Many Bucs fans may remember the story of rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and his virtual S.W.A.T. unit of investigators questioning Mike Williams’ third-grade teacher before the 2010 draft.

Presumably, they wanted to know how many times Williams fumbled a pencil, tripped on a wet boys room floor, or was kicked out of gym class for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Obviously, the Bucs’ scouting department got the job done there, as Williams was a stellar fourth-round pick.

Recently, Greg Schiano touched on breaking down potential draft picks during the interview process and talked about how the Bucs try to combat the coached answers with a 5-on-1 attack approach. Dominik elaborated a bit during an interview this week on Movin’ The Chains, hosted by Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

“The prework we do before the interview is the way to get’em to start opening up, knowing something about maybe their background that they don’t think you know,” Dominik said. “And then they start to sit on their heels a little bit and [think], ‘How did he know about that? What did he know about this?’ A conversation that maybe we heard through the school that helped us find out something a little bit different to get him off his normal routine, you know, some of the canned answers like you’re saying. Make him dig a little bit deeper, [offer] specific examples.”

So it seems Dominik is still digging up all kinds of dirt to rattle potential draft picks and probe deeper into their core beliefs and character.

What’s it all worth? Joe’s not sure, especially after lots of those picks were part of last season’s epic collapse. But it’s still the way to go, and Joe suspects the Bucs do more homework than a majority of NFL clubs.

Yes, many Bucs fans are panting over the free agent list like Joe does over his poster of Rachel Watson. But before Bucs fans begin hyperventilating, perhaps a cold shower might be in order?

Yes, Joe has read and heard Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik say the team will open up the checkbook and shop the free agent aisle this offseason. “The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN, believes that Bucs fans under the belief Dominik will land nothing but top shelf talent in free agency will be bummed.

Speaking to Buccaneers.com multimedia guru Scott Smith at the NFL combine, Clayton believes the Bucs will go bargain shopping more often than not in free agency.

“I don’t think [the Bucs’ free agency plan] is necessarily going to be the top of the line guys. Certainly it’s great to go for quality but what I think it comes down to is depth. What was missing last year, particularly in the middle of the defense, not adding a linebacker through free agency, not adding a safety because you saw what happened when Cody Grimm went down, then all of a sudden you have a real shortage of safeties.

“Do you get three of the top guys at a position or go out and get eight guys who fill things out. I think it is going to be more of the eight. Clearly with all the cap room last year and to only come out with a punter, clearly that was not good enough and I think the team suffered from that.”

It’s an interesting thought that Joe has never really pondered too much, but it does make sense. The Bucs roster, aside from the defensive line and maybe wide receiver, has no depth to speak of, not even backups for Josh Freeman at quarterback.

Clayton went on to say that whenever there is a coaching change, a team generally has 20-25 changes in the roster. Given how many players gave half-efforts during the grotesque 10-game losing streak that resulted in Raheem Morris being jettisoned, that number could be more like 25 than 20 with Greg Schiano at the helm.

So, yeah, Dominik may be going more for quantity than quality.

Joe knows many Bucs fans near a state of complete arousal just thinking of Team Glazer opening the company checkbook to sign free agents.

And that excitement was stoked several days ago when rockstar general manager Mark Dominik said the Bucs would be active in free agency, though that was a rather vague statement.

Well, Dominik was talking about spending again, this time in a little more detail during an interview yesterday on Movin’ the Chains, the absolute must-listen-to show on Sirius-XM NFL Radio hosted by Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan. 

“There has to be a mix and a match of free agency along with a football team. And you know, obviously we lost 10 in a row. We have to continue to try to acquire more talent for this football team,” Dominik said. “And we’ll do that in free agency if we can and hopefully we will. I mean that’s our goal. We’re prepared. We just have to wait and see what the list is. You know, because obviously with the franchise tags and transition tags that clubs have the options to use, that’s going to change the focus and the view of what free agency is today, versus what it’ll be come mid-March.”

Those who want to read between the lines and see a Team Glazer spending spree might be encouraged by Dominik talking about “franchise tags” and “transition tags”; those are expensive players.

Joe found it interesting to hear Dominik reference the loss of 10 in a row. Listening to his tone of voice, to Joe it felt like Dominik was admitting the team didn’t have the talent it needed last season. Though Joe still thoroughly believes the tank job by Raheem Morris and his staff gets the lion share of the blame for the 2011 debacle.

Dominik didn’t offer any hint as to the Bucs’ positional targets in free agency, but he did offer this nugget for the read-between-the-lines crowd.

