The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released a bunch of veterans Wednesday, including Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn, leading to the headline of the day off ESPN.com’s NFL home page:

“Buccaneers release Brooks, Dunn, three others”

After reading this headline, I wondered if the Bucs were going to try signing Rascal Flatts instead.

Joking aside, it looks like the Bucs are going into rebuilding mode by releasing Brooks, as well as Joey Galloway and Ike Hilliard. Dropping Brooks is akin to the Ravens dropping Ray Lewis if Lewis was a couple years older. Brooks has been such a mainstay of the Tampa Bay defense for so long that there must have been a better way to ease him out.

Time will tell if these moves paid off. Just a hunch, but in the tough NFC South, the Bucs might finish last in 2009.