The angling, intrigue and mystery of the expected Revis-to-Bucs trade doesn’t confuse PewterReport.com chieftain Scott Reynolds. He was on 98.7 FM this morning proclaiming loudly and proudly that rockstar general manager Mark Dominik is the unknown source beyond the latest twist in the Revis saga.

Reynolds said Dominik was the driving force behind Jason Cole, of Yahoo! Sports, penning some specifics on trade talks.

“I’m sure [Dominik] had a phone call to Jason Cole,” Reynolds said this morning. Dominik is “very good at using the media.”

Here’s Joe’s need-to-know from Cole’s story.

The Buccaneers are not only willing to trade a combination of a first-, third- and sixth-round picks for Revis, they are also willing to pay the corner in the area of $15-16 million per year on a long-term contract.

Idzik, who did not return a text message sent to him by Yahoo! Sports, has been coy about trading Revis. He has repeatedly said he is not “actively” trying to trade Revis, though multiple teams have said he is willing to listen to offers.

First, with all the BS flying around about Revis, it’s an extraordinarily bold claim from Reynolds to say Dominik is Cole’s unnamed source. After all, it was Cole who was so certain, via multiple sources, Aqib Talib was going to serve a four-game suspension in 2011, for his role in the gunfire that arose from a family squabble in Texas. The NFL did nothing, and Talib’s charges were dropped a year later.

Second, Joe doesn’t believe the Bucs will pay Revis anywhere in the neighborhood of $16 million annually on a long-term deal.

That’s just wacky talk when the top corner on the market this offseason scored about $6 million per year. Joe could see Revis scoring three years guaranteed from the Bucs at $12 million annually. That makes Revis the top-paid corner in the league by a solid margin — from the organization that repeatedly has said it won’t overpay for players.

NFL insider Adam Schefter discusses the status of Darrelle Revis trade talks with the Bucs in this BSPN video.

Joe hasn’t seen Bucs fans this outraged since Raheem Morris was a Bucs head coach.

As days have flown off the calendar since the free agency dinner bell ran a month ago, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has been playing a formidable game of poker. He hasn’t succumbed to the wails of Bucs fans who are beating very loud drums for him to sign anyone with a pulse not named “Myron,” no matter how much this player is a cripple, to help fill the Bucs’ historically rotten cornerback position.

It’s almost as if, in Bucs fans’ eyes, Dominik never signed Dashon Goldson.

The fervor has reached a point where Bucs fans have resorted to throwing rocks at postmen who deliver any sort of mail from One Buc Palace until Dominik signs at least a human lawn chair to play corner.

In many regards, this is a ploy to keep the price down on acquiring Jets corner Darrelle Revis. Rich Cimini of BSPN New York believes Dominik has played this game of high stakes poker beautifully, having boxed in Jets general manager John Idzik.

Quiet before the storm: Things are eerily quiet on the Darrelle Revis trade front, but don’t take that to mean a potential trade is dead. The draft is 18 days away, meaning John Idzik has two weeks to make perhaps the biggest decision he’ll ever render from the GM chair — keep him or trade him. If it’s the latter, the wheels will have to be put into motion a day or two before the draft, giving the other team a chance to examine his surgically repaired knee. But here’s the problem for the Jets: Only one serious suitor (the Bucs) has emerged. The 49ers, rumored as a possible suitor, signed CB Nnamdi Asomugha last week, albeit a modest deal.

Without a bidding war, the Jets will be hard-pressed to extract anything close to equal-value compensation. Why would the Bucs bid against themselves? Idzik could walk away, wait until Revis is healthy and try again before the Week 8 trading deadline, but that’s risky. By then, the Bucs probably will have addressed their cornerback need, perhaps with a first-round pick. From all indications, Idzik’s rebuilding plan is centered on acquiring as many draft picks as possible. His best and only bargaining chip is Revis. Would he sell off a pre-owned Cadillac for the price of a Chevy? The clock is ticking. All eyes are on the new GM, whose tenure in New York could be defined by this moment.

This is what Joe has been writing for days: First, Dominik has a backup plan; two actually. One is Eric Wright. No, he may not be a hobbled Revis but he certainly isn’t Myron Lewis, either.