“We still need to, you know, do a lot of things for him,” Dominik said of Josh Freeman.

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Beat writers eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune and Pat Yasinskas of ESPN were buzzing about the possibility of Saints star left guard Carl Nicks landing on the Buccaneers yesterday.

New Orleans, as Yasinskas pointed out during an interview on Primetime on WHBO-AM 1040, is in salary cap hell and must make eye-opening roster cuts and moves in the coming days. One move is possibly using its franchise tag on Drew Brees, which means they wouln’t have it available to sign free-agent-to-be Nicks. If Nicks hits the market, the Bucs should pounce, so says Yasinskas and Kaufman.

For those unfamiliar, Nicks is a manbeast listed at 6-5, 345 pounds, and is widely accepted as the best left guard in football. He’s  been an All-Pro the last two season and will command a fortune in free agency. Davin Joseph locked up a seven-year $52 million deal last year, and Nicks will command more.

Now the Saints’ right guard, Jahri Evans, already earns more than Joseph. Would the Saints invest that much money into two guards, given their salary cap issues? Would the Bucs, even though they have miles of cap room?

Clouding the answers to those two questions is the fact that the 2012 draft is widely considered to be very deep for offensive linemen.

Of course, if the Bucs can score Nicks, Jeremy Zuttah, if re-signed, would land at center and Jeff Faine and his $6 million would be gone.

Joe would love if the Bucs landed Nicks. If Greg Schiano plans to pound the rock like he says, then two Pro Bowl guards and the highest paid offensive line in football would seem to be a no-brainer.

Last week new Bucs coach Greg Schiano was buttonholed by the radio duo running “The Blitz,” Adam Schein and former Super Bowl quarterback Rich Gannon, to share his thoughts on his first few weeks as the Bucs head coach, live from the NFL combine, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio. Naturally Joe transcribed all 2,968 words of the interview.

What was telling for Joe was that Schiano called out an unnamed Bucs cornerback for loafing on run plays, which Schiano said directly led to running backs running like starving cheetahs through the Bucs defense. In short, Schiano said such a meek effort will simply not be tolerated by him and his staff.

Joe’s going to take a stab and suggest said cornerback was not Ronde Barber.

Adam Schein: Here’s the new coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he’s Greg Schiano who is kind enough to give us a few minutes. Coach, congratulations.

Greg Schiano: Thanks Adam, I appreciate it.

Rich Gannon: Well Greg, it’s great to have you on board. Obviously you have a lot of work to do I know… where do you start? I know putting the staff together was the first order of business which wasn’t easy. But after that I’m sure you buried yourself into trying to become familiar with your team.

Schiano: Well I do, and we just kind of finished though we have a couple more positions to fill on the staff. We have a pool of people and we interview some and will get that done. Bu you are right, evaluating our own roster. I’ve done a little bit of that but it’s more like catch an hour here, 20 minutes there, get on the airplane to come up and watch a little tape. But that’s going to be pretty important because we are getting into free agency pretty soon and then the draft but it doesn’t do any good if you don’t understand your own football team. So that is the No. 1 order of business that I am just getting into now.

Schein: Greg, why did you take this job? You did just a good job, a great job in building that Rutgers program. Did such a great job establishing an identity in a metropolitan area, really building that program from scratch to a big time power in the Big East You have had a lot of opportunities on the NFL level, on the collegiate level. Why the Buccaneers?

Schiano: It just felt right. As you go through as a coach, as a head coach, people approach you. Some people say, “Why would you even consider if you are so set at staying at Rutgers?” I think you owe it to yourself to your family and to the program where you are still coaching to make sure that is where you still have your passion. That there isn’t something better for you and someone else can take over with an increased passion for the Rutgers program. I always felt like that was where I wanted to be. Usually, coaches don’t normally build a new house if they don’t lose a job. I thought I was going to be there for the rest of my career. I passed up on some super jobs. This one, every step of the way, just felt right. The only thing that was really hard was saying goodbye to the players and some staff people I knew weren’t going to be making the trip with us. Once you did that, I am really excited to be the head coach of the Bucs.

Gannon: Greg, talk about your staff I know you hired some really good quality people, guys that have been in the business on this level, guys that have been on the college level kind of talk about how your staff has shaken out.

