Joe has made his feelings known about Bucs legend Ronde Barber. He’s the best cornerback in Bucs history and may have made the greatest play in Bucs history, returning a Donovan McNabb pass for a pick-6, sending the Bucs to their first (and to date, only) Super Bowl.

Joe has stated several times that Barber should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Whether he gets that honor at some time in the future, well, that’s a different story.

Barber has 14 seasons under his belt, all with the Bucs. Whether he sees a 15th is up for debate. There are several factors that will sway Barber’s (and the Bucs’) decision.

One of those elements is, as Stephen Holder points out in the Tampa Bay Times, is simply if the Bucs actually want him back?

The Bucs probably don’t have a clear-cut answer on this question right now. Coach Greg Schiano is still getting up to speed on his players and hasn’t even hired a defensive coordinator.

Decisions on personnel will, for the most part, have to wait. And in this case, a decision on Barber is not yet a pressing matter, so time is not an issue.

How will Schiano and his staff view Barber? That can’t be answered until they evaluate his film. But in light of the many question marks in the secondary – for example Aqib Talib’s legal problems and free agent Sean Jones’ likely departure – a little continuity probably won’t be seen as a bad thing.

It’s a valid point. No one knows if new Bucs coach Greg Schiano actually wants him back. And would Barber want to go through all of the hassle of learning a new defense, all for just one year?

Joe has no inside information on this and it’s only a hunch. But it’s very likely we have seen the last of Barber wearing the pewter and red.

The Bucs’ new super assistant in chief, Butch Davis, looked very presidential today at One Buc Palace as he sported a navy suit, red tie and spewed major love for Bucs head coach Greg Schiano.

Here are key highlights:

*Davis called Schiano “one of the best football coaches and the best men that I’ve ever had a chance to work with.” Davis explained that Schiano was someone “he hit it off naturally” with years ago at Miami.

*Before Schiano took the Bucs job he called Davis to ask him to join him.

*Davis said the University of North Carolina is “very comfortable” with his role and job with the Bucs. The inference was the school will not try to break its contract with him and withhold his severance pay. Davis said money concerns and a lack of interest in coaching palyers are not factors in his role with the Bucs. “That played absolutely no role,” Davis said.  He said he can get a ton accomplished “without actually having to have the chalk in your hand.”

*Davis said he will not talk to players. … Later in the news conference he said he might talk to players that approach him about being a professional and encourage them. He said he won’t be “teaching and coaching and hands-on” with players.

*The primary piece of advice for Schiano? “Be yourself.”

*Davis was non-committal when asked how long he has committed to the Bucs.

*Davis said he expected to have some sort of gameday role “upstairs” but didn’t offer details. Strange to Joe, Davis said he didn’t know if he’d be allowed to have a headset on.

*On Mark Dominik, Davis said he is “unbelievably professional,” and he praised Dominik’s intelligence and communication skills, citing specifically how well he and Schiano are communicating.

*How do the Bucs look on film, Coach Davis? Davis said he’s only watched one hour of film so far. He offered no opinion on the Bucs other than heavy praise for Josh Freeman. Davis was clear that he will be evaluating the entire roster.

*Davis said he’ll “be in the room” when the Bucs interview dozens of players individually later this month at the NFL Scouting combine. Davis explained that he’s been stressing to Schiano about maximizing the 15 minutes allowed with potential draft picks there.

Last year Bucs rookie wide receiver Raymond Webber severely blew out a hamstring early in the preseason and landed on the injured reserve list. He’s busy making a comeback rehabbing in St. Louis, and the facility where he is working out made a video of his progress.

Inhaling a monstrous sandwich and reading CommishOnline.com today, Joe was reminded that 49ers wide receiver/stud returner Ted Ginn, Jr. is likely to be an unrestricted free agent in a matter of weeks.

Ginn is a very intriguing free agent name to Joe. And given that rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and new coach Greg Schiano are vocal devotees of strong special teams, Joe wonders if Ginn is high on the secret free agent radar screen in the bowels of One Buc Palace.

Joe’s written before about the Bucs’ aversion to using Micheal Spurlock last year, and about how Preston Parker didn’t rank well among returners, plus he had fumbling issues.

Ginn would fix all that and possibly and add a deep threat in the passing game. Yes, Joe knows Ginn (19 catches in 2011) is not a No. 1 wideout.

