Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.

Today, Carlson is angered by a syndicated columnist who claims the players’ role in the labor dispute is born from greed.

Throughout the offseason lockout I have listened to and been involved in many conversations with people of all walks of life and heard a wide variety of opinions on the causes and cures for what ails the NFL right now.

Then I read an idiotic story in Tuesday’s St. Petersburg Times’ TBT publication by guest columnist Ray McNulty, who surmised that the owners should prevail because they care more about the game than the players and that the players only care about themselves.

Let me shed a little light to this fight for Mr. McNulty and anyone that might have been swayed by this article.

The owners care more about the game than the players? Did the move of the Cleveland Rams (now doing business in St. Louis via Los Angeles and Anaheim) improve the game or help the ardent fans of Cleveland, while leaving the second largest television market void of football?

Was the midnight move of the legendary Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis in the best interest of the game? When Art Modell left the city of Cleveland without a team for the second time really good for the game? Has the frequent travel miles of Al Davis and the Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders been in his financial interest or for his love for the game and its fans?

Did the Bidwell family take the Cardinals to Arizona because they thought the dry heat was good for the game or was it simply the highest bid? Why did the Houston Oilers become the Tennessee Titans or the Dallas Texans the Kansas City Chiefs? All for the owners love of the game I’m sure.

The players only look out for themselves Mr. McNulty? Players are currently playing all around the country in the Arena Football League and other minor leagues for peanuts or less and they would play in the NFL for very little if that is what the market would pay.

Why? For the love of the game.

During the players strike of 1987, the owners put a poor excuse for a product on the field to pressure the players to break ranks (did they charge full price for those tickets,  I can’t remember?) and go back to work for the minimum wage of $50,000, which was really not a big wage even for that time and plenty of players played for just that amount.

In fact, while Hugh Culverhouse owned this team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have led the league in minimum wage players while also leading the league in profit margin. We can all agree that he was certainly looking out for the best interests of the game, right?

Before the ’87 strike, and even after, players would get injured and teams would simply cut the player and he would have no recourse for getting rehabbed or paid during that rehabilitation.

Union representation was necessary for many issues like this, as owners were looking after the good of the game. After the “Scab” players broke the ’87 strike, the players had no bargaining power. But over the next few years, they collectively bargained a deal with the NFL owners that increased revenues and franshise values exponentially over the last 20 years. After taking over the title of America’s Game the last decade or so, the owners extended that same contract in 2006.

From what I understand through letters that I have seen from NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, the players weren’t asking for much change moving forward, but the owners wanted the players to give them an extra billion dollars (to go on top of the other billion they already get) before the revenue sharing began.

It seems reasonable that if one side of an agreement wants to make a significant change, they should at least give you some evidence of the reason why.

That is what the players have been asking the NFL for since 2009, trying to avert the current situation. The owners have rebuffed the requests to show their finances and I don’t blame them, but you better come up with something to justify that billion dollars.

That billion dollars ain’t about the fans or bettering the game, it’s about the money, which is what players are always accused of only caring about, just like in this silly column.

Players will play and have always played for whatever the market will bear, just ask Jack Youngblood how much he was making when he came of of the University of Florida or while he was playing on a broken leg in the Super Bowl. It wasn’t a king’s ransom and if it was all about the money, he would have been on the sideline protecting his future earnings. 

Which one of us would tell a potential employer that he can keep his $100,000 offer, because you love his company so much you would rather work for $7.15 an hour?

I’m not even trying to make a case that the players are right and the owners are wrong, I’m just saying that the guest columnist getting space in the TBT might want to think about writing on topics he has better evidence for which to make a case.

He says that when the players win, the fans lose. I say that when we read his column, we all lose.

Joe’s just checking in for a big virtual high-five to his readers.

Traffic on JoeBucsFan.com in May is off to its best start of any month ever. Who says fans don’t care during a lockout?

Joe is humbled. And Joe is re-invigorated to keep delivering 24/7 Buccaneers news and commentary like no other mortals or ancient news delivery services.

What’s most impressive to Joe is that the typical JoeBucsFan.com reader now stays on the site about nine minutes per visit, which is extraordinary high in the industry. And Joe doesn’t even have his message boards padding his traffic stats. They’re owned by the good guys at WDAE-AM 620. 