Schiano: I think you are right Rich. I think we have a good mix of some really experienced guys in the National Football League and some college guys that are really hungry…

Gannon: … which is great I think…

Schiano: I agree. And you know what? When you are teaching 17- and 18-year old freshmen skills, the skills aren’t very different but I think those teaching methods are really helpful. I don’t care if you are 25, 30, 35. I was coaching the Bears when Michael Jordan was there [in Chicago] and I can remember going down there once and watching them practice. His beginner’s mentality, he had been doing it for 11 or 12 years, his beginner’s mentality, the way he approached everything, the greatest who has ever played the game. I always talk to our team about that. If you can continue to learn and continue to grow at your craft, maybe you get a new coach and he brings up maybe one thing that maybe you have never been aware of? I’m hoping that is what happens.

Schein: There has been a mixed bag of college coaches going to the NFL and being successful Greg. You know you referenced your time with the Bears – Rich and I have talked about it – I always viewed you as a pro coach, coaching on the collegiate level. Is that a fair way to phrase it?

Schiano: I think if you look at our players and why they have been successful in the National Football League, they haven’t had all first round picks – we’ve had four of them – but I tell you the thing we did when I came from the NFL and went to Miami, Coach Davis was at Miami so it was an easy transition, what we did was we shrunk the day and when I went to Rutgers we did it with the entire team, not just the defense. So we took what we did in the National Football League from what we did at walk-throughs and at practice and shrunk it down so it would fit in a college day around three or four hours from seven or eight hours. But our kids, the way we installed, the way we walked-through, the way we do all of those things, our kids got to the league and when they came back after their first minicamp or came back after their first OTAs, “Coach, they’re doing it the same way we did it.” Well, that’s where we got it from. To me, I have always looked at the National Football League as a football laboratory. It’s the greatest level of football in the world so why wouldn’t you try to copy and emulate the best?

Gannon: Greg, I think one of the attractive things about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is their quarterback. He’s a young guy that I think has a very bright future in this league. As you sat down and peel back the layers and visit with him, what has been the most impressive thing about Josh Freeman?

Schiano: Well, Josh, No. 1, I have had quite a few opportunities to sit down with Josh Freeman and visit with him not just about football but about life and about who he is and I am excited to have a chance to coach this guy. He really has that sparkle in his eye. He is such a [laughs] physically imposing guy. You don’t program them much better than that. But there are some things if you watch the tape that he will certainly have to improve on. We have to get — as an offensive football team – our ball security is atrocious. You better stop losing games before you start winning games. We have to start taking care of the football. That has been a trademark of our football teams in the past. Josh is a bright guy. I’m looking forward to working with him.

Schein: What is it did you see when you looked under the hood, when you looked at the talent of the Buccaneers and how close they are to getting to the playoffs. A couple of seasons ago they had this incredible run and they achieved and just fell a little bit short of the playoffs in the final week. Last year a lot of people thought the Bucs were going to make the playoffs and frankly we talked to some of the players about t and we talked to Coach Morris, we had him on the show every week. I think that the team frankly quit. I think that the team lost their way down the stretch of the season. What did you see when you looked under the hood of the Buccaneers?

Schiano: I don’t know about what happened to the team outside of what you see on video. Without being in the facility and being in the locker room, there’s no way to tell. I do know what we need to do and that is create a culture. We need to create a culture in that building about the way we do things, all right? It will be about discipline. It will be about toughness. It will be about speed. And I don’t mean just fast running speed. I mean the way we do things. We have to be urgent about the way we do things. This is the most competitive league in America. This is the most competitive sports league in the world. We have to do things with at an urgent level. At an urgent pace. Toughness to me, is it about blocking people and tackling people? Sure. But it’s more than that. Every time you force yourself to do something you don’t want to do. When you get up in the morning and don’t hit the snooze, all right? It’s mental toughness. Do something you don’t want to do. Pretty soon you get tougher and tougher and in the clutch – you know, Coach Paterno, I worked for him for six years. There are two things I learned from him that I will carry with me forever. No. 1 is you better have guys who can perform in the clutch. And No. 2, time is your enemy. Well, those kind of tie together. You are not really getting ready to play another team; you are getting ready to compete with yourself. Because you can only be the best you can be. We have to work against the clock. That’s why this staff hiring has dragged out. It was so important to me that I knew we knew it was important. Now we have to switch gears real quickly and work very, very hard. We have to catch up. We have to get ready for OTAs and the draft and evaluation of free agents in two weeks. There is a lot of stuff to do here in not too long of time. I’m looking forward to it. It’s fun.

Gannon: Greg, you mentioned you are playing catch-up; you are still trying to put the staff together. You are trying to do the overall personnel evaluations on top of your players, but you have to feel you have a nod, coming from the college game; you’ve seen some of these players. Just give me your overall thoughts on some of the players you are familiar with form being a college coach the past dozen years.

