This information didn’t appear on Rick Stroud’s Twitter account, and it wasn’t mysteriously deleted from his Twitter account after appearing in another publication, so it might be true.

During a live chat on TampaBay.com yesterday, Stroud, the St. Pete Times Bucs beat writer, was asked why new left guard Keydrick Vincent wasn’t listed as a starter for the preason opener in Miami on Saturday.

Stroud told the questioner that he’s been told Vincent is already the starter against Cleveland on opening day.

The Bucs went with the returning starters on the chart for this first preseason game. Sabby was listed as the starting safety, but I don’t know if that’s going to be the case, either. He’s benefitted from the competition with Sean Jones. But Zuttah is the returning. My sources tell me Vincent will start against the Browns. He’s way more physical and fits what they want to do in the running game this year.

Joe’s not buying that Vincent is the starter already and, therefore that the preseason is a mere charade for Jeremy Zuttah.

Joe has written previously that Zuttah should be starting if he and Vincent perform similarly in preseason.

Bill Cowher, however, speaking on Sirius NFL Radio yesterday, likes what Vincent, his former player in Pittsburgh brings to the table.

“Keydrick Vincent will bring a mentality,” Cowher said. “This is a very young football team trying to implement some veterans in certain parts. You have Earnest Graham [at fullback]. Now on the offensive line, a guy like Keydrick Vincent gives them a veteran, a guy who’s been on winnng football teams.

“He brings a toughness in the running game from Carolina, Baltimore, and we had him in Pittsburgh. He gives them experience, toughness and a little bit of depth. These are three teams that really ran the football.”

Joe’s anxious to see how Jeremy Trueblood changes his play, if at all, in a contract year, as he’s in this season.

“Dunderhead,” as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune once labeled him, hasn’t exhibited the necessary level of control on the field in past seasons, which has led to numerous penalties.

Listening to linemate Davin Joseph talk about Trueblood on Sirius NFL Radio on Wednesday, Joe didn’t get the feeling Joseph was expecting any behavioral changes from Trueblood. Movin’ The Chains co-host Pat Kirwan sure didn’t seem to think a renaissance is in the cards, either

Pat Kirwan: Maybe the craziest guy I’ve ever saw at the Senior Bowl, Jeremy Trueblood. Procedure penalties, physical guy, roughneck, way past the whistle when he feels like it. … Talk about playing next to him.

Davin Joseph: He’s so reckless. But that’s what you got to love about him. I tell you, it’s just understood. We play both the same way. I just keep mine not so … I’m mellow compared to him. He’s a little dramatic. But it’s been wonderful playing next to him. …Just the chemistry, you know the Sundays, the great times, the bad times, the having a guy that you feel like has your back and can play at your level at all times is a gift. You know, Barrett [Ruud] probably experienced that with [Derrick] Brooks, when he was playing here. And having a guy next to you to can depend on makes your job a lot easier. And he’s about as tough, and physical and relentless as you can make them.

Joe’s a big believer in cash motivating people to extraordinary achievements.

Trueblood has a fat contract and a great career in front of him if he can manage to control himself this season. Trueblood is a pretty smart guy, despite his play. So Joe suspects he’s going to find a way to get it done.

There have been countless good right tackles who managed to be tough guys without hurting their teams over and over. It shouldn’t be that hard for Trueblood.

FoxSports.com’s Jay Glazer learns to drive in a Bay area August afternoon thunderstorm just before he has a sit down with Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

Joe’s continuing to bring you bits and pieces of the Sirius NFL Radio tour stop at One Buc Palace yesterday which was nothing short of sports radio gold. (“Gold Jerry, gold!”).

Joe’s REALLY using every ounce of his energy not to go totally postal on what passes for sports radio locally. Thirty percent is quite good. Seventy percent, well, the abject morons that make up this percentage need to work in an industry more befitting their talents, such as telemarketing or perhaps a late-night Dennys shift.

The subject of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman’s mechanics came up as the co-hosts of “Movin’ the Chains,” Pat Kirwan, Tim Ryan and special co-host Bill Cowher broke down what ails Freeman’s feet.