Thanks again to the many tens of thousands of you that care enough about the Bucs to obsess about the team here once in a while with Joe. It’s a lot of work and a lot of fun.

It’s been less than two weeks since the 2010 draft wrapped up and Bucs fans are still buzzing about some of the players Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik landed in his third draft as the lord of Bucs football operations.

Since the draft is over, many have turned their attention to whether or not there will be a season this fall. But not Pete Schrager.

Typing for FoxSports.com, Schrager already has his first mock draft of 2012, and with the 24th pick (!) in the draft, the Bucs will nab an outside linebacker.

24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Travis Lewis, OLB, Oklahoma: The Buccaneers struck gold in the 2011 draft, grabbing three immediate contributors in Adrian Clayborn, Da’Quan Bowers, and Mason Foster with their first three picks. After making the playoffs for the first time under Raheem Morris, the Bucs — who lose a tough wild-card round game in Dallas — go defense again with Lewis in 2012. Lewis, a three-year starter already, enters 2011 with 362 career tackles.

This actually makes sense to Joe. Now, who knows if Lewis will be a first-round pick, a top-10 pick or a fourth round pick not quite four months before the 2011 college football season begins.

But Joe does have a good hunch Dominik will be eying linebackers next year.

If there is a 2012 draft.

Rumors of Teddy Bruschi taking a shot at Derrick Brooks on ESPN were swirling out there for more than a week, and the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, fielded his share of calls about the slam. Duemig and Brooks are close friends and listeners wanted the inside story.

Joe didn’t hear the BSPN broadcast — Joe doesn’t watch BSPN — but the buzz was that Bruschi said on the air that Brooks is not a first ballot Hall of Fame selection.

On Wednesday, Brooks joined Duemig on the radio and Duemig asked him to comment on Bruschi’s slam. Brooks acknowledged he was aware of it and said “some things are better left unsaid.” However, Brooks kept talking anyway.

“My resume says it all,” Brooks said. “[Bruschi]  has an opinion and I give it to him. …If he’s wrong, he’ll hear it from me. It’ll be three years of pent-up” anger. Brooks is eligible for induction in three years.

Of course, every Bucs fan knows Brooks was a five-time All-Pro, earned a defensive player of the year award, and was an anchor of arguably the best defense the NFL has seen. Plus, Brooks didn’t miss a start in his final 13 seasons and made 11 Pro Bowls.

Safe to say Bruschi doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

When the Bucs drafted (thieved?) Da’Quan Bowers in the second round, many Bucs fans believed — along with drafting Adrian Clayborn in the first round — the Bucs may have poured the cement of a foundation for a truly terrorizing defensive front along with Roy Miller, Gerald McCoy and Brian Price.

But the number crunchers at FootballOutsiders.com aren’t as sold on Bowers as a sack machine racing in from the left side. Not factoring in his strange knee condition (does it need surgery or not?), Doug Farrar believes Bowers will become much more of a force at stopping the run than throwing quarterbacks to the ground.

If he’s healthy, I see Bowers having more comprehensive value than pure sack terrorism — he’s more Justin Houston than Von Miller, and his stats could reflect that. While he can and will explode into the backfield, he’s not exceptionally quick off the block (though he is off the snap), and he tends to wrestle when other ends are looking to disengage.

However, Bowers is, to me, the best run-stopping end in this class, and it’s not even close. He’s a violent and precise form tackler who smothers running backs one-on-one and can go sideline to sideline to crash in on downfield blocks at an elite level. If he stays healthy, Bowers still may not exceed that sack projection by too much — and despite that, he could still wind up being the steal of the 2011 Draft.

Let’s be honest, yes the Bucs stunk at putting heat on the quarterback last year but the defensive front also had problems with running backs gashing them for big yards.

If Bowers does indeed turn out to be a veritable concrete wall for running backs, Joe believes he will be well worth the price of a late-second round pick.

Joe’s not big on lists and rankings unless they involve grading bikini contest entrants. But Joe does read such lists.

A recent one from BSPN ranks the Top-10 owners in the NFL. Team Glazer didn’t get a vote from the BSPN experts, and no voting criteria was explained.

Voter and NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas, however, shared some of his logic for ommitting Team Glazer, which surely has had its share of shining successes on and off the field. Yasinskas wagged a finger of blame at Team Glazer for the Bucs’ lousy attendance in 2010.

