If the Bucs expect Mason Foster to develop to his fullest, the second-year linebacker simply needs help.

Joe remembers as a kid a relative, who fought in the infantry in the South Pacific during World War II, explained to Joe what a Bonzai Charge was.

Thankfully, Joe will never experience such a thing but while watching the Bucs defense play last year, when opponents ran the ball past the line of scrimmage, the sight reminded Joe of what his relative told him about a Bonzai Charge.

The Bucs linebackers simply couldn’t stop the rush. It was as if they waved white flags once they saw a ball carrier.

Now Joe’s not going to pick on Mason Foster, who played middle linebacker last year and was likely out of position. The rookie was in a no-win situation because he got zero help on either side of him and after Gerald McCoy went down with an injury, got little help in front of him as well.

This has led to former Bucs defensive end Steve White to beg Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to acquire a linebacker through free agency.

Speaking with Tom Krasniqi on WHBO-AM 1040 Wednesday, White explained how dire it is for Dominik to bring in a veteran linebacker.

Talk about keeping Mason Foster in the middle which I think is just posturing. … At the same time we have to sign somebody, I don’t care if it is an inside linebacker or an outside linebacker. There’s not a whole lot of outside linebackers left out there.

Geno Hayes is exploring other options, visiting with the Broncos. Quincy Black was terrible last year. Whether you put Mason Foster on the outside or the inside, I don’t care. You are going to have to get that guy some help in here. What I don’t think you want to do is go completely young with the linebackers and the young line up front. We need some veterans in there somewhere.

White is right on the mark. If there was a team with worse play from its linebacker corps out there last year, Joe wants to know. And without beefing up the linebackers, why exactly should anyone believe the Bucs will be much better stopping the run this season?

Simply put, Foster needs help. Otherwise, he’s going to be shell-shocked like an infantry grunt.

Trent Richardson ran around in shorts at his Pro Day today in Alabama and had plenty to say for the BSPN cameras afterwards. Check out the video below.

Of note, Merril Hoge and Richardson talk about new Bucs running backs coach Earnest Byner giving Richardson a rigorous workout. Plus Richardson talks about the joy he’d get from getting a draft-day call from one of his “hometowns,” fellow Pensacolan Derrick Brooks. Joe would much prefer Morris Claiborne get a call from Ronde Barber, but that’s a rant for another day.

Joe is jacked up to soon roll out all the details of his blowout NFL Draft parties at Pete & Shorty’s in Pinellas Park, just one mile west of I-275.

The action will kick off at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 26.

This is going to be intense. Not only will Joe be there with jersey giveaways and screaming for the Bucs to draft Morris Claiborne, but Joe will be joined by a high-profile media partner that will turn the first night of the draft into an intense draft lovers paradise. Plus, Joe expects to be flanked by former Buccaneers and maybe even some current Bucs.

There will be beer girls, glorious girls, and a lot more. Beer specials, food specials, indoor and outdoor seating. Joe can’t wait.

And then Joe gets to do it all over again on Saturday afternoon, April 28, for Rounds 4-7 of the draft.

Save the dates! All the exciting details should be here next week.

Bucs fans remember that Raheem Morris came from the Joe Maddon/Mike Tomlin school of team slogans.  These great coaches (the last two) — Raheem’s close mentors — like rallying cries and fancy lingo.

So it was back in the 2010 preseason that Raheem rolled out his “Race to 10” to inspire his seemingly ugly Bucs roster to be the first team in the NFC to get 10 wins. Many players and fans also interpreted that to mean the Bucs were fighting to get to 10 wins as a season goal.

The Bucs won those 10 games, but Lions head coach Jim Schwartz thinks Raheem was talking foolish babble and told Bucs beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune that a “Race to 10” mindset is downright stupid.

“I don’t know if anybody here would say we just need nine,” Schwartz said. “I don’t know if anybody else plays that card game. I take that back. I have heard people talk about the ‘Race to 10’ and different foolishness. I think that’s foolish. The whole idea is to win every game you play and try to get in (the playoffs).

“Once you’re in, have some firepower that you can get through.”

Unfortunately, it has not been revealed what Schwartz thought about Raheem calling the Bucs the best team in the NFC when they were 4-2 that season.

Joe really can’t believe Schwartz is such a moron to call out a fellow coach, one he didn’t try to attack physically, for inspiring his team to a 10-6 season, one in which Schwartz’s team wasn’t very good.