Joe brings you the words verbatim from men who know what they are talking about:

Tim Ryan:  There have been sailing passes on Freeman. His footwork [in practice] looked so much more improved that he can set his feet and throw with accuracy.

Bill Cowher:  Mechanics suffer early [for a rookie quarterback] because you are thinking about what you are doing, where you are going, what you are seeing. Now, [Freeman] can be more conscious of his footwork. Plus, with a young quarterback, there’s a lot of coaching and a lot of people in his ear. That causes a lot of disruption. That can trickle down to mechanics.

Pat Kirwan:  I’ll tell you what the problem was: He had people around his feet. He is big and can get weight on his front foot. But his line wasn’t great last year and the coaches thought he could go to a three-step drop because he is so big and tall.

But the rush was able to get at him because the line wasn’t blocking that well on the three-step drops. When you have people at your feet, it’s easy not to have good footwork.

Kirwan’s analysis may have hit a bulls-eye. Later, while interviewing Davin Joseph, the Bucs right guard said the Bucs were working on run blocking, not pass blocking, when a three-step drop pass is called in order to keep traffic away from Freeman.

Now this breakdown folks is why Joe pays good money to have Sirius NFL Radio. Yesterday was four hours of football analysis like the aforementioned, all specifically about the Bucs.

It also doesn’t hurt that Joe can also listen to Howard Stern as well.

Perhaps the first thing Raheem The Dream had to do when he got the Bucs job was assess his own strengths and weaknesses as a head coach.

It seems he failed out of the gate.

Per Barrett Ruud, speaking to co-host Pat Kirwan on Movin’ The Chains on Sirius NFL Radio yesterday, Raheem The Dream never thought he could be defensive coordinator and head coach. Of course, that led to the heinous Jim Bates Experience.

Pat Kirwan: Raheem Morris, I don’t want to talk about this with rookies because they don’t know. But you know. How much has he changed? Is he relaxed? What is he doing? I love that he runs the scout team still.

Barrett Ruud: I think the best thing is that he just has a comfort zone. I remember early on when he got the coaching job, he didn’t think he’d be able to be a head coach and run the defense. And now if you ask him the same question he goes, ‘I don’t know how I couldn’t run the defense and be a head coach.” …Tony Dungy used to run the scout team, too. And it’s actually a good thing because the hardest thing to do is run the scout team — to get the scout team to play hard. And when your head coach is telling you what to do, it makes you go a lot harder.

Joe’s glad Raheem The Dream has improved his talent evaluation skills — starting with himself.

Joe just hopes he gets to manage his current roster without being pestered by annoying phone calls.

While Joe was watching the mini-Bucs reunion last night on Pros vs. Joes, it saddened this Joe to watch Derrick Brooks lower himself to this level.

Suiting up for a fake football exhibition where a couple of clowns who couldn’t even play football in a BCS conference school much less stick on an NFL practice squad heaped tons of verbal abuse on guys like Brooks and Warrick Dunn. It was a stunt more fitting for someone like Lawrence Taylor.

Not Derrick Brooks.

At least today, a guy like Brooks will be on a much more dignified stage: at One Buc Palace where he and the Bucs, bad blood set aside, will celebrate the career of one of the greatest linebackers to play in the NFL and perhaps the best player to wear the Bucs uniform (no worse than second-best).

Some 18 months after he was thrown to the curb like a used cheeseburger wrapper, Brooks and the Bucs have patched things up. Raw nerves have healed. Brooks is back in the Bucs family writes Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune.

“The thing I’m impressed with is that Derrick has been able to let go faster than I was,” Lynch said. “I had wounds that stuck with me a little longer. I had a chip on my shoulder in Denver, and that bothers me to this day. I wasn’t motivated to just play good football there; I wanted to show certain people I still had something left.

“When the Bucs released Derrick I’m sure it burned him inside, but he was able to let it go and understand it was a business decision. He is at peace.”

That is the image, aside from the player, Joe will always have of Brooks: not some guy lowering himself so a couple of wannabe punks act hip and talk trash for a cheap payday to a dignified man of Brooks’ stature.

No, Joe will remember a man who is big enough to forgive others’ sins on a very public stage.

