Joe is confident that had Chucky's recruiting trip to Idaho been successful, the Bucs would have been much better off with Plummer than with Son of Bob.

During Chucky’s annual lust for a new quarterback, he went after former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer. And it nearly worked.

Writing on SI.com, Peter King touched base with the former Cardinals quarterback who led the team to its last playoff appearance in 1999. After the 2005 season, the Broncos traded Plummer to the Bucs and he promptly retired. Chucky turned college recruiter and nearly got Grizzly Adams out of the woods.

A year after the Broncos drafted Cutler, they dealt Plummer, who had vowed to retire, to Tampa Bay. Even though Plummer’s mind was made up, Gruden and GM Bruce Allen flew to Idaho to recruit Plummer to play again.

“That’s what it was like — a recruiting trip,” Plummer said. “It was like when I came out of high school and colleges are trying to get me to come. They [Gruden and Allen] were feeding me all that crap, trying to get me to come. After they left, I was getting text after text telling me how much they wanted me. I even saw Gruden interviewed and at the end of the interview he looked at the camera and said, ‘And if you’re out there, Jake, we want you to play football, not handball.'”

Plummer admitted he thought seriously about giving it a try. But he liked his life in Idaho too much by then, and he decided to stay in seclusion, out of the game.

Joe would much rather have seen a rusty (rustic?) Plummer on the sidelines for the Bucs than Son of Bob. Joe wonders if, with Grizzly Adams at quarterback, what Chucky’s fate might have been?