Second, Dominik can pull a Bill Walsh, who drafted three defensive backs in the Niners’ first four picks of the 1981 draft, started all three and won a Super Bowl. Yeah, it helped one cornerback was named Ronnie Lott (coincidentally, the other starting rookie corner for the Niners that year was a cat named, wait for it, Eric Wright.)

Or, there is actually a third option: Keep Wright and draft a corner in the first round.

Joe listened recently to Gil Brandt and Alex Marvez, co-hosts of “Late Hits,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, and Brandt was of the belief that the Bucs could wrangle Revis from the Jets for a pair of second round picks. This seems to reinforce what Cimini wrote in the article linked above, in that Idzik, Cimini writes, is trying to stockpile draft picks.

Either way, Idzik has zero leverage on Dominik.

“Keep calm.”

Might the Bucs go small-school with B. W. Webb? Could Dee Milliner slip to the No. 9 pick (owned by the Jets) and trigger a blockbuster Darrelle Revis trade?

It’s considered a deep draft class of cornerbacks in 2013, but it’s hard to find an analyst to call it a great class.

It kind of reminds Joe of this year’s free agent market for corners. You know, the one the Bucs didn’t dabble in.

Veteran NFL scout Chris Landry, who also works for various media outlets including Yahoo! Sports, joined The Steve Duemig Show on WDAE-AM 620 last week to talk all things draft and go deep into cornerback chatter. Landry’s study tells him only four cornerbacks are worth the upper half of the second round or better.

“I think there are only two guys with first-round talent, with first-round grades,” Landry said. “Dee Milliner, he just doesn’t have any holes in him. He’s just solid, well coached, good quickness, good burst out of his pedal, turn and run speed. Desmond Trufant out of Washington is really good and I like him a lot. I do think Xavier Rhodes and Blidi Wreh-Wilson from Connecticut are guys that will go in the second round. To me, those are the only four guys with top half of the second round and first round grades.

“I think there are some guys that have the ability with mid-to-late second round value. [B.W.] Webb out of William and Mary, Jonathan Banks out of Mississippi State, Jamar Taylor out of Boise are all guys that represent good value, kind of mid-to-late second round, that I think can play. There’s good depth into the third and fourth round.”

Joe will be riddled with stress if the Bucs enter the draft in 17 short days in need of a starting cornerback. That’s dangerous territory for a team expecting to the make the playoffs this season.

Of course, that worry goes out the window if Darrelle Revis and Ronde Barber are on the roster by then.

One interesting nugget Joe found out of New York last week explored what might happen if Milliner slips a bit and is on the board when the Jets are on the clock with the No. 9 overall pick. Might that opportunity trigger the Revis-to-Bucs trade?

The squeeze is on in Jersey, and it’s tighter than Chris Christie’s belt.

Per BSPN, the Jets will exercise a clause in Darrelle Revis’ contract and, potentially, punish him up to $3 million if he doesn’t join his teammates next week when Buccaneers, Jets and other players across the NFL report back to work on April 15.

They’ll shake hands, weigh-in, meet with coaches and start working out. It’s supposed to voluntary (wink, wink), per the NFL labor agreement, but not in the unique case of Revis.

But, barring a change of heart, Revis is expected to fly to New Jersey for the start of the conditioning program. He won’t be thrilled, but he has $3 million riding on it.

When Revis renegotiated his contract in 2010, following his second holdout in three years, he agreed to a clause that requires his attendance in all offseason activities — even non-mandatory workouts, sources said.

If Revis doesn’t participate in approximately 80 percent of the workouts, he will forfeit not only a $1 million workout bonus, but two other bonuses — a $1 million roster bonus (triggered March 17, but payable at a later date) and a $1 million reporting bonus at the start of training camp.

They’re tied together, providing significant financial motivation to attend. It was the Jets’ way of making sure Revis stays on his best behavior, an aspect of his four-year, $46 million contract that was kept relatively quiet — until now.

Joe sees this as the Jets playing hardball with Revis to up his trade value. However, it could backfire. If Revis gives the Jets a big “F-You,” then that would hurt the Jets’ leverage with the Bucs, one could easily assume.

On the flip side, if Revis comes back and starts running during offseason workouts on his healing knee, then that will do wonders for the Jets in potential negotiations with the Bucs. And it could help a new suitor for Revis to emerge.

UPDATE: Per the Twitter feed of Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Revis will report to the Jets conditioning program.