Lucky for JoeBucsFan.com readers, Joe is unlike his media brethren and is not afraid to deliver you loads of Bucs news from Sirius NFL Radio.

It’s pretty simple: The NFL has a radio station. It covers the Buccaneers. So therefore Joe lets you know all the great stuff you’re missing.

On Wednesday, NFL Radio sent Movin’ The Chains hosts Pat Kirwan, Tim Ryan and special guest Bill Cowher to Bucs training camp to spend four hours talking Bucs football and interviewing players, Raheem The Dream and Mark Dominik. For Joe, this was almost as glorious as Rachel Watson asking him to apply sunscreen to 96 percent of her body.

The Movin’ The Chains crew got hold of Josh Freeman and hit him with a pile of Xs and Os questions. For those not used to down-and-dirty football interviews with Buccaneers players, prepare to be aroused.

Bill Cowher: Do you have some leeway now in this offense? Do you feel like you have a good grasp of it. The ability to maybe check plays based on what your seeing. How do you feel about all that?

Josh Freeman: Yeah. No doubt. Starting out when I first got in last year, I mean the checks were very minimal. Later in the year they started opening up a little more, putting some alerts on certain plays. And giving me the opportunity to audible versus certain looks. But I mean this year, it’s like, ‘hey, if you see it, and you’re 100 percent sure, go with what you feel is best.’

Cowher: Have you practiced a lot of one-minute drills already in this camp?

Freeman: Oh, yeah. Definitely. I feel like that’s an area where I thrive because I get to go out and I get to call the plays. I understand we’ve only been going against our defense so far. But I mean I understand what our defense tries to do in those hurry up situations. … Ask Raheem, they haven’t stopped us yet.

Pat Kirwan: Talk about protections. Are you invovled with calling them.?  Is Jeff Faine handling it? How are you involved?

Freeman: Last year Jeff Faine was 100 percent or nearly 100 percent calling the protections. But this year they’re putting a lot of that on my shoulders. …From a quarterback’s perspective, being able to read the secondary players, the rotation a little better, I mean the majority of the protection calls are falling on my shoulders.

Tim Ryan: That’s got to help you in the 3rd-and-3-to-5. We all look at situations. ..That’s a manageable area. That’s what you want. You guys have to get better there.

Freeman: No doubt. Our stats in 3rd-and-3-to-5, they were terrible. They were bad. There’s no hiding that. But it’s definitely an area that we put a lot of emphasis on in OTAs and also early on in camp. So I can see us improving and being dramatically better in that phase.

Ryan: Do me a favor? Can you use those big legs and run the rock this year? Because I think that’s a big, big asset that wasn’t probably utilized enough. Ask [Cowher and Kirwan], they know a quarterback that uses his legs, you’re going to change coverages and do other things because you have that threat from the waist down.

Freeman: No doubt. We catch a lot of man-to-man, but hopefully we won’t see as much this year because those young receivers are able to do a lot of things. But I like seeing two-man, and we really didn’t see a whole lot two-man. …But this weekend Miami has shown a lot of tendencies with their new defensive coordinator …they play a lot of two-man in a lot of third down situations. So look for me this weekend to take off a couple of those times. Yeah, if it opens up I have no problem with running. 

Kirwan: Winslow, can you feel his routes when you see him down the field in a stem? Can you tell what he’s going to do on a Y choice?

Freeman: Oh, yeah. Kellen does an excellent job. I mean there’s no indecision about what he’s doing. I’ve worked with the guy enough. You can tell all his moves, which one’s kind of a fake, which one’s kind of a stutter going that direction. But he finds a way to find those open areas.

Ahhhhh, the joys of Sirius NFL Radio. Of course, Joe will have more for you today and tomorrow.

Joe’s nervous about Freeman’s increased responsibilities. They’ll make him a better quarterback, but also probably lead to more mistakes.

All part of the painful process of building a “lasting contender.”

A pair of good guys Joe greatly respects, veteran columnist Gary Shelton and sports media watchdog Tom Jones, both of the St. Petersburg Times, take a look at Derrick Brooks’ impact on the Bucs and what may be in Brooks’ future.