Schiano: I tell ya’ Rich, it has helped a lot. I have sat not in all the draft meetings but I have sat in a lot of them. You will see a kid you either played against or recruited so will kind of know the moral fabric of the kid. Now you have to figure out he is has changed or if he is still the same kid. It helps a lot. I am sure the further and further I get away from the college game, the interviews and the evaluations will become even more important. The great thing is with Mark Dominik and Dennis Hickey, they have done an incredible job of just feeding me information. I go through it whenever I have time, throw up the tape and kind of match the opinions up with the video and it has been really helpful. Those two guys have been incredible supportive.

Schein: Take us through the defense and the coaches that you obviously have on your staff. You have Bill Sheridan. You have Coach Davis. When you think of Greg Schiano football, I think of defense. Whose defense is it going to be. What is the style, what will be the personality of the Buccaneers defense that is going to be coached this season?

Schiano: Well, without getting into too many things that will give away what we will do this season and give away a competitive advantage, we are going to be an attacking defense, which everybody says, who’s not? I never heard a coach say we are going to sit back and let them run it down our throat. I think it will be a mix of different kinds of schemes. Are we going to be a traditional 4-3? At times. Are we going to have a 3-4 look? At times. So I guess it is a little bit of a hybrid. As you watch, the thing for me that sets are defenses apart is how hard we play. We work tirelessly to make sure we practice that way and that we play that way. That may be a little bit of a change. You know, when I watch video, you don’t see the backside corner getting to the ball. That is not going to be acceptable. Guys won’t play. We will get 11 guys – unless your responsibility takes you elsewhere – we will get 11 guys moving to the football every single play. To me, that can make up for a lot of schemes, 4-3, 3-4, it doesn’t matter to me. When you do attack and you are aggressive, you have to make sure you have people in the back in the back end to get them on the ground if it pops. You can’t allow big plays. We allowed – one of the things that I do is pop in the big play reel. We allowed far too many big plays on defense. So we have to eliminate those and I think the way to do that is to play hard, play tough, play fast and to get guys in the back end, guys that can get them on the ground when they pop. We are big believers in you get them on the ground you are still in the play. If you don’t, you are kicking a PAT.

Gannon: Greg, my sense is you are a guy that wants to draft and develop players, that will be the backbone and the success of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But in free agency, what is your thoughts on free agency in terms of adding players, experienced players that can come in and make contributions right away?

Schiano: I think it has to be more than physically make a contribution. They have to fit into the culture we are trying to build. Now if that is the case they do fit in that way and they do have the athletic ability, then it is going about dealing with it in a responsible way. I think it has to be an addition that fits our football team. We are not just going to be signing guys – I’m not concerned with people have said this, people have said that. At the end of the day, we have to win games. And we have to put people in our organization that are a right fit for where we are going. And I think there is some opportunities in free agency. But we are going to be responsible with how we are going to go about it. We are not just going to throw money at things. We are going to make sure where our money goes is a need and a guy that fits our culture.

Schein: You are your own man. What have you learned about coaching in the NFL from Bill Belichick?

Schiano: A lot, yeah. A lot. I learned about coaching whether it was NFL or college. He’s an incredible football coach. He was kind enough to share some things with me when I was at Rutgers. We spent some time together, even now, even though certainly we are competitors, there are only 32 teams, but stuff that I think would not put them at a competitive disadvantage he’s been able to share with me, things that I just don’t know because I have never done it, so I appreciate that. I know over the years I have learned a lot of football from Coach Belichick, there is no doubt.

Gannon: You feel like you look at the changes from the college game to the pro game, you will have a busy spring and summer just getting ready to call a game, and to be able to deal with all of the substitutions, the rules all the differences. There is a lot of work, aside from personnel to get yourself ready for the regular season.

Schiano: Boy, you are right Rich. I think the big difference is, personnel and changing groups all of that stuff and knowing the other team’s personnel, that is going to happen. You do that in college, you do that in the National Football League. I went through and tried to lay out a schedule. I think we need a day – I need a day – just to go through instant replay, to make sure I don’t screw up. That’s the quickest way to get hung in effigy, right? I think there are certain plays in college you couldn’t challenge but every play was supposed to be reviewed. There is more than that, there are rule differences. I am watching tape and I say, “Hey, wait… ” and they say, “No, coach. You can’t do that in the National Football League.” So I have the rule book and I read a page a day. I don’t think it will get to the point where I sit down read the whole rule book and know all the rules, but systematically chop away at it and know the rules. We don’t need to be ready in June. We need to be ready when we open in September and that is my goal.