But on special teams Ginn is top shelf. In 2011, he ranked fourth in the NFL among guys with more than 20 punt returns with 12.3 yards per return. As for kickoffs, Ginn was sixth best among those with 16 or more returns. Ginn took both a punt return and a kickoff to the house and didn’t fumble all season.

How exactly could this 26-year-old guy not help the Bucs? Joe would applaud such a signing.

Sometimes the irrational beliefs of some Bucs fans make Joe shake his damned head. Such was the case this morning when a Bucs fan in dire need of a hug from a cheerleader called “The Blitz,” co-hosted by Adam Schein and Rich Gannon, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, and was nearly in tears over what he perceives Team Glazer and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik are doing to the team.

“They are trying to sink their ship on their own. As far as ownership, it seems they want to pack their bags and set themselves up as the team that moves to Los Angeles. I need answers!

“I just don’t see any direction or answers to what they are trying to do. Enlighten me a little bit. Make me want to be a Bucs fan. Last year I thought we were headed back in the right direction. This year, right back in the same boat again. Last place is good enough. It seems that is where we are headed.”

Joe has an answer for this man: Before one makes outrageous statements about the Bucs moving, e-mail the Tampa Sports Authority and ask for a copy of the Bucs’ lease. It’s public record.

The Bucs have an absolute sweetheart of a deal. If Team Glazer were to move the Bucs, a) Team Glazer wouldn’t have spent millions of dollars on One Buc Palace; b) sought to have stadium renovations (which are already written into the lease that was approved by Hillsborough County voters years ago) in order for the city to host another Super Bowl (only held at stadiums which house an NFL team).

The Bucs are actually hiring coaches who instill discipline. The future is looking brighter. Though Schein and Gannon had little to say in response to the distraught Bucs fan caller, since they were heading into a commercial break, Schein did say he is getting good vibes for the Bucs in 2012. “Seriously.”

As for those who are of the belief Team Glazer is going to move the Bucs, Joe suggests an intervention is in order.

Michigan football coach Brady Hoke is moonlighting working mornings on BSPN Radio and told his co-host Mike Greenberg he believes the Bucs will go defense with the first round pick.

One of the most overrated national morning sports radio shows (but not nearly as vapid as the “Dull Patrick Show”) happens to be hosted by Brady Hoke Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg of BSPN. Recently, the duo decided to take a break from slobbering over the non-basketball association to discuss football.

In a segment called “Two-a-Days,” they devoted some time to the Bucs. Joe’s got a hunch Hoke Golic and Greenberg didn’t read the new NFL CBA.

At any rate, Greenberg called the Bucs the “most disappointing team” of 2011 and Hoke Golic seems inclined to agree with Todd McShay that the Bucs will draft a cornerback with the No. 5 pick.

The entire BSPN segment can be heard by clicking this link.

Last year when Gerald McCoy started for the Bucs, the team was 4-2 with wins over division rivals and eventual playoff teams Atlanta and New Orleans.

GMC was far different than his rookie year. No, his critics are quick to point out, he didn’t have many sacks. But he was damned disruptive. Talk to any defensive coordinator and you will learn that being disruptive and blowing up plays in the backfield are as important if not more so than a sack.

When GMC went down with another arm injury, lost for the season, the team began its grotesque 10-game free fall which resulted in Raheem Morris being jettisoned.

Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. But the numbers geeks at ProFootballFocus.com believe GMC’s loss may have been a domino effect. so they explained while breaking down the pros and cons for each NFC South squad.

More snaps needed
Gerald McCoy

How different could the Bucs year have been if McCoy hadn’t been lost for the year? The talented DT looks the kind of every-down player who can make plays regardless of what the offense is doing. One of the biggest things the new coaching staff can do is ensure McCoy is healthy, because if Tampa Bay is to challenge the powerhouses of the NFC South, they need players like him.

With GMC healthy, combined with the studly play of Adrian Clayborn and the emergence of Da’Quan Bowers, the Bucs had a formidable front four. With GMC out and Brian Price hobbled, the Bucs were nothing less than a sieve, especially with zero help from the linebackers.

For the Bucs to bounce back next season, it is imperative that GMC be healthy.

Bucs fans have been wringing their hands in angst over the Bucs’ inability to complete a coaching staff as late February approaches on the calendar.