It's been a tough road for No. 92

It’s no secret that JoeBucsFan.com is a media partner of the Buccaneers flagship radio station, WDAE-AM 620.

This means Joe gets a lot of love from the station — online and on-air, among other perks — and Joe returns the love and helps provide their unmatched online Bucs coverage.

BucsCountry.com is where you can find all that online Bucs coverage. Today the site quotes Raheem The Dream saying defensive tackle Brian Price is “six or so practices behind.”

Price has been very limited with a hamstring injury, and Joe is depressed. The kid needs the reps, and he might not play Saturday.

The thought of Ryan Sims seeing the field against the Browns is enough to drive Joe to hard liquor.

Adam Schein of Sirius NFL Radio has made no secret of what he thinks of the current state of the Bucs.

It isn’t pretty.

And though it appears the Bucs may have hit a few homers in the draft, and Schein has moderately warmed to Bucs general manager Mark Dominik, Schein is not yet convinced the Bucs have a prayer of a winning season in 2010.

While pimping the Sirius NFL Radio training camp tour stop at One Buc Palace this afternoon at 3 p.m., Schein again explained why he’s not drinking the Kool-Aid while he and his co-host of “The Blitz,” Rich Gannon, discussed the Bucs this morning.

Adam Schein:  The Bucs are paper-thin at wide receiver. I don’t know what to think of the quarterback — he didn’t have as good of a rookie year as Matthew Stafford or Mark Sanchez. They have major questions on defense. The head coach is not ultra-skilled at game management… I know this is the time of the year to be optimistic, but Rich, I’m having a hard time trying to come up with positive things to say about the Bucs.

Rich Gannon:   I want to see something out of Josh Freeman. I am worried about how inexperienced they are at wide receiver. The defense, they need to get the two new guys inside to play really well early or they will struggle.

I think this is a team that will struggle. I don’t seem them having a winning record and it might be slightly better than last year’s 3-13 that they had last year.

While Joe doesn’t totally buy what Schein says, Schein does reinforce  the main issue Joe has with the Bucs making a run at a winning record this season: The Bucs are relying on way too many rookies to have splash seasons in their first year.

It’s a reach to expect Gerald McCoy, Brian Price, Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams each to have average NFL years all in their rookie seasons. That’s what it will take for the Bucs to make a playoff run.

Welcome to Disney, where if something’s ugly or doesn’t fit the agenda of the month, it can not be tolerated.

The story below this one, that Joe posted at 2 p.m., includes a link to a Pat “Vacation Man” Yasinskas column that included a damning story told by Yasinskas about Doug Williams giving away Bucs gear at a local barber shop.

But the Bucs have also botched a lot of other departures throughout their history. It took years after Doug Williams’ original departure for the wounds to heal. The team accomplished that when they brought Williams back as a personnel guy. Then, they absolutely blew that bridge up again when they pushed Williams out the door a few months back.

I live in Tampa and I know this for a fact. Williams walked into a Tampa barber shop recently and was giving away the last of his Buccaneers’ golf shirts and saying he’ll never wear them again. That’s a shame and it probably never should have come to that point. But it has and it’s too late to repair the latest Williams fiasco.

Yet now, these two paragraphs above have been deleted from the ESPN.com columnn.

Shame on you, BSPN. Or shame on you, Vacation Man, for whatever shame caused you to delete those two paragraphs.

Maybe Mark Dominik has Yasinskas on speed dial, too.

While Doug Williams has yet to give the media his on-the-record thoughts about his departure from the Bucs this offseason, Pat “Vacation Man” Yasinskas, of BSPN, says Williams is treating the Bucs like a back-stabbling uncle he never wants to see again.

Today, on his NFC South blog, Vacation Man details some of Williams’ Bucs-loathing activities in Tampa.

But the Bucs have also botched a lot of other departures throughout their history. It took years after Doug Williams’ original departure for the wounds to heal. The team accomplished that when they brought Williams back as a personnel guy. Then, they absolutely blew that bridge up again when they pushed Williams out the door a few months back.