Schein: Coach, great stuff, you did a great job building the Rutgers program, you deserve tremendous congratulations for that. Best of luck in Tampa, great fit for you and your family and we will talk to you again real soon.

Schiano: Thanks Adam, I appreciate it.

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Giants Super Bowl hero wide receiver Mario Manningham, a guy lots of Bucs fans want in pewter and red this season, was grilled this morning on sports radio in New York by WFAN hosts Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton.

Manningham had to answer to rumors of him coming to Tampa to follow Mike Sullivan.

Don’t buy it, Manningham says,”That just words. You know how the media do it, man.” 

And Manningham talked about how God will decide his 2012 fate and send him to the right team. In typical New York fashion, Manningham was then asked if God wants to get paid and “Did God want you to bobble so many balls?” referring to a common knock on the free-agent-to-be receiver.

Here’s the whole interview below:

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Two of Joe’s favorite draft/personnel gurus, Mike Mayock of NFL Network and Pat Kirwan of Sirius NFL Radio, seem all in favor of the Bucs drafting Trent Richardson.

In an interview Friday on The Dan Sileo Show on WDAE-AM 620, Kirwan, a former Bucs scout and Jets linebackers coach and personnel executuve, said if he evaluated Richardson to be an elite every down back than he’d stand up and make a case for him with the No. 5 pick. “His grade is going to be staring you in the face,” Kirwan said.

Kirwan said if the Bucs pass on Richardson than they likely will have a tough call between receiver Justin Blackmon and cornerback Morris Claiborne. While Kirwan prefers a veteran receiver for Josh Freeman, he said the Bucs need to be careful not to take “someone’s No. 2” and making him your “No. 1.”  Kirwan’s of the opinion that Freeman can be an elite quarterback but hasn’t “had a chance yet with the people around him.”

Regardless, Kirwan says he’ll call the Bucs geniuses if they draft Claiborne, Blackmon or Richardson.

As for Mayock, he keeps screaming from the rooftops on NFL Network that no running back since Adrian Peterson makes draft gurus “bang the table” harder than Richardson.

On the surface, before free agency signings, Joe prefers the Bucs snag Claiborne. But if the Bucs already have their cornerbacks come draft day, and Richardson is that good, Joe couldn’t hang rockstar general manager Mark Dominik for drafting him. But Dominik would have no excuse if Richardson wasn’t a homerun, given that good running backs are not hard to find and there’s on on the roster.

Joe is aware some of his readers may be weary of the following, but it bears repeating because it is so critical:

The Bucs need to upgrade at cornerback.

As we sit on the last day of February (damn, times a’ flying), it is a very real possibility that the Bucs will be looking at a starting cornerback tandem of Myron Lewis and E.J. Biggers, unless Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and new coach Greg Schiano go cornerback shopping.

With those two going up against Drew Brees, Matty Ice and Cam Newton a total of six games a year, it’s positively frightening to think of the results.

That’s why it’s simply irresponsible of the Bucs to toy with the idea of drafting running back Trent Richardson if they haven’t grabbed a starting cornerback in free agency, never mind the fact a high first round pick spend on a running back is a terrible investment, never mind the fact the Bucs already have a running back.

Now Schiano has offered lip service that he welcomes veteran Ronde Barber (does Barber want to return?) and is willing to give troubled Aqib Talib a fresh start (how many days will that last?).

It seems information coming from Dominik, by way of Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, suggests Dominik is indeed going cornerback shopping this offseason.

“That is certainly something we have to look into, yeah,” Dominik said from the NFL Scouting Combine. “And I say that not having any clue of who may actually make it to the market.

“But it’s a position that I’ve talked about in the past and that Coach Schiano shares the same beliefs about, so it would be ignorant for me to think (the cornerback position) is not important to us.”

This warms Joe’s heart to read this because, of course, Dominik is a very intelligent man.

If Joe were in Dominik’s shoes, he’d make a play for Chiefs cornerback Brandon Carr. Sure, the Chiefs may keep him, but Kansas City will have to cough up a lot of dough to keep Dwayne Bowe. Will they break the bank for two players?

Of course, Cortland Finnegan looms as well.

Pick up a solid free agent, draft Mo Claiborne at No. 5, and your cornerback troubles are gone.

Joe’s sitting about 1,000 miles from the NFL Scouting Combine, but Joe can barely breathe with all the smokescreens being puffed out there.

