The Bucs have a revamped secondary, some talent at linebacker, loads of draft picks on the defensive front line, perhaps a top-five offensive line, stud receivers, and one of the better running backs in the NFL.

Quarterback? It seems many an NFL scribe believes Josh Freeman is a question mark.

Add NFL.com’s Chris Wesseling to the list. He recently appeared with Charlie Bernstein on WHBO-AM 1040 and said the Bucs are on the verge of the playoffs but Freeman’s play will determine how far the Bucs will go and whether they make the playoffs.

“I think they are [a playoff team] in that they are in the category as one of those teams poised to surprise, but I think they are also in the category as one of those teams that will only go as far as their quarterback takes them,” Wesseling said. “So, Jay Cutler, Josh Freeman, Carson Palmer, Sam Bradford, there are a lot of quarterbacks in this group. Are they good enough, can they take it to the next level and become that franchise quarterback?

“[Freeman] is just missing something. He’s not accurate enough, I don’t think. Way too many balls up for grabs. So he is missing something, but he has all the physical ability you would want. My gut tells me he’s not ever going to become that franchise quarterback. But he is just good enough where the Bucs are not going to find someone better easily.

“Reading between the lines as an outsider, it seems like [Bucs rock star general manager] Mark Dominik is a Freeman believer and [Bucs coach Greg] Schiano is a skeptic still, he just wants Freeman to prove he is the answer. And I don’t disagree with that. He does have to prove that. I understand Schiano’s position there.”

Joe cannot disagree wholly with Wesseling. Freeman may not be Ben Roethlisberger, but what quarterback available would be a better option than Freeman? The fact he is going into the final season of his contract speaks volumes. The Bucs did not lock up Freeman to a team-friendly pact.

Still, this season marks some stability for Freeman. One would think he can’t help but improve. With loads of toys to play with, a second year with Mike Sullivan as his coordinator, a second year with Vincent Jackson and Doug Martin, Joe really cannot see how Freeman stumbles this season.

If he does regress, it’s likely he will be wearing a different color jersey in 2014. A lot rides of Freeman’s shoulders this year, both for his teammates and his career.

“Greg, you’ve got plenty of Grade A groceries.”

Some say the Bucs overpaid for All-Pro safety Dashon Goldson in free agency last March.

Joe says, ‘So what if they did?’ The Bucs were desperate to fix a secondary that caused nightmares across the Bay area and laughter across the nation. If Goldson delivers, it won’t matter that he got a fattened payday. Winning salary-cap-management titles are worthless.

NFL Network analysts recently debated the top-impact free agents of 2013 and argued the worth of Ed Reed versus Goldson. The consensus was that Future Hall of Famer Reed (now with Houston) won’t have near the impact of Goldson.

“Dashon Goldson, he’s in the prime of his career, just coming off his sixth season. He’s  durable guy. He plays with a lot of attitude. He’s going to be around a lot of great players,”” Brian Baldinger said.

It’s the last line there that caught Joe’s eye. Baldinger, like so many others, is acknowledging the Bucs’ loaded roster, complete with eight former Pro Bowlers and none older than 30. Then throw in superior talents like Lavonte David and Mike Williams and Josh Freeman.

Barring major injuries, Bucs fans would be well within their rights to stampede if this team delivers a losing record.

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Greg Schiano loves and craves competition.

And great competition goes hand in hand with good depth.

So given those realities, it is easy to wonder what the hell the Bucs were thinking this offseason at defensive end. The Bucs don’t have much depth there, and the DEs they’re banking on, DaQuan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn, haven’t proven to be durable.

NFL.com writer Chris Wesseling, in his Sunday “Making the Leap” feature, looks at DaQuan Bowers’ career and how the Bucs have moved “all-in” with him. Wesseling notes the following:

The Buccaneers’ brass is pushing all of their chips to the center of the table, going all in on Bowers’ perceived pass-rushing upside. The problem is they’re working without a safety net after letting Michael Bennett walk in free agency. If Bowers’ lower legs don’t cooperate, the Bucs’ improving defense will be submarined by its edge-rushing deficiencies.

Forget about letting Bennett and his injured shoulder leave town, not replacing Bennett meant the Bucs opted for less quality competition at the position — from a general manager who has said repeatedly that rushing the passer is one of his top three core beliefs when it comes to building a football team. 

