Tryout QB Landers catches Buccaneers' attention

First-round pick Josh Freeman was and still is the bigger-name quarterback in this weekend's rookie mini-camp here at One Buc Place. 

But coach Raheem Morris said today another quarterback caught his eye -- albeit for reasons other than his quarterbacking ability.

James Madison University product Rodney Landers, on the weekend's roster as a tryout prospect, piqued the interest of the team because of his special-teams potential. Morris was so curious that he put Landers through extra drills after this morning's final workout to learn more about him. General manager Mark Dominik also stopped to take notes from a distance.

"We had to get another arm in here to play quarterback," Morris said. "We happened to run into an athlete and he showed some stuff during special-teams periods. He's a 6-footer who's 220-pounds, moves around pretty good. You want to try to find stuff. I'm a project guy so I want to see if I can get me a project guy in here to work with.

"Maybe he comes back. Maybe he's the Wildcat quarterback. I don't know. Maybe he comes back and he's a (defensive back) for you. But he can do some things for you. He's interesting. We don't know where he's going to go from here, but I just wanted to get a look at him and see him move around in space a little bit as a defensive back.''

The Bucs made no promises, but Morris maintains they are open to signing a handful of players from the camp beyond the eight undrafted prospects already given contracts.

Before taking over as the starting quarterback at James Madison, Landers spent some time as a receiver for the Dukes.

[Pictured: Rodney Landers works out Sunday with the Bucs. BRIAN CASSELLA, Times]

Comments

[DR]

Morris mentioned the wildcat, are the Bucs looking into running that this year? What personnel do they have on the team right that may be possibilities at running it?

[OAR]

DR, what's wrong your magic eightball not working for you this week? Oh, so sorry. I found mine from jr high if you want to borrow it? I haven't used it in years, but you might be able to work the magic again!

[rednose]

i dont think we know what we want to do or who we are. i just hope we win

[Sound Off]

I had a chuckle when I read this article. The part about Mark Dominik needing a project. I would venture to say the entire Bucs roster at this point is a project, not to mention the entire coaching staff from Head Coach down. Oh and I guess I should mention that even Mark Dominik is a project. It seems to me that the inmates are running the prison at One Buc.