There’s some fun stuff in the video, including cuts from yesterday’s practice. Highlights include a very fiesty (for no pads) trenches battle between Davin Joseph and Gerald McCoy, plus Arrellious Benn, Sammie Stroughter and (gasp!) LeGarrette Blount catching passes.

The video concludes with analysis by Marshall Faulk and an aghast Warren Sapp, who says the Bucs will not “contend” in 2012. Sapp seems unsure how the Bucs will rectify a historically ugly defense so quickly.

Sniffing around NFL.com this morning, Joe found the following headline on the NFL.com home page: “Buccaneers RB LeGarrette Blount Is Delusional.”

It’s on a post from Gregg Rosenthal, who likely didn’t write the headline, though there’s a reasonable chance he did.

Now one could make a case that calling someone “delusional” is an acceptable insult, though one could argue that it crosses a line into questioning one’s mental state and mental health. (Feel free to grab a dictionary). But regardless, Joe finds this kind of headline commentary on the home page of Blount’s employer, the NFL, completely unacceptable.

Team Glazer helps fund this drivel? Somebody at One Buc Palace needs to make a phone call.

In the new media world sports leagues deliver their own commentary and craft their own media in an effort to drive revenue and interest in their respective league. But when is it out of bounds for a league to start insulting its own players? Joe thinks this slam at Blount is a great example of something inappropriate.

Joe hopes Blount, purely on principle, finds an attorney and sues the NFL for libel and finds an employment lawyer to come after the league, or maybe the precious players union can have Blount’s back.

Joe suspects some lawyer somewhere could make a reasonable case that the NFL is acting maliciously against Blount and subsequently affecting his career potential.

Now Joe’s all in favor of free speech, but there’s some serious gray area when your employer is torching you personally on the company website.

Partially due to the play of Michael Bennett, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is not in a rush to replace the fallen Da’Quan Bowers.

Last week when Bucs defensive end Da’Quan Bowers blew out his Achilles tendon in his right leg, which appears to be a season-ending injury it was a bad hit for the depth of a yet unproven Bucs defensive line.

New Bucs coach referred to Bowers’ injury as “a great loss.”

That, however, didn’t put Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik into panic mode. Dominik said yesterday at the Bucs OTA that he is willing to see how his current troops hold up before he does anything rash in trying to replace the void left by Bowers’ injury, so documents cool cat Scott Purks of CBSSports.com.

“Right now, I think we’re trying to evaluate these men that we have here for a little bit before we feel like we have to [look for a free agent replacement].”

This is the smart thing to do. As Pat Kirwan said yesterday on SiriusXM NFL Radio, Dominik can always workout free agent defensive ends at One Buc Palace and tell their agents to not sign a deal anywhere before they call Dominik. 

Though word out of Gotham suggests stud, versatile Giants defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora can be had for a third round pick, and while Joe would love to have him on the Bucs roster, Umenyiora is in his contract year, is barking for big money, and has a gimpy knee.

So a trade for Umenyiora would likely mean little more than a rent-a-player. Let’s see how George Johnson pans out before Dominik has to push the panic button.

It’s still possible that the Bucs could survive a season without Bowers.

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Ryan told a panic-stricken Bucs fan caller on SiriusXM NFL Radio on Monday, “You’d love Andre Carter. He’s the first guy on the field, last one off. There’d be nobody in better condition or more ready to go than Andre Carter.”

Ryan, a former Bears defensive tackle, said Carter is the first name he’d seek to replace DaQuan Bowers if he were rockstar general manager Mark Dominik.

At 33 years old and coming off a quadriceps injury that limited him to 14 games, Carter hardly fits the Bucs’ yungry mold. However, Greg Schiano mentor Bill Belicheat embraced the guy, the Bucs were last in the NFL in sacks in 2011, and George Johnson seems to be the alternative.

The way Ryan talks about Carter’s work ethic, it would seem hard for the Bucs to go wrong signing him to a one-year deal. They can always cut him.

Start your day with the Morning Cup of Joe from HootersCalendar.com. And don’t forget to visit HootersCalendar.com for amazing videos, pictures and cool gifts. It’s Joe’s second favorite website.

Bucs news forthcoming.

Bong-toking Ricky Williams believes those linking brain damage to concussions suffered in the NFL to be brain-damaged themselves. [Yahoo! Sports]

Dirtbags of the Week: Junior Seau’s home robbed. [NCTimes]

So Jeff Fisher likes Janoris Jenkins? Wonder how much Fisher will like him when (not if) he starts getting suspended? [PFT]

So Mike Mularkey is not a Blaine Gabbert fan? Join the club. [SI]

How do the Rays swing the bat? [RaysIndex]

The New Schiano Order was quickly established at One Buc Palace this morning for the Bucs’ first OTA practice after the draft. It was a stark, stunning contrast from practices of the past few years.