I live in Tampa and I know this for a fact. Williams walked into a Tampa barber shop recently and was giving away the last of his Buccaneers’ golf shirts and saying he’ll never wear them again. That’s a shame and it probably never should have come to that point. But it has and it’s too late to repair the latest Williams fiasco.

Now Joe is a bit skeptical of Vacation Man’s story. If Vacation Man actually was in the barber shop (the only way he could “know for a fact,” then surely he would have just said so.

But if Vacation Man wasn’t there, perhaps he got word from Williams himself.

Joe just hopes the Bucs haven’t completely bungled their relationship with Williams, a true franchise icon.

[UPDATE, 2:53 p.m.: As pointed out by Steve White, the last paragraph Joe cited in the Yasinskas item has mysteriously vanished from his BSPN.com NFC South blog. Wouldn’t be the first time the Stalinists in Bristol censored one of its own.]

Former NFL safety Matt Bowen identifies five rookies to watch while you soak in just about every preseason game this weekend on NFL Network.

What? You don’t have the NFL Network? (Joe will spare you the lose-the-skirt/Outhouse Networks rant today).

No surprise that Bowen, who writes for NationalFootballPost.com, picks Bucs wide receiver Mike Williams in his top 5 to watch in hopes we’re better able to see how his mad talent translates on the NFL gridiron. Has there ever been so much hype surrounding a fourth round pick?

Mike Williams, WR, Tampa

Rookie receivers are always hard to judge. They are inconsistent and once we see them in game action, our opinions often change. But, for Williams, he looks the part so far. Talk to anyone down in Tampa and they will tell you how good he has looked this offseason and so far in training camp. Williams has top-tier skill when we look at what he can do on the field, and now he just has to have a mature, professional attitude to keep up the momentum. I want to see him stretch the field and make plays in the red zone this August — where he can develop into a top target for QB Josh Freeman. Still some questions to ask. Can he convert routes vs. pressure looks? Can he beat press-man at the line of scrimmage? How does his top-end speed compare to CBs in this league? Can he block in the run game? Lots of talent with Williams — now he has to show the Bucs he can handle the competition.

It surely will be hard to guage all that if Williams is only out there for one series on Saturday, as Raheem The Dream suggests could happen.

Regardless, Williams and Arrelious Benn will have plenty of chances to show what they can do in the coming weeks. Joe will be giddy if just one becomes a reliable threat.

"Thanks, coach."

Time to man up, Sabby.

That was the message Raheem The Dream delivered to the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, during a live interview on WDAE-AM 620 on Tuesday afternoon.

Duemig asked the head coach whether it is fair to heap criticism on Sabby The Goat, considering he’s a relatively young player in a tough system to master.

Raheem The Dream said it’s not only fair but Sabby The Goat needs to hear the criticism and take it seriously.

“No. I wouldn’t say it’s unfair. In this game we’re all criticized. I’m sure last year I’d be criticized for some of my coaching decisions. But as a man, you know it’s just up to you to get better. So Sabby’s got to take that stuff to heart and come back this year and prepare to get better, ” he said.

Raheem The Dream likened Sabby The Goat’s situation to Jermaine Phillips’s when he struggled before his breakout season at strong safety in 2007. 

“I see no difference in Sabby [compared to Phillips] in what his approach has to be. You can sit around and you can sulk. You can worry about who’s talking to you. Or you can choose a different route,” Raheem The Dream said. “You can go out there and learn to love to be miserable, as Rod Marinelli used to say. And go out there and play your game and be your best self.”

While it’s quite rare for a farmer or a petting zoo operator to lasso a goat, Joe suspects No. 21 is on a very short leash.

Last year, Raheem The Dream called his boss to discuss whether it was OK to give Josh Freeman his first regular season game action. On the surface that wasn’t strange, but the phone call to Mark Dominik was made in the fourth quarter of a blowout loss against New England.

The TV cameras caught it, which raised plenty of eyebrows. And the media demanded Raheem The Dream explain his unorthodox actions.

Now, Raheem The Dream has revealed that in-game chats with him and Dominik are commonplace. In fact, Raheem The Dream said he expects Dominik to call him on Saturday during the Miami-Tampa Bay game to demand personnel changes.