@MMehtaNYDN: Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis will, indeed, report to Jets facility on April 15 for start of conditioning program, source confirms. … Revis had hoped to get examined by Jets doctors/trainers to make sure he is ahead of schedule… & then return to Arizona to focus on rehab … Best place for Revis to rehab is clearly with in Arizona. It’s odd Jets haven’t told him to stay there & rehab w/out worrying about bonuses

If Joe knew of a connected Hollywood producer, he’d pitch either a reality series or a soap opera after the Bucs offseason filled with cornerbacks twists and turns.

Will Darrelle Revis be traded to the Bucs or not? Will Eric Wright remain with the Bucs or not? Will Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik sign a free agent cornerback? How many corners will Dominik select in the draft, less than three weeks away?

Each and every day brings a new twist to the aforementioned questions. And Bucs fans continue to abuse their bodies in an effort to try to get past the draft, many angry beyond words Dominik hasn’t signed a lawn chair with a pulse, preferably with a name fans recognize so they can rest a bit easier at night.

Now comes word, typed by the fingertips of Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, that the Bucs allegedly want to keep Bucs’ fans favorite player of the offseason, Wright.

It’s no surprise CB Eric Wright dropped by One Buc Place to chat with GM Mark Dominik and Schiano about their plans for 2013. Wright’s $7.75 million salary is no longer guaranteed and he will need to restructure that deal to remain with the team. But given the shrinking pool of free agent cornerbacks, the Bucs clearly want to keep Wright. Had he been in this free agent group of corners — sans Adderal suspension — Wright would’ve been ranked higher than many.

The only question for Schiano was whether he can count on him to be there on Sundays.

“He has been (reliable),” Schiano said. “So he had some things that tripped him up, but he has been a reliable player. Not only here but at other places where coaches on our staff have been with him. If I didn’t feel we were good there, we would’ve already separated.

This is certainly an about face from what Joe learned just after the 2012 season. Joe was told by a suit it was a virtual certainly Wright was going to get cut because Dominik had leverage on him; Wright’s contract could be voided thanks to him popping Adderall and getting busted for it last year.

Joe is starting to believe Wright’s tenure with the Bucs depends solely on what happens with the alleged Revis trade to Tampa Bay.

With each passing day that the Bucs have not signed a cornerback, Bucs fans are losing more hair and shaving months off of their lives by chain-smoking and doing shots in the small hours of the morning, frustrated that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik hasn’t filled his biggest need.

The clock keeps ticking on another (non) roster move, and it seems to have slipped past Bucs fans because they are, rightly, so focused on cornerbacks. That would be starting tight end Dallas Clark.

Just about a month after the free agent dinner bell rang, Clark remains out there walking the streets. It stands to reason that if Dominik wanted Clark back, he’d be signed by now. That also suggests that the Bucs may be shopping for a tight end in the draft, in addition to the recent signing of Tom Crabtree.

Russ Lande of NationalFootballPost.com believes this as well. He thinks the Bucs will drop their No. 13 pick on Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert.

13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tyler Eifert, TE, Notre Dame, Senior: While the Buccaneers reportedly have concerns about Josh Freemen being the answer at quarterback, they have to put weapons around him to give him a chance. Eifert is an elite receiving tight end prospect who would upgrade the Buccaneers underneath passing attack and make their offense multi-dimensional.

Now Joe’s about sick of this pap that Josh Freeman needs weapons. If that is the case, what are you trying to hide? Freeman has one of the best collections of “weapons” in the NFL! With the departures/retirements that have taken place in Green Bay in the offseason, Aaron Rodgers would kill to have Freeman’s weapons and offensive line.

So let’s stop with the “Freeman has to have weapons” nonsense talk, shall we?

Joe doesn’t dispute that the Bucs may draft a tight end. Eifert at No. 13 seems a bit high. Especially for a guy who told Joe, when Joe asked him at the NFL Combine what he needed to work on to be a complete tight end, Eifert didn’t blink an eye and stared right at Joe and said, “blocking.”

Joe’s kind of thinking Gavin Escobar of San Diego State, a clone of Eifert, would be more realistic in the second round.

One great thing about last year — granted, there were few “great” things that happened — was the emergence of running back Doug Martin.

The Bucs had not had a consistent running attack since the WD40 days, Mike Alstott’s pounding and Warrick Dunn’s escapability.

