Joe and others set out to get to know Crabtree yesterday at the first full-squad practice of the year. Here are the highlights:

Beat reporter: Did the Bucs come after you strong? Did you sense it in free agency?

Tom Crabtree: Yeah, they were definitely the front runners, I guess. They showed a lot of interest and, you know, that meant a lot to me. It said a lot. So I took the chance. After a month being here, I’m happy to be here and excited about moving forward with it.

Beat reporter: You were with a good team, a Super Bowl team, but it looked like you were stuck. Talk about your situation in Green Bay.

Crabtree: You know, the way I kind of look it is maybe you do get stuck in a role a little bit. And as a competitor you want to kinda try and challenge yourself and see what you’re made of. Being here, like I said, being a part of this, it’s a new opportunity for me and as well for the team. There’s a lot of new faces here on this team. We all kinda have the same goal in mind. So if we can all put it together it will be that much more special.

Joe: Would it be fair to call you a blocking tight end? Do you feel that’s a strength of yours and can you talk about that?

Crabtree: I look at myself as a pretty balanced guy. If people want to label me, that’s fine, as a blocking tight end. But I think more of that is just lack of opportunities in the pass game more than anything. I have all the confidence in myself as a receiver, as a receiving tight end. That just takes opportunities. Like I said, I feel like I’m a pretty balanced guy whether it’s in the run game or going out catching balls. I think I can do both.

Joe:  Being outside this organization and coming in, before you got here, what was your perception of Greg Schiano and this organization?

Crabtree: Honestly, I didn’t have much of a perception of other teams. I think when you’re in a certain spot you focus on you team and what’s going on with you guys and your opponent for that week or whatever. So I can’t really speak to having an opinion before I got here or anything.

Joe: You seem to be a real engaged guy with fans on Twitter. For a guy who was sort of in a small role on the field you had quite a following. Can you talk about your interest in engaging with them and how that came about?

Crabtree: It just gradually started a few years back on Twitter and all that. I originally got on there because it was a cool way for me to interact with the people I look up to — other athletes, musicians, and I have some friends and family on there, too. But then it kind of turned into this thing where I was like, ‘Man, I’ve got all these Packers fans following me and talking to me.’ So I just wanted to give back to them. I know myself, it’s cool when someone I look up to, you know, I get all nerded out when I talk to a musician or somebody. That’s kind of how I look at it.

Beat reporter: What are your feelings about this Bucs roster as you look around this field. Is there talent out here?

Crabtree: Man, I’ll tell you what. Being here for a month, some of the best, just gifted athletes I’ve been around. Some really talented guys. That’s not taking anything away from Green Bay. They’ve obviously had talented guys, as well. But coming here there’s been no dropoff as far as the athleticism and the talent of guys.

Beat reporter: How do you see your situation here going into training camp?

Crabtree: Make the team. That’s my goal. I’m not one to sit here and say, ‘Oh, I’m comin’ in, I want to be the starter. I want to come in and be the No. 2.’ Nothing like that. You know, if my role on this team is being on kick return, if my role on the team is catching a bunch of balls, whatever it is I just want to do that and find a way to help the team win. Make the roster

Joe: Can you describe your special teams role in Green Bay? Did you play a lot?

Crabtree: I played quite a bit and a little bit of everything, kick return, punt return all of it. I definitely have experience when it comes to special teams.

That’s right. Real talk from real attorneys. You can even email your legal questions to Matt Dolman, matt@dolmanlaw.com. Dolman Law Group serves clients throughout Florida and the Tampa area from offices in Clearwater, Bradenton and Melbourne.

Rookie Akeem Spence learned a very quick NFL lesson Monday during the Bucs’ first practice of OTAs.

If anything, Greg Schiano loves physical football. Just his lineage suggests so.

But in OTA practices, teams can’t get physical. It’s a difficult balance. You have guys in helmets, practice jerseys and shorts going at it. They are not programmed to play powder puff football, much as NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell wishes that were so.