I thought about the ownership for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints, but neither came close to making my ballot.

Although I’ve frequently said the Glazer family, which owns the Bucs, seems to get a strange and disproportionate dislike from the fan base, I didn’t see this as a legitimate candidacy for the top 10. The Glazers have won a Super Bowl and done some other good things, but they couldn’t sell out their stadium for a single home game last season.

Joe’s all about accepting responsibility. While the poor economic factors at play locally are real, does anyone think the Bucs’ ticket sales and marketing staff deserves an A grade for 2010? Joe sure doesn’t.

Joe hopes Team Glazer takes a hard look at how it sells and markets tickets, which don’t sell themselves anymore in many NFL cities. Having a good team and prime time games should make a significant difference in 2011. Joe will be left speechless if the Bucs can’t muster a sellout for Monday Night Football in October.

Love Father Dungy or not — Joe assumes everyone at least likes Dungy — the man left an unforgettable positive mark on the NFL.

Joe’s not going to rattle off Dungy’s accomplishments, but the guy was masterful at hiring defensive coaches and discovering young coaching talent. 

Speaking yesterday to Tom Krasniqi of WHBO-AM 1040, Herm Edwards, a former Bucs assistant under Dungy, explained that Dungy’s philosophies on managing players are part of Raheem Morris’ DNA.

Edwards said Dungy, Mike Tomlin, Rod Marinelli, Lovie Smith and he are very much about helping guide men to become mature adults on and off the field. Edwards said coaching is empty if it’s only about Xs and Os.

“Tony used to say, ‘If you can make them better men, they’ll be better football players,'” Edwards said. “And Raheem knows that.”

Joe typically would be skeptical of Edwards claiming knowledge of Raheem’s makeup, but earlier in Tuesday’s interview Edwards spoke of a conversation he had with Raheem prior to the 2011 NFL Draft. And history says Raheem worked for Edwards with the Jets and Edwards recommended him to the Bucs, where Raheem came in 2002. So there’s little doubt the two communicate.

Edwards shared this context of Raheem’s mindset when asked what he thought the Bucs might do with Aqib Talib. Essentially, Edwards said he thought Raheem’s first option would be to help Talib reach his potential and to want to counsel him.

However, Edwards said if it were his call, he’d get Talib off his team. Edwards went on a rant about Talib not understanding the responsibility of wearing the uniform and said NFL players only respond to being denied football, not fines.

“What matters in kindergarten? Take the milk and cookies away and don’t let them play recess,” Edwards said. “Players don’t care unless they miss games. … [Talib] needs to be shocked” to help him.

Joe wonders whether Father Dungy has reached out to Talib, who seems like a prime candidate for Dungy’s holy guidance. Surely Dungy could score Talib’s cell phone number in a matter of minutes.

If Joe were Talib’s agent, he’d do everything possible to unite Talib and Father Dungy, whose blessing probably carries considerable street cred in the league office.

Joe doesn’t typically read the columns of John Romano of the St. Pete Times, but Joe did check in for Romano’s live chat today at TampaBay.com.

Romano was peppered with Bucs questions, including whether Team Glazer and the Bucs organization should roll out a hearty public welcome for Chucky when he makes his return to the C.I.T.S. for the Bucs-Colts game on Monday Night Football on BSPN in October.

Romano says Chucky should get his due.

Comment From Gorilla: Will the Bucs herald Gruden with an announcement and love when he returns for Monday Night Football?

John Romano: I don’t know. But they should. Even though the Bucs and Gruden parted ways, there is no doubt he was an effective coach in Tampa Bay. Beyond the Super Bowl, he took the team to the playoffs several times. I think the biggest problem is the Glazers picked Gruden over Rich McKay in a power struggle. Gruden needed a strong GM to keep him from making too many short-term decisions on personnel.

With the possible exception of Aqib Talib, no single player gets a Bucs fan to put his beer down and begin shouting quicker than Barrett Ruud.

The Bucs middle linebacker is — depending who you speak with — either a savvy, intelligent player that is able to put players in positions on defense to make plays, or is an embarrassment to any human who possesses male genitalia.

Don’t count Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan in the latter group. The duo, co-hosts of “Movin’ the Chains,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, made sort of an impassioned plea yesterday afternoon to Bucs general manager Mark Dominik that if Ruud is allowed to walk away, it would be a grave mistake by the Bucs and the Bucs defense would, as a result of Ruud’s void, crumble.