Doug Martin blasted onto the scene last to become one of the NFL’s best running backs. And he did this with a mangled offensive line.

Sophomore slumps are common in the NFL because teams adjust to rookies who shine. This was a subject in a recent NFC South chat on the servers of BSPN.

Scott (Northglenn, CO): Any reason to be concerned about Doug Martin regressing his second year? More focus on him?

Pat Yasinskas: Doubt it. He’ll have his two Pro Bowl guards back and that should make him even better.

Barring injury to Martin, there should be no sophomore slump. As Yasinskas suggested, Martin, Joe expects, very well could be improved.

Back will be a healthy Davin Joseph. Back will be a healthy Carl Nicks. Jeremy Zuttah will return to center, and there is a very real possibility the Bucs could upgrade at right tackle.

No, Martin should be just as good as in his rookie season, if not better.

The famous $9.95 roundtrip chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field is back for its third season!

Get your seat on the No Excuses Tour chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field, courtesy of Paradise Worldwide Transportation, Lee Roy Selmon’s and Joe, departing from Selmon’s locations in Carrollwood and near International Plaza.

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It seems cornerback Darrelle Revis is of the mind that the Jets, his current employer, are not about to get a deal done that sends him to the Bucs.

NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport appeared on NFL Network this evening and spoke to someone who has first-hand access to Revis. Per Rapoport’s contact, Revis doesn’t think the Jets and the Bucs can finish a deal, as the two teams have come to a stalemate in the trade talks.

While Revis, per Rapoport, believes the Bucs will pay him well and Revis believes his best chance of hitting a payday is with a trade to the Bucs, Rapoport claims the Jets are insist on getting the Bucs’ No. 13 pick in this month’s draft. He also claims Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has his heels dug in and he will not give up that pick.

What does Joe think? Bravo, Dominik, bravo. You have all the leverage Mr. Dominik. Don’t cave.

Joe always giggles when he hears SEC types embrace Missouri, a horrible football program, as one of their own. Joe remembers hearing a caller to Paul Finebaum last year rightly roast SEC commissioner Mike Slive for letting the back gate open to invite Missouri because, the caller said, “They are Big Ten rejects.”

It’s true. A few years ago when the Big Ten expanded, Missouri put on a full court press begging Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to be invited. Instead, Delany selected Nebraska.

Neither the Big Ten nor the SEC impressed Missouri defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson. Before Missouri’s SEC debut against Georgia, Richardson had this to say, per CBSSports.com:

With his team’s hotly anticipated SEC debut against Georgia on deck for this Saturday, Richardson was asked by the Columbia Daily Tribune if he’d watched the Bulldogs’ ho-hum 45-23 win over Buffalo.

“I watched that game. I turned it off, too,” Richardson said. “It’s* like watching Big Ten football. It’s old-man football.”

Richardson, like a wise young man, learned the error of his ways. It was that “old-man football” in the SEC that transformed him into one of the top defensive tackles in the draft.

“Handing the ball off. ‘Old-man football,’ that got taken out of proportion,” Richardson told Joe and other reporters at the NFL Scouting Combine. “You know, I told (Georgia) Coach (Mark) Richt how he had a great team and I didn’t mean any disrespect, after that game. I respected his team, they had a great season.

“But when I said ‘old-man football’ I meant ‘old school football.’ It was just a joke. It is what it is. I’m a jokester to this day. So hopefully they’re laughing about it. It was a good game between us and Georgia.”

Playing in the SEC “motivated me a lot. Jumping into the SEC brought a whole lot of offensive competition, which I was ready for. And I wanted to prove that I was ready for it. I liked it. Loved it.”

Richardson is a soon-to-be stud and the Bucs just may want to upgrade at defensive tackle in the first round. Mike Mayock has Richardson listed as his No. 2 defensive tackle.

Playing against star Alabama tackle D.J. Fluker, Richardson had a field day racking up 14 tackles and a sack.

A redshirt junior, Richardson totalled 75 tackles — in the conference that plays “old-man football.”

Now Joe isn’t sure whether the Bucs would pick Richardson at No. 13, but if Bucs rock star genreal manager really wants a good, solid one-two punch with Gerald McCoy, Richardson just might be the man.

A very intriguing take was floated on Jets-Bucs-Revis negotiations during a NFC South live chat today on BSPN.com. A fan wrote that the Bucs should deal their 13th overall draft pick later this month to ensure the team is ready for a potential new general manager and franchise quarterback in 2013.

