Warren Sapp is devastating on the defensive line. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers want to see if he can be the same as an offensive player.

	Sapp

Bucs coach Jon Gruden and a number of offensive assistants have discussed expanding the 303-pound Sapp's role to offense as a tight end, fullback or guard, the St. Petersburg Times has reported.

Sapp once made an appearance at fullback as a Bucs rookie in 1995. He was recruited as a tight end at the University of Miami.

"There's a chance that I'm going to ask Warren Sapp to do a lot of things," Gruden, in his first year as Tampa Bay coach after being signed away from the Raiders, told the Times on Tuesday. "It might be at fullback, it might be at guard, it might be at tight end.

"You haven't seen it yet, so you would be speculating."

Sapp's thoughts about playing on offense?

"Anything for a W," he said.

"It was just something (Gruden) kind of asked me and I was like, 'No problem,''' Sapp told the Associated Press. "It was fun after I looked at a couple of those routes and blocking assignments. I said, 'Oh yeah, in a heartbeat. Just call me up. Say, '99, get in there.' I'm going.''

Gruden said it would be premature to pencil Sapp in with the offense in any particular situation, but he hinted fans could be in for a treat in coming practices.

"As time goes on we're going to get into some situations and more and more things are going to become specific," Gruden told the Times. "I'm not going to get into the X's and O's (but) I'm not going to close practices."

Running back coach Kirby Wilson and fifth-year tight ends coach Art Valero told the newspaper they have discussed situations in which Sapp could help the offense. Wilson said Gruden showed the coaching staff convincing film of Sapp playing fullback.

"I saw some early film on him in some situations where he was a fullback and I was impressed," Wilson said. "It was the NFL. I don't know where they dug it up from, but he looked really good.

"When coach showed it to us, the whole staff were like, 'Whoa! Man, he's all right.' It wasn't like we laughed."

With Mike Alstott and Jameel Cook in camp, the Bucs appear set at fullback. But using Sapp's 6-foot-2, 303-pound frame on goal-line and short-yardage situations is tempting.

Valero said Sapp raised the idea of contributing at tight end.

"Warren was All-America in high school as a tight end. That was one of the first things he told us when he came in -- how good he was," Valero told the Times. "We did a couple of things with him to see, and he's every bit as athletic on that (offensive) side of the ball as he is on the other."

Meanwhile, the five-time Pro Bowl selection, who had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff during the offseason, said he's determined to rebound with a dominating season on the defensive side of the ball.

He is 14 sacks shy of Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon's team career sack record of 78½ and feels the Bucs will have a shot at reaching the Super Bowl if he can break it this year.

"Not many people can say they came into a ballclub, stayed on the same team for their whole career and ended on top of the list,'' Sapp told the AP. "If I can do that, we can do something -- all 53 of us. If I'm on my game, we're awfully hard to beat.''

The Associated Press contributed to this report.