There is a new regime in Tampa Bay with coach Greg Schiano and the former Rutgers coach has looked to build a fantastic staff in the effort to take the Buccaneers back to the glory land. But, it has not all been that easy.

Check out this amazing news on the search situation.

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/NFP-Sunday-Blitz-7019.html

Here are some highlights:

"The NFL, it seems to me, has a problem on its hands: position coaches are being prevented from interviewingfor promotions to coordinator positions like never before.

The Bucs, Colts, Raiders, and Dolphins all struggled to hire coordinators and fill out their staffs. The Bucs, in fact, may have been blocked from interviewing up to 15 coaches, one source said.

Greg Schiano had a tough start. Among the men he was turned down on: San Francisco's Ed Donatell, Houston's Reggie Herring, Green Bay's Ben McAdoo, Arizona's Greg McNulty, Green Bay's Darren Perry and San Francisco's Jim Tomsula.

Donatell and McAdoo, at least, were denied more than one opportunity apiece."


The NFL has to change this policy as each team deserves the right to interview. What do you think? Is this fair?
Let me know below!

Good morning all. Let's take a look around the conference with the major news story for each on this lovely Saturday.

Buccaneers

Tampa Bay and new head coach Greg Schiano found themselves a defensive coordinator, finally.

Bill Sheridan, a Super Bowl winner on the New York Giants staff, joins the team as DC.

Here is the official release fom the Bucs' official website.

Falcons

Things are a bit slow around Atlanta, not too much going on, but the general manager Thomas Dimitroff has a bit of a new role.

Here is the official release from the Bucs' official website.

Panthers

Everyone knows the type of rookie season that Cam Newton had. As a result, the awards keep coming in. The talented former Auburn quarterback already won the Pepsi Rookie of the Year award, but there is more. 

Here is the official release from the Panthers' official website.

Saints

Sean Payton and company recently made some BIG hires on the staff, including bringing in an elite defensive coordinator with the hope of taking home another Super Bowl title, with a guy who has experience doing so.

Here is the official release from the Panthers' official website.

Here is my Super Bowl prediction for the Giants and Patriots. Yes this is a Carolina Panthers blog but hey everyone is all about the big game today. And speaking of the big game don’t forget to hang out with us at Schoolofthelegends.com during the Super Bowl.

The Patriots really need help on their defense coming into the Super Bowl against the Giants. Coach Belichick even released a player yesterday to activate and extra defensive end off the practice squad.

Despite his reputation as a defensive genius Coach Belichick and the New England Patriots rode Tom Brady and the offense to the Super Bowl. For the Patriots to defeat the Giants they need to score on almost every drive.

Tom Brady is playing very well and his two tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez are the keys to this offense. Wes Welker is still around but the two tight ends create matchup problems for most defenses and they make the Patriots offense go. Gronkowski is injured with a bad ankle and it remains to be see how effective he will be against the Giants. If he plays and plays well it gives Tom Brady a chance for his 4^th Super Bowl Ring.

The fact that the Giants have a bad defensive secondary also gives Brady and company a shot. As a matter of fact the Giants defense can be ran against as well so the Patriots may run the ball more to try to keep Eli off the field.

The Patriots defense is scrappy but a little light on talent. Vince Wolfolk is having a great year but he does not have a lot of help. Giants wide receivers have been drooling while thinking about being covered by Patriots receiver Julian Edelman who now plays defense.

As Eli Manning has progressed in his career the Giants have become more of a passing team. In the regular season the Giants had the worst rushing attack but the 5th best passing attack.

Victor Cruz exploded this season into a top wide receiver and along with Nicks and Manningham are the key to this game for the Giants. I just don’t see the Patriots matching up well against the Giants receiving unit.

They key to the Giants defense will be pass rush. The Giants don’t have a great set of defensive backs but they can rush the passer. Brady has always been a rhythm player who can become distracted if hit early. If the Giants can rattle Brady then the game is in the bag.

