to sign a contract won’t change Gruden’s mind about who he wants as his starter, but it is a smart business move in that it provides some much needed depth to the quarterback position and gives Simms trade value.

If Gradkowski sucks so incredibly badly toward the end of the season, or if he suffers a major injury, the Bucs would like to have at least one guy on the roster who has taken some snaps under Gruden. If nothing else, Simms will push Gradkowski to perform better during camp. If Gradkowski shows marked improvement for the rest of the season, the Bucs can at least get some trade value for Simms with him under contract (assuming Simms’s ego won’t let him play backup to Gradkowski.) Chris has a lot going for him. He’s got a great arm, had some success and his teammates can’t say enough good things about him. But his value clearly diminished after his first three games where he only had about two quarters of decent play. I’m betting the offer doesn’t have to be too high for the Bucs to keep him on the roster, and that can only benefit the team.

Reader Comments

Por (Gregory B Montgomery) on November 28, 2006 (Suggest removal)

Gruden has truley made up his mind of who he wants to QB his team. Bruce’s strength’s is scambling,short and intermediate passes and learns quickly!
but yet Gruden is trying to make him perfect that and the long ball and he doesn’t have the arm or accuracy for that, and Gruden WON"T point that out he blames that on being young. Now Chris
has proved that he knows this system he has a great long ball, and the touch for short and intermediate passes and if all you had to do was throw a few roll outs in to clear the pocket a few times just do it! we say chris is not mobile well call a play move him around in the pocket and see? I like Bruce but
my vote is for chris.