Kirwan, who last winter gave Ruud an A-minus grade for the 2010 season and chatted with Joe in Dallas about Ruud, has long been a vocal Ruud supporter.

Some local Bucs fan called Kirwan and Ryan to ask about Ruud and the duo gave to Joe’s knowledge, the most detailed, intricate explanation as to Ruud’s merits with the Bucs.

Bucs caller: I think some of the people don’t understand the way he works in the system. He doesn’t play up on the line; he drops back. I wonder if you can explain all of that and how he works in the system?

Tim Ryan: Well, it’s a passing league but you’d like the see Barrett Ruud make more tackles at the line of scrimmage. I understand that. Go look at those young defensive tackles in front of him and you are going to see guys getting pushed and on roller skates and get pushed right into Barrett Ruud. He’s not the most physical player when you talk about him. But he can key. He can diagnose. He can get everyone lined up. He’s not going to bust mental errors. Where Barrett is best is in that intermediate passing game as a second-level defender. He knows it’s coming. He understands route concepts. He can cover running backs out of the backfield. It’s going to be really, really hard replacing that. We would prefer the Bucs kept him but it sounds like, it sounds like the Bucs may be done with him down there and it sounds like he may be irritated they didn’t re-up with him when they had the opportunity before. Barrett is going to get an opportunity to get paid out on the open market if we can get to unrestricted free agency. I like [Bucs third-round pick linebacker Mason Foster] too, a lot. The guy played Mike linebacker as a true freshman. He has a bunch of tackles. But again, I can’t tell you the training that Barrett had under Shelton Quarles and under Derrick Brooks — and I know Shelton is still there but under a different role — and under Monte Kiffin, I mean, replacing the football intellect that Barrett Ruud is, that’s a tall order. Watch him when they run a naked bootleg. Watch Barrett when a bootleg comes. He sees it develop. No. 1 he knows by down and distance it is probably coming. Pat, he just doesn’t drop to his zone. He turns and starts hunting up that crosser, that mid-level crosser coming from the backside because he knows it’s coming.

Pat Kirwan: Yep, and those are techniques that you learn over time. You step into the run because you are the Mike backer. It’s not run it’s through — the smart guys know to turn opposite of the bootleg action and roll and locate the crosser. He’s good at that stuff. Look, here’s my thinking: You have to have a quarterback on the defense. You can’t just have 11 great runaround guys. Someone has to make the adjustments when you see things like they take the I-strong and they shimmy the fullback to I-weak. A lot of times you want to check your stunt. A lot of times you want to check from three-coverage to four-coverage. Who is doing all that stuff? They play the coverage enough that he has to drop deep down the middle, and he’s good at it. But look, I’ve said it before: He’s not an all-star. He’s not an All Pro. But his value doesn’t come in statistics all the time. His value comes in how he organizes guys on the sideline and like… how’s this: Your line coach goes — right in the middle of the game — “Hey, look, look, look. We’ve been pirating all week when they are in ISO. We can’t do it anymore. They’ve got it figured out, they’ve been blocking it. You need to check that I-strong stunt to a ram.” That’s easy to say that but now go out and do it.

Ryan: How about Barrett going over to the sideline and saying, “Remember two years ago when they tried to do this? Well, we need to do that.”

Kirwan: Right. That part of it is — someone is going to reap the benefits of that. He reminds me of a guy we had at the Jets, Kyle Clifton. Kyle ran 4.9, Kyle was this, that and the other thing. But every time we tried to play without him — hey, we have to get younger we have to get quicker — guess what happened? The mental errors went way up. I know Tampa Bay plays a simple system. Monte Kiffin groomed the guy. It’s worth something if they are going to move on. I’m a big fan of Mason. This is a gigantic challenge for him to make those plays. The way we played a lot of times when we played weak safety insertion, which I know Tampa Bay plays a ton of, and the run play came to the strong side, the Mike (linebacker) was like a leverage guy. He wasn’t a tackler. His job was to take the inside man and him back to the Will backer who he freed up to make the play. So a lot of times you look at him and you go, “Wow, he’s tied up.’ His job was to make sure the running back came back to the Will. So a lot of times if you don’t understand the scheme, you don’t understand what he is trying to do. Is he perfect? No. Is he replaceable? Maybe.

