With seven wide receivers now on the Bucs, Saturday’s question of the day for Mark Dominik was, how many of these guys might actually make the 45-man, gameday roster?

Dominik, per his news conference video on Buccaneers.com, glowed about the great special teams value of rookie Preston Parker and then was hit with a question about veteran newcomer Reggie Brown’s chances of making an impact.

Dominik hardly was fired up about the guy he traded for this spring.

Reporter question: Reggie Brown doesn’t play a lot of special teams, if any. …What role would have on gameday?

Mark Dominik: Reggie’s going to have to have a good week of practice to get a hat on. Because I do believe, and I think Coach Morris has the same philosophy, Coach Olson buys into it with Coach Bisaccia, that you’ve got to play special teams to play. Or you’ve got to be, you know, one of the three receivers that are going to go out there every down. So that’s where Reggie’s really got to come on, and see if he can get a hat on every week. That’s going to be up to him every week to see if he can.

Joe doesn’t expect to see much of Brown. Ultimately, the Bucs have to have Arrelious Benn playing football. The guy’s the No. 39 overall pick in the deepest draft of the century. And surely they will want him ready after Thursday’s breakout preseason game.

Brown is definitely the odd man out on opening day, assuming Maurice Stovall is healthy.

Basketball player turned offensive tackle Demar Dotson, a potential Hall of Famer per Jeff Faine, is sadly done for the 2010 season.

He had filled in a bit at tight end last year and was emerging as a blocking icon and Donald Penn’s backup.

Mark Dominik spoke to the media late Saturday and broke the news of Dotson landing on injured reserve. It seems Dotson hurt his knee, but Dominik was unclear about the injury.

“Thankfully for Demar, it’s not an ACL. It’s nothing that’s going to sit there and take eight to 10 months to rehab,” Dominik said. “It’s really more of a three-to-four month type of injury. He had to have a little surgery.”

Welcome to your 2010 Buccaneers.

The Bucs have made their final cuts, and here’s who got the ax, per TBO.com. 

*  CB Brandon Anderson
* S Vince Anderson
* RB Carlos Brown
* WR Michael Clayton
* C Jonathan Compas (waived/injured)
* G Marc Dile
* T Xavier Fulton
* DE George Johnson
* TE Jeron Mastrud
* LB Rico McCoy
* DT Dre Moore
* DT Carlton Powell
* TE Ryan Purvis
* C Donovan Raiola
* CB Derrick Roberson
* LB Lee Robinson
* DE James Ruffin
* QB Jevan Snead
* FB Rendrick Taylor
* CB Trae Williams

Joe’s really excited for Micheal Spurlock, who really earned his spot, although there might not be much work for him.

Joe is stunned the Bucs are going to carry seven wide receivers, including rookies Arrelious Benn, Mike Williams and Preston Parker, plus Reggie Brown, Maurice Stovall and Sammie Stroughter.

Goodness, there’s only one football!

Corey Lynch also was rewarded, and the Bucs are hanging on to five safeties, including Sabby Piscitelli, Tanard Jackson, Cody Grimm and Sean Jones.

Xavier Fulton, the Bucs’ fifth round pick in 2009, who looked bad last preseason and was sidelined last year because of injury, is no longer a Buccaneer.

He was rather invisible this summer and is now the first stain on Mark Dominik’s apparently strong draft record. Sort of a step toward evening the stains on the Bucs’ general manager’s free agent ledger.

Joe wishes Fulton well.

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The buzz over at TBO.com is that strong safety Sabby Piscitelli will not be angling for a new job.

It seems he survived taking shots at his head coach.

Woody Cummings reports that The Tampa Tribune beat team is hearing Piscitelli has made the cut. Of course, Joe will update you here when there’s official word.

This is bad news for bubble guys like Preston Parker and Corey Lynch.

Whenever a bubble veteran dodges the bullet, that bullet generally finds a target of a young bubble player or a rookie free agent. Hence, why Joe fears Lynch and Parker may be looking for work in the next few hours.