The latest involving the Bucs, courtesy of popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, beer-chugging Peter King of Sports Illustrated, is that Greg Schiano wants to draft Muhammed Sanu, the Rutgers wideout who caught  a million balls last year (115 to be exact) and just ran a lousy 40-yard dash at the combine (4.67 seconds) this morning.

The receiver order: Looks like Justin Blackmon and Michael Floyd of Notre Dame will be the only wideouts in round one, unless Hill sneaks in there. Reuben Randle of LSU and Rutgers’ Mohamed Sanu (the Bucs and new coach Greg Schiano want him) could go 4-5 unless Baylor’s Kendall Wright overcomes a lousy combine.

As draft guru and USF Football pregame and postgame host Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski points out on CommishOnline.com, Sanu had third-rate quarterbacks tossing him the ball, which makes the 115 catches super impressive.

But Joe’s not seeing how the Bucs draft a receiver in the first three rounds. The Bucs don’t need another young pair of hands with limited potential.

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While Joe is no fan of Jeff Faine, Joe has no problem with the center/captain/bonding dodger returning to snap the ball to Josh Freeman in 2012.

One could make the case that Freeman has enough to worry about and doesn’t need his trusted center sent packing, even if Faine is overpaid for his performance. On the other hand, Faine is getting old, is injury prone, and he’s not part of the Bucs’ future. Joe has written previously that Faine and the rest of the captains clearly failed last year.

ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas churned out some salary numbers and put Faine “on the hot seat” today.

Center Jeff Faine will turn 31 in April. He’s missed at least one game with an injury each of the past three years. He’s scheduled to count $5.925 million against the cap. The Bucs would free up $5.725 million against the cap if they release Faine. They would have flexibility there because Jeremy Zuttah can play center as well as guard.

Joe realizes the call on Faine relies greatly on whether the Bucs can re-sign Zuttah and how much they have to pay him.

The depth along the Bucs’ offensive line was a strength in 2010 and was still there in 2011, despite Ted Larsen and James Lee not playing up to their 2010 form.

Do the Bucs want to mess with the O-line? Joe’s not sure this is the year to do that. These guys are a good pass-blocking unit and blocked for a 1,000-yard rusher in 2010. Joe wouldn’t mind giving the whole group one more season.

Yeah, Joe is watching his share of the wall-to-wall coverage of the NFL Scouting Combine on NFL Network. But it’s far less exciting than in recent seasons, when it was clear the Bucs would draft positions like defensive end, wide receiver and quarterback, which are among the ones fun to watch at the combine. 

(For those without NFL Network at home, Joe can’t vouch for your manhood.)

One day, Joe hopes the NFL gets its cameras inside the grueling interviews teams conduct with potential draftees. That would be riveting television, especially as players have become better coached for the interviews and teams are forced to counter that preparation with difficult questioning.

So are the Bucs doing their share of grilling?

Greg Schiano seemed to imply they are, especially with the smirks he drops in this video on Buccaneers.com. Schiano talks about the interview process and how players are “1-on-5” in the room.

Presumably, the Bucs’ pentagonal attack is led by rockstar general manager Mark Dominik, scouting chief Dennis Hickey, Schiano and Butch Davis. Who’s No. 5?

Joe’s not convinced these interviews aren’t good for much more than weeding out complete morons, mental midgets, as Raheem Morris might say, and troublemakers. But those guys get drafted by teams every year anyway.

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When Joe learned Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik suggested the Bucs would dabble in free agency this offseason, one of the first players that came to mind was Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma.

Vilma wouldn’t break the Bucs’ bank, and if there was ever a position for which the Bucs sorely needed an upgrade, it is linebacker. Bucs linebackers specialized in matador defense last season, taunting running backs with red capes.

Given the fact Dominik tried to make a play for Vilma three years ago also reinforced Joe’s thought process.

But this is wrongful thinking according to Pat Yasinskas of ESPN. In a recent NFC South chat, Yasinskas is confident Vilma will not wear a Bucs uniform.

Jake (Illinois)

I know Vilma is under contract, but with the real possibility he could be a cap casualty, who do you think he is more likely to play for next year. The Saints or the Bucs?

Pat Yasinskas

I don’t think he fits the Bucs’ profile. Even if they sign free agents, they’re not going to be guys about to turn 30 with knee issues that may be chronic.

Even a hobbled Vilma would be better than what the Bucs have. If, as Yasinskas suggests, Vilma’s shelf life is limited, perhaps the Bucs could squeeze a couple of years out of him and have him teach Mason Foster how to play linebacker on the NFL level.