It was a somewhat strange choice, one that will be scrutinized throughout 2013.

What do the Ravens, Patriots, Broncos, Niners and Buccaneers have in common?

They’ve all got a “Top-5” offensive line, per a recent NFL Network breakdown by former All-Pro center Matt Birk. (You can catch the video here.) Another former offensive lineman, Brian Baldinger, doesn’t argue with the Bucs’ ranking at No. 5, but he wants to throw the Seahawks’ O-line into the greatness mix.

Hmmm, look at the caliber of the teams not from Tampa. They’re all powerhouses. Four out of five of them won a playoff game in January.

This makes Joe wonder whether a top-5 offensive line should put the Bucs in the playoffs, especially considering the skill position weapons Josh Freeman has at his disposal.

This is yet another example of what should make this Bucs season so engaging and exciting. The Bucs are absolutely loaded with talent and have, as of now, no excuses.

The folks who own Daytona International Speedway will try to lure NFL games, including Bucs games, when renovations are completed at the 100,000-seat facility.  

This is beginning to become a major irritant to Joe.

Many NFL stadiums are either being upgraded or downright replaced with state-of-the-art facilities, including the Georgia Dome and Bank of America Stadium (Panthers).

Meanwhile, though contractually obligated by a voter-approved referendum, the overseers of the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway, the Tampa Sports Authority, sit on their collective hands, forcing Bucs fans to endure analog JumboTrons and limited amenities that many other NFL fans take for granted.

It seems the people who own Daytona International Speedway are trying to do something about it.

That facility, too, is in the midst of a major makeover, and when complete, the powers that be at the NASCAR institution are trying to lure NFL games to their facility, including a Bucs game (or two), reports the Associated Press.

Track president Joie Chitwood III says he would like to lure football, soccer and rugby games to the famed speedway following its $400 million redesign. Florida, Florida State or even the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be potential candidates to play there.

The track broke ground on the three-year redesign Friday. The project is scheduled to be completed by January 2016.

When it’s done, Daytona’s aging grandstands will have a modern look and feel. There will be wider and more comfortable seating, improved concessions and countless big-screen televisions that will keep fans abreast of the action even when they step away from the stands.

Imagine that, a 100,000-seat facility with HD JumboTrons, likely also broadcasting the Red Zone Channel.

Now, this has about as much of a chance of happening as Joe luring curvy Rachel Watson to his lair this evening. The Bucs playing a home game in Daytona would likely break a lease the Bucs have with the lackadaisical Tampa Sports Authority, no matter how much it could benefit the Bucs, theoretically, or no matter how much NFL fans could benefit. But this isn’t as crazy as it appears on face value, a football game at a NASCAR facility. The owners of the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Tex., have been trying to lure the annual Red River Shootout, Oklahoma vs. Texas, to its track.

Simply put, the crowd who whines incessantly about the Bucs constantly being roughly 5,000 seats short of a sellout may want to start lodging their ire at the bureaucrats at the Tampa Sports Authority. They are obligated to upgrade the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway, and since the stadium has opened, they have made few meaningful upgrades (unless you call a weak few pieces of fake wood thrown together as a party deck an “upgrade.”)

The NFL is in an arms race as far as upgrading facilities. The Tampa Sports Authority is lagging way behind.

While Bucs fans knew how special of a defensive tackle Warren Sapp was in 1997, casual fans likely had no idea what kind of a player Sapp was, or perhaps never heard of him but less saw him.

That all changed when the Bucs traveled to Green Bay to face the Packers in an NFC semifinal game. That day, Packers quarterback Brett Favre and Sapp had a memorable duel before a national audience.

Quickly, even casual fans knew all about Sapp while he sacked Favre three times and forced two fumbles.

Also late in the game, Sapp and Favre got into memorable jawing sessions where it was easy to see both players were having fun, as if they were playing backyard football. Two of the game’s greatest going mano y mano with a great deal at stake, including significant bragging rights.

Sapp reminisced to Joe and other media about the day every NFL fan finally knew his name.