Joe must come to Raheem’s defense. Schwartz definitely crossed a line. And hopefully some reporter will seek out Raheem for a response. Joe would pay to hear it.

When notorious whip-cracker and two-time Super Bowl winner Tom Coughlin calls you a “tough guy,” that means something.

And that’s what the Giants coach told Tampa Tribune scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman about Greg Schiano this week at the NFL owners meetings.

“I think Greg’s a solid football coach,” Coughlin said. “I interviewed him when he was very young and he was impressive. He’s a tough guy with good organizational skills. He certainly has the outstanding work ethic, he’s smart and he’s a man of principles.”

Damn, Joe can’t wait for Schiano to start giving some tough-guy leadership and direction to the young Bucs when they report back to the team on Monday. Schiano, as Raheem Morris would say, no doubt will be “ready to deal.”

Joe choked on his Circle K Thirst Buster driving around listening to TampaBay.com Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud tell a radio audience that Team Glazer’s No. 1 priority is putting fans in the seats yesterday.

That’s beyond ludicrous.

First off, you don’t fire an iconic Super Bowl winning coach off a 9-7 season and hire Raheem Morris if you’re concerned about action at the box office.

You also don’t shun free agency, either, if ticket sales are the top priority. And when you do dive into free agency, as was done this year, you don’t spend a majority of your cash on a left guard (No slight on Carl Nicks, but Joe knows of no left guard that generates ticket sales, especially to casual NFL fans) and a cornerback that never made the Pro Bowl and isn’t a household name.

“I’m sure that is their No. 1 priority — to sell tickets,” Stroud told WQYK-AM 1010 host J.P. Peterson.

Clearly, and thankfully, Team Glazer is focused on winning, not ticket sales. Now whether Team Glazer has a sound plan to build a winner is open to serious debate and scrutiny. But Joe’s quite sure if Team Glazer’s No. 1 priority was ticket sales, the Bucs would look a lot a hell of a lot different, including having some guy named Tebow backing up Josh Freeman.

As sports media critic for the Tampa Bay Times, Tom Jones dishes out scrutiny on a regular basis. Why Joe even once found himself on the wrong end of a jaded, misguided Jones hate piece. 

So given that Jones is a media analyst, Joe suspects Jones would appreciate having the spotlight shined back on him.

Yesterday, Jones was a guest of Tom Krasniqi of WHBO-AM 1040 and proceeded to give muddled and somewhat bizarre takes on the state of LeGarrette Blount and the potential drafting of Trent Richardson. Joe transcribed verbatim, therefore not protecting the innocent.

Tom Jones: I think there’s a lot of things you look on tape that you probably not enamored about when you look at LeGarrette Blount. Look, he performed better than a lot of people thought he would last season, but there are also some moments. And you’ve heard the stories out there that he’s not a terribly bright guy as far as what to do in an offense, that he’s pretty limited in what he’s capable of doing and what you’re capable of doing with him. So, um, you know, if it’s a situation where, look, defenses are smart out there. If they know that your running back can only do a couple of things, then it’s easy to stop that. So, I think they’re in a situation right now where, again, I think this is what it comes down to is, ‘Can we live with LeGarrette Blount at running back and take somebody else at No. 5? Or is it such a weakness at running back that we absolutely have to have a running back to run our system?’ If so, you know, we take that. It would be so much easier if the Bucs, really for them, if they had the 15th pick and there were a couple of running backs or a couple of, you know, offensive linemen, whatever, sticking around at that spot. But if you have the No. 5 pick, you can’t miss. You have to get this right. Especially with as many holes as this team has. So, I think that’s really what it comes down to, ‘Is it worth taking a running back at No. 5 or can you live with LeGarrette Blount for another year or two?'”

Where should Joe start?

First, Jones stating Blount “performed better than a lot of people thought he would last season” is inaccurate, though Joe suspects somebody somewhere joins Jones in believing Blount overachieved in 2011.

Second, Jones referencing phantom “stories” of Blount’s lack of intelligence is reckless and irrelevant. Blount churned up 1,000 yards on five yards per carry during his 2010 rookie season as a guy thrown into the Bucs offense off the waiver wire in September. One could make a case that Blount learned damn quickly, but that’s not the point.

