Joe caught up with Arrelious Benn after the Bucs pounded each other in pads this afternoon at One Buc Palace. Benn talked about his health, his status for opening day, special teams, and more.

JoeBucsFan.com: What do you want to tell fans about how you feel?

Benn: I’m almost there. I’m feeling like I’m taking it slow. It felt good to be out there today running and banging around in pads and game-planning for Carolina and the season opener. I feel confident in my body, so I’m pretty much good to go.

Joe: Do you expect to play on opening-day?

Benn: Oh, yeah. I definitely expect to play. It’s just a matter of me getting out there and gettting back into it and go through the little things and let it everything fall in place.

Joe: Do you feel you’re behind on the playbook?

Benn: Not at all. One thing I did was stay in it mentally. You know, I feel as though I know the playbook like I’m one of the coaches now. Just staying in it, all the little things. That’s all I could have done when I was out [injured] just get the mental reps.

Joe:  Are you on all phases of special teams this year?

Benn: Pretty much. I’m getting back there returning some kicks this year. I’m looking forward to that.

Last night Philadelphia Eagles guard Julian Vandervelde was a victim of roster cuts.

Today, he is heading to Tampa Bay to be a member of the Bucs, so he Twittered just a little while ago (unearthed by Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger).

@BirdNerdJV73: Philly, I love ya, but today this Eagle flies south to join Tampa Bay. Thanks for a great time.

Well, that takes a little bit off of Joe’s mind that an experienced (former college teammate of Adrian Clayborn) big ugly will try to plug the hole left by Davin Joseph’s injury.

It seems as if Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik made a roster change with the Bucs in the middle of this morning’s practice, under the very eyes of the local Tampa Bay pen and mic club.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune was one of the witnesses.

@RCummingsTrib: Bucs OT Bradley Sowell and DT Wallace Gilberry left practice just after it started Sat. Looks like they have been cut and replaced

Cummings later wrote, judging by the numbers of the two new players who walked on the field and began practicing, they were an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. The Bucs have yet to identify both players.

What is interesting is that the Bucs are even still thinner at defensive tackle now that Gilberry is gone.

It was roughly 12 hours after the Bucs announced their 53-man roster (yes, it is supposed to be 53 players but the Bucs were one short of the ceiling) and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik was already up to his elbows working to try to find a gem among the 1,200 players walking the streets looking for work.

NFL insider Adam Caplan got wind of who the Bucs worked out and reports there were 14 players. Among the players were quarterback John Parker Wilson, guard/center Jason Slowey and running back Davin Meggett.

The name “John Parker Wilson” makes Joe laugh out loud. Just after being jettisoned by Team Glazer, former Bucs coach Chucky worked the NFL Combine for the NFL Network and he slobbered over Wilson more than Joe does Rachel Watson.

To be fair, Wilson couldn’t be much worse than Brett Ratliff.

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After some Internet wackiness yesterday, Cody Grimm is, in fact, a Buccaneer. This is good news, as Grimm battling with Ahmad Black for reserve playing time means the Bucs have solid depth, with rookie Keith Tandy learning the ropes.

Bucs icon John Lynch joined Gary and The Commish on 98.7 FM yesterday and shared some great takes and stories. One explained how he personally lobbied Grimm’s case to Greg Schiano this week. Definitely an enjoyable listen.

Lynch also explains why he believes Greg Schiano will get the 2012 Bucs to “max out.” However, Lynch doesn’t believe that Bucs’ 2012 ceiling includes a winning season.

The dust settled last night on the Bucs roster, and Derek Hardman, Ted Larsen and Jamon Meredith are still Buccaneers.

The Bucs kept a hefty stable of O-linemen, incuding rookie undrafted tackle Brady Sowell and Demar Dotson, plus the starters.

The Bucs are practicing this afternoon at One Buc Palace, and previously in training camp Greg Schiano expressed a desire to have starters named early at all positions so the team can build on that and have continuity.

It’ll be interesting to see and hear about who trots out there today. If the Bucs don’t snag another guard soon, Joe suspects a starter among Larsen, Hardman and Meredith and will be named by Monday at the very latest.

Joe’s curious why Hardman hasn’t been talked about more. The guy was top notch as a rookie in 2010 filling in for Davin Joseph. Hardman was one of the few that season to keep Ndamukong Suh in check.

Wallace Gilberry will play his fifth season in Tampa

After the dust settled on defensive tackles Brian Price and Amobi Okoye, they ended up as teammates in Chicago. So now the Bucs will backup Gerald McCoy and Roy Miller with Wallace Gilberry, a defensive end with a lot of experience in Kansas City rushing inside, and Gary Gibson, Greg Schiano’s handpicked Rutgers man.