“One of those nice cold days in Green Bay where two country boys went at it,” Sapp said earlier this spring. “We had a good time that afternoon. It was fun. No other game was on [TV] at the time. That’s where you get ingrained in America’s [mindset]. He and I were going back and forth on each other. It was high theater. At one point he goes to the sideline and I am dog-tired and it is third-and-18 and I turned and I’m getting ready to go off and I’m not even looking at the clock but he is, he’s the quarterback, naturally. So it was flipping from third quarter to fourth and he yells at me, ‘Hey, where are you going?’ And I said to myself, ‘It can’t be no one but him.’

“So I go over to chase him and he is going over plays with [Packers coach] Mike Holmgren and he tells Mike, ‘Hold on,’ and he comes back to me. So we have one of those silly moments where he goes, ‘What’s up?’ and I say, ‘Just one more quarter. You come on down here. I will be ready once you finish up with Mike.’ It was one of those silly kind of things. Funny, man. We got caught up in the moment, me and him.”

Of course, the Packers won, but it was Sapp who planted his flag in the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field that day. It was a warning to all other opponents: If you were going to tangle with the Bucs defense in future seasons, you had to figure out a way to stop Sapp.

Not many teams did.

The Buccaneers have rolled out a new feature on Buccaneers.com that has all kinds of fabulous potential. In something called “Read and React,” the Bucs are steering fans toward select media stories and offering organizational feedback/commentary on each piece.

The Bucs have done this previously on a small and very intermittent scale, but now the feature has a fancy name the team is calling it a “series.”

Of note in this week’s edition, the Buccaneers want you know there was plenty of, um, interpretation involved when Tampa Bay Times beat writer Stephen Holder took a sarcastic jab at Greg Schiano’s public endorsement of Josh Freeman on NFL Network last week.

To which Holder reacts: “Well then.  No wavering there. 

“This is only news because Schiano has so often left things open to interpretation when speaking about his quarterback situation. Although most astute NFL observers would agree Glennon is no immediate threat to Freeman, a four-year veteran, Schiano’s open-ended statements raised questions.” 

Of course, in the sidebar to this column, there are five links, which lead to the following stories previously posted on TampaBay.com: 

1. (May 20) “[C]oach Greg Schiano proclaimed – again – that Josh Freeman is the team’s unquestioned starting quarterback.”

2. (May 8) “Bucs draft pick Mike Glennon isn’t a threat to incumbent starting quarterback Josh Freeman, according to general manager Mark Dominik and coach Greg Schiano. Freeman apparently sees things that way, too.”

3. (April 9) “The Bucs, as an organization, aren’t all that concerned about the record-breaking Freeman and the quarterback position.”

4. (April 26) “The Bucs have considered bringing in competition for quarterback Josh Freeman, whose uneven play has frustrated coaches at times. Whether or not Mike Glennon qualifies remains to be seen, but the Bucs must have some conviction about him after selecting him in the third round of the NFL draft tonight.”

5. (April 26) “I think that’s hard with any rookie quarterback. It’s going to be a matter of how quickly he grasps our system. The fact is we have a starting quarterback in Josh Freeman.” – Schiano

You can click through above and read the Bucs’ complete reaction. The point was clear to Joe; the Bucs think Greg Schiano has been pretty darn clear with his message about who is the team’s No. 1 quarterback and Holder’s sarcasm was quite late in the year to be relevant.

Joe loves this new Read and React series. Perhaps the Buccaneers will one day find one of Joe’s takes worthy of dissection.

A lot of Bucs fans point to the Bucs pounding the San Francisco 49ers in the heat and humidity of a midday game at the Old Sombrero in 1997 as the turning point from the Yucs to the powerful Bucs.

Warren Sapp doesn’t disagree. Sapp spoke about this and more to Joe and other reporters this spring, shortly after Sapp learned he’d be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in a few scant weeks.

While Sapp was quick to point out it took hard work off the field, lots of it, to get the Bucs over the hump, Sapp had a fire burning bright inside of him to exact revenge against the 49ers for what happened some 16 years prior.

“You talking about that summer, going 5-3 at the end of the 1996 year, and that Yuc game out in San Diego,” Sapp said. “We are building it. We are coming along. I remember that summer me and Brooks coming in here. We put in some work. We put in some work that year. We were ready to roll. Warrick was with us, so we had some punch (Mike Alstott) and some wiggle. We had a little something in the backfield.