It’s a coaching staff’s job to get the best out of its players. If Jones is saying Blount is too dumb to master a playbook or develop his overall game in a timely fashion, that still doesn’t mean Blount isn’t capable of tearing up the league if used properly, as he was for most of 2010. The guy caught 15 balls at 10 yards a catch last season. Does Blount really need a solid Wonderlic score to catch 30 or more if the Bucs actually threw him the ball to free him up in open space? Mike Alstott averaged 28 catches a year at 7.5 yards a pop.

Lastly, Jones’ draft analysis, um, speaks for itself.

Jones and others in the media have a negative vibe about Blount that Joe just doesn’t share. Joe’s never seen a guy like Blount, who’s had great success playing his first two seasons as the Bucs’ No. 1 offensive weapon, get chewed up so badly by analysts and writers.

Blount was one of the greatest stories in the NFL in 2010, and he went into the record books as only the second undrafted rookie to rack up 1,000 yards. Last year, he had some fumbling woes but was simply misused by a Bucs coaching staff that fell apart and lost the team. 

Joe’s just getting really tired of senseless reviews of Blount’s performance and ability.

After the Bucs lost their 10th straight game in January, Joe fell into the camp of fans that believed the 2010 season was not a mirage, the Bucs have a good share of talent on the roster, and were simply in need of a competent coaching staff and a few more pieces.

Well, the Bucs got a couple of big pieces in free agency, plus Eric Wright, and they upgraded the center position with Jeremy Zuttah making the move there. As for the coaching staff, fans will find out come September, but it all looks promising.

Talking to the Tampa Bay Times today, Greg Schiano said he’s not going to overanalyze the Bucs’ film from last year since there are so many variables that go into a player’s performance.

“You can look and say, ‘I think this happened or I think that happened,’’’ [Schiano] said. “To me, that’s a little bit of a waste of time, because there were different variables involved, different people involved. To me, everything’s people, the relationships you have with guys, do they trust you, do you trust them? That’s what carries you through those tough spots.”

And Schiano will set out to build a team that can weather those inevitable rough patches, with the hope that temporary struggles don’t become season-long tailspins.

“The old saying is that adversity reveals character, it doesn’t build it,” Schiano said. “We’ll have our share of adversity, and one of the things that you train for is that adversity. To me, that’s mental toughness. There are certain ways you can build mental toughness. We’ll coach that as a staff.

This adversity training Schiano speaks of is interesting to Joe, especially considering how the Bucs roared back to victory so many times in the fourth quarter of games in 2010. Seemingly, lots of Bucs already know what it takes to pull out games but it didn’t get done last year.

Player evaluation has got to be rough sledding for Schiano. He sees a bunch of 2011 slop on film but he knows he can’t gut the entire roster, plus he can’t guage exactly how inept the coaching staff was during the 10-game skid last season. And a young coach like Raheem Morris, who didn’t exactly have a Hall of Fame staff around him, can hardly get the benefit of the doubt.

Schiano almost has to dismiss a lot of what he saw in 2011, and trust that rockstar general manager Mark Dominik rightfully did not secure free agents Sean Jones, Geno Hayes, Elbert Mack, James Lee and others.

It’s clear to Joe that many Bucs fans are ready to go to war with each other over whether the Bucs should draft beastly Alabama running back Trent Richardson.

Joe’s of the belief that the Bucs already have a beast of a running back and don’t need Richardson when they can make a much smarter draft pick — for the short term and the long term — in cornerback Morris Claiborne.

Well, Schiano opened up a bit today at the NFL owners meetings about the running game. Rick Stroud, of TampaBay.com, filed a story that has Schiano talking about everything from fumbles, to riding a bell cow feature back, to the film of Richardson.

Most interesting to Joe, Schiano says “you’ve got to have that guy.”

“So I do believe if you have the right one, you just feed him. And great backs want the ball. Ray [Rice] used to come to me, I would check with Ray continuously. “How are you feeling, big guy?’ “Keep giving me the ball. Keep giving me the ball.’ That’s all he wanted. “Give me the ball, give me the ball.’

“When you have those types of backs, I’ve been around some of them – Kijana Carter was like that at Penn St. — at Miami we had a slew of them. They all want touches to get into a groove. But you’ve got to have that guy. I always talk about touches during a football game. It’s kind of like a pizza and you earn your slice of the pie. so the better the player you are, the more productive you are, we’re going to find ways to get you touches. And you earn them. They’re not handed out. You earn them.”

So do the Bucs and Schiano believe they “have that guy?” The answer should be coming in 29 days.

