McCoy eager to make up for lost time this offseason

[michael89156]

Bucs Beat: McCoy eager to make up for lost time this offseason







 GETTY IMAGE
Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy has spent each of the previous two offseasons rehabbing biceps injuries.





 By The Tampa Tribune
 Published: December 29, 2012



ATLANTA --


Buccaneers DT Gerald McCoy has never really liked the NFL offseason. You wouldn't like it either if you'd been forced to spend it the way McCoy has spent the only two he's experienced.
 
The victim of a season-ending left biceps tear his first year and a season-ending right biceps tear his second, McCoy's only two offseasons have been consumed by endless hours of grueling and boring rehabilitation.
 
If McCoy can make it through Sunday's season finale against the Falcons and the Pro Bowl injury free, this offseason will be different. If it is, McCoy says Bucs fans likely will see a different player when he returns to work in 2013.
 
"All those hours and hours I've had to pour into rehabbing the last two years I can finally put toward football and working out, and that's really going to help me get better,'' McCoy said.
 
"The last two years I really couldn't do anything like that. I couldn't move. I'd watch film and see things I needed to improve on, but I always had to wait until I was healthy again to work on it.''
 
McCoy believes the two injuries, which have cost him 13 valuable games of NFL experience as well as those two offseasons, have slowed his development. He's hoping to make up for the lost time this offseason.
 
"The (lost workout time) has definitely slowed it down,'' McCoy said of his progress. "But this year, I won't have to throttle back at all. I can just go at it with all my time being put toward football, and that's going to make a big difference.''
 


Dinner for one
 
A 2-foot-tall cartoon steak that looks like something Fred and Barney might have barbecued during an episode of "The Flintstones" was awarded to Mike Williams last week, making him the envy of all the other Bucs receivers.
 
Known as the "Fun Steak,'' it is the prize handed out each week by receivers coach P.J. Fleck to the Bucs wideout whom Fleck deems had the best game the week before.
 
"It's really a reflection of the mentality we have as a group as far as being hungry dogs,'' Vincent Jackson said of the prop. "We go out there and want to eat so it's just kind of a fun thing we came up with to emphasize our desire to be aggressive.''
 
The "Fun Steak" has become so popular with the Bucs receivers that Williams is considering asking Fleck to leave it behind when Fleck leaves for his new job as head coach at Western Michigan.
 
"Yeah, I think he's going to have to get another one to take up to Michigan with him, because we want to keep the one we have here,'' Williams said. "We've kind of grown attached to it.''
 


Fitting in
 
Rookie CB Leonard Johnson, a former Largo High standout, has become one of the Bucs regular corners this year. But even with regular playing time and three interceptions to his credit, he still doesn't feel like he's made it in the NFL.
 
Johnson says he still feels like a bit of an outsider sometimes, especially when he walks into the locker room and sees veterans such as Jackson, cornerback Ronde Barber and tight end Dallas Clark.
 
"Every now and then I'll come into the locker room and I'll walk past those guys and think, 'Man, I grew up watching those guys play and now they're my teammates,' '' Johnson said.
 
"I still kind of want to put myself in a position to say something to them so they'll notice me, so no, it hasn't really hit me yet (that I'm in the NFL). And really, I kind of hope it never does.''

[Benchwarmer#1]

OK, I know what a black eye steak is, but what is a "fun steak?"

Sounds like something out of an American Pie movie.