“For me, [the 49ers game] was personal. Cause I was a nine-year old kid watching [Dwight Clark’s] “The Catch” to beat Dallas for the 1981 NFC title]. I was a Cowboys fan. And I cried that night. I remember my brother ragging me for the next three months. “You crybaby, you. You’re soft.” And I remember driving to the stadium [prior to the 1997 49ers game] I was so focused I forgot to leave my homeboy’s tickets at the will call window. They went to will call and there were no tickets. I forgot the tickets I was so focused. [The 49ers] were going to pay for that.”

Sapp vividly remembered the plays where he knocked out Jerry Rice and, later, was in on the tackle where Steve Young took a knee [not Sapp’s] to the head. In the week leading up to the game, Sapp said then-defensive line coach Rod Marinelli harped to Sapp about stopping Rice on an end around.

In fact, Sapp has a permanent reminder of the play he sees daily.

“He’s not getting around me,” Sapp thought. Then, on a particular snap, “I took a bad step and I look up and he was coming. This finger [holds up a bent pinkie finger] is still crooked because of Jerry Rice’s facemask. That pinkie caught it.”

Sapp said he asked Rice if he wanted help up as Rice lay on the field and Sapp wasn’t aware of the extent of Rice’s injury. Rice did not answer Sapp’s offer and Sapp said to himself, “I knew there was something wrong.”

Yes, it is quite possible the Bucs have gone from the worst secondary to the best secondary in the NFL. Joe is doing his best to try to forget that heinous pass defense last year, but it’s like having one of those nightmares where you swear your old man is yelling at you for something, only to wake up.

The Bucs’ horror show of a pass defense is seared into Joe’s brain and likely no amounts of alcohol or hours of counseling will be able to purge that from Joe’s memory banks.

Although one could argue — for how many years now? — the Bucs pass rush is a question mark, Rotoworld.com NFL guru Evan Silva believes free agent pickup Darrelle “Robin” Revis is such a good cornerback (when healthy), he will even help the Bucs’ pass defense. Silva explained while fielding NFL questions last night from his Twitter followers.

@dustinbuescher: Think Bucs have legit playoff shot? Does Revis make secondary that much better?

@evansilva: Yes x 2. He makes pass rush better.

Now this is something the co-host of “Movin’ the Chains,” Tim Ryan, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, told Joe this spring. Ryan said Bucs cornerbacks were so miserable, and wide receivers were so open at the snap of the ball just coming off the line of scrimmage, that opposing quarterbacks were able to get the ball off quickly, making it all but impossible for Bucs’ defensive linemen to even breathe on a quarterback.

Ryan’s theory, and Silva’s as well, is that Revis (and likely, Johnthan Banks) will be able to cover receivers coming off the line right away, which will at least give Bucs’ pass rushers a prayer of disrupting quarterbacks, or making them eat dirt.

One of the highest-drafted safeties in NFL history, Mark Barron showed extreme highs and lows on the field last season. One could say it was a typical rookie year.

But the Bucs didn’t draft Barron with the seventh overall pick in 2012 to be typical.

Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and former chieftain Raheem Morris often said an NFL player makes his biggest leap in development between his first and second seasons, and Barron needs to do just that. He was drafted to cover the new-era “basketball” tight ends like Jimmy Graham, and be a punishing force in the running game.

The table is set perfectly. The Bucs scored a versatile All-Pro safety via free agency, Dashon Goldson, to play alongside Barron, and they grabbed the NFL’s best cornerback, Darrelle Revis, to shorten the field.

Now all Barron must do is live up to his draft status.

Revis has nicknamed himself “Robin” and Goldson “Batman.” While the presence of those two superheroes should be enough to make the Bucs’ secondary respectable, the Bucs can be dominant if Barron can assume more than the role of “Alfred.” 

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Which QB is the better bet for the Bucs on opening day, Geno Smith or Mark Sanchez?

It’s rare than an annoying, overhyped New York Jets topic would have so much interest for Bucs fans. But the Bucs’ season-opener in two months is against Rex Ryan’s ugly club, so Joe is paying attention.

There’s loads of New York and national buzz these days about whether the Jets and their new west coast offense will start Mark Sanchez or rookie Geno Smith on opening day.

NFL Network attacked the topic this week, and both former Pro Bowl center Matt Birk and Brian Baldinger thought the Jets have to go with Sanchez. Birk implored the Jets to go easy on Smith, “Don’t get him shell-shocked,” Birk said, referring to demands of a Jets QB on and off the field.

