The drafting of San Diego quarterback Josh Johnson in the fifth round means the Bucs will have to part with at least a veteran passer or two.

For the first time Sunday, coach Jon Gruden admitted the obvious. The Bucs will have to say good-bye to some quarterbacks. Although he did not elaborate, the most likely candidates to be traded or released are Chris Simms and Bruce Gradkowski.

   Including Jake Plummer, the Bucs own the rights to seven QBs -- Jeff Garcia, Brian Griese, Simms, Gradkowski, Luke McCown and Johnson.

   "No, we won't take six (to training camp),'' Gruden said. "There will be obvious decisions that will be made. There's been a lot of people saying we have six quarterbacks. I haven't seen (Jake) Plummer yet and Chris unfortunately hasn't played the last couple years. So we have had a tremendous amount of injury. We're not like some of these teams that have enjoyed the good fortune of having the same starter for five, six, eight, 12, 15 seasons. We've had three different starters play I think in four of the last five seasons.

   "Here in Tampa, we have a different perspective on the position. But we do have a Pro Bowl returner at quarterback and we're really excited about Garcia. We think Griese has proven he can play here. Luke McCown came on last year and did some good things. So here comes a youngster in here. We're going to have I don't know how many quarterbacks.''

   General manager Bruce Allen said the Bucs plan to take five quarterbacks to training camp.