The field is his courtroom. The offense is your plaintiff. His… well… you get the idea. With the NFL Draft still more than a month away, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were able to get two second-round picks from other NFC opponents on Wednesday with the signings of New Orleans Saints linebacker Matt McCoy and former Detroit Lion Teddy Lehman.

Already established as one of the best young talents in the league, former Dick Butkus and Chuck Bednarik Award winner Teddy Lehman will try again to beat the injury bug in 2008, and as a Buccaneer fan, I can’t even imagine the benefits if you do.

After being drafted with the fifth pick in 2004, Lehman literally divested himself of his well-deserved starting role. He played in all 16 games as a rookie compiling 102 tackles, but that’s not the story. As a rookie, Teddy Lehman was involved in 1,054 defensive snaps and 171 snaps on special teams, which is 1,225 outstanding snaps in his first 6 months in the NFL.

Unfortunately, this workhorse would never find his calling in Detroit, recording just 18 tackles in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, his 27 tackles came in 16 games as a special teams player, his final season with the team.

For Matt McCoy, it’s his third and perhaps last shot at the NFL. He has the real ability to start in the NFL, as we saw in 2006, where he had 66 tackles in 15 games with the Philadelphia Eagles and had 5 or more tackles in 8 of those games.

Though rocked by injuries in recent years, the Buccaneers paid a small price for the potential to have one of the youngest and most productive linebacker units in the league in 2008.