The head coach made the revelation late Tuesday to the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, during a live interview at Bucs practice on WDAE-AM 620.

Steve Duemig: As young as this team is, how hard is it to put them on the sidelines during an exhibition season? …You have a lot of guys you need to evaluate.

Raheem The Dream: Today [at practice]  it was pretty easy. …On gameday it will be a little tougher with Mark upstairs calling me down from the box going, ‘let’s get him out out of there. You know, Rah.’

Raheem The Dream was not joking and went on to explain that managing preseason reps is a tough balancing act.

Joe thinks Dominik calling the head coach during a game to suggest personnel changes is counterproductive meddling.

There should be nobody more qualified than the head coach to make in-game calls. Why exactly does Dominik not trust his head coach’s judgement?

If Raheem The Dream wants to see his first team defensive line get 20 snaps, or if he wants Josh Freeman to play three series with Mike Williams, then so be it. It’s Raheem The Dream’s ass on the line at the end of the season.

Joe can only imagine what Chucky’s profanity-laced reaction would have been if Bruce Allen called him in the second quarter of preseason game and asked him to make a few substitutions.

FoxSports.com’s Jay Glazer, who may get a little too chummy with players, dropped by Bucs training camp recently to tape a series of videos that Joe will bring you throughout the week. In this video, Glazer has a sit down with “the one and only Raheem Morris.”

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video/?vid=f6f671b1-bc98-4180-8d48-2ebe791bff2b&#038;from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_videocentral_player" target="_new" title="Training Camp Party: Raheem Morris">Video: Training Camp Party: Raheem Morris</a>

As Joe stated in a previous post, there really are too many fantastic plays made by Derrick Brooks to try to single out one, though Joe attempted.

Joey Johnston of the Tampa Tribune has a solid piece on TBO.com this morning documenting many of the highlights of Brooks’ career and the impact Brooks made both with the Bucs and on the Tampa Bay community as a whole.

Johnston has a list of what he believes to be the best plays in Brooks’ career. Now Joe wants to hear from his readers. Select from Johnston’s list of Brooks’ best plays and you choose your favorite.

Watch double-nickel, No. 55, Mr. Derrick Brooks announce his retirement.

Just about every Bucs fan knew it was over.

Now, the suspense is over.

Via his official video website derrickbrooks.tv, former Bucs great and future Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks announced his retirement from the NFL.

And thus a career of perhaps the greatest Bucs player in franchise history is over.

Ironically, it comes on the same day that Brooks will appear on a national cable show dismantling some loudmouth wannabe football player on Pros vs. Joes.

To Joe, that appearance told him Brooks was done. No way Brooks would ever agree to a stunt like that if he still held out hope he could still play in the NFL.

eye-RAH! of the Tampa Tribune documents the details.

“This is my official retirement announcement,” Brooks said in the video. “I simply want to say thank you to all you fans who supported Derrick Brooks as well as the Buccaneers throughout my 14 years.”

An announcement from the club is expected later today.

The league’s Defensive Player of the Year during Tampa Bay’s 2002 championship season, Brooks registered a franchise-record 2,196 career tackles in 14 seasons, almost twice as many stops as runnerup Ronde Barber. He made the Pro Bowl 11 times, including 10 consecutive seasons beginning in 1997, and he’ll be initially eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2014.

There are too many good moments of Brooks’ career for Joe to single out, save for one: When Brooks returned a Rich Gannon interception into the end zone for the Super Bowl-clinching touchdown. Brooks was so overcome with emotion, that Warren Sapp had to help him from the end zone and Brooks later broke down in Chucky’s embrace.

That will forever remain vivid in Joe’s memory.

You were the best, double-nickel.

Mr. Derrick Brooks.

The Bucs will be getting some serious run from a pair of powerful national media outlets today, both on TV and radio.

First, the greatest sports radio channel known to man, Sirius NFL Radio, descends upon One Buc Palace this afternoon as the Sirius NFL Radio training camp tour stops in Tampa.

For the show’s full four hours, “Movin’ the Chains” co-hosts Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan, joined by special co-host Bill Cowher, will talk nothing but Bucs. Expect loads of interviews from the likes of general manager Mark Dominik, coach Raheem the Dream, perhaps also from offensive coordinator Greg Olson and many Bucs players.