With only an offensive coordinator and special assistants announced and rumors of other coaches on the staff, it may be a race to the finish for new Bucs coach Greg Schiano to have a full staff on board by the time the glorified indoor track practice NFL combine starts next week.

And Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is OK with this. Talking to eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, Dominik is of the mind that a good staff selected late is better than having a staff thrown together just for the sake of show.

At this rate, there’s no certainty the Bucs will have a full complement of assistants when Dominik and Schiano attend their first combine together.

“In working with coach Schiano, one of the things that has made him so successful is he’s detailed and he’s organized,’’ said Dominik. “He’s making sure anyone who comes in this door is someone he feels extreme confidence in.’‘

[Six] days after hiring former Giants assistant Mike Sullivan as their offensive coordinator, the Bucs are still on the prowl for a defensive coordinator to implement the principles Schiano developed in 11 seasons as head coach at Rutgers.

Joe has touched on this before: If there is a problem with assembling a staff this late, no one is to blame other than the hierarchy at One Buc Palace. If, as Joe was told from the inside, that the former coaching staff knew the handwriting was on the wall in early December about their fate, then the cord should have been cut at that time in order to get a head start of the coaching search.

Joe has zero issue with what the Bucs are calling “due diligence” in the coaching search. In fact, Joe applauds such an approach rather than throwing insane money at the coaching flavor of the month.

That, however, doesn’t preclude an organization from being proactive and thus avoiding painting itself in a corner like the coaching staff is in now, without a defensive coordinator nearly seven weeks after the regular season.

So what will a Mike Sullivan offense look like?

Well, the new offensive coordinator didn’t offer much detail today about that at One Buc Palace. (What offense doesn’t want explosive plays and a tough running game?)

But that’s ok. Sullivan admitted the writing of the Bucs’ new playbook is in its early stages, and he’s working hard so he can descend from the offices of One Buc Palace and present it to his team.

However, the new man has core beliefs for the offense in place: “Tough, physical, disciplined, smart and explosive.” That’s the goal, Sullivan explained.

As for what attracted Sullivan to the Bucs, he referenced the “special talent” of Josh Freeman as the major lure. But Sullivan also referenced the “veteran offensive line” and “some hard running backs.” No verbal bone was thrown to the receiving corps.

As Joe wrote earlier, Sullivan stressed preparation repeatedly, and even went so far to say that he wants to see Josh Freeman have an “obsession” with preparation.

One thing that drove Joe absolutely wild about the Bucs during the Raheem Morris era was the simple lack of preparation.

Whether it was either not preparing, or preparing a gameplan that was both ill conceived and/or ill-executed, it was often an embarrassment.

Season after season, game after game, it was as if the Bucs gave their opponents a touchdown lead (or worse) to start the game.

In 2010, the Bucs often righted the ship on defense, changing and adjusting as the game went on and then Josh Freeman would work his then-magic in rallying the team from behind.

While Joe gave props to Morris for adjusting on the fly, if he and his staff done a decent job in preparing in the week leading to the game, he and Freeman wouldn’t have had to pull Houdini acts all the time to rescue the team.

Noted local scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune often rails how Morris (and fired offensive coordinator Greg Olson) never scored touchdowns in the opening quarter.

So today when new Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was introduced to the local pen and mic club, most of what he had to say was empty phrases and cliches, nothing at all specific. He admitted that was on purpose, but Joe finds the CIA classified information act is a bit weak in the middle of February.

But there was one thing Sullivan said that was of substance and struck Joe:

“We will not be out-prepared.”

Thank you! Now, granted, that’s an empty phrase at this time of the year as well. As baseball Hall of Famer Pepper Martin once said, “I have an old mule I can train each day every day for a year and he still won’t win a Kentucky Derby.” Fair point.

But Joe nearly applauded to no one in particular while hovering over his laptop watching Sullivan when he brought up the subject of preparation. The Bucs had little to none the past few seasons.

Preparation will be a welcome habit around these parts.

So much for the rebirth of defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Per the Bucs’ official Twitter feed, Haynesworth is now unemployed.

@TBBuccaneers: The Bucs have released DT Albert Haynesworth, who started 6 games in 2011 for Tampa Bay after being claimed off waivers on November 9.