Ryan: He will have a job as a starting linebacker on another team next year. No question.

Kirwan: Yeah. He’d be a nice player for the New York Giants.

Look, as Kirwan has pointed out, Ruud is not Ray Lewis, never will be. Nor is he Patrick Willis. Nor is he Brian Urlacher. But Joe chatted with Kirwan at Super Bowl Media Day this February and Kirwan persuaded Joe to think differently about Ruud.

Kirwan, who was a linebackers coach under Kiffin with the Jets, was convincing enough to Joe that until Mason is groomed properly as his replacement — if that is who Mark Dominik and Raheem Morris have in mind to replace Ruud — the Bucs would be much worse off losing Ruud than losing Talib.

Right now with as many young players on the Bucs defense, they need a veteran to give them some stability and help the young guys learn the intricacies and nuances of an NFL defense.

Hey Facebook freaks, put your profile to good use.

Joe’s classy friends at Paradise Worldwide Transportation are giving away a Rays fantasy package, minus the one-on-one time with Evan Longoria.

Just by “Liking” the Paradise Facebook page, you’ll be automatically entered to win FOUR Rays tickets, FOUR Rays hats, and a roundtrip limousine ride to Tropicana Field. Click right here to do it now! The drawing is May 16. (Read the graphic for all the details)

Brian Price (center) still has a long road back to football

Rock star Bucs general manager Mark Dominik has said he’s not concerned about Brian Price returning from his ugly injury for the 2011 season.

Joe’s hardly as confident after reading the recent feature on Price from Steve Wyche of NFL.com. Not exactly inspiring.

“I’m just lifting weights, not running yet, but I might be able to start,” [Price] said. “It just depends on how I feel.”

How Price feels is one thing. How soon he should crank up his workload is another. Price has a high pain tolerance as he showed last season by playing through this injury that was sustained in a summer time mini-camp. The fractures weren’t discovered until after the fifth game. For the longest time the issue seemed to be his hamstrings, but the tug from the cracks in his pelvis was the real culprit.

He was placed on injured reserve shortly after Week 5.

Price’s desire to get going could trump his rehabilitation, which is why he’s trying to be cautious during a lockout in which he’s not under the care of Tampa Bay’s trainers and doctors. He is rehabilitating in Tampa, a decision he made on the day the lockout was lifted and players could have contact with team employees.

Call Joe crazy, but how did the Bucs medical staff misdiagnose Price for all those weeks? That a serious miss. It does happen, but these are presumably the same doctors the Bucs will rely on to assess Da’Quan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn, plus the pile of Bucs returning from significant injuries.

It’s May, so Joe’s going to try and keep a positive outlook on Price’s condition. Hopefully, he can get on the field and capture the early buzz at training camp again.

Joe suggests you read the entire NFL.com story. It’s revealed that Price is married to track star Candice Davis. Well done, Mr. Price.

A couple of interesting items crossed Joe’s keyboard in recent days and, in Joe’s eyes, paints a largely impressive picture of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

First, Joe got into a discussion about Freeman working out privately with skill position players both at USF and at the IMG headquarters in Bradenton. Unlike some NFC South quarterbacks, Freeman did not climb atop the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and yell to the hundreds of thousands of Bucs fans where and when he would be working out.

Then yesterday Joe discussed a tidbit in Peter King’s MMQB column where Mark Sanchize brought two dozen players to work out with him before Jets coaches where Freeman brought just two.

What does this tell you about Freeman?

It tells Joe that he is single-minded. Freeman just cares about football.

Yeah, sure Freeman could invite the enter Tampa Bay area to watch him and other Bucs practice at USF or a high school or a park. There is a reason why the Bucs close many practices and it’s not because they are paranoid of survellience from other NFL squads. No, practices are closed to the public because the team can get a lot of work in without distractions.

Sure, Freeman could score brownie points by having a public workout, but it seems Freeman is serious about these workouts and doesn’t want to waste his time. If he and his teammates are going to work out, it’s for and with a purpose, not a public relations stunt.

Is it so hard to keep the marijuana out of the car?

Apparently it is for Bucs defensive end Alex Magee. He was slapped by Tampa cops today for driving with a license plate tag expired more than six months and for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, so reports Victoria Lim of Bright House Sports Network.