Former Jets QB Ray Lucas and notorious Adam Schein have a different view in the SNY-TV video below. Lucas has no problem with Smith if he wins the job. Schein, a notorious Sanchez detractor, thinks the Jets’ new offense is perfect for Sanchez.

Joe would rather see Sanchez taking the snaps against the Bucs. Joe will take the known versus the unknown any day.

;

No, Donald Penn and Adrian Clayborn are not dating. They’re shown here at Gerald McCoy’s recent wedding.

Several times, Joe was lucky enough to be just feet away from Adrian Clayborn when he went one-on-one with Buccaneers offensive tackles during training camp of his rookie season.

Damn, Clayborn was practicing with the intensity of a man possessed, or a man who chugged three Red Bulls  just for fun. Clayborn was ferocious coming after Donald Penn and many others, and Clayborn kept his motor revved– in games and practice — until he blew out his knee last September.

In a mere 20 days — 20 days! — Clayborn is set to the return to the practice field with no restrictions. And, per Greg Schiano, Clayborn has reworked his body in a good way and a Pro Bowl season is the goal.

This is not lost on Donald Penn, who took to Twitter recently to remind Bucs fans that Clayborn drives him to new heights.

@DPENN70 – At my boy @Geralcdini93 wedding wit my boy who gets me better everyday at practice @AJaClay bout 2get it lol

Clayborn returning with a mission and Penn in the best shape of his career should make for more fun stuff in training camp, and hopefully make both players better.

One very smart man knows nearly everything about the New Schiano Order and will have a microphone to tell Bucs fans all its inner secrets this preseason.

That would be Bucs icon Ronde Barber, who now is officially the color analyst on Bucs preseason games broadcast by WFLA-TV, Ch. 8. Barber’s new role was confirmed this week, and it has Joe wondering how candid Barber will be.

Barber is a very sharp cat and he’s got to know he can make a name for himself in broadcasting by not only being intelligent and on point with his Xs and Os takes, but by being edgy and revealing when it comes to his insider knowledge and assessments of players and coaches.

It is Joe’s understanding that the approval of Barber as a broadcaster comes mutually from the Bucs and Ch. 8. And Joe suspects Barber will be free to offer whatever commentary he deems interesting. That could raise some serious eyebrows, especially if Barber takes a page from his brother Tiki’s playbook of former-team bashing.

Yes, Ronde Barber loves the Bucs, but Joe’s observed/studied/talked to Barber over the years, and Joe would be very surprised if Barber will fall into the Chucky mode of praising every player and coach on the field.

Bucs fans might very well learn more about the team during the opening preseason game from Barber, versus what they see on the field against the Ravens.

Few people have both the access and the knowledge to break down countless hours of NFL film to determine players’ pros and cons.

Greg Cosell of NFL Films comes to mind. He’s en elite football mind, but if one was to nitpick, one could make the empty argument that Cosell never played in the NFL. Well, neither did dozens if not hundreds of NFL coaches. Bill Belicheat never played in the NFL, either, nor did Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells or Chucky, to name a few.

This cannot be said about former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski.

Better known as “Jaws” on BSPN, he too is an employee of NFL Films and he brings his considerable NFL experience as a signal-caller to breaking down quarterbacks.

The four-letter is slowly releasing Jaws’ quarterback rankings each day and, to be polite, Jaws is not enamored with Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman. He has Freeman, who he referred to as “an enigma,” ranked No. 21, documents Marc Sessler of NFL.com.

During a midseason stretch that saw the Buccaneers go 5-1 last season, “Freeman played with a swagger,” Jaws said. “He was always willing to pull the trigger, attacking all levels of the defense. What I really love was the anticipation.”

Then Freeman tumbled off a cliff. “He was erratic with his accuracy. He had many communication issues with his receivers,” Jaws said.

Jaworski pointed out a disturbing figure: Only Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets had a lower passer rating when facing pressure. That’s when we saw Freeman mightily struggle at reading coverages and making split-second decisions.

Mark Sanchez?!

This is exactly the problem Joe has with Freeman, not counting his 6-15 mark against teams with a winning record (one of those wins came against a team that already locked up home field advantage for the playoffs). The guy simply wilts under pressure.

