Bucs safety Mark Barron positively decleated Robert Griffin III last year.

Despite starting for a team that finished south of a .500 record and experiencing some ups and downs in his rookie season, Bucs safety Mark Barron considers himself a lucky guy.

Last year, amid the whirlwind of the NFL combine, pro day, draft, rookie minicamp and then training camp, Barron sort of found normalcy with the guy who he lined up next to on Sundays, future Hall of Famer Ronde Barber.

Barber is gone, but he has been replaced by Pro Bowler Dashon Goldson. Oh, yeah, there’s also the best-in-the-business cornerback (when healthy), Darrelle Revis.

Barron confessed after the first practice of OTAs Monday that he’s been fortunate as he works to become “a veteran.”

“Somewhat, yes, but there are still some things I want to improve on,” Barron said. “I am a lot more comfortable, I will say that. I have to get a feel for my new teammates and do the best that we can do.”

That would be Goldson and Revis, but Barber is still on Barron’s mind.

“Just like with Ronde as far as learning things from him, I like learning and studying the game,” Barron said. “I picked up [tips] from him and now there are two more players I can pick up from. I feel like I am in great situation learning from three great players.

“I can learn a lot from both of these guys.”

If Barron can progress, along with the additions of Johnthan Banks, Goldson and Revis, damn, Joe can’t help but think the Bucs could very well have the best secondary in the NFL, worst to first.

Part Two of “Project Revis,” a series of NFL Network video reports with exclusive behind the scenes access at One Buc Palace, continued to document Bucs cornerback Darrelle Revis rehabilitate from a knee injury.

Revis is seen here doing agility drills on the Bucs’ practice fields with tackling dummies to hone his footwork.

Bucs director of sports medicine and performance Todd Toriscelli noted that most athletes he works with have four gears from zero to full sprint. But Revis, he said, is so fast he has five gears. Toriscelli tells NFL Network’s Andrea Kremer that Revis is running and working in third gear at this point in his rehab.

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.

Creative: Students let 10,000 crickets loose into high school. But Joe has a question: How the hell do you just obtain 10,000 crickets? [WSAZ]

So the Stalinists in the Kremlin Washington hacked into a CBS reporter’s computer, too? (Yes, Joe fully expects to be audited.) Аль хайль Ленин! [Politico]

Olivia Munn anyone? [Esquire]

Joe guesses pushing the draft back a week isn’t too awfully bad but please don’t put the combine in March. [PFT]

This is unreal video of the Moore, Okla. tornado. Storm chasers are nuts (though, a neat way to make a living) but you have to be a special kind of crazy to stare down that monster of a tornado and keep your camera rolling. [YouTube]

What was Fernando Rodney doing after he shot the moon? [RaysIndex]

Yes, Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman continues to make news, even in the nondescript periods of OTAs.

Yesterday, NFL.com began a daily series of top quarterbacks under 25 and, as Gregg Rosenthal writes, Freeman is No. 10 in what Joe feels is a pretty thorough, and fair examination (the link has several Freeman videos).

Too often the Buccaneers dialed up the right play, got the coverage they were hoping for and the play wasn’t made. Routine throws were missed. Red zone tosses often didn’t give the receiver a chance. Freeman’s accuracy came and went, and I didn’t see Freeman anticipate or go to his second read enough.

Occasionally, Freeman didn’t see the open man, but it’s been more common to see him just a beat late on a throw like on the play below. Often, the timing was just off. Freeman sometimes would think a receiver was going to sit down on a route, but a miscommunication happened.

Freeman’s first-round talent has shown up in his four NFL seasons. He owns every tool you look for in a quarterback; he just hasn’t shown the ability to do it consistently. He’s shown enough that there’s hope Freeman can be a top-10 NFL quarterback for a team that regularly contends for the playoffs and Super Bowl. He has that type of skill set.

Now, maybe the last time for a few days, Joe will touch upon Schiano’s recent comments to NationalFootballPost.com about Mike Glennon potentially starting.

Schiano said something Monday, in his animated if not entertaining press conference after the first practice of OTAs, that maybe he is too much of a straight shooter with national reporters and, with a twinkle in his eyes, said, “Josh knows how I feel… and so does Mike Glennon. … It’s May. We have to write about something. There needs to be news.”

Bravo, coach. Bravo!

Schiano says competition is one of his core beliefs, but the definition is somewhat fuzzy, even though he’s explained his stance about eight times this year.

Joe finds it all quite comical, but Schiano’s recent Mike Glennon-Josh Freeman competition chatter is flustering Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud and TampaBay.com columnist and notorious Joe basher Tom Jones. The two dive into the debate, as it relates to quarterbacks Mike Glennon and Josh Freeman, in the WDAE-AM 620 audio below.

Stroud claims Schiano’s mostly-retracted comments about Glennon competing for the starting QB job create a somewhat hostile media/fan environment for Freeman. “It amps up the crowd,” Stroud explains. (Hear all the takes below)

Joe’s more interested in why Schiano chose his words to national writer Dan Pompeii. As Joe’s written previously, it’s too hard for Joe to believe a smart, detail-obsessed guy like Schiano didn’t know the splash value of his comments.

The hated Yankees are in town Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This is a stunning deal! Why waste money on parking and gas, especially when you can ride in style with an adult beverage in hand on a Paradise Worldwide Transportation luxury bus?

Click on through below to learn more about the best deal in Tampa Bay sports, the No Excuses Tour to Tropicana Field. Find out how nearly 1,000 fans have enjoyed Rays games since 2011.

When Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik signed free agent strongside linebacker Jonathan Casillas, there were various ways to look at the move.

Casillas could be just part of what Bucs coach Greg Schiano craves — competition. Or, Casillas could be the successor to Quincy Black.

Either way for Casillas, he’s ahead of where he has been in recent seasons, even if the Buccaneer Way is still a bit foreign too him. Last year ,Casillas was injured and unable to go to through OTAs with the Saints.

“It does help a lot,” Casillas told Joe just after OTA practice Monday. “It’s kind of a rare thing for me to be healthy at this time of the year. Good to be out there running around with the fellas and not so much the physical things but the mental things as well.”

Casillas was, in a way, a victim of circumstance. The Saints brought in overrated Rob Ryan as their new defensive coordinator, and Ryan is a 34 defense kinda guy. Casillas is a 43 outside linebacker kind of guy. So he was a man without a team when Ryan arrived in The Big Easy.

Currently, Casillas seems to just be happy competing on a practice field in May for a change.

It’s good man, good to get the juices flowing,” Casillas said. “It’s good to finally come out here and compete.”

Though Schiano’s practices are conducted with a sense of urgency, Casillas believed Sean Payton’s practices were even more so.

“It’s not as intense as Payton’s but the point is there, the purpose is there, the intent is there,” Casillas said. “We got after it really fast. The layout is something I have to get used to. Just out here trying to get my terminology down and learn this defense.”

It’s still way too early to determine who may have the inside track at replacing Black. That is what preseason is for. While he has the chance however, Casillas is trying to make an impression upon Bucs coaches.

“We have a great group of guys on both sides of the ball and the defensive guys are very fiery,” Casillas said. “We have a lot of guys with speed and power. We are all competitors, we are all competing. That linebackers room is very competitive.”

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.