I was wondering if you could answer this question for me about Gradkowski. When Simms got injured and Gradkowski started, he actually started off pretty good didn't he? I'm a Bengal's fan, and the Bengals played against the Bucs in Week 5 in either his first or second week starting. The Bengals lost in a close defeat on a horrible call against Justin Smith by ref. Mike Carey. He actually looked good that day, and the media seemed gun-ho on him. Now it could have been due to the Bengal's week defense. They were ranked about at the bottom this past season. Although, I assumed that he was doing pretty well after that. I had thought that he had taken Simms starting job. So, did he go onto just have a mediocre to poor season after that?
In a word, yes. Once teams got a book on Gradkowski, he was pretty easy to keep contained. Some of that blame has to fall on the Bucs O-Line, who could not protect the QB - He was sacked 24 times from after the injury to Simms and when he got benched for Tim Rattay in Week 15.
It seems the only teams he did well against were your Bengals, the Saints and the Redskins.