Magee’s full name – Arcilla Alexander Magee – was driving his 2009 Dodge Charger when he was stopped on East Kennedy Blvd. and North Nebraska Ave. at 1:13pm, the report says. The officer smelled marijuana and searched the vehicle. The investigation turned up a “misdemeanor amount of field test positive marijuana”, according to the report.

While the Bucs can’t punish Magee during a lockout, one might think the organization is not going to tolerate a drug charge from a bottom-of-the-roster guy, especially one that would be in “the room,” as Raheem Morris calls it, with all the precious young defensive linemen.

Just 24 years old in April, Magee has three NFL seasons in the books and made a huge play in the Bucs’ January win in New Orleans.

Stylez White’s potential future with the Bucs just got a little brighter.

It seems Rex Ryan has written a book devoid of feet-orgy stories but filled with interesting football nuggets.

Sports Illustrated scribe Peter King, who recently insulted Team Glazer publicly, tells a story from Ryan’s book about the Jets’ decision to draft Mark Sanchez over Josh Freeman. It appears today in King’s popular Monday Morning Quarterback column on SI.com.

Well, it seems the rumors that the Bucs may be featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” has reached the computer screen of coffee-slurping, popcorn-shoveling, fried chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving Peter King of Sports Illustrated.

In his must-read weekly Monday Morning Quarterback, King briefly touches the subject of the Bucs and HBO.

I think I’d watch the Bucs on Hard Knocks, and I’d be interested. But it won’t be the must-see TV series the Jets made with HBO and NFL Films last year. No team would be.

This is the type of mentality Joe has cautioned Bucs fans about. It’s New York producer mentality, the type of thought that runs TV networks.

Yeah, sure, Bucs fans in droves will watch the Bucs on “Hard Knocks,” but what of the rest of the country?

Eight years ago the Bucs would have been perfect for “Hard Knocks.” The team was loaded with larger-than-life personalities, many nationally known like Warren Sapp, Meshawn Johnson and Chucky.

On the other hand, seeing how Raheem Morris interacts with everyone, he could quickly become an NFL household name not unlike Herm Edwards became when “Hard Knocks” featured the Chiefs.

Then there is always the danger element of a camera crew following around Aqib Talib — provided he is still with the team — who already had an aversion to the Fourth Estate and Joe can only imagine how his bitterness may have simmered in recent months.

Joe didn’t expect to hurl his remote control on a lazy Sunday night.

After all, the Rays had continued their dominance that afternoon and the Lakers were knocked out and humiliated on the wrong end of an epic shooting performance. Life seemed pretty good.

Then Joe stuffed his face and settled in for the lastest Man Channel feature, The Top 100 Players of 2011 on NFL Network. The new series highlights the results of a survey of 400 current NFL players. But as the show counted down Nos. 81-90 Sunday, it was revealed that only two Buccaneers made the entire list.

TWO!

Josh Freeman checked in at No. 86, four spots better than Joe Flacco. And Mike Williams was the top Buccaneer at No. 83.

No Donald Penn. No Aqib Talib. No Ronde Barber. No respect.

Williams showing up higher than Freeman leads Joe to believe the voting players based too much of their selections on highlights. One would figure that players who faced the Bucs would rank Freeman higher than Williams, which should have led to Freeman being ranked higher overall.

Regardless, Williams making the list along with only two other rookies, first-round picks Eric Berry and Ndamukong Suh, speaks volumes for his talent.

Oh, the agony endured by loads of crumpet munching soccer fans of Team Glazer’s English kickball team. Why those stupid Americans, those frugal franchise destroyers, had cut payroll and were about to humiliate Manchester United with cost-cutting moves and their massive debt before the 2010-2011 season. 

These crazy fans were rallying to kick Team Glazer out of the country!

Fast-forward to yesterday, and Team Glazer’s club all but clinched another English Premier League title with their young Mexican star free agent — the same guy fans initially snubbed because he came cheap — scoring a goal to cap his amazing season. In a few weeks, Team Glazer’s kickballers will play in the final of the European championship.

Needless to say Team Glazer has silenced all but the wackiest of the fringe wackos in England, and their club made mountains of cash this season.

What this all has to do with the Bucs, Joe has no clue. But Joe knows there are some X-Files/Twilight Zone/Roswell types who keep close tabs on this stuff.