As far as a certain outside linebacker Vilma could work with, well, Vilma is not a voodoo doctor.

The Bucs are clicking stopwatches and grilling players at the NFL Scouting Combine along with the rest of the NFL teams, but the Bucs have a little more on their plate than most. 

Woody Cummings’ story out of the combine today painted a picture of Mark Dominik’s staff trying to mesh on the fly with Greg Schiano and his coaching staff.

Sure. that’s no surprise. But it was a sobering slap in the face to Joe. Some teams are trying to get over the hump to win a championship while the Bucs are trying to get on the same page. Click through above for the whole story.

One nugget Cummings’ dropped was rockstar general manager Dominik possibly leaning toward Mason Foster becoming a former middle linebacker.

“Mason is a guy that could move,” Dominik said of a scenario that appears to be gaining steam in the Bucs camp. “But no has made that decision yet, and I think Mason will have a chance to show what he can do (at middle linebacker).

If the Bucs are going to add veteran defensive talent and leadership, middle linebacker in a 4-3 defense is a prime place to start, especially given that Foster is hardly proven. The Falcons’ Curtis Lofton isn’t the sexiest name among the available free agent MLBs, but he’s a solid starter, young (25) and durable (hasn’t missed a game in four seasons). 

CBS Sports’ Clark Judge has been snooping and sniffing around the NFL combine and has cobbled together enough chatter to believe the Bucs will approach Giants wide receiver Mario Manningham with a fat check when the free agency bell rings March 13.

Judge coughed up his report late this morning. Here’s a snippet.

But there are other reasons Manningham won’t be back, sources said. First, they said, he would know [Mike] Sullivan’s offense, so there is no learning curve. Second, people close to Manningham indicate that he wants to go to a warm-weather club, and last time I checked Tampa Bay qualified on that score. Third, sources said the Giants probably wouldn’t make him a contract offer, not only because they believe his price may be too high but because they’re more interested in a wide receiver who can line up at more than one or two spots at the position, which, they said, Manningham cannot.

Now Joe’s a little skeptical here. First, Judge is claiming Manningham “would know Mike Sullivan’s offense.” Well, last Joe checked Sullivan never ran an offense before and is still figuring out with Jimmy Raye and the rest of Team Schiano what he wants to do.

Plus Joe’s hardly sold on Manningham, who may or may not be the speedster the Bucs are allegedly seeking to open up the field. He hasn’t faced the double teams and challenges of a No. 1 receiver, and one great Super Bowl catch surely doesn’t make him a great player.

If the Bucs are looking for a No. 1 wideout, Joe would rather see them go after someone unquestionably better than Mike Williams.

Joe might have to remove one guy on his free-agent radar. That would be Brent Grimes, who was a killer for Atlanta against the Bucs in 2010, a Pro Bowl season for him.

While Grimes had knee surgery last year and missed time, including sitting out the Falcons-Giants playoff game, it seems Atlanta is convinced he’s fit and ready. ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas explained:

Speaking to a group of reporters at the scouting combine, Dimitroff said serious talks had begun with Grimes’ agents and said the Falcons “aren’t wasting time with our discussions.’’

The Falcons likely will have to pay big money to keep Grimes and they already have a lot tied up in Dunta Robinson, who signed a six-year, $57 million deal in 2010. But Grimes has emerged from an unsung and undersized player to become one of the league’s most athletic cornerbacks.

Grimes is one of those overachiever small-cornerback yet physical types that came out of NFL Europe of all places. He turns 29 this summer.

Looking at the money Yasinskas wrote about above, Joe wonders how Aqib Talib might welcome a mega-paid cornerback from the outside. Joe’s been thinking a lot about Talib of late. It’s a contract year for him and, if he can avoid a Texas penitentiary, lots of guys in contract years have a funny way of turning into choir boys and top performers.

 Bucs fans have been acting like youngsters armed with a wish list for Santa at Christmastime after Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik said the Bucs will go shopping with their Christmas Club free agent cash.

While fans have been celebrating, it’s been easy to forget the Bucs had players of their own that will be free agents.

One is Jeremy Zuttah, the Bucs versatile offensive lineman. It appears, however, both the Bucs and Zuttah are close to signing a deal as both sides from to remain status quo.

Another free agent is kicker Connor Barth. And Dominik explained to Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune that Barth will not get away from the Bucs, so Cummings Twittered today.