Gibson was rather invisible in preseason with an unknown ailment, but he, like Gilberry, has solid NFL seasons under his belt. Schiano said Gilberry’s versatility was a plus for him a few weeks ago.

This is hardly great depth at the position, so Joe suspects defensive tackle will be a priority area for the Bucs in the second draft, aka rockstar general manager Mark Dominik plucking guys off the still-hot waiver wire this weekend.

Yes, Myron Lewis remains a Buccaneer after tonight’s latest round of cuts to get the roster to 53 players. 

Joe’s not sure how that happened, but it illustrates the uncertainty the Bucs have at cornerback. They kept seven on the roster.

Leonard Johnson
Anthony Gaitor
Brandon McDonald
Myron Lewis
Aqib Talib
E.J. Biggers
Eric Wright

Greg Schiano was the Bears secondary coach, and clearly he wants a live and large stable of bodies, especially with an injury to Biggers, and Talib already having tweaked a hamstring in training camp. And add Gaitor’s hamstring into the mix, and Wright did miss a little time this spring and summer.

Joe’s feeling great for Johnson, the Largo High rookie who made the team through undrafted free agency.

Kudos to rookie tight end Danny Noble, the pride of the mighty Toledo Rockets, for making the Bucs roster.

He’s the third tight end behind Dallas Clark and Luke Stocker.

The Bucs gave up on tight ends Zach Pianalto and 2012 seventh round pick Drake Dunsmore. It was the second season in a row that a drafed seventh-round tight end didn’t stick.

Noble saw time with the first team against Miami in preseason and made a couple of catches. He broke his leg early in his senior season at Toledo, where he primarily was a big target in the passing game at 6-5, 248 pounds.

Now he’s a “Buccaneer Man.” The Bucs will go with no backup fullback … for now.

Sammie survives for his fourth season in pewter

Here it is below, the list of cuts today from the Bucs. And it’s no surprise that there are some surprises under the New Schiano Order.

Joe will have much more through the night.

RELEASED

DT Frank Okam
DT Amobi Okoye (injury settlement)

WAIVED
S Larry Asante
S Sean Baker
WR Landon Cox
LB Rennie Curran
LB Jacob Cutrera
TE Drake Dunsmore
K Kai Forbath
T Jermarcus Hardrick
RB Robert Hughes
FB Cody Johnson
RB Mossis Madu
DT Jordan Nix
C Moe Petrus
TE Zack Pianalto
QB Brett Ratliff
CB James Rogers
WR Jordan Shipley
WR Tiquan Underwood
DT Teryl White
DL E.J. Wilson
G Desmond Wynn (injured)

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If the Bucs opened the season today before several empty seats, Erik Lorig would be your lone Bucs fullback.

That’s because fullbacks Robert Hughes and Cody Johnson have been sent packing. That’s the word from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

This, as Cummings suggests, is a curious move. Could the Bucs be looking to move tight end Drake Dunsmore to fullback? It’s a possibility, Cummings believes. Joe already has written that the Bucs possibly could keep four tight ends with Zach Pianalto and Danny Noble in the mix.

If they’re all out of consideration for fullback/tight end role, then here’s another area for Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and coach Greg Schiano to shop for when the dust clears tonight.

It’s gotten to the point that Joe doesn’t know what to predict. If it isn’t the back and forth (unfounded) rumors of guys getting cut, it’s the shock of productive guys like Tiquan Underwood being waved goodbye.

Strange, this cutdown day has become.

This one has Joe shaking his head in disbelief.

Per Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times, receiver Tiquan Underwood was sent packing by the Bucs today.

@HolderStephen: Agent for Tiquan Underwood says he was released by #Bucs today. That was one of the tougher decisions I presume

This, in Joe’s eyes, demonstrates what a folly training camp if not preseason can be. Underwood did nothing but make plays, day in and day out, game in and game out, never put the ball on the ground.

Yet he is sent packing.

Joe cannot remember being this taken aback by a release. It makes Joe start to wonder the value of watching training camp practices and preseason games.

Yes, Joe is stunned at this news.

The prospect of a Bucs opening-day television blackout has Mike Florio so fired up he’s again taken to his national stage to talk about the Bucs relocating. That’s right, leaving the Tampa Bay market.

Florio, an NBC Sports personality and the curator of ProFootballTalk.com, says Team Glazer has exhausted every means necessary to drive attendance and must seriously consider relocation.

