It was a bad year to have an ugly season and emerge with a pile of available salary cap money.

That was the word from one NFL executive. [read more]

How would UCLA DE Owamagbe Odighizuwa look in pewter and red?

OK, so free agency, unless the Bucs are looking for bargains at depth, is over. Given how the Bucs “won” free agency season last spring, Joe is happy the Bucs lost so terribly this spring.

Just a hunch, but Joe’s guessing Team Glazer is happy Nexium can be purchased over the counter now. [read more]

The spreadsheeters find an interesting nugget

There are only three things you need to know about the 2014 Bucs offense:

1. The starting quarterback was jettisoned well before the free agency dinner bell rang. Never made it to an OTA.

2. The Bucs will likely draft a quarterback first overall. [read more]

No, Joe can’t come to grips with the Woody Hayes crowd, the same crowd that cries “defense wins championships” in a quarterback-driven league, like a neighbor’s dog howling at the moon at 2 a.m. [read more]

How dare the Tennessee Titans invite the heir apparent to the Tampa Bay throne to their Nashville facility for a private workout!

And Jameis Winston accepted, per ProFootballTalk.com and 24/7 Sports. [read more]

Joe vividly remembers eating eggs, melon and toast with Lovie Smith at last year’s NFL Owners meetings and hearing Lovie say he signs free agents who plan to be starters. [read more]

According to NFL.com, Sterling Moore, the Cowboys’ part-time nickel cornerback last year, finished the season with 12 passes defensed.

In Tampa, starters Johnthan Banks and Alterraun Verner combined for 19. [read more]

Joe was torn about the Greg Hardy sweepstakes.

Joe thoroughly understood why folks didn’t want Hardy and his legal problems infesting the Bucs locker room. But on the other hand, it’s rare to have a team without a proven double-digit sack artist, like the Bucs have been for a decade. [read more]

Boston College center on Bucs’ radar.

Joe has been adamant that the Bucs should draft nothing but offensive linemen after they select Jameis Winston, followed their choice of an edge rusher.

Between the two milk cartons O-linemen the Bucs drafted last year, and whoever they draft this year, one would suspect a decent lineman or two would shake out from that group. [read more]

A prominent voice on the Buccaneers beat says Tampa Bay has a personality issue with one of this year’s elite quarterback prospects. [read more]

Yes, many Bucs fans were angered  when the Bucs pulled out of the Greg Hardy sweepstakes yesterday, watching the proven double-digit sackmeister run off to Dallas without even slapping skin in Tampa.

Joe understands why the Bucs, eventually, passed. Most fans didn’t. [read more]

Now that the rage and hopelessness over the loss of Greg Hardy to the Cowboys has subsided a bit, it’s time for a dose of reality.

The contract Hardy signed with Dallas would have been worthless to Tampa Bay. [read more]

Yes, Bucs fans were angry their team passed on sackmeister defensive end Greg Hardy yesterday. The vast majority  wanted Hardy, though there were some unnerved by Hardy’s legal hassles. [read more]

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.

It’s Joe’s daily nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback ever to wear No. 5 in the state of Florida. [read more]

A man who understands the barbecue pain of Buccaneers left guard Logan Mankins is his former teammate, Patriots free agent right guard Dan Connolly.

Connolly, who took over spatula duties for the Super Bowl champs, has caught the interest of the Buccaneers. [read more]

Dante Fowler with the No. 1 overall pick?

Joe has long maintained Bucs coach Lovie Smith is thoroughly unpredictable when it comes to personnel.

Just look at last year, for example: It feels like yesterday when Lovie dismissed Joe’s question about whether Lovie had reservations because Jeff Tedford had no NFL experience. [read more]

The Buccaneers’ glass is half full. The team is “on the verge,” says Lovie Smith. There is no need to panic.

Tampa Bay officials rest comfortably knowing the team lost eight games last year by six points or less. [read more]

Could the antics of oily Drew Rosenhaus have chased the Bucs away from Greg Hardy?

Updated 4:04 p.m. Joe asked a Bucs source last week whether Greg Hardy was too toxic to pursue, given his dicey legal problems in recent months.

Joe was told, “There is interest.” How much interest, Joe didn’t know. [read more]

Mike Mayock may have solved the puzzle of why the Bucs pulled out of the Greg Hardy sweepstakes.

It is clear now, barring something totally unforeseen, free agent defensive end Greg Hardy will not wear a Buccaneers uniform unless he is at a costume party.

Many outlets are reporting the Bucs have bowed out of the Hardy running.So for the 11th straight season (unless the Bucs draft a defensive end), Tampa Bay will keep looking for a guy who can get double-digit sacks from the edge.

[read more]

A new report says the Buccaneers’ dance with elite pass rusher has ended without a kiss. [read more]

You can read Gerald McCoy’s enthusiastic and cryptic Tweet here.

Joe’s assuming it is connected to the Buccaneers’ courting of bad boy defensive end Greg Hardy. Or, knowing McCoy, it could be the upcoming release of a new comic book. Joe would wager on the former.

Demar Dotson is an almost average starting right tackle. At left tackle, he’s a project, almost a fantasy because he’ll turn 30 years old this year.

So that leaves the Bucs with developmental second-year man Kevin Pamphile at left tackle, and a whole lot of fingers crossed. [read more]