This is curious to Joe. The Bucs have zero depth at defensive tackle. The younger Bucs defensive linemen seemed to gravitate toward him and he was nothing like what he was rumored and reported to be as far as a bad influence with other teams.

Very strange.

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Bucs fans are irritated that the team has yet to announce its full coaching staff, including naming a defensive coordinator.

That’s because the Bucs don’t even know who their defensive coordinator is.

Part of the reason the full staff has not been announced is that the Bucs are constantly being denied to talk to various assistants from other NFL teams. Joe, as has many have, suspected that this is payback for the antics former Bucs general manager Bruce Almighty pulled often, denying other teams the opportunity to interview various Bucs assistants.

This is a fallacy, says Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. Speaking on the too-Jewish sounding King David Show on WQYK-AM 1010, co-hosted by Toby David and former Bucs quarterback Shaun King, one of just three Bucs quarterbacks to lead the team to an NFC championship game, Cummings stated the blocks other teams are putting on Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik have more to do with timing and nothing to do with Bruce Almighty.

“[The Bucs are] probably starting to realize, as much as it was important for them to do their due diligence and pick the right coach, they are feeling it right now because it took three weeks to get their coach so they are a little behind the eight ball.

“The hiring season,” as agents like to refer to it, is the first two to three weeks – tops – of the offseason. Once you get into a month out, people start to look at other things, at free agency and the draft, and teams want their staffs set. If you are in the position the Bucs are in, you are calling up a lot of teams who are trying to maintain what they’ve got, they don’t want to be the ones out on the street trying to find a tight ends coach tomorrow that may be hard to find. That’s why they have been denied a lot of the times.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with getting back at the Bucs for the days when Bruce Allen was running the team and he wouldn’t let his guys like Joe Barry and Rod Marinelli and Mike Tomlin get out of their contracts when they had opportunities. It’s not really a payback, but it is ironic it is happening to the Buccaneers.”

Cummings makes a solid point and this may very well be the reason Greg Schiano’s coaching staff will be loaded with college coaches.

Let this be a lesson. It was pretty obvious former Bucs coach Raheem Morris was going to be jettisoned as the season wore down. Some on the inside suggest this was a fait accompli in early December. If that was truly the case, Team Glazer should have cut the chord at that time so the team and Dominik would have had a head start in interviewing candidates, thus, the Bucs wouldn’t still be looking for a defensive coordinator in mid-February.

To listen to Cummings’ entire interview, click on the little button below. (Audio courtesy of WQYK-AM.) Hat tip Justin.

Yes, Joe’s read recent reports about how the Bucs have “rolled over” unused salary cap space and plan to be active in free agency in 2012. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Frankly, Joe yawns at the topic and isn’t inclined to write much about it. For Joe, salary cap chatter is boring unless it revolves around players having to be cut as it relates to the cap or, for example, if the Bucs were forced to spend a certain amount of money in the offseason to hit a mandated payroll number. But neither is the case in 2012, so Joe doesn’t care much about the numbers.

Yes, the Bucs will make moves in free agency because they have no choice. The current “Plan” has always called for fixing draft misses in free agency. And the Bucs have at least one such huge hole at linebacker, cornerback and safety. So Joe expects the Bucs to snag at least two impact free agents at those positions, plus find something significant on offense — more significant than Kregg Lumpkin.

As far as the money goes, Joe can do math well enough to figure out the Bucs don’t have to spend a mountain of money to make those kinds of free agent moves. Heck, if they move on from, say, Kellen Winslow and Jeff Faine, that’s a big eight-figure pile of cash right there. Joe’s not saying they will cut/trade those guys, just that spending money in free agence doesn’t necessarily mean moving the payroll needle significantly.

Again, Joe just wants to see great players on the field, great teamwork and great coaching, and Joe knows final payroll numbers really don’t have a lot to do with that.

Wtih so many holes on the team (secondary, linebacker, perhaps wide receiver) and house Team Glazer money in hand, the Bucs could be players, so writes eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.

“We’ll be more active in free agency than we were last year,” Dominik said Tuesday as new head coach Greg Schiano continued to work on filling out his staff. “We purposely rolled every penny we could into this year’s cap. Clubs didn’t have to do that, but we wanted to. We have plans.”