Joe points to the Broncos game last year. The Bucs’ defense may have played its best half of football, all but bottling up Peyton Manning in the first two quarters with the Bucs holding a narrow 10-7 halftime lead. If the Broncos were ripe for an upset, it was this game. But given a chance by the defense for Freeman to lead the Bucs to a thrilling, signature win, Freeman turned impotent against the Broncos pass rush, thus enabling the Broncos to rally for a win.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what defensive pressure is supposed to do to quarterbacks. The bad ones. Ben Roethlisberger seems to thrive under heat. Same with Joe Flacco. Pressure doesn’t seem to rattle Aaron Rodgers too much. Joe could go on.

During a run at a Super Bowl, a quarterback naturally is going to be under heat from a defense. The elite quarterbacks get past that and find ways to win, create plays.

Thus far, Freeman rarely shows that ability against good teams.

Now to be fair, Jaws was knocking Freeman for lack of communication. Joe vividly remembers after a weekday practice last season, receiver Mike WIlliams, as nice a guy as there is, went off on how he and his fellow receivers were not “on the same page” as Freeman and much of the criticism lodged at Freeman should instead be dropped on the receivers; it takes two to communicate and it isn’t always the quarterback’s fault.

Freeman can make the plays. Joe has seen it. There are two plays that jump out at Joe, both elite plays. One was a touchdown pass against the stinking Panthers on the road, and a second on the road against the Dixie Chicks where Freeman absolutely threaded a needle, throwing a blazing heat-seeking- missile-like pass for a score.

Those are the types of passes Freeman needs to be more consistent with. They were both works of beauty, both coming on the road, both under pressure, both against division foes, both in close games. If Freeman can throw more passes like those two, and not like this, with another year under his belt in Mike Sullivan’s offense, there is no reason to believe Freeman cannot be a better quarterback, and perhaps an elite quarterback.

Joe reads the comments on this very corner of the Interwebs, hears the callers on sports talk radio, talks to the fans at various watering holes, etc.

Bucs fans are so anxious for a postseason berth this fall, they can taste it.

Well, so does Bucs coach Greg Schiano. In a podcast on NFL.com, Schiano strongly implied he expects the team to be better this season and he’s hungry to satisfy Bucs fans’ appetites for the playoffs.

“You know, I don’t really put a time limit on it,” Schiano said about turning the once hapless Bucs around. “It’s a win-now league. So, we were trying to win yesterday. I think we did some things our first offseason [winter of 2012], some acquisitions that really helped. And without a doubt, we did it again this year. So with Mark Dominik our GM and everybody involved, I think there is a commitment to winning from the top down, from the Glazer family down and that’s the most important thing. That is what I sensed when I sat down to interview with them. They are very serious about winning and winning championships. That’s why I thought it was a great situation.”

Yes, Joe too believe the Bucs should be better this year. The team very well may have gone from one of the worst secondaries in the NFL to the best. They have a running attack, a powerful offensive line, dynamic receivers. Yes, this team should be better.

Playoffs? Joe’s not going there yet. The only way the Bucs could guarantee a playoff berth is winning the division and Joe can’t go there yet.

The NFC is so damned stocked this year with top teams, it wouldn’t shock Joe one bit if a team won 11 games and missed out on the playoffs  (Joe is not saying that will happen, but could happen). The NFC is the best Joe has seen since Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells and Mike Ditka roamed the sidelines.

The Bucs very well could have a tremendous season, winning 10 games, and be watching the playoffs at home. That’s how good the NFC should be this year.

Former Bucs great, and in a few weeks a Pro Football Hall of Famer, Warren Sapp, generally despised anyone who wore a different colored jersey than the red and pewter (or, creamsicle). If you lined up against Sapp, you were a mortal enemy and it did not matter what team you played on.

But for a brief period of time, Sapp did have a most loathed team, a squad that fueled a special kind of hatred. And that was a certain green-clad team from the City of Brotherly Love.

“For three or four years, it was the Eagles,” Sapp told Joe and other media. “I mean, you are losing wild card, wild card. We were supposed to play them [the Sunday after] 9/11 and they moved that game. I wanted to crucify their [arse]. They moved that game to the end of the year and now it didn’t mean [anything] and they still beat us. Then we have to go up there to play them again in the playoffs and they beat us.