Per NFL.com, the Bucs are required to trim the roster to 53 players (plus suspended Talib) as of 6 p.m.

Perhaps this is a function of Rudy Carpenter being a favorite of the head coach, as well as playing well against Houston on Thursday. Or maybe Josh Freeman is a more a question mark than thought.

Regardless, Carpenter is on the final 53-man roster, so reports Woody Cummings, of The Tampa Tribune.

Joe likes Carpenter. Good, eager kid.

Joe had a nice chat with him last year after he made the Bucs roster when Byron Leftwich came down with a phantom elbow injury that no MSM member ever asked him about.

As we wait to learn of the other victims, as the Bucs trim their roster to the mandated 53 by 6 p.m. tonight, Derek “Old School” Fournier, of WhatTheBuc.net, critiques the Bucs’ final preseason game against the Texans. 

It’s not a real shock that the Bucs cut Michael Clayton this afternoon, though it did surprise Joe.

Given the fact Bucs general manager Mark Dominik dished out a bunch of cash for Clayton last year, Joe was convinced the Bucs would hang on to the target of so much hatred from Bucs fans.

But after Dominik handed Kardashian-chasing running back Derrick Ward his walking papers, a player who also benefited from Dominik’s lavish spending last year, Joe saw the handwriting on the wall for Clayton.

Woody Cummings, of the Tampa Tribune, made the news official a few moments ago.

The former Tampa Bay first-round draft pick of the team was released Saturday as the Bucs trimmed their roster to the league-mandated 53-player limit.

“I’m no longer a Buc,’’ Clayton said in a text message to the Tribune.

Though Clayton expressed confidence he would remain with the team through the finl cutdown, the move came as little surprise. Clayton was coming off his worst season in the NFL and saw little or no playing time in the Bucs last two preseason games.

Joe is a bit sad to see Clayton go mainly because he’s a stand-up guy. The NFL is too littered with scumbags. Clayton is not among them.

Simply put, it comes down to what you do on the field. Clayton, after his stellar rookie season, didn’t do much. Receivers are paid to, you know, catch the ball. Clayton couldn’t. As Joe has written before, it doesn’t matter if a team has Anthony Munoz at wide receiver, a receiver is paid to catch first, block second. If you can’t do the first, it really shouldn’t matter how well a player can pull off the second.

In a way, it’s refreshing that Dominik is looking at results, not salaries, as to a player’s worth. With the exit of Clayton, there is no question who now is under the fans’ microscope as the most loathed player on the Bucs roster.

That would be one strong safety Sabby.

Time to step up, Sabby. Words right now are pretty pointless and empty. Blaming your coach for being set up won’t fly either.

Many Bucs fans mark Bucs-Panthers games this season as victories for the good guys.

Joe’s never really understood that. The Panthers won four out of their last five in 2009. Their defense allowed 13.8 points a game over the final half of the season. And Matt Moore is a guy on the rise with a savage running game in place.

Surely, the Bucs aren’t better than Carolina on paper.

Unpredictable NFC South scribe Pat Yasinskas, of BSPN.com, agrees. And he’s got Chucky backing him up, per the former head coach’s comments in a Monday Night Football conference call with the media.

“A sleeper team I like is the Carolina Panthers,’’ Gruden said. “I realize they’ve lost some good players, but they still have the best 1-2 running combination in football in (Jonathan) Stewart and (DeAngelo) Williams. I don’t ever see anybody score on these guys … They play hard, they play sound, they’re going to surprise some people.”

The NFC South is a very strong division, if the Bucs’ defensive mastermind/head coach gets the most out of his limited talent and youth-laden roster.

Joe is just itching for the baseball playoffs. Who’s going to stop Joe’s beloved Rays?

Joe doesn’t think he’s jumping the gun one darn bit.

Read about everything Rays on JoeRaysFan.com. If you have yet to soak in JoeRaysFan.com, today is definitely the day to check it out.

Joe challenges you to find a more comprehensive and entertaining Rays site.