An ESPN report said Tampa Bay is carrying over $23.5 million from 2011, estimating the Bucs will have $60.5 million in cap space heading into the Mar. 13 start of free agency, second only to the Kansas City Chiefs ($62.9 million).

“We’ll be involved in free agency,” Dominik said. “To what capacity, it depends on what the list looks like. We’re prepared, and that’s the most important thing.”

Now Joe took Dominik’s words as very guarded. In other words, the fantasy football crowd that thinks the Bucs are going drunken sailor spending on players may be a bit disappointed.

If Joe was in Dominik’s position, he’d target a top shelf receiver, a mid-level cornerback (while drafting Mo Claiborne with the fifth overall pick) and try to get somebody to play linebacker.

That right there could result in three wins alone without pretending to be T. Boone Pickens.

Joe can’t say enough about the stellar service and value at Ed Morse Cadillac Tampa, 101 East Fletcher Avenue. Schedule a test drive today and don’t miss their incredible service specials.

Don’t ask Joe to write intelligently about what kind of offensive Mike Sullivan will bring to the Buccaneers. But as Joe continues his exhaustive research into the Bucs’ new offensive coordinator, it’s clear Sullivan carries a world of respect in many circles.

Hell, the man’s out there doing pushups with his players and making them stay after practice to talk about life and exercise. Giants.com this week said goodbye to Sullivan and explained his pushups regimen.

This season, Manning and David Carr concluded every workout with 15 or more pushups.

The quarterbacks were joined in the exercise by Mike Sullivan, who had Manning and Co. extend their practice time for a few moments when he began coaching the quarterbacks in 2010 after six seasons as the wide receivers coach.

“That’s actually something I started,” Sullivan said today. “I think, at the end of the day when you think your work is done, you can always do a little bit extra. So that was our way of, ‘We can do a little bit extra.’ We did 10 in 2010, that wasn’t good enough, so we did 15 this year. Knock it out, quick stretch, a couple words, and that’s it. Hey, at the end of the day, just when you think you’re finished, you can always do a little bit extra. That was our way of reminding ourselves.”

“Each coach has his own little stamp and the pushups were something that was fun,” Manning said. “This year, we started with 11 and we started to bump it up a little bit. We were a little superstitious, so by the end of the season I think we were doing 17 or 18.”

Also in the story was a quote about Sullivan’s work ethic from Tom Coughlin.

“We appreciate everything he’s done with us and wish him well in his new assignment,” Coughlin said. “He will bring a lot to the Buccaneers program. He’s disciplined, he’s hard-working, he’s efficient, he’s smart, he makes good decisions. He’ll have an immediate impact on all the players in that program because he comes from a background which speaks for itself. Mike is a graduate of West Point. He was a Ranger, so he certainly knows about discipline, sacrifice, self-denial, all those things. We’re sorry to lose him, but we do understand the nature of this business. We wish he and his wife Julie and his two daughters great success in their new assignment.”

Joe wonders whether the returning Buccaneers — there might not be so many — will recognize much under this new regime. Joe’s envisioning a very different environment.

That guy patrolling Bucs practices this year who won’t talk to any players but furiously takes notes and overtly whispers in coaches’ ears, that’s going to be Butch Davis.

Per Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud, rockstar general manager Mark Dominik says new special assistant Davis doesn’t want to coach, only advise and be an “extra set of eyes.” (Click through above to read the whole story.)

Joe won’t hide that this all seems a little bizarre, especially considering the lingering multimillion dollar severance payouts from the University of North Carolina that Davis won’t receive if he “coaches” the Bucs.

Davis is a career football coach. So it’s hard for Joe to believe he would be content to analyze every inch of OTAs and sweat his ass off through training camp and not step in to mold young men.

Sure it’s all very plausible that Davis doesn’t want the responsibility and demands of a coaching title, but color Joe skeptical, no matter who the Bucs name as defensive coordinator.

Bucs fans already read the rather non-committal comments from Ronde Barber to Bucs beat writer Stephen Holder at a local charity event Saturday night.

Essentially Holder, in the Tampa Bay Times, wrote that Barber was playing wait-and-see regarding his future and wondering “if I fit in” with the 2012 Bucs.

But what vibe did Holder really get from Barber? Tom Krasniqi of Primetime of WHBO-AM 1040 asked Holder that yesterday.