It seems this fan is in now-or-never mode when it comes to rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and No. 5.

Cassidy (Tampa) – I say give up THIS years number 1 pick for Revis and put Freeman and Dominik’s jobs on the line with results. We can’t have no first round pick and no QB next year IF Freeman is up and down and Dominik can’t assemble a playoff team.

Pat Yasinskas — Valid argument.

The crop of rookie quarterbacks is supposed to be significantly better in 2014, so the logic presented is rather sound. If Freeman is inconsistent this season and the Bucs, say, finish 7-9 again, then the Bucs would want a first-round pick next year to help bag a new franchise quarterback. It’s reasonable, as well, to think Dominik could be looking for work if the Bucs check in with a losing record come January.

However, the Bucs have no backup quarterback now and appear to be positioning themselves to draft a QB in the second, third or fourth rounds later this month. Perhaps that’s because the Bucs are, in fact, planning to move the 2014 first-round pick to the Jets and want to give Greg Schiano a chance to pick Freeman’s potential replacement immediately, rather than be handcuffed by a second-tier rookie QB in 2014.

If Joe were Schiano, he’d prefer to take a young QB now.

It’s obvious that Greg Schiano and rockstar general manager Mark Dominik get some sort of bizarre comfort from having Eric Wright on the roster, kind of like Joe knowing a pudgy-yet-cute babe is easily accessible during the wee hours of a Saturday morning.

Nobody can convince Joe that Wright is reliable, durable, fast, hard-hitting or irreplaceable. Joe will give Wright versatile and overpaid. That’s about it. But the New Schiano Order seemingly wants to keep Wright around and get him to remain a Buccaneer at a reduced price — way under the $7.75 million due him in 2013.

One would think the Bucs hold all the cards on Wright, since they could cut him just before the season starts and only have had to pay him 2013 workout and attendance bonuses, and miniscule cash for preseason games. So it’s easy to assume Wright might jump at a chance to take a restructured contract from the Bucs. However, various media reported Wright was in Tampa this week to meet with the Bucs brass but left without a new contract.

That got Joe thinking of Wright’s interview on the former 1010AM with JP Peterson, shortly after Wright signed with the Bucs a year ago.

Peterson asked Wright about what he would do with his new giant payday, and Wright laughed and said he and his wife are very conservative with their money and would put the cash in the bank and live off interest. Wright said he had nothing to purchase. Jumping ahead a year, in a recent blog post, Wright explained that his offseason has just been about hanging out with his wife and living a simple life waiting for their first child’s birth.

So this got Joe thinking that Wright is hardly desperate to make a deal with the Bucs at a reduced price. He’s not hurting for cash after banking $5 million or so last year (after suspension), and six NFL seasons.

The longer Wright waits, the more desperate the Bucs might become to restructure his contract in a way that benefits Wright, or, if Wright won’t restructure and forces the Bucs to cut him or trade him, then he’s got to know there are strong odds he’ll find work with a team that lost a cornerback to a preseason injury and/or is flat out desperate.

After all, the Bucs seemingly have scouted Wright to be a top cornerback, given the fact they passed on every free agent CB to date and paid Wright a king’s ransom in 2012. Perhaps, Wright, believes he’s a valuable commodity, as well.

The famous $9.95 roundtrip chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field is back for its third season!

Get your seat on the No Excuses Tour chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field, courtesy of Paradise Worldwide Transportation, Lee Roy Selmon’s and Joe, departing from Selmon’s locations in Carrollwood and near International Plaza.

You get to ride in style — with beer and food in hand — and get dropped off right at the gate!!

Click on through to buy a seat and get all the details at NoExcusesTour.com.

Don’t flush your gas and parking money down the toilet. More 900 fans have enjoyed the Tour. Get on board! Check out the BayNews9 video on the tour below.

Showing video from a team’s locker room, without audio, may be as boring and lame as the TV poker dweebs. At least golf has something moving and the manicured courses are pleasing to the eyes.

Only fans wearing blinders believe the Bucs are the lone team with difficulty selling out games. It’s a leaguewide issue that has been around for the past couple of years.

Joe was stunned to learn after the 2012 season that the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, in the heart of football country with one of the largest fanbases in the nation, a supremely loyal mass of partisans, posted the worst attendance for home games in the Steel City in over a decade.