Lots of words have been tossed around since the Bucs hired Greg Schiano to replace the jettisoned Raheem Morris to start the new year.

“Disciplined” is one of the most used. “Tough” is another.

Let Joe add “detailed” to the vernacular.

This morning, Schiano had his breakfast sitdown with scribes covering the NFL owners meeting in Palm Beach. From the details of the coaches breakfast, it reminds Joe of the Big Ten football coaches media days he used to attend: each coach sits at a big round table and reporters bounce from table to table to pepper coaches with questions in a very relaxed environment.

One subject that came up with Schiano was Mason Foster, per Twitterings that have surfaced. There has been talk recently of whether Foster, playing out of position as a rookie calling defensive plays at middle linebacker last year, may move to outside linebacker.

Once it was clear Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik wasn’t going to land Curtis Lofton or Stephen Tulloch in free agency, Dominik began talking about keeping Foster at middle linebacker.

Schiano clearly has a set of eyes and he certainly can see on video that the Bucs linebackers were awful last season. So what did Schiano do to determine if Foster is still a valuable linebacker? He did research, so Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times Twittered.

@HolderStephen: Greg Schiano said he went back and watched Mason Foster’s college tape to evaluate him almost like a draft pick. Was very impressed.

Also manning his Blackberry while sitting with Schiano is eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, who Twittered other thoughts from Schiano on Foster:

@IKaufmanTrib: Greg Schiano on Bucs MLB Mason Foster; “He did some good things. Sometimes he looked like a rookie … A lot of times.”

Translation? Joe thinks it is twofold: Foster was overwhelmed calling plays at middle linebacker with virtually no offseason to speak of; and Foster needs coaching up.

Joe just finds it cool that Schiano is so obsessed with trying to turn his players’ fortunes around, he’s going through their college film.

Obviously, Joe’s a bit Bucs-obsessed. So when news broke yesterday that Magic Johnson was part of a group buying the Los Angeles Dodgers for $2 billion, Joe had to take pause and try to empathize with Team Glazer for a moment.

Before iconic Malcolm Glazer made one of the biggest power plays in kickball history with Manchester United, it was the Dodgers he was after hot and heavy in 2003 — for a mere $360 million. But ownership rules in baseball and football made a deal challenging and it didn’t happen. (Here’s a summary from the L.A. Times.)

Joe’s trying wonder what it’s like to have swung and missed on a deal that brought home a $1.64 billion profit 8 1/2 years later. Wow.

All Joe can think of is when he lost his $10 Publix coupon last week, or when he sold some stock that tripled in price a week later. 

Oh well, the Dodgers deal did get Joe remembering the elder Glazer, who really brought all kinds of desperately needed energy and swag to the Bucs after taking over the team in the mid-1990s. He is missed.

Now that famed NFL draft guru Mike Mayock of the NFL Network — in just a matter of days — has gone from saying there is no way he would draft Trent Richardson in the top 10 to just this week claiming the Alabama running back is a top-five talent, many Bucs fans, seemingly unaware the Bucs already have a running back on the roster, have gone completely loco.

Perhaps forgetting the Bucs back seven on defense has more holes and question marks than a game of “Battleship,” these same fans actually believe it is wise to ignore this and draft where there is not a need.

That doesn’t mean Richardson will be available, if he is the next Jim Brown as some suggest. If the Bucs do not draft Richardson, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune is confident the Bucs will draft a running back at next month to complement LeGarrette Blount.

Q: Is there more a need to take Justin Blackmon or Morris Claiborne as far as the fifth pick? I don’t see the Browns passing up on Richardson. Is Ronnie Hilman of interest if LaMichael James is unavailable in the second round? And are there any pending free agent fullbacks in the league left? Do we have the money to spend?

Tyrone Odom, San Diego

A: Claiborne probably fills a bigger need. Even though the Bucs added Eric Wright and will have Ronde Barber back, they still don’t know how much access they’ll have to Aqib Talib and you just can’t have enough top-level corners. As for the running back issue, I still think the Bucs have a good shot at getting Richardson, but if they don’t they’ll grab someone to complement LeGarrette Blount. At fullback, there really isn’t much out there. Earnest Graham, 32, may be the best of the bunch, but he’s coming off that Achilles tendon tear. The Bucs believe they have a starting caliber FB in Erik Lorig, so it’s really a backup that they’re looking for. They can pick that up off the street at almost any time.