The failure to sell enough tickets at the stadium comes despite a string of efforts to sell all non-premium seats, from taking full advantage of the new league rule that allows teams to cut their “manifest” to 85 percent, to uncharacteristically spending million on free agents like Vincent Jackson, Carl Nicks, and Eric Wright, to hiring a new coach, to cutting the prices on parking and concessions for the home opener, to honoring Ronde Barber.

By the way, it’s the first freaking game of the year.  And Cam Newton is coming to town.  Division rival.  The team that once claimed Chris Simms’ spleen.

It was supposed to be a slam dunk for Week One.  And still the team is 9,000 tickets short.

Look, we like Tampa.  The city did a great job hosting the Super Bowl.  But regardless of the reason — local economy, apathy, whatever — if fans continue to fail to show up for the games, at some point the team needs to be moved to a place where the fans have the money, the time, and the inclination to attend games.

Joe must say that even though the 9,000 ticket figure was confirmed by the Bucs this afternoon, it still lacks very important perspective. For all anyone knows, the Bucs typically will sell 5,000 to 10,000 tickets in the six days leading up to the blackout deadline for opening day. And what ticket sales are typical in the final 72 hours before opening-day kickoff — after the blackout deadline — is unknown. That could bring thousands more sales.

Last year, the Bucs drew 51,000 and change for opening day against the Lions coming off a 10-6 season. There’s no reason to think that this season’s opening day attendance won’t show a significant increase of 10 to 20 percent.

As of now, the Bucs are an organization on the rise operating in a poor Florida economy. They’re not going anywhere.

As a few of Joe’s readers have pointed out, just because you play like a stud in the second half of the final preseason game doesn’t mean you won’t be an accountant the next week.

So it seems to be the case with safety Sean Baker. After picking off two passes and recovering a fumble against the Redskins, it may have been too late for Baker as he was given his walking papers by the Bucs today, so reports the resilient Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

Joe will try to keep track of all the comings and goings of the Bucs through the late afternoon. Joe’s dying for a cold beer.

And thank you to all of Joe’s readers for continuing to hit that pesky F5 button!

Joe has gotten plenty of e-mails and Twitter messages about how close the season-opener is to being sold out.

Joe has learned the answer: not remotely close.

Per — you guessed it — Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, the Bucs need to sell 9,000 tickets in the next seven days just to reach the 85 percent non-premium seating threshold to ensure the game is televised locally.

That’s about one-fifth of the stadium.

Team Glazer has just about done whatever it can to see the game soldout short of handing out tickets for free on the beaches and in the shopping malls.

Ticket prices have been dropped. There is free parking for the opener. Concessions were cut in half for the opener. Still, it appears, NFL fans and Bucs fans as well would rather sit at home and watch the NFL Sunday Ticket and the Red Zone Channel and monitor their fantasy football teams while on the couch in air conditioning with cheaper beer and food.

Many have stated that thanks to technology, the at-home experience is far better than the in-game experience. Consider the Tampa Bay area to be Exhibit-A for that theory.

In short, if you want to watch the game live and don’t want to wait until midnight to watch the game via NFL.com or the condensed rebroadcast on NFL Sunday Ticket, you better buy a ticket.

It seems E.J. Wilson, who prior to the New Schiano Order had some of the most (ahem) interesting Twitter posts that were sent out at 2 a.m., is no longer a Bucs player.

The ubiquitous Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, rather than those relying on now-deleted Twitter postings from an MSMer, is doing gumshoe journalism and is tracking down agents of players believed to be on the bubble, including Wilson’s.

@RCummingsTrib: Add DL E.J. Wilson to the list of those released by the Bucs. Agent confirms the surprising news. Wilson looked very good during camp

Yes, Wilson had some strong practices and games, including the win over the Patriots in preseason.

Sadly for Wilson, Joe will long remember his politically incorrect Twitter ramblings in the middle of the night (like how he hated women because all he wanted was sex and women wanted a relationship) than Joe will of him making any plays on the football field.

The Interwebs on cutdown day is crazier than a drunk Lindsay Lohan.

Word was rampant earlier today that the Bucs waved goodbye to safety Keith Tandy. Well, hit those breaks again boys.

Apparently not satisfied with word of mouth, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune has been texting and calling each of the Bucs known bubble players and their agents to determine if they are still collecting a check from Team Glazer.

And, yes, Tandy’s agent says he’s still a Bucs safety.

@RCummingsTrib: Keith Tandy’s agent, Adisa Bakari, jsut told me Tandy has not been cut by the Bucs.