@RCummingsTrib: Bucs GM Mark Dominik says PK Connor Barth will not be an unrestricted free agent. Says he’ll either re-sign him or tag him before Mar. 13.

Well, we all know how much Dominik loves kickers and punters. So for the first time Joe can recall on a lazy Saturday afternoon, a Bucs kicker will be slapped with a franchise tag.

So when the Bucs hired LSU secondary coach Ron Cooper this week, the easy — and exciting — speculation centered around the prospect of the Bucs drafting stud LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne with the No. 5 overall pick in April.

But what’s interesting on another level is Cooper’s reputation for teaching and churning out quality NFL-ready corners at LSU.

Once upon a time Raheem Morris was arguably the top secondary coach in the NFL, leading the league’s No. 1 ranked unit in 2007, when rookie Tanard Jackson still knew how to hit and tackle. Raheem was a top teacher and motivator at the position and allegedly had a good eye for picking college talent. Of course, Raheem got away from coaching the secondary as head coach.

While lots of Bucs fans are pining for the Bucs to snag established help in the secondary in free agency, Joe has to wonder whether Schiano and rockstar general manager Mark Dominik might be looking at Cooper as a guy who can coach up E.J. Biggers to at least his 2010 form, get Myron Lewis to realize his potential, and turn Anthony Gaitor into a player?

Perhaps, if Ronde Barber and Aqib Talib return, which should be known before the NFL draft, the Bucs would be content to keep the status quo at cornerback and simply upgrade the secondary by buying a replacement for Sean Jones?

… Suddenly, Joe will be keeping a close eye on how the Bucs approach Elbert Mack, who will be an unrestricted free agent come March 13.

Speaking to Woody Cummings, of The Tampa Tribune, Schiano scoffed at the suggestion he hired Cooper primarily to mesh with Claiborne.

“Somebody said to me, that’s the only reason we hired him,” Schiano said. “I said, ‘Yeah, we would do that; we would jeopardize the entire football team for that.’ No.”

The reunion could still come about, of course. The Bucs are in need of help at cornerback, and Claiborne is expected to be available when Tampa Bay makes the fifth overall pick.

“We will have some inside info (on Claiborne),” Schiano said. “But that’s not why we hired Ron. Ron is an exceptional secondary coach. He’s an excellent coach, obviously, by the way (his) guys (at LSU) have performed.”

If the Bucs get Talib and Barber back, Joe wouldn’t cry about having the same cornerbacks in 2012, as long as that’s balanced by new impact linebackers and a top replacement for Jones.

Joe’s of the opinion that the Bucs need to make a major offseason splash to upgrade what could be a woefully thin secondary by adding a top-flight cornerback in free agency and drafting LSU stud Mo Claiborne.

If reports surfacing in Indianapolis are to be believed, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik may be channeling Joe’s head.

Earlier this afternoon, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune Twittered out what appears to be the pulse of agents, coaches and front office types at the NFL combine, that the Bucs want Titans cornerback Cortland Finnegan, a free agent to be.

@RCummingsTrib: Hearing a lot of talk here at the combine about the Bucs expressing strong interest in signing Titans FA CB Cortland Finnegan.

Moments after Cummings Twittered that rumor, Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean posted a report that talks between Finnegan and the Titans broke down today and it appears Finnegan has played his last snap of football with the Titans.

The Titans met with the agent for cornerback Cortland Finnegan on Friday at the NFL Combine, but indications are no progress was made toward a long-term deal.

All signs still point to Finnegan becoming a free agent on March 13. The Titans aren’t expected to use the $10.6 million franchise tag on Finnegan by the March 5 deadline. …

Finnegan recently put his Brentwood home on the market, however, still convinced he won’t be back with the Titans in 2012. It appears he’ll be right. The sixth-year pro is coming off another solid season after turning down a contract in the four-year, $28 million range prior to the start of last season. He’s seeking more than the five-year, $48.75 million contract cornerback Johnathan Joseph signed with the Texans last July, a deal that included $23.5 million in guarantees, and the Titans aren’t inclined to rise to those figures.

Now Joe would prefer Brandon Carr, but Tom Krasniqi of WHBO-AM 1040 makes an interesting point: Finnegan, though he can be a jerk at times, is a hard-nosed football player who often gets in the heads of opposing wide receivers. He has a nasty streak.

If the Bucs defense needs anything, it’s somebody who isn’t afraid of blasting people and making his presence felt, not swinging a red cape allowing running backs to run as free as whitetail deer in a Nebraska cornfield, galloping down the sidelines.