Tampa Bay Buccaneers wideout Maurice Stovall has a stated goal: He wants to be one of the greatest receivers ever to play in the National Football League.  For now, he’ll have to content himself with being Head Coach Jon Gruden’s most recent whipping boy.

It has become a familiar – and somewhat humorous (from a distance) – scene this summer involving Stovall, a second-year receiver who the team drafted last year in the third round. When he’s running routes, or sometimes when he's just standing on the sidelines, Stovall often finds himself the target of a Gruden snarl, quip or full-on outburst.

 
Some of those disagreeable moments are unarguably self-inflicted, moments when Stovall runs a less-than-crisp route or lets a ball get away from him. Others seemingly come at arbitrary times, perhaps as a result of Gruden's general dissatisfaction. At practice earlier in the week, for instance, one of Stovall’s fellow receivers ran an incorrect route and Gruden loudly declared that he was going to blame it on Stovall every time one of his teammates messed up.

So why is Stovall suddenly in Gruden’s doghouse? Well, perhaps he’s not. In fact, most observers (including Gruden when not in the heat of the moment) agree that the former Notre Dame standout has so far had an exceptional camp. He’s plucking footballs out of the air with ease. He’s bodying up smaller defensive backs in the end zone with his 6-5, 220-pound frame. And he’s showing good quickness and dangerous speed to go along with his power game. In the words of Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia, Stovall “is showing that he’s very capable of being a starter with this team.”

Praise from Gruden however is not as easily forthcoming, at least not while practice is in motion.

 

  

" I figure if I want to be the best receiver who has ever played in the NFL, then I have to take the necessary steps to do that. Why not learn from guys who have been the best? Do the things that they did, like staying after practice and catching extra balls."

 
Though he has complimented Stovall at times in post-practice Q&As with the media, on the field Gruden rides the receiver hard.

“Come on, Stovall!”

“That’s the ugliest route I’ve seen!”

“Carry your pads, Stovall!”

But don’t be fooled by the invective; Gruden sees Stovall’s progress. As the team’s head coach, he’s gotten a first-hand look. And having seen that impressive display, Gruden knows Stovall has the potential for greatness. It’s his job to ensure the young receiver reaches it. That means making sure Stovall runs the precise routes, makes the perfect cuts and reads the defense correctly, not just the majority of the time but every time.

Stovall understands that and said he’s motivated even more by Gruden’s chiding.

“I feel as though – not only when he screams at me or reprimands me but at any guy – he expects big things out of all of us,” Stovall said. “We’re on a team. We’re the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We have a high level that we should be held accountable to. You can’t come out here dropping balls or busting a route. You are a professional football player, and you have to carry yourself as such every day.

“If a guy is slipping, coach is going to let you know. It’s his job to do that. How you respond to that is on you – and it will affect the team. So you can look at it as a positive or negative thing. I look at it as a positive because it’s saying that coach is expecting big things out of you. You have to be held accountable for what you are doing.”

Stovall said he entered this past offseason with that same mantra: accountability. The team’s disappointing 4-12 season last year didn’t sit well with him, and he ended the 2006 season determined to do everything in his power to ensure such shortcomings wouldn’t again occur.

“I caught a number of balls every day after lifting,” said Stovall, detailing his offseason routine. “I would get there early before the lift and do some things, whether it was abs or catching balls. It was just doing things either before a workout or after a workout by myself to make myself better as an individual player. I went swimming on the weekends to strengthen my lungs. I took yoga classes here and there during the week to stay limber. Basically it was all aimed at trying to get my body right and visualizing myself making plays to prepare for the upcoming season.”

All of that work seems to have paid off. Stovall looks faster on deep patterns, quicker on slants and stronger in the red zone. In addition to his intense offseason routine, he credits his overall improvement to feeling fully healthy after last year battling through nagging ankle and back issues. He’s also got a better command of the Buccaneers offense. That fact alone, Stovall explained, has translated into him playing at a much faster tempo than that of his rookie season. And as confident as he says he feels, Stovall is hardly buying into his own press.

Just as was the case during his rookie season, Stovall continues to be one of the last Buccaneers – usually the last Buccaneer – on the field after each practice. The extra time is spent running sprints, working on routes and catching extra passes, all of which brings us back to that thing about Stovall wanting to be the best ever.

“I always read and hear about guys like Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice,” Stovall said. “Just watching those guys on television, watching the way they play and the things that they did to prepare themselves for games as far as staying after practice, I figure if I want to be the best receiver who has ever played in the NFL, then I have to take the necessary steps to do that. Why not learn from guys who have been the best? Do the things that they did, like staying after practice and catching extra balls. This is only my second year in the league, so that’s somewhere to start. But a goal of mine is definitely to be the best that’s ever played, and I have to take the necessary steps to do that.”

That's as lofty as a player can set, of course. All indications, however, are that he’s already started down the right path.

“Mo has done an outstanding job,” Garcia said. “He has exceptional size, great motivation and an understanding of what we’re trying to do offensively. He has a great work ethic. He has everything that you would want in a player, and he’s going to be a great player for this team.”
 

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