My Super Bowl prediction is a very high scoring game. I like the Giants defense better than the Patriots in this game. My pick is the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots by the score of 41 to 35.

Cam Newton has won is the 2011 offensive rookie of the year for the Associated Press.Newton got 47 of the 50 votes with Andy Dalton of the Bengals getting another three.

For most of the season it seemed like Newton and Daltonwere neck and neck for offensive rookie of the year. But Cam Newton won the offensive rookie of the year because he set numerous NFL records.  In most other years Andy Dalton would have won the award but Cam Newton clearly outplayed him.

Cam Newton passed for over 4,000 yards and rushed for over 500. In addition he scored 14 rushing touchdowns. Newton did have some turnover issues but most rookie quarterbacks do. Cam Newton played with poise for most of the season and set the bar for all rookie quarterbacks coming into the NFL now.

Since many Carolina Panthers fans wanted Andrew Luck we were devastated when he went back to college for another year. But clearly we owe Luck a debt of gratitude for giving us Cam Newton.

Considering that Cam Newton didn’t have the benefit of much offseason work with the Carolina Panthers due to the NFL lockout, his rookie season was even more remarkable. If Cam applies that same work ethic for his entire career we have a special quarterback indeed.

The Carolina Panthers should try to resign Cam Newton to a longer contract right now. Yes Cam Newton has three years left on his rookie contract but the Panthers need to start now in talks with him.

Cam Newton didn’t get the huge money that Sam Bradford and other rookie quarterbacks did. Due to the new rookie salary cap Newton didn’t get the big payday. But since Cam Newton has such a successful rookie season, Panthers fans already are scared that Cam Newton will leave the Panthers when his contract runs out.

I think Cam Newton will end his career as a Carolina Panther and here are the reasons why.Charlotte is very media friendly to Cam Newton and he will have his bad days. Quarterbacks get a lot of grief from the media in some markets.

Cam Newton can get all the commercial deals he wants right there in Charlotte. He does not have to be in New Yorkor some other huge city to get endorsements. With all the banking in Charlotte there will be numerous business deals in the area for Cam Newton.

The fact that Cam Newton leaving Charlotte is a major topic after just one season shows how much the Panthers fans love him. I just listened to an interview of Cam Newton on WFNZ and he was asked if he would stay in town. Of course he said he would stay but then again he wouldn’t say otherwise either.

The Carolina Panthers need to show Cam Newton that they are dedicated to winning. If Cam Newton wins with the Panthers then he will stay.Newton wants to go down as the best quarterback ever and you need to win to do that.

So the Carolina Panthers need to show Cam they want to win and they need to try to resign him now. Even if Cam Newton decides to leave Carolina, he will still be franchised two times. So it’s in Cam Newton’s best interest to sign a long term deal with the Panthers anyway.

I do not expect the Panthers to negotiate with Cam Newton about and extension yet. However if Cam Newton follows up his rookie season with another great year, then the Panthers will have to start negotiating with him.

Cam Newton by far is already the most popular Carolina Panther ever and the fans are very concerned about him leaving Charlotte. I don’t recall any rookie ever striking fear into his fans that he would leave when his contract runs out. Let’s just hope that Cam Newton finishes his career as a Carolina Panther.

Cam Newton will be interviewed on WFNZ’s “The Drive” at 3 pm today. “The Drive” is a syndicated sports radio show on from 3 till 7 on weekdays. Newton will be interviewed at 3 and it will be replayed at 5. The Cam Newton interview will be live at 3 today, Feb 3^rd 2012.

Interesting to me is the fact that on Draft Day Marc “With a C” James told Cam Newton that the Panthers drafting him was a mistake. Marc James bought into the spread quarterbacks don’t make it in the NFL theory. Marc James and Taylor Zarzour host “The Drive” on WFNZ in Charlotte.

Marc James quickly changed his mind about Cam Newton and they often interviewed him on their show during the season. Marc James was the first local media member to interview Cam Newton after he was drafted and Newton seems to have a good relationship with the show. Listen to the interview here.