Guys are playing for their positions, their jobs, their careers, their livelihoods. This does not add up to practicing half-arsed.

So when Akeem Spence and Jeremy Zuttah went all WWE on Spence’s first snap of OTA practice, Schiano had to put a stop to that right away.

In other words, be physical, be smart, but don’t be too physical. Got it?

“It is critical that we hold each other up and move side by side so we can execute plays,” Schiano said. “But stay off the ground; keep our headgear and our shoulders out of it. Just use the hands and kind of work with each other so we can execute plays. I thought the guys did an excellent job of that. That is something that we have to do all spring to stay healthy and allow us to keep getting reps.

“It is very tough. Not only do we want to do it for safety, it’s mandated by the rules. You can lose OTA, you can get fined, there’s all sorts of stuff. We are very, very clear with it, we show examples. We try to get guys to understand.

“Now, when you put 22 guys going against each other, if it happens it gets corrected. [The Spence-Zuttah dustup] was a rookie mistake and it got adjusted and there was no issue.”

As for Spence, Schiano didn’t seem to upset. If anything, Schiano likes what Spence brings to the table.

“He is physically very, very developed, maybe one of the strongest guys in this league as a rookie,” Schiano said. “Just a strong guy.

In what looks to be a neat series of reports that began Monday night, Andrea Kremer of NFL Network has received exclusive access behind the scenes at One Buc Palace to document the rehabilitation of Bucs star cornerback Darrelle Revis (Joe still finds those words weird to type).

Monday, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik talked about the first time he thought about trading for Revis back in September 2012. Some really cool stuff in this report, along with Revis acknowledging the risk the Bucs have taken.

One thing Joe liked was Revis in a “not-in-Kansas-anymore” moment; while riding a stationary bike, Revis smiles and says, “This ain’t like New York. [It's] sunny all day, every day.”

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.

NFL owners struggling to get fans off the couch and into the stadium now thinking about installing tablet holders at each seat. Good idea but equally smart: Slash the obscene prices to park. [USA Today]

Once upon a time, an Albert Pujols at-bat was must-watch TV. Now? Eh. And this saddens Joe. [NBCSports]

Catching an 18-foot long snake. [Palm Beach Post]

So the combine will now be held in March and the draft in May? Great. That means screwing with March Madness and more grossly inaccurate mocks from the BSPN twins, Kiper and McShay that saps actually have to pay for. [TheBigLead]

Too much Lueke. [RaysIndex]

Here is what it is like to crawl out of a hole (storm shelter) and find your entire Oklahoma city has been wiped off the map by a monster tornado, replete with haunting tornado sirens in the background.

Contact is not allowed, though players don’t always play by the rules, and much of it is drill work. But the 11-on-11 and 7-on-7 play can be a little revealing.

*Interesting to see DaQuan Bowers lining up inside in what appeared to be several pass rush situations. Daniel Te’o-Nesheim and Dekoda Watson were alongside him on the left end.

*Dave Wannstedt had a very vocal and animated presence as Bucs special teams coach early in practice. The loudest voice at practice? No, not Schiano, but Wannstedt, who was as intense as it can get working with special teams players. “Alright guys, listen to me,” he bellowed. How could they not? The priests over at nearby Jesuit High School were probably upset at Wannstedt’s volume.

*Both Josh Freeman and Mike Glennon looked pretty sharp, though Freeman did make a bad throw over the middle that was knocked down with two hands by Eric Wright.

*Wide receiver coach John Garrett continues to be very hands-on in drills and while teaching. Joe caught a time when Garrett essentially ran up to Tiquan Underwood and slapped him after a play, and the two then went over what appeared to be route details and technique. Garrett’s body language seemed to be saying, ‘I already taught you this.’ ALso interesting about Garrett, he was coaching up receivers on how to properly roll up on a fumble, and how to properly protect the ball once possession is gained.