As much as Joe loves Earnest Graham, there are not too many players in their 30s in the NFL who rebound from an Achilles injury, much less a 31-year old running back.

Rather than get a clone of Blount with the fifth overall pick when the defense is in dire need of cornerback and linebacker help, Joe likes the idea of grabbing LaMichael James, a true burner, later in the draft.

It really doesn’t matter if Joe calls Mark Dominik a rockstar every day. What’s far more interesting and key is whether Team Glazer believes he’s a rockstar, or at least a successful general manager.

Now Dominik’s teams have a putrid 17-31 combined record, but any thinking fan can’t pin too much of that on him. And Team Glazer even gave Dominik high marks today in a sit-down with eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune.

Q: How would you assess Mark Dominik’s first three years as general manager?

Joel Glazer: Mark has done a good job. We’ve had a plan and he has managed, through some tough waters, to stick with that plan. In any situation, you’re going to have some negatives to point to, but I think that’s the case with any team in the NFL. He knows what he wants to accomplish and he has stuck with it. The coaching process was not easy and he did a great job helping us navigate through that. In free agency, it’s not easy to come out of the blocks and get all the guys signed up. I’m very pleased with the direction we’re headed.

Joe wonders how Team Glazer assesses Dominik. Do they have an independent third party review his football decisions?

Regardless, Joe agrees that Dominik has done a good job in his tenure. It’s just too hard to dish out the “great” label without a team in the playoffs.

Among other things, Joel Glazer says the Bucs have seen a spark at the box office.

Fans have heard rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and Team Glazer talk about the Bucs’ growth plan many times since the December collapse of the Chucky regime.

Many have been bewildered by the team’s direction, and it was confusing at times, especially after the 2009 play for Albert Haynesworth quickly followed by a build-through-the-draft drumbeat. But “the plan” all seemed to come into focus for legions of fans after the Bucs shelled out gobs of cash for Vincent Jackson, Eric Wright and Carl Nicks this month.

Speaking today to Pat Yasinskas of ESPN, Team Glazer addressed how recent events have all been part of an evolution process.

“People question why this didn’t happen two or three years ago,’’ [Joel] Glazer said. “Well, when we settled on this plan a few years ago, the plan was draft, develop and, at the appropriate time, add veterans. To bring in veterans early on to us just puts you on the wrong path. This was the appropriate time. Not only was it the appropriate time, you had some unique players out there, the kind of players that we could add that could add something to our football team and in the locker room. I think the complement was fantastic, the timing was as we always expected. We’re excited. It’s energized our fans. It’s energized our organization.’’

No question the energy is there among the fan base, and if you click on through above you’ll read that Glazer says ticket sales caught a spark this month, though he says blackouts remain a reality the team is working to overcome.

When Joe hears ownership fired up and that fans are revitalized, Joe smiles at the pressure that puts on the new Greg Schiano regime. Sure, Schiano has a fresh five-year deal, and that’s probably what it took to get him to leave Rutgers, but Joe suspects Schiano has nowhere near that kind of rope to deliver a winner.

Team Glazer talked to beat scribes at the NFL owners meetings this afternoon and early nuggets are trickling out.

Tampa Tribune scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman brings word from Joel Glazer that Greg Schiano will bring a different standard than previous regimes.

“He talks about Buccaneers men and what they should stand for,” Glazer said. “That’s not going to be just lip service for him – that’s going to be real and meaningful. He has core beliefs that he feels strongly about and over time, people will understand those and appreciate that our players will, too.”

Boy that take sure felt like a shot at past head coaches. (And for the record Joe loves the old school term “lip service,” a favorite of Joe’s dad.)

Definitely click on through the link above. Glazer mentions that a clean slate is in place for the roster, among other choice bits.

Mark it down. Joe’s preparing to co-host insanely enjoyable NFL Draft parties at a local establishment for Round 1 of the draft (Thursday evening/night April 26) and Rounds 4-7 (Saturday April 28).

Joe won’t be rolling out complete details until probably Monday, but it’s all rounding into shape so Joe wanted to throw out a little heads up.

Joe’s expecting the beer and glorious food to be flowing, along with former and current Bucs mingling about, jersey giveaways and a big piece of the puzzle Joe can’t even hint at just yet.

That’s enough of a tease for now. Just save the dates.

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TampaBay.com Buccaneers beat writer Stephen Holder spit out what seemed like everything in his brain about the Bucs during a radio interview today with Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski on WQYK-AM 1010.