“For a while, it was the Eagles. But for the longest time, Tony [Dungy] put us on the path of chasing the Green Bay Packers because we had a three-time MVP [Brett Favre] in our own division. Everything kind of switched when they switched divisions. But you know, it really didn’t matter. Home, road, whatever. Let’s go.”

If anyone watches the Buccaneers episode of “America’s Game,” one can almost feel the rage in Sapp when he talked about constantly losing to the Eagles in the playoffs, until that magical Sunday where Ronde Barber is still running in Joe’s head, down the sideline all alone, sending the Bucs to their only Super Bowl appearance.

During the fancy video introduction of Greg Schiano’s appearance on NFL Network this week, a cut was played of Schiano “miked up” against the Chiefs, a scene in which he patrols the sideline and gives a firm order to Mike Sullivan.

“We got the wind at our backs for this play, Sully. Take a shot right now.” Schiano said into his headset.

Joe had seen the cut many months ago, but it really stood out this time. Essentially, Schiano was taking a very heavy hand with the offense, especially for a defensive head coach who takes pride in his delegation skills.

The next cut shown on NFL Network was of a Bucs touchdown and Schiano screaming into his headset and pumping his fist, “What I’m talking about Sully! Thattaway!”

Now it’s unclear whether that TD was the “shot” Schiano demanded or not. Joe’s not going to assume the magic of TV editing is accurate.

Regardless, it was an interesting glimpse into how the head coach rolls on gameday. As Joe’s written many times, Schiano’s coaching prowess is a huge X-factor for 2013, specifically his ability to outcoach division foes Mike Smith and Sean Payton.

Jamon Meredith got valuable snaps for a backup last season which offensive line coach Bob Bostad believes strengthens the line.

Yes, Joe knows the headline is a no-brainer. The Bucs never realized their true potential when David Joseph went down with an ugly knee injury early and Carl Nicks never made it to midseason with his nasty toe.

Bucs coach Bob Bostad really believes the offensive line will be stronger this year, not so much because both Joseph and Nicks will return, but the backups last year got so many snaps, so reports intrepid Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com.

“Last year, you have to give the players all the credit,” said Bostad. “I thought those guys did a tremendous job – Jamon Meredith and Demar [Dotson] and Ted Larsen moving around and playing multiple positions in a short amount of time, with short turnaround…being able to be the next guy up, so to speak.

“Hopefully with those reps we dumped into them, they’re going to be able to either be there for us right off the bat or step into that same situation that happened. It was a really good investment. Last year was a good investment that way.”

This is an interesting point. Though Larsen is a former starter, a guy like Meredith got a lot of experience that simply cannot be duplicated in practice.

Though Bostad was being modest, let’s not fool ourselves, part of the reason the Bucs weathered much of the storm with the injuries up front and the benching of Jeremy Trueblood is that the Bucs very well may have the best offensive line coach in football.

Last year’s bye week, which came after a 1-3 start by the Bucs, may have indirectly saved Greg Schiano’s tenure with the team.

Most NFL players and coaches would suggest they would prefer to have a late bye week. That way, the team is more fresh for the stretch run and even if a team is not in the playoff race, a late bye means players can see light in a dark tunnel.

Last year, the Bucs had an early bye week in Week 5. In a recent NFL.com podcast with Dave Dameshek, Greg Schiano implied that last year’s bye week, coming after the Bucs started out 1-3, may have saved the season from becoming a 2011 Raheem Morris-like circling of the drain.

Dave Dameshek: Was there any doubt, starting the season 1-3 and some heat on you, college ways transferring to the pros, you ever thought, “I shoulda stayed up in Jersey?”

Greg Schiano: No, it was all good. We played some tough football teams and [the games were] close, but close isn’t good enough. We saw improvement. We thought things were going in the right direction. The thing that helped us was getting to that bye week and kind of regrouping as a team and as an organization and taking a deep breath and saying, “We’re close but how do we get over the hump?” Being able to play good football right after that was critical in the guys believing and moving things forward.

In retrospect, Joe can see how the Bucs might have imploded if not for that early bye week.

Imagine you had survived the purge, going from a lax coach to one who demands attention to detail. You put in all of that work and sweat and blood and toil and you look up and you are starting a season worse than the previous year, one that saw your coach run out of town just hours after the final game.

Joe could easily see how players would have checked out, thinking no matter what they did, the same terrible outcome was a near certainty.

This just goes to show that football is every bit mental as it is physical.