It’s getting to the point that Joe might just go out and have a cold beer (or three) and wait until 10 p.m. (anyone believe the Bucs will release the final roster at 9 p.m.?) because the rumor mill is starting to get crazy.

The injury to right guard Davin Joseph has really set forth an ugly chain of events

To paraphrase Joe Theismann, unless the Washington Redskins’ backup defensive linemen are Supermen, the Bucs’ reserve unit on the offensive line is a shambles.

The Bucs’ backup unit couldn’t pass block and couldn’t run block Wednesday, Joe isn’t entirely sure they could block someone from stealing their beer.

Naturally, with a smashmouth run game and wanting to keep Josh Freeman’s jersey clean, if there is another injury to the starting unit of the Bucs offensive line, it could result in dire consequences.

So it is clear Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik will be surfing the waiver wire hoping to find someone, anyone, who can stop a cool breeze when used in a pinch.

Not so fast my friends (thank you, Lee Corso). It’s not as if the Bucs are the lone NFL team scraping the barrel for offensive line help. Like the Bucs, both the Packers and the Steelers have had injuries to the front line (for the Steelers, this is a rite of summer).

So if you are X-offensive lineman who just got cut by Y-team, who exactly would you want to play for, a team that has a realistic goal of a Super Bowl within its sights, or a team that is just hoping to get to .500?

Sure the Bucs — depending on what day and what source one checks on salary cap space; a subject Joe loathes more than the thought of a nude Rosie O’Donnell — could overspend to get a backup lineman, but what general manager in his right mind is going to overpay for a guy who may never play?

UPDATE: It seems the Bucs braintrust, like Joe, was revolted by what passed as an offensive line Wednesday night and  is cleaning house of its backup offensive linemen.

Again, per workhorse Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, Jamarcus Hardrick and (Hey) Moe Petrus are now unemployed.

Joe is happy for the time being. Why? You don’t know how hard it is to work in a Curly Howard line in a football story, do you?

Thanks for your service, No. 35.

UPDATE: Though Joe is skeptical to take agents at their word — agents have agendas — Cody Grimm’s agent says he has no knowledge of Grimm getting cut.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune spoke with Grimm’s agent this afternoon and was told that he has not heard anything from the Bucs.

@RCummingsTrib: Reports of Cody Grimm’s release may be premature. Neither Grimm nor his agent have heard of a release, according to agent Eric Metz.

So the plot thickens. Has Grimm been released or not? Surely if he was, Joe assumes the Bucs would have said something to either Grimm or his agent. Stay tuned …

This one surprises Joe a bit.

Cody Grimm is a good football player. Not always a healthy football player, but if Grimm is healthy (like he is now) and your fourth safety on the depth chart, then you’ve probably got a very solid safety group. Perhaps the only time since mid-2008 that the Bucs displayed consistent moments of run defense was when Grimm was firing in the box.

But the New Schiano Order disagrees with Joe, and Bucs icon John Lynch. The Bucs’ flagship radio station, WDAE-AM 620, is reporting that Grimm was cut.

Grimm was the most experienced safety on the roster. Perhaps upstart rookie Sean Baker, with two interceptions and a fumble recovery, did enough on Wednesday?

Joe’s down on the Grimm release and hopes the Bucs have another quality body in mind.

Apparently, Greg Schiano likes his defensive tackles healthy.

Brian Price got shipped out to Chicago after he proved to be physically unready (possibly mentally, too.) Now Amobi Okoye is a goner, as well.

Sean Jensen, of the Chicago Sun-Times, reports that Okoye was cut from the Bucs and his old team can’t wait to get him back, which ironically probably doesn’t bode well for Price’s future with the Bears.

The defensive lineman was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and he’s finalizing a deal to return to the Bears, according to a league source.

A former 10th overall pick, Okoye posted his second-best sack total last season as a Bears reserve, and he signed a one-year, $1.3 million contract with the Bucs during the offseason.

E.J. Wilson? Banged up Gary Gibson? Wallace Gilberry? Those appear to be the remaining depth options at defensive tackle behind Gerald McCoy and Roy Miller. Frank Okam is already gone.

Joe sincerely hopes the Bucs have someone else up their sleeve. Okoye was the second biggest offseason signing on defense, and clearly the need for D-line depth hasn’t disappeared. Schiano himself has said numerous times that the dropoff from the first-team line to the second-teamers concerns him.

Perhaps one of the Redskins interior lineman that gutted the Bucs on Wednesday?