Krazniqi: From your conversation with him, do you have any gut feeling one way or another if Ronde’s coming back?

Holder:  Yes. I absolutely do. I got the impression, and I told him this, I got the impression that he sounds like a guy who wants to play. Because he said something along the lines of, ‘You know I’ve got to find out if I fit in and, you know, I think I know where I stand but I’m not allowing myself to commit to anything.” Well that sounds like a guy that’s trying to talk himself out of it. … But I walked away with the sense that, “Wow, that sounds like a guy who wants to play football in 2012.” I absolutely did. I told him that, like I said, and he didn’t necessarily try to talk me out of it. He just made it clear that he hadn’t made a decision yet.”

The Barber situation will be one of the most interesting of the offseason. But Joe’s going to put aside the drama for a moment surrounding Barber’s status as a Bucs icon, his potential contract demands and willingness to play a reduced role.

For Joe, the Bucs need Barber. He stays healthy. He’s still makes plays. He’s a role model. Aqib Talib is a question mark. And the Bucs hardly have a guy behind Barber that has earned the torch.

Arm-tackling around the shoulders is not the way to bring ballcarriers down but is a favorite technique of Aqib Talib, which is why Pro Football Focus rates Talib among the worst tacklers in the NFL.

Somewhat to Joe’s surprise, when he has brought up the issue of the Bucs secondary and dared suggest the Bucs could be looking at three different starters and perhaps four, no one has mocked Joe.

Here’s a little bit of evidence why the Bucs could (should?) have a brand new secondary in 2012: the Bucs secondary was horrible at tackling.

The numbers crunchers at ProFootballFocus.com reviewed all the game tape and banged out an Excel spreadsheet to show of the 20 worst tackling cornerbacks in the NFL, three of them were on the Bucs roster.

Ronde Barber (No. 97), Aqib Talib (No. 89) and E.J. Biggers (No. 81) were cited as among the worst offenders of bad tackling in the NFL.

Now maybe Ronde — who Joe believes at some point belongs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame — is just getting old and that is why he is missing so many tackles?

There is no such excuse for Talib, who loves to try to arm-tackle up high, which would make any high school much less Pee Wee football coach watching this tactic likely throw up on a living room rug.

It just astounds Joe that the most sacred, simplest tenant of fundamental defensive football is allowed to be ignored at such a rate in the NFL, and that is wrapping up.

Hell, Kyle Arrington, cited by ProFootballFocus, as one of the best tacklers in the NFL, decided to blow up Ahmad Bradshaw in the Super Bowl and not wrap up and Bradshaw instead blew up Arrington and raced for a critical first down.

If Joe was Schiano and Talib and Biggers are both back on the roster (Joe expects Biggers to be; Talib is not exactly an absolute to return), Joe would have all the linebackers and defensive backs practice wrapping up each and every day until they would wrap up without thinking about it; it would become a natural instinct.

If they didn’t wrap up in a game and tried to blow people up in order to reach the most sacrosanct of athletic achievements — being shown on SchlockCenter — Joe would have two words for the offending party.

“Hello, bench.”

While nobody knows what kind of playcaller/gameplanner Mike Sullivan will be as Bucs offensive coordinator, one thing that can’t be argued is the man is used to being around exceptional quarterback play and work ethic from Eli Manning.

And per the Star-Ledger, Manning is down about losing his QB coach, and Sullivan recognized Manning’s focus on detail.

 “I’m extremely excited for Coach Sullivan, but I’m sad to see him go,” Manning said. “We had a great relationship. He is a tremendous coach who pays attention to every little detail. He always had us well-prepared.”

After throwing for 4,002 yards with 31 touchdowns to a career-high 25 interceptions, Manning emerged as one of the league’s best under center in 2011, passing for 4,933 yards, 29 touchdowns (an NFL-record 15 in the fourth quarter) and just 16 interceptions during the regular season.

His postseason numbers were even more impressive: 1,219 yards, nine touchdowns, one interception, and his second Super Bowl MVP award.

“Working with Eli, it was wonderful to see the hard work, the commitment, and the focus on all the little details,” Sullivan said. “He’s such a true professional. I think there was a definite determination and attitude he brought to the table this year to focus on being the best he could possibly be, whether it was small mechanical things, or footwork, or different things in practice.”