There is no other outlet that will break the Bucs down better than Kirwan, Ryan and Cowher. You will likely hear the trio quiz rookie defensive tackle Gerald McCoy on what gaps to play in certain formations. You will likely hear the trio query Josh Freeman about various reads on specific defensive looks and why he makes specific decisions.

If you are into football and into hardcore, nuts and bolts, Xs and Os football, run out to an electronics store now to buy your Sirius radio hardware, or simply sign up to listen online from Sirius.com and thank Joe later.

Once Kirwan, Ryan and Cowher sign off, you’ll have time to have some dinner, and then catch Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn and Jeff Garcia in an episode of Pros vs. Joes on Spike TV. Here’s a clip of tonight’s episode, scheduled to air at 9 p.m.

Can you imagine the stupidity of some guy walking off the streets actually wanting to tangle with Brooks?

No word if Carmella makes an appearance.

Kyle Moore is lean and mean, and one of the legitimate reasons to be hopeful for the 2010 season, so says THE OPTIMIST. JoeBucsFan.com photo by Kyra Hallett.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also wants you to get to know THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

It’s so close now you can smell it; or perhaps that’s the $1 hot dogs the Glazers grilled at Raymond James Stadium on Saturday.

Forget the half-empty stadium at the Falcons-Bucs season finale last year; hope springs anew here in August. But in order for hope to really be believed in, there must be tangible evidence for us to grab hold of. So I present to you some things to sink your claws into for 2010 that should get you not only excited for what could happen, but what eventually will happen this season and beyond.

The defense is not undergoing wholesale changes this year like it was last season. And players are not being asked to do something they were not built/prepared for, instead simply learning some new wrinkles to an old familiar friend; The Tampa-2.

At the heart of this defense is the engine that drives it all, the defensive line. Rookie Gerald McCoy is the key man in the operation, shooting and slicing his way into opposing backfields from his 3-technique stance the way Warren Sapp used to, and old No.99 has been in McCoy’s ear as of late, as well as Brian Price, the fellow rookie who can also provide a speed rush from the right DT position. But Price will man the left DT spot along with second-year man Roy Miller. This, Bucs fans, gives us the most hope we have had in a long time.

Gone are old vets and pinning hope on the recycled careers of Kevin Carter and Ryan Sims, guys who you knew what you were getting because they had given it before.

Now we have guys whose better playing days are in front of them rather than behind, and we get to watch the transition from one to the other on our TV sets (or radios if need be). Kyle Moore has lost the weight he gained from last year’s Jim Bates experiment (debacle) and can operate the left defensive end position, while old timer Stylez White will try to hold kids off the right DE job he has sunk his teeth into since the end of ’09.

These linebackers are no longer part of an experiment, either. Geno Hayes made enough splash plays last year to get another look at the Will linebacker spot, with Double Nickel giving him tips. Quincy Black is as solid at the Sam linebacker spot as Ryan Nece or Cato June has been for the last several years. And Barrett Ruud will get maybe his last full-season opportunity to prive he can be a major impact player as a defensive quarterback in the middle and deserving of the big, long term contract he so covets.

As for the strong secondary, safety Sabby Piscitelli will either put up or shut up at with free agent Sean Jones go head-to-head with him for his job. Some say Jones is already penned in on a depth chart on a desk somewhere, but that remains to be seen.

It is no secret which side of the ball drives this team, no matter what year it is. In 2005, the transition from Brian Griese to Chris Simms was a rocky one, but the No.1 ranked defense gave them time to fix their problems.

It didn’t matter how much productivity you had from the offense in 2006, because losing too many defensive coaches resulted in poor safety play and a poor pass rush.

2010 is no different; this team may sound like its relying on Josh Freeman or Cadillac Williams, or even Kellen Winslow Jr. It is NOT.

It is relying on Raheem Morris to coordinate that defense to keep the games close into the fourth quarter like it did against Seattle and New Orleans on the road last year. How well the rookies play on the defensive line may have the biggest say in how well the Bucs chase or catch the 10-win goal Morris has set for his team.