*On the stone hands front, Vincent Jackson had a drop. Former Giants Pro Bowler Steve Smith, trying to snatch a roster spot, had a very bad drop of a Mike Glennon short pass.

“On the good hands front, 21-year-old wide receiver Eric Page, who was injured in training camp with the Denver Broncos last year, caught a lot of balls and appears very fluid. He’s 5-10, 180 pounds and was a legend at the University of Toledo.

*Punter Mike Koenen does a quality impression of veteran Bucs beat scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman.

*The defense played as if it was the final play of the Super Bowl in drills to start the session, which got Schiano all fired up. “Way to go defense, way to go. Way to get us started!”

*Though Joe may be mistaken, there sure seemed to be a lot of hollering to start the practice, more so than last year’s first OTA. There also seemed to be much more enthusiasm, almost like a college atmosphere. Of course, there wasn’t Sgt. Winslow around to drag everyone one down with his moping.

*How intense was practice in the early moments? Even the waterboys were busting their arse trying to keep up with all the players running around.

*In one drill, coaches had linebackers practice rolling up ballcarriers using a giant tackling dummy.

*With Darrelle Revis relegated to riding a stationary bike, Leonard Johnson was working with the first team defense.

*Good ol’ Doug Martin, still biting the football, still running the distance like a Buccaneer Man should.

Just as Bucs coach Greg Schiano was determined to knock off all the quarterback controversy talk this afternoon after the Bucs’ first OTA practice of the calendar year, so too was Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman determined to dismiss the notion that he and Schiano don’t get along.

As he was mobbed on the practice fields of One Buc Palace on his way to the locker room, Freeman noted that instead of clashing with Schiano, the two have developed a close bond.

“Me and coach have a great relationship,” Schiano said. “I go up there [to Schiano's office] at least every week and sit down and talk about football, talk about the team, talk about life. I’ve gotten to know Coach Schiano real well. He is a guy I am proud to play for.”

Freeman also waved off talk that third-round pick Mike Glennon may unseat him as the Bucs starting signal-caller.

“You want the best possible option behind you,” Freeman said of Glennon. “Mike completely fits. Down the road if we are making a run and something happens to me, you want a guy who can come in and keep it going. I am excited about [having] Mike, glad to have him about. Ready to get this rolling.”

Partially ignited by a buried quote in a National Football Post story over the weekend, the chatter of a quarterback controversy between Bucs incumbent yet struggling starter Josh Freeman, drafted largely on the advice of a since fired coach, and the Bucs third round draft pick Mike Glennon, is a non-story, Bucs coach Greg Schiano said in a rather adamant tone this afternoon at One Buc Palace.

Following the first practice of OTAs, Schiano met with the local pen and mic club and reiterated that there is no quarterback controversy in Tampa Bay.

“We have a starting quarterback and it is Josh Freeman,” Schiano said in no uncertain terms.

Schiano, in rare, animated form, talked about how the NFL is “the most competitive league” in sports and that he craves competition to bring out the best in all players. “There is some guy out there that wants my job,” Schiano explained.

But that desire for competition does not mean the starting quarterback position is open, Schiano noted. Schiano explained, in theory, how a backup quarterback could win a starting job but slammed the door shut on Glennon being the Week 1 starter in New Jersey when the Bucs visit the Jets, barring injury of course.

“I guess I am too honest with them,” Schiano said of answering direct questions with national reporters.

Schiano also explained that the national perception that either Freeman isn’t his guy or that he doesn’t get along with Freeman is hogwash.

“We have a good relationship.”

It took a while to break up the pile up, as flags flew from the practice referees on the sun-drenched fields of One Buc Palace.

Spence told Joe after practice that it was his first snap of practice and he didn’t have a good grasp on how hard to explode off the ball — newsflash, there’s not supposed to be contact during these practices — and it seemed Jeremy Zuttah let the rookie know quickly what it’s like in the big leagues.

It took a while to resolve, Spence said, because “I’m never going to back down.”

