LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- The pass play was so well designed, Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden acknowledged after a Saturday morning combined practice with the Miami Dolphins, that it worked even better on the field than on the drawing board. So look forward to seeing Keyshawn Johnson come over the middle on a crossing route and jam the two safeties, thus permitting tailback Michael Pittman to circle wide out of the backfield and then turn up the sideline, with only a pedestrian linebacker to beat deep.

In the Saturday practice, the matchup of Pittman versus linebacker Morlon Greenwood was, well, a mismatch. Streaking up the left sideline, Pittman got at least 5 yards of vertical separation, and easily hauled in an over- the-shoulder 60-yard touchdown pass.

	Pittman won't have to beat anyone out for the lead tailback spot in Tampa.

"You see, those are the kinds of things I can do in this offense, and they're designing a lot of stuff like that for me," said Pittman, the free-agent refugee the Bucs rescued this spring from both the Arizona Cardinals and the oblivion that accompanies playing for one of the league's most ignored franchises. "I really feel I'll grow so much more here. I mean, two years in a row, I beat out the first-round pick in Arizona and, outside of maybe Phoenix, it seemed like no one knew who I was. With this team, I'm a somebody, it seems."

Indeed, while the Johnson & Johnson (Brad and Rob) quarterback controversy continues to be a festering and significant focal point of the Tampa Bay camp, and while the offensive line shuffle is still being heavily scrutinized and people are wondering how Keyshawn Johnson and newly acquired wideout Keenan McCardell will blend, Pittman has quietly established himself as a key figure in the Gruden master plan.

He has been favorably compared to last season's most notable free-agent bargain in the league, Kansas City Chiefs tailback Priest Holmes, and justifiably so.

No more than 10 minutes after snatching the long pass Saturday morning, Pittman broke off-tackle to the right on a running play, veered sharply to the right sidelined, and danced 50-plus yards through the scattered Miami secondary. Holmes led the league with 1,555 rushing yards in 2001 and added 62 receptions. Two years ago, Pittman was but one of two players in the league -- Green Bay tailback Ahman Green was the other -- to lead his team in rushing and receptions.

Unfortunately, for Pittman, he did it in Arizona, by definition out of the limelight.

The only time Pittman was cited, it seemed, was in two domestic incidents with his wife last summer. "That was the kind of attention," he said Saturday, "you don't want."

Sometimes a player simply has to arrive at a time and a place in his career, and be placed into a system more conducive to displaying his skills, to make a quantum leap forward. And in signing with the Bucs, the four-year veteran Pittman is in the right time, the right place and the right system. His five-year deal is worth $8.775 million on face, but there are lucrative escalators that can dramatically bump his compensation, and it's at least even money Pittman triggers some of them.

Ironic that, having played in an NFL precinct nicknamed The Valley of the Sun, Pittman would somehow be eclipsed, that despite having beaten out former first-round choice Thomas Jones for the starting job in each of the past two seasons. But that's what usually happens when a good player is mired in a bad situation. In the Tampa Bay offense, there is little doubt Pittman is a centerpiece, and should flourish as a complete back.

Certainly he is a stud in terms of physical dimension, as cut as a world-class weightlifter, built like the brick outhouse. You look at his upper arms, covered in tattoos, and wonder if there are United States battleships with guns that big. On the right arm is a tattoo that boasts "Black Superman," on the left another that heralds the qualities of strength, pride, courage and passion.

	“	That man is the main reason I came here. If he can't get me the kind of numbers I should have, well, nobody can. He's gotten me so excited, I can barely remember the stuff that went on (in Arizona). ”
		— RB Michael Pittman on coach Jon Gruden

If every picture tells a story, every carefully designed marking on Pittman's body delivers a message, he acknowledged. The message with Pittman is that he has been through some tough times but been steeled by the experiences.

"He's one tough guy," Gruden said. "I don't know if I'd want to be a defender coming up to make a hit on him. He's got a ton of talent, kind of like a bigger Charlie Garner, and we feel like he'll be even better because of what we do offensively. The people who don't know him will (know him) by the end of the year. He runs hard. He catches the ball. He picks up the blitz. We're giving him a chance to be the back he can be in every aspect."

For a guy who has never posted more than 241 carries in a season, and who averaged just 3.7 yards per carry in his two seasons as a starter, Pittman figures to go from quarterhorse to workhorse in 2002. For all the lip service Gruden paid to the departed Warrick Dunn, it is doubtful the scatback would have been as good a fit for the new offense as Pittman. The team retained Mike Alstott, the game's most overrated fullback and a guy who keeps earning flawed Pro Bowl invitations, but he will probably play primarily when Gruden goes to a one-back set.

Gruden has been a bit misunderstood by those who regard him only as a passing game guru. In three of his four seasons as head coach in Oakland, the Raiders rated statistically higher in the running game than the passing game. Only two seasons ago, Oakland led the NFL in rushing yards. What Gruden is, really, is an advocate of the power running game, a coach who wants to play smashmouth first, then work in the pass. He was at his best in Oakland when able to use Tyrone Wheatley as a human bludgeon, then come with Garner as a change of pace.

Pittman represents both qualities, rolled up into one player, and it will be surprising if he doesn't rush for at least 1,200 yards and catch 50-plus passes. Given their past problems on offense, a habitual shortcoming for a team with Super Bowl-caliber talent, the Bucs' attack almost can't help but be improved under Gruden.

"That man is the main reason I came here," said Pittman, nodding in Gruden's direction. "If he can't get me the kind of numbers I should have, well, nobody can. He's gotten me so excited, I can barely remember the stuff that went on (in Arizona)."

One stigma that has followed Pittman east, though, is the label of wife beater. While the police reports from last July confirm he never hit his wife, he was suspended by the team for the 2001 regular-season opener, and the incidents have been difficult to dodge. In the first, Pittman kicked a car, and in the second, he beat down a door. He pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal trespass and criminal damage and, rather candidly, does not attempt to duck questions about the events.

But there are some things Pittman won't say about the incidents, and some matters of common knowledge around the NFL that are better left unreported by the media, and he continues to undergo counseling for an admitted anger management problem. The Bucs carefully and thoroughly researched the two events, dug deep into some indiscretions at Fresno State during his college career, and concluded Pittman was salvageable.

Some teams in need of a tailback this spring backed away from Pittman, but Tampa Bay officials gained a real understanding of him by performing due diligence, and the Bucs figure to be rewarded for deciding to take a gamble on him. Then again, Pittman doesn't regard himself as a risk at all.

"I think they would have made a big mistake not signing me," he said. "I can do all of the things Coach Gruden likes his backs to do, and then some, believe me. I know he's going to help me and I know I'm going to help him. It's going to be a good partnership."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.