Holder explains why most of what flies around owners meetings and various draft chatter is baloney. Plus Holder talks about the Bucs possibly drafting left tackle Matt Kalil, Quincy Black returning as a “prominent” player, and he ascribes motives to rockstar general manager Mark Dominik’s words. (Click your choice of audio delivery below).

Here’s one for those who want the Bucs to pull the trigger on Trent Richardson. And while Joe doesn’t fall into that category, Joe admits the following now has Joe squirming in his chair just a little.

The premier draft guru in the nation, Mike Mayock of NFL Network, has now reversed course on Richardson after intensive film study on the top running back in the draft. Previously, Mayock, a former NFL safety, didn’t have Richardson in his top-5. Via ProFootballTalk.com, Mayock is now pounding the drum for the Bucs to grab the Alabama RB.

“Boy was I wrong,” Mayock said of suggesting Richardson might get out of the Top 10. “He’s going in the Top 10. Let’s face it, if the two quarterbacks [Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III] go 1-2, and the Vikings are not in the market for a tailback at No. 3 because of Adrian Peterson, this kid is going 4, 5 or 6. He’s the best tailback I’ve seen come out since the aforementioned Adrian Peterson. He brings toughness, he brings speed, he brings pass protection.”

Mayock said that if the Browns pass on Richardson at No. 4, he can’t see why the Bucs would pass on him at No. 5. Mayock said Richardson running behind the Buccaneers’ offensive line in Greg Schiano’s offense could have a big impact as a rookie.

“Trent Richardson might be the best position player in this draft,” Mayock said. “I watched 150 of his carries today. I watched every catch he made on tape today. . . . I watched every pass protection I could find in about a 10-game span, and he might be the best pass-protecting running back in this draft also. So when you talk about toughness and perhaps the best positional player in the entire draft, I think if he is available at No. 5, with that offensive line, they’ve got to pull the trigger.

While the Bucs can get good, complementary running backs for LeGarrette Blount in the draft and via free agency, Joe can’t be certain rockstar general manager Mark Dominik isn’t having the same assessments as Mayock and doesn’t want to be known as the guy that passed on Trent Richardson.

Then there’s Greg Schiano’s repeatedly stated commitment to the running game. Joe even had a chance last week to have a cozy, off-the-record chat with Schiano and the head coach was eager to further define that commitment at Joe’s request. 

Maybe the Bucs will draft Richardson? If nothing else, Mayock’s high-profile and likely accurate grading of Richardson is sure to drive up interest in possible draft-day trade offers to the Bucs for the No. 5 pick — if Richardson is still on the board.

See what happens when NFL types get together whether it’s the Super Bowl or the combine or the NFL owners meetings? News happens.

Today’s nugget of news is typed out by Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times who got a few words in with Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik this morning at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach.

Among the wide variety of subjects Dominik discussed was that Bucs fans should settle and embrace the crop of linebackers currently on the Bucs roster.

In short, Dominik says he’s not going to chase any more linebackers. Not now anyway.

As for the linebacker position – which has been under much scrutiny because the team has elected not to make any linebacker signings – Dominik said the priority is to allow the new coaching staff to work with the current players before drawing firm conclusions. The Bucs will have a new defensive system, which they’ll start learning when coaches and players are permitted to begin working together on April 2.

The Bucs will have a minicamp in mid-April, before the NFL Draft.

“I think they have to get to know the guys a little bit better,” Dominik said of the coaches. “They haven’t even had a chance to be in the classroom to actually learn anything. Until our guys get to line up and actually occupy the three (linebacker) spots, and then we get that minicamp before the draft, that’s going to be an education for everybody. The classroom is going to be the key.”

In Joe’s eyes Dominik is playing a well thought out, reasoned game of poker here. He knows the linebackers need an upgrade, if for no other reason than it appears Geno Hayes won’t be back, unless of course the Bucs are planning on starting pass rushing specialist Dekoda Watson.

The same reasoning Dominik gave for not courting a linebacker could have been said for the wide receiver position, the offensive line and secondary, all areas where the Bucs have made personnel moves in recent days.

Dominik’s words are basically twofold: One is to the London Fletchers of the world: the Bucs will welcome you with open arms but are not going to overpay. Also, not long from now is the second free agent period, the time before training camp when teams cut veterans.

A diamond in the rough very well could be found in May or June. At this point, it doesn’t pay for Dominik to be aggressive for a linebacker.