While there’s been a lot of focus on what Sullivan brought to Manning’s development and preparation, Joe’s feeling rather soothed thinking about how Manning likely helped push Sullivan to grow as a quarterbacks coach over the past two seasons. Regardless, Josh Freeman should be the beneficiary of a coach with high standards of excellence. 

Sure, Sullivan will not coach quarterbacks in Tampa. But Joe suspects a load of his offseason work will be devoted to all things Freeman, from film study to devising an offense that plays to Freeman’s strengths, and everything in between.

Good grief, the Bucs have so many question marks with the draft a little over two months away, Joe doesn’t know where to start. From holes in the defense to upgrades needed on offense, there are all but two positions that aren’t secure in Joe’s eyes.

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com has whittled the questions down to one. In having a question for each NFL team, Prisco asks if new Bucs coach Greg Schiano can instill discipline in the squad?

Can Greg Schiano instill discipline in a team that needs it?

The Bucs looked like they would be a potential playoff team in 2011, but they looked to have a discipline problem. Coach Raheem Morris was too buddy-buddy with his players. Schiano has to change that culture. Quickly.

This is an easy one to answer for Joe: Too many Bucs players took advantage of Raheem Morris’ easy-going ways and it turned into a grotesque 10-game losing streak that culminated with the team coughing up 42 points in 22 minutes and a tight end blowing up a play himself because he was running a wrong route — in Week 17 no less!

If some of these players who took advantage of Morris turn their backs on Schiano too, then the answer is obvious: Cut them.

If certain players won’t play for Morris and won’t (potentially) play for Schiano, then why keep them around to poison the locker room further?

Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson is encouraged about what the hiring of offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan could mean for Josh Freeman.

Simply put, Carlson has no love for Josh Freeman’s mechanics and, during an interview on PrimeTime on WHBO-AM 1040, Carlson said Eli Manning’s mechanics are so sound that Sullivan should recognize the contrast as he studies the Bucs’ franchise QB. Sullivan was Giants quarterbacks coach for the past two seasons.

However, Carlson, a longtime quarterbacks coach and JoeBucsFan.com analyst, makes no guarantees that Sullivan is a mechanics guy and will recognize Freeman’s troubles. Alex Van Pelt didn’t get it done and should have, Carlson explained.

Joe’s got the audio with all the specifics. Just click the fancy arrow below.

At one point in our nation’s history, President Bill Clinton forced many to reconsider the meaning of the word “is” and the defintion of “sexual relations.”

Hey, Joe’s open to studying the language. In fact, it’s a passion of Joe’s.

On that front, it seems the Bucs and their new special defensive assistant advisor general, Butch Davis, will test the limits and meanings of the word “coach.”

Joe’s previously delivered the reports that have Davis not serving as a Bucs “coach” because that would prohibit him from collecting at least the remaining $1.7 million or so from the University of North Carolina and potentially forfeiting previous money he got from the school after leaving as its head coach. Davis, per the terms of his release from UNC, is not allowed to coach in the NFL and keep his remaining college income due. Therefore, the Bucs only have Davis in a defensive-consultant role.

Count Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud among those confused why the Bucs wouldn’t just buy out the rest of the money UNC owes Davis and have Davis available to the Bucs in all capacities, so Stroud said on The Dan Sileo Show today on WDAE-AM 620.

“Maybe this is just the role [Davis] wants. There’s no cameras over there, I think. I don’t know if North Carolina is going to have spies on the practice field [at One Buc Palace,]” Stroud said. “But we all know the agreement. And, you know, he’s going to be more in an advisory role.”

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. UNC is a public college and Joe suspects somebody over there will be in charge of scrutinizing Davis’ role with the Bucs, especially in these times that have states grasping for every last nickel they can find.

Is someone coaching if he has no role on gameday or doesn’t talk to players on the practice field? Is someone coaching if he’s merely breaking down film indoors before a group of players and coaches? Are you coaching if you’re wearing a headset in the booth and barking opinions to the head coach? Are you a coach if you only coach coaches on how to coach?

As Joe’s written previously, if Davis is not officially a coordinator, then by NFL rules he never has to engage the media on any subject. So don’t expect Davis to explain.

Perhaps, as Stroud suggested is possible, Davis really has no interest in coaching and simply wants to only engage coaches and study film.