Trading Places

Well Buccaneer fans, it looks like you are going to have at least two new starters this year.

On Monday, two days after the Buccaneers' 20-15 win over Kansas City in preseason Week Two, the team issued an updated depth chart that featured several new starters.

On offense, 10th-year veteran Keydrick Vincent has supplanted incumbent Jeremy Zuttah as the starter at left guard. The Buccaneers signed Vincent as an unrestricted free agent on July 9 after he had spent the previous two seasons as a starter with the Carolina Panthers.

And on defense, seventh-year veteran Sean Jones has moved ahead of 2009 starter Sabby Piscitelli in their head-to-head battle for the starting strong safety spot. Jones, who has started 53 games over the last four seasons in Cleveland and Philadelphia, signed with the Buccaneers as an unrestricted free agent on March 17.

Morris has stated that the starting lineups for the third game of the preseason would likely be a good indication of who the team will field to open the regular season against the Cleveland Browns on September 12.

The Sean Jones promotion wasn't much of a surprise to me seeing as how I predicted it just this morning and gave the justification for it.

The Keydrick Vincent promotion however was still mildly surprising to me. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people said from the moment he was signed that it was just a matter of time before he supplanted Jeremy Zuttah. However in my opinion, at least as far as the games went, Zuttah played well enough to keep his starting job. Which is to say I thought overall he played noticeably better than Vincent at left guard.

I will say that he totally sucked at center though which may have created a bad impression with the coaching staff. Or maybe the coaching staff was looking for a reason anyway. I really can't say at this point. I do like Vincent, especially when it comes to run blocking, and he is the much more physical player. But I do worry about him when it come to pass blocking when its an athletic guy he is matched up with.

Now I don't want it make it seem like this was some kind of travesty or something. Vincent can play and the guy has an impressive resume. Its just that for me and to me when it comes to the games I didn't think Vincent outplayed Zuttah at all. Of course the games are just a snap shot and I can't say what has been happening at practice. Either way, no matter who starts, we have some quality depth at that position now. And that was one of my worries going into this preseason.