“Hopefully [Zuttah] respects me for that because I want to be a part of the team,” Spence said. “It’s just me not knowing the speed. … Now I know I need to throttle it down a little bit but at the same time get my work.

“I’m not going to back down from nobody so I mean I had to let that be known here on the first day here. So, hey, there it is.”

Joe couldn’t pick a winner in the scrum, though it seems the Bucs have a rookie that will play hard until and unless somebody tells him to dial it back.

For a commander of Schiano’s intellect, surely his comments were a calculated media move — and Joe can only speculate it was done to light a raging fire under the buttocks of Josh Freeman.

The only problem is the notion of Glennon starting “if he wins the job” (Schiano’s words) is utter nonsense. Freeman knows it and thinking fans know it, too.

Glennon has zero chance of winning the QB job out of the preseason, and barring injury to Freeman he’ll only get to start if, in Schiano’s mind, Freeman has lost the job during the regular season and the organization wants to move on from No. 5.

Freeman will earn $8.4 million, plus incentives, this season. There’s absolutely zero chance he’s riding the bench out of training camp unless Schiano has completely lost his mind.

So why did Schiano invite a writer to spread baloney about Glennon winning the job?

It’s a great question and one the head coach surely would chalk up to craving competition at all positions and simply expressing his philosophy on team sports. That’s nice, but it’s misleading. Freeman has as much chance of starting the season on the bench as DaQuan Bowers or Adrian Clayborn.

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Maligned Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has had a more productive NFL career thus far than Josh Freeman.

In recent months, Joe has heard former NFL coach and player personnel man Pat Kirwan, who co-hosts “Movin’ the Chains” with Tim Ryan on SiriusXM NFL Radio, harp a few times on Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton.

In Kirwan’s eyes, Dalton still has a lot to prove and is not an established NFL quarterback. Kirwan believes this year is a do-or-die season for Dalton as a starter and the Bengals likely will go quarterback shopping after this season if Dalton does not improve.

Why does Kirwan believe this? Kirwan specifically cites Dalton’s record as a starter against teams with winning records, a paltry 3-12.

Why does Joe write this? Because Kirwan is a firm supporter of Josh Freeman, yet Freeman’s record against teams with winning records isn’t much better than Dalton’s.

In three and a half years, roughly, as a starting quarterback, per Pro-Football-Reference.com, Freeman’s record against opponents with a winning record is 6-15.

If one was to nitpick, two of those wins came in the final week of a season after the opponent (New Orleans in 2010 and Atlanta last season) had already secured their postseason positions.

Ironically Sunday morning, Evan Silva, the superb NFL analyst for both NBC Sports and Rotoworld.com, was Twitteringlike a man who just slugged down an Americano Grande about Freeman and Silva linked both Dalton and Freeman.

@evansilva: Buccaneers playing serious mind games with Freeman. Response will be critical to his career. Seems mentally fragile based on on-field play. … 2 most deceiving QB stat lines in 2012 were Josh Freeman & Andy Dalton. Neither played remotely that well. In fairness, Free has big issues.

Before Joe’s readers starting furiously typing that Joe is a Freeman hater, slow down! As Joe has written several times before, the absolute best chance for the Bucs to make the playoffs is for Freeman to not just start (ahead of rookie Mike Glennon), but to play well.

To Joe, it is very telling that Freeman struggles more often than not against good teams. Yes, yes, players should struggle against good teams. But upper echelon players rise to the occasion and don’t wilt under the pressure of, or vanish in the face of, a tough opponent.

No, Dalton’s numbers are not good at all against winning teams. But to his credit, Dalton has done more in his two seasons than Freeman has in four: Dalton has led his team to the playoffs twice.

And like the NFC South during Freeman’s career, the AFC North is annually dominated by two teams often battling for a Super Bowl, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Today is the first OTA practice of 2013 for the Bucs. And yes, Joe will have loads of content from this morning’s practice.

Today is the day for Freeman to begin playing on Dalton’s level. The level of a playoff quarterback.

For Freeman, that trek begins this morning.