Saturday Joe wrote a piece about how Josh Freeman was working out with other skill positions players but was keeping the details on the down low as to not attract crowds.

Joe received a few questions from commenters asking why there haven’t been — to anyone’s knowledge — defensive players working out as this insipid lockout continues.

It’s a good question that Joe did not have an answer for. Until now.

Seems as if Gerald McCoy will be hosting Adrian Clayborn in California in two weeks for an OTA of sorts. That’s the word straight from Clayborn’s own fingers via Twitter.

Headed to San Diego in two weeks to train with Gk_McCoy looking forward to learning and getting it in!

Can’t hurt. GMC is in close contact with former Bucs great Warren Sapp who works out of SoCal when on the clock for the NFL Network. It wouldn’t surprise Joe whatsoever if Sapp joins GMC and Clayborn.

Sapp would be about as close to a Bucs coach as these guys are going to get so long as NFL owners keep the players from working.

It seems many are already jumping on the Allen Bradford bandwagon and to Joe’s knowledge, the man has yet to visit the Tampa Bay area since being drafted by the Bucs in the sixth round of last weekend’s draft.

Add Troy Ballard to the list who writes for something called NationalFootballAuthority.com. Ballard seems to believe the Bucs will become a bruising, smashmouth running team with Bradford on the roster.

With Tampa Bay drafting Bradford, that gives them two running backs that are over 235 pounds. The combo of Blount and Bradford has the potential to simply abuse defenses, as they both create size mismatches on nearly every run play.

Combine the weight and size advantage of Blount and Bradford and throw in the speed of Williams, coming off of the bench, and it is going to be a tough rushing attack to slow down. Morris has created a perfect monster in the backfield of size and speed.

Well, that sounds nice but it’s off the mark. Joe loves LaGarrette Blount but he’s not a power runner despite his size. If Blount was a power runner, the Bucs would have beaten the Dixie Chicks in Atlanta this past season.

Ballard may be on to something with Cadillac Williams coming off the bench. Williams seemed to be his best when he had spot running chances as teams were keying on Blount and Cadillac was able to exploit that.

Joe likes what Ballard is suggesting, even though it is not accurate. Just because a dude is huge like Blount doesn’t mean he will be the next coming of Mike Alstott.

The Bucs’ long road back to national respect takes another step tonight as the man channel, NFL Network, rolls out players Nos. 81 through 90 in their series The Top 100 Players of 2011, as voted by a panel of 400 current players.

The show runs for 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with a show featuring fan and player reaction analysis from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Williams is ranked No. 83. No Buccaneers were in the 90s.

Recently, promotional announcements for the series have included LeGarrette Blount highlights. Joe has no clue whether that’s a precursor to Blount getting love, or just a decoy.

Joe’s not confident any other Bucs will make the list other than Donald Penn and Josh Freeman. It will be very interesting to see what Aqib Talib’s peers think of him. Voting for the series was done before Talib’s Texas troubles.

Now Joe just isn’t a beer-soaked, NFL Network-addicted Bucs fan, no sir. Joe is a well-rounded individual.

There are other things Joe enjoys, such as the Rays and the Lightning. Joe is confident you read his musings after each game on JoeRaysFan.com.

Wednesday night, Joe swilled adult beverages while entertaining business clients and local media bigshots at the Ice Palace and thoroughly enjoyed the Bolts sweeping the Crapitals from the NHL postseason.

While Joe is also a baseball and hockey kinda guy, Joe’s a football man first and foremost.

So is the Tampa Bay area. Now Joe has in the recent past received missives from fans about why he isn’t writing about Josh Freeman and other Bucs working out. Simply put, Freeman doesn’t want people to know where and when they are working out, so Joe is not privy to when and where the workouts will be held beforehand.

This same question also got to Pasco County resident and NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas typing for Disney’s hammer-and-sickle outfit in Conneticut.

Matt in Camden, N.J., wrote to ask why we’ve made such a big deal about Drew Brees organizing workouts with the Saints while there has been only casual mention about Josh Freeman and some of the Buccaneers working out together in Tampa.

