According to ESPN Chicago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will hire former NFL receiver P.J. Fleck as their wide receivers coach. P.J. Fleck spent two seasons as Rutgers' receivers coach under new Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano, and was hired by Northern Illinois as its offensive coordinator just two days ago. He resigned just one day later, however, and Pewter Report quickly connected the dots.
P.J. Fleck played college football at Northern Illinois and went undrafted in the 2004 NFL draft. He signed with the San Francisco 49ers but never played in a game before becoming a coach. Since 2006 he has coached for Ohio State, Northern Illinois and Rutgers University. At Rutgers he coached Mohamed Sanu, likely to be a second-round NFL draft pick this year. With both Sanu's head coach and receivers coach now with the Bucs, he would be a logical target for the team.
This is the first assistant coaching hire for Greg Schiano, if the report turns out to be correct. The Bucs are likely to flesh out their staff over the next couple of days. The Bucs don't necessarily need to be speedy with these hires, as the team's coaches cannot work with the players for the next couple of months anyway per the CBA.