Jeff Demps

Joe’s not an accountant and typically is bored by salary cap chatter and other football-business-related stuff. However, new changes to the NFL practice squad eligibility have a potential impact on the Bucs. So Joe’s paying attention. [read more]

Tampa Bay will shovel $9 million into the vault of safety Dashon “Hawk” Goldson this season.

Joe’s raising a late-morning cold one in hopes Hawk has a phenomenal year, because that’s likely what it will take for him to wear Bucs colors next season. [read more]

Lovie Smith loves EDS.

Grousing has already begun about some Bucs free agents, but there is one free agent that has caught the eye of Bucs coach Lovie Smith. In a very good way.

His name is Evan Dietrich-Smith.

When most of the offensive line did its best to impersonate turnstiles in the first preseason game at Jacksonville, there were two players who escaped with their dignity intact. That would be right tackle Demar Dotson and starting center EDS. [read more]

Lovie Smith’s public flogging of Tim Wright could simply be a motivational tactic for the second-year tight end, perhaps even a bizarre smokescreen for the Panthers.

After all, Wright, as a rookie playing a brand new position, caught 54 balls and five touchdowns last season. He’s a valuable 24-year-old talent. [read more]

Yes, Joe knows it is preseason and the real bullets don’t begin flying until Sept. 7, when the Stinking Panthers come to Tampa to start the NFL regular season. Still, Joe senses a bubbling murmur under the surface.

That vibration isn’t a faraway earthquake or a nighttime freight train rolling through. No, it is Bucs fans’ sense of frustration about their 2014 free agent class. [read more]

Want to know aboutrecent movies like “Godzilla” or “America?” Or how about which is better, “The Godfather” or “Goodfellas?” Bucs cornerback Alterraun Verner might be able to help you out.

Since Verner has been sidelineed virtually since the start of training camp with a nasty hamstring, he explained to the Tampa Bay pen and mic club yesterday that he wasn’t just standing on the sidelines fashioning a floppy hat. He was watching so much film while his teammates were working out that he felt like he was turning into an NFL version of Roger Ebert. [read more]

Bucs DE Michael Johnson is among the Bucs’ walking wounded Lovie Smith revealed.

The Bucs defense is starting to resemble an infirmary with so many players hurt or fighting through an injury of some sort.

It is worrisome, especially now that the prized jewel of the Bucs free agent spending spree this spring, defensive end Michael Johnson, has been felled. [read more]

Bucs DT Akeem Spence explains the Bucs defense is not only ready for opponents, but also the Bucs’ up tempo offense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the headline is dumb on face value. Of course a defense will prepare for an offense. But with Lovie Smith’s Bucs, it’s more than that.

It seems Lovie is preparing his defense to handle the effects of Jeff Tedford’s offense. [read more]

McCown also shares what’s new to him in the Bucs offense

The Bucs’ offensive line engaged in NFL-caliber blocking on Saturday against Miami. How refreshing. The first-team offense even had a 25-yard touchdown drive.

But Josh McCown is looking for much more on Saturday in Buffalo. [read more]

The rash of Bucs injuries, in particular to the defense, is starting to unnerve some Tampa Bay fans, and if you believe the words typed by Peter King himself, the Bucs are shopping for secondary help.

Alterraun Verner already stated he isn’t sure if he is 100 percent ready to play Saturday in Buffalo. To add to fans’ angst, it sure doesn’t look like fellow corner Rashaan Melvin will be ready to go either. [read more]

Bucs rookie WR Mike Evans is learning basic football fundamentals on the highest level of the game.

One reason rookies don’t always shine when they get to the NFL is the much tougher competition. That’s a no-brainer. But there is yet another big reason.

In college, often, stars are going against children, freshmen or sophomores who can’t yet buy alcohol (legally). In the NFL, you are going up against grown-arse men. No boys, here. [read more]

Getting Alterraun Verner on the game field and making his Tampa Bay debut isn’t necessarily in the immediate future.

Verner explained to media today at One Buc Palace that he hasn’t really tested his bum hamstring yet. [read more]

In some ways, Joe leans back in his comfy high-back leather chair in his home office and roars out loud. It’s almost like a cheesy 1960s James Bond knockoff where a sixtysomething evildoer holds a hottie spy hostage in an underwater Caribbean lair in some diabolical plot to break out stolen nukes and rule the world.

Only this is the NFL and Jeff Tedford is the sixtysomething guy. But to the best of Joe’s knowledge, Tedford doesn’t have Rachel Watson lassoed in Lovie Smith’s notorious basement, mainly because Floridians don’t have basements. [read more]

Practice starts 30 minutes early for Gerald McCoy.

That’s his personal rule. McCoy is on the field 30 minutes before he’s supposed to be, and he’s never alone. [read more]

Bucs G Patrick Omameh thanks his teammates for making him a better player.

Offensive line play was such a trainwreck against Jacksonville, the debut of the Lovie Smith-endorsed Jeff Tedford offense, that any guy walking around with a white can could see changes needed to be made.

Had changes not been made, quarterback Josh McCown’s life insurance would have been canceled. It was brutal to watch and painful to remember. [read more]

The Bucs had so much confidence in Doug Martin’s pass-catching prowess they drafted running back Charles Sims in the third round primarily for his elite pass-catching ability.

Draft a guard to block for Martin? Nope. Draft a running back who would limit Martin’s touches out of the backfield. [read more]

The Bucs play a total of six games a year against the hated Dixie Chicks, the Stinkin’ Panthers, and the bounty-loving Saints. For those who want to snoop on the Bucs’ hated rivals, Joe provides a regular glimpse at what’s happening around the NFC South. [read more]

DL Will Gholston got heartfelt praise from Lovie Smith yesterday.

Yes, readers of this here corner of the Interwebs know Joe is a Will Gholston kind of guy. After hearing about his nightmarish upbringing and getting to meet Gholston — Joe isn’t about to say he knows any Bucs player — it is hard not to pull for the guy.

We all know his Bucs story. He began on the fringe of the bubble, an uphill climb to even make last year’s squad. [read more]

Goodbye, Eric Page. Thanks for being the 13th-ranked punt returner in the NFL last season, among players with 15 or more returns. Joe’s writing your Bucs eulogy this morning.

Lovie Smith is going with a rookie at punt returner, a rookie who happens to be older than you and a guy who didn’t even return punts in college. [read more]

Bucs TE and fan favorite Luke Stocker received high praise from Lovie Smith yesterday.

A sect of Bucs fans cannot wait to run certain players from the team. Yes, Joe joined these folks when it came to the likes of Sabby the Goat and Myron Lewis, to name a couple. It seems this season, these fans have aimed their ire at tight end Luke Stocker.

In his fourth season, Stocker’s days have been injury-riddled and forgettable, largely because it is hard to remember him being on the field. When he played, he didn’t always have reliable hands.

With Tim Wright already on board and the Bucs going out and getting Brandon Myers in free agency, and then surprising the NFL world by selecting Austin Seferian-Jenkins, it seemed like Stocker was on the endangered species list. [read more]

Lovie Smith changed his tone on Alterraun Verner this afternoon

Bucs fans feeling the urgency of opening day in just 20 days – 20 days — will like the message from Lovie Smith today.

The head coach says he needs bodies on the field against Buffalo on Saturday otherwise the team will have a setback. [read more]