Pat Yasinskas: Excellent question, so let me explain the difference. Brees assembled roughly 40 Saints at Tulane University and opened the first day to the media. It was a large-scale event, magnified by the fact that the Saints truly are the only thing that matters in New Orleans. (I know the Hornets are there, but they exist in the hefty shadow of the Saints.) Freeman’s been doing things a little more quietly and not on nearly as large a scale, and I salute him for going about his business quietly. Freeman’s gone out to the University of South Florida and worked out with some receivers and a few running backs. He’s also gone down to a private training facility with some teammates near Bradenton. The Tampa Bay media’s been kind of tied up with NHL’s Lightning and MLB’s Rays, so Freeman’s workouts haven’t been a huge local story. Some members of the Panthers and Falcons also are working out in smaller groups. But like the Bucs, they’re not getting as much attention because they didn’t bring in most of the roster and open up a whole session to the media.

Let’s not get carried away. It’s not like if Freeman decided — like Brees did in New Orleans — to issue a public proclamation that he would hold an open workout that the local pen and mic club would be so devoid of resources thanks to the Bolts postseason run and the Rays winning ways that no TV, radio or 19th century news delivery service could cover it. That’s just nonsense and Pat should know better than that since he once was a Bucs beat reporter for the Tampa Tribune.

Would Freeman’s workout be top priority compared to a Rays game or a Bolts postseason story? Of course not, but it wouldn’t be ignored.

Freeman is as big of a sports celebrity in this town as Dirtbag Longoria, Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier. With all the people  packing the Ice Palace for Bolts games and as many people in this area that watch Rays games (on TV), football in general and the Bucs in particular still rule this town.

To suggest Freeman holding a public workout with teammates during the lockout would not get coverage due to the Bolts playoff run and the Rays success is short-sighted at best.

Joe puts on his businessman jersey every week and scours the local and national business publications. Hey, Joe needs to know what’s going on out there.

Joe sees economic data improving, but also sees the Tampa Bay area lagging behind. However, Orlando appears to be kicking Tampa Bay’s ass when it comes to growth, so reported Robert Trigeaux, the St. Pete Times business columnist.

… Orlando is cultivating businesses faster and smarter than Florida’s other metro areas. Consider this recent Reuters story:

“Orlando is leading Florida out of recession and expanding so briskly the city best known for theme parks is poised to push aside Miami as the state’s fastest growing metropolis for at least a generation.”

Orlando alone generated 23,000 jobs in the year ending in February of the 50,000 jobs created in Florida.

That story and others cite a ranking of the nation’s major metro areas based on “economic strength.” The 2010 rankings were produced by William Fruth of the Policom Corp. research firm in Palm City. His numbers show Orlando ranked No. 1 in Florida and 27th among 366 metro areas nationwide.

By contrast, Tampa Bay ranked behind not only Orlando, but also Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville in this state.

That all stinks, but what stinks even more for the Bucs is awareness of the team falling off the map in Orlando.

The Orlando Sentinel eliminated much of its Bucs coverage over the past two years. The newspaper and its website no longer have a Bucs beat writer despite being a mere 90 minutes from Tampa. Good luck even finding a Bucs link on the Sports page of their site.  And their columnists all but ignored the Bucs last year. Orlando’s heinous local sports radio is disinterested in the Bucs, as well.

It’s surely comes from a combination of the Bucs pulling out of Disney for training camp in 2009, newspaper budget slashing, and the lingering stain of the 3-13 season.

Throw in Bucs home games getting blacked out in Orlando, and the Bucs are barely registering a blip on the radar in a growing market where they should be selling loads of tickets and growing lifelong customers.

Joe has no idea how Team Glazer might be addressing this issue, but Joe thinks it’s imperative. Joe would be pleased to meet with Team Glazer to offer real-world solutions to the Orlando market.

Joe’s sure many of his readers watch NFL Network daily. Why Joe can’t imagine why one might choose not to have the real man channel in his home. Surely no football fan could deny himself such pleasure.

Last night on Total Access, in addition to watching footage from various player-organized practices, analysts Warren Sapp and Willie McGinest were posed with the question of whether the NFC South was the best division in football.

Both said, “No.” And Sapp revived the soft schedule/signature win debate that drove many Bucs fans nuts last season.

“[The NFC South] played the NFC West, so I can’t go there,” Sapp said. 

McGinest and Sapp agreed the NFC South was the best division in the NFC entering 2011, but not the NFL.

Joe hopes the Bucs can at least climb into second place in the division. With two of their first eight games against the Saints, that could be decided early.