February 20th, 2015

People are questioning the credibility of Lovie Smith, but how could that be?
On BSPN television yesterday, NFL insider John Clayton, “The Professor,” called Lovie “the most principled coach in football.” [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 44 Comments »
February 20th, 2015
Crab-legs-stealing, BB-gun-shooting, obscenity-hollering, Heisman-Trophy-winning, former national champion Jameis Winston, the pride of Florida State University, continues to look like a much better quarterback prospect than Mike Glennon and Josh McCown.
It’s Joe’s daily nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback to wear No. 5 ever in the state of Florida. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 99 Comments »
February 20th, 2015

Sometime today, quarterback Jameis Winston will step up to this here podium at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Yes, Joe is back at it, braving the minus-four degrees morning of frozen Indianapolis and at Lucas Oil Stadium for the third of the four-day affair open to media.
Thankfully, Indianapolis has cabs.
Today is all about Jameis Winston. He was delayed yesterday during his medicals and couldn’t make it to his planned media session as the place shuts down each day at 5 p.m.
Just like yesterday, there is no timetable, no set schedule on when Winston will appear. We may get 30-seconds warning, we may get five-minutes warning. Winston could walk to the podium in seven minutes or seven hours.
Either way, Joe is here to document his every word.
Posted in Recent Posts | 13 Comments »
February 20th, 2015
The 15-minute official interview the Bucs will give some draft prospects at the NFL Scouting Combine this week can be somewhat silly.
It’s valuable, but 15 minutes is brief for a guy professionally coached how to respond. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 25 Comments »
February 20th, 2015
The Super Bowl champion New England Schianos always seem to land a stud offensive lineman late in the first round of the NFL Draft.
Perhaps that’s a big reason they always pick late in the first round? [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 22 Comments »
February 19th, 2015
It’s widely known that Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota comes from a college spread offense that doesn’t look much like what is seen in the NFC South on any given Sunday. (Neither does the Bucs’ offense, but that’s not the point here.) [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 129 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

When Marcus Mariota stepped up to Podium-C at the NFL Combine media center to have his much anticipated press conference this afternoon, the very first question (which came from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune) asked how he would react if the Bucs drafted Jameis Winston.
Mariota seemed to shrug his shoulders, as if to say, “Your bad.” [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 40 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston was scheduled to speak today before the NFL media of the world in frozen Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. Instead, he got delayed. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 46 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

Marcus Mariota was grilled this afternoon
Marcus Mariota made his debut in front of Joe and hundreds of NFL media today at Lucas Oil Stadium in frozen Indianapolis. He seemed to enjoy some of it – and tired quickly over another element of it. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 19 Comments »
February 19th, 2015
Man, BSPN had a field day this afternoon with the freshly measured hand sizes of quarterback prospects Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 46 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

It seems former Bucs great and Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp washed away a lucrative television career over a low three-figure (each) escapade with two Phoenix, um, escorts. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 28 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

Jameis Winston is not JaMarcus Russell. The comparison is just ignorant.
This is a big day for Bucs Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. He will be baptized into the hungry, cynical world of NFL media, which Joe guesses has many members hellbent on putting Winston on trial for an offense for which he was not charged, but “exonerated” of, as Bucs coach Lovie Smith said yesterday. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 97 Comments »
February 19th, 2015
In many ways, Tampa Bay’s 2014 season was more bizarre than the MRSA-infected, quarterback-gone-mental, Fire-Schiano-billboards campaign of 2013.
There were plenty of real Bucs mysteries last year, and Joe’s revisiting the most interesting of the bunch. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 7 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

Lovie Smith stands firm
Tampa Bay was a free-wheeling, big player in free agency last year. They even made several trades, which is uncommon in the NFL.
So what’s going to happen when the free agency dinner bell rings in 19 short days? [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 20 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

John Harbaugh speaks out on his prized center
Yes, one reason the Bucs were the garbage truck of the NFL last year is they tore apart what the new regime thought was an under-performing offensive line.
No issue in that.
Problem was, in dismantling the offensive line, they made the line worse and matador-like. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 21 Comments »
February 19th, 2015
Crab-legs-stealing, BB-gun-shooting, obscenity-hollering, Heisman-Trophy-winning, former national champion Jameis Winston, the pride of Florida State University, continues to look like a much better quarterback prospect than Mike Glennon and Josh McCown.
It’s Joe’s daily nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback to wear No. 5 ever in the state of Florida. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 89 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

Good morning from frozen Indianapolis, where at 9:16 a.m. it is minus-2 degrees (Fahrenheit) with a wind chill of minus-26.
Folks are beginning to thaw out and stir at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine. There is a buzz as sportswriters are feeling the caffeine, and feeling what today is. It is Jameis Day.
Later, no telling when, Jameis Winston will take the podium for his first press conference as a professional athlete. Yes, Marcus Mariota will do the same.
Joe has tons of stories already, and more to come throughout the day. So keep hitting that F5 button and tell your boss the Bucs are the highest priority.
Posted in Recent Posts | 13 Comments »
February 19th, 2015
A prominent Tampa Bay Buccaneers media voice, who had breakfast with Lovie Smith yesterday, says he believes the Lovie regime will make its first defensive draft pick on Day 2 of the 2015 NFL Draft. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 37 Comments »
February 19th, 2015

Now it’s time for Leslie Frazier and others to dive in
Few eyeballs have seen the Buccaneers’ 2015 draft board.
Back in December, general manager Jason Licht announced his scouting staff gathered for intense meetings, set their draft board and little change was expected after that. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 15 Comments »
February 19th, 2015
Lovie Smith made a “gut decision” on Josh McCown last offseason, and again in November, and they turned into rotted guts for legions of Bucs fans, from the white sands of St. Pete Beach to Plant City and beyond. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 45 Comments »
February 18th, 2015
The Josh McCown free agent parade went through the Bears and Browns yesterday, and there are more teams to come.
This is what happens when you’re one of the first QBs into the free agent market, the free agency dinner bell doesn’t ring for another 19 days, and Josh Freeman is your current competition. [read more]
Posted in Recent Posts | 22 Comments »