Bucs Not Ruling Out Plaxico Burress; Marvin Harrison Also Comes Up

A quick recap of the Buccaneers' offseason: Raheem Morris replaced Jon Gruden, the subsequent veteran house-cleaning, the club franchised Antonio Bryant and traded for Kellen Winslow, and then drafted quarterback Josh Freeman with the 17th overall pick in last month's draft.

We're two months from training camps, a time when most NFL teams are done with free agency (at least the big-name signings, primarily because most of those guys have jobs) and have transitioned to evaluating players currently on their rosters. Not the Bucs. They're still looking for wideouts.

Morris hasn't ruled out Plaxico Burress, but this assumes Burress isn't making license plates next fall.

"Plaxico has got to deal with his issue with the league,'' Morris said. "We'll see how that plays out. We'll see how that works out with us and their timing and everything of that nature. But he's a great player. What do you want me to tell you?'

... "He's a great player and anytime you have an opportunity to get a great player, you'd love to see a great player come to Tampa. We're really talking about ghosts as we speak now, we're talking about a suspended guy.''

Marvin Harrison, the 13-year veteran who has been out of work since the Colts cut him in February, might also be an option. The St. Petersburg Times' Rick Stroud, via his Twitter machine, writes that "Hearing reports that Bucs might be interested in Marvin Harrison. Makes sense if they're looking at Plaxico...Need depth at WR..."

That was Friday night. About 12 hours -- and presumably many more angry reader comments -- later, Stroud tweeted this: "People, if I tweet something bout Marvin Harrison it's agent-driven speculation. If there's news, I'll post it on Tampabay.com. K? Sheesh."

So, to be clear: Marv's agent is putting the word out that the Bucs might be interested in his client. And I'm cool with Stroud using Twitter for anything other than reports confirmed by the organization, even without the qualification tweet above. It's Twitter. That's sorta what it's for.

That aside (and hand-waving away the impending legal troubles), Burress would be a legit addition and an immediate starter in Tampa. Harrison? Neither. Michael Clayton, the team's 2004 first-rounder, has had an inconsistent career, but Marvin's done. He had a great run and is eventually headed to Canton, but he's looked injured, old and slow the past couple seasons.

That's not to say he won't get a chance to play somewhere next season, just that it probably won't be in Tampa Bay.