Rigid. Detailed. No wasted time. Players moved with a sense of urgency. Fundamentals were not just stressed, but demanded and polished in drills.

• “Avoid contact. Be smart. Do it the right way. To be the best you have to be your best right now,” Schiano bellowed. Joe’s guessing Ric Flair is smiling somewhere.
• It was very much like a college atmosphere. Lot of clapping from all the players during drills. Lot of yelling too, almost like a boot camp. Lot of enthusiasm.
• “Attitude, attitude!” Schiano yells as practice drills begin. Then, a player Joe couldn’t make out felt the wrath of the New Schiano Order for not completing a drill to its fullest extent.
• It’s not just the players who are expected to sprint between drills and stations. So too is Schiano. He watches practice at one field, then bolts to another field for a better view.
• What appeared to be the first team defense in a scrimmage of sorts against the first team offense, first round pick Mark Barron was out there, to no one’s surprise. Aqib Talib and Ronde Barber were the corners and Ahmad Black as the remaining safety.
• How much of a stickler to fundaments is Schiano? He had his players go through a tackling drill that Joe performed (daily) in high school. Four dummies were spread out in a line to represent holes a running back would run through. A ballcarrier would run paralell to the dummies as would a defender. The runner would go through each hole and the defender, with shoulders squared to the line of scrimmage, would wrap-hit the runner properly, wrapping his arms round the runner like Joe would Rachel Watson in a sweaty, heavy-breathing intimate moment. Then the two would disengage and run to the next hole and repeat the tackle/wrap-up. The way the Bucs horribly whiffed on tackling last year, this drill is sorely needed.
• Defenders weren’t the only ones who had to endure a high school fundamental drill. Offensive linemen had to run drills through a cage of an apparatus that kept the linemen low to the ground. If they raised up too quick, they got a rude if not jarring awakening.
• Running backs were not immune to the fundamental drills. Catching passes from quarterbacks, they too had to square their shoulders to the ball, then take off, biting the football.
• Joe’s not sure what wide receiver Sammie Stroughter did wrong in one pass play but Joe’s pretty sure the priests at nearby Jesuit High School could hear Schiano yelling from their classrooms, “Use your arm, Sammie!”
• Joe still is shaken at the sight of LeGarrette Blount catching so many passes. Why, Greg Olson had so many convinced Blount had the hands of a Helen Keller. Oh, and Blount was biting the football.
• Seventh round pick, running back Michael Smith, got some reps in with the first team and, man, the dude has some quick feet.
• There’s the Bucs version of the Packers sweep and Moises Madu scoots for a nice gain to the left.
• George Johnson was getting a lot of work at left defensive end.
• In one offensive line drill, pass blocking dummies were placed between each lineman’s feet so that on his first three or four steps backpedaling, he couldn’t step on a dummy. This was to improve footwork.
• Remember the touchdown catch Mike Williams made in his first NFL game against the Browns at home in the 2010 opener? He duplicated that same circus catch this morning for a touchdown.

[Clarification: Just to be clear, in Joe's description of the tackling drill above, at no point is the runner put on the ground. Once the defender wraps up properly, the two combatants disengage. It's almost like a walk-through exercise.]

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Blount was busy catching passes today as Doug Martin nursed a hamstring tweak

There were several things that caught Joe’s eye today at the Bucs’ OTA open to the local Tampa Bay chapter of the pen and mic club.

Bucs running back LeGarrette Blount was catching passes out of the backfield. Several in fact.

Quick, someone alert Greg Olson!

Joe didn’t see Blount drop one pass, but Joe cannot confirm he didn’t drop any.

Blount, who should have been the bellcow of the Bucs last season but was jerked around in several ways, including a grand total of five carries — FIVE! — in the season opener against Detroit and seemingly shoved aside for the world renown Benn’d-around play.

Blount said he knew the Bucs were going to bring in a running back in the offseason and welcomes the competition now coming from first round pick Doug Martin (who was held out of practice today with a tweaked hamstring, so said Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik) and speedy Michael Smith.

“I feel I am still [the No. 1 back] until someone takes it away from me,” said a slimmed-down Blount. “Nobody can effect how many carries I get than me.”

Joe thinks the competition — and an offensive coaching staff with a clue — will get the most out of Blount.

In his rookie year, trying to prove himself against veteran and fan-favorite Cadillac Williams, Blount shined.