That right there reinforced Joe’s notion that attendance isn’t going to get better any time soon, surely not while this sluggish economy is stuck in park.

NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell has spoken about how the at-home product is now the preferred method for watching NFL games. Going to games as a fan, as Joe has also done in the recent past, is clearly a better and cheaper choice to stay at home.

Now Goodell is pushing owners of NFL teams to make the in-stadium experience better, and Joe hearitly encourages these efforts. A recent mandate for NFL teams to improve WiFi at stadiums so fans can monitor NFL Sunday Ticket and their fantasy teams was not just a great idea, but overdue.

Earlier this week, the NFL ordered that video from the home team’s locker room at halftime, without audio, be piped in to stadium JumboTrons.

Is this what fans are truly clamoring for?

While Joe appreciates the NFL trying to be creative and give fans better access, Joe cannot think of a more boring thing. So fans are going to buy tickets, in part, so they can see the team sit at their locker stalls, still swearing like banshees. Remember, there is no audio and surely coaches won’t allow anything like diagrams of coverages or plays to be sent out on the JumboTron.

This is about as compelling as watching the poker dorks on TV who wear sunglasses. A test pattern is more visually appealing (if not enlightening).

Locker room video will be no different than seeing a defense sit on the bench after coming off the field.

Joe has a novel concept: Rather than halftime video of the team in the locker room, how about mandatory replays of all plays, each and every play? That’s one of the main sticking points why fans stay home and watch games on their giant HDTV screens: replays. Often, fans can see more at home.

The Bucs have invested in a monster replay board. Use it, and not just for corporate sponsored ads.

Joe hears all the time how fans stay home, many times because of so few replays on the JumboTron. Joe has yet to hear anyone say they are staying home to watch football because they can’t get a peep show from the locker room at halftime.

It’s a nice effort, Mr. Goodell, but misguided. More replays, mandatory replays, less locker room peep shows, um-kay?

Surely the Bucs are not considering pulling Vince Young out of mothballs after turning loose Dan Orlovsky yesterday, are they?

Joe is just about convinced either the Bucs will draft a quarterback no earlier than the second day of the draft (in three weeks) or are about to pull a trigger on a trade for a quarterback.

Yes, Josh Freeman is the starting quarterback, let’s get that out of the way right now, at least for the time being. How many times have we heard about the Bucs wanting competition at quarterback, even though Bucs coach Greg Schiano knighted Freeman as the starter at the NFL Combine?

So if competition is important to the Bucs, then take a look at these Canton QB candidates still available on the streets, courtesy of Rotoworld.com.

Byron Leftwich
Brady Quinn
Vince Young
Matt Leinart
Charlie Batch
Kellen Clemens
Tyler Thigpen
Caleb Hanie
Sage Rosenfels
Seneca Wallace
A.J. Feeley
Troy Smith
Chris Redman
John Beck
J.P. Losman

Excited?

Now why is Joe ceratain the Bucs will trade for or draft a quarterback? Consider there were some OK quarterbacks out there that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik could have signed to give Freeman a push to be excellent. Matt Moore was available. So too was David Carr, and Ryan Fitzpatrick, as well as Matt Hasselbeck. No more. Each has a new team.

Surely the Bucs wouldn’t think of dragging Vince Young, who enjoys running around nightclubs topless, out of unemployment? So if the Bucs were truly serious about competition at quarterback, does anyone believe there’s a QB in that list above believe that could push Freeman anywhere but to the chow line at One Buc Palace?

Joe was of the mind, and has told people in social settings, that if Freeman struggled this year, the Bucs likely would draft  Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron in the second round of 2014.

Maybe the Bucs have moved up such plans, albeit sans McCarron?

When the Bucs signed former Rutgers icon Brian Leonard this week, Joe figured D.J. Ware was the guy in trouble. But given Leonard’s versatility at running back/fullback, there was at least a shot that the New Schiano Order was preparing to dump its talented backup RB, LeGarrette Blount.

However, Blount is still a Buccaneer Man, and Ware is walking the streets.

Joe is pleased.

Blount remains a holstered, loaded weapon (or at least zipped up in airport luggage), and there’s really no reason for the Bucs to ditch the depth he provides. Sure, if a third- or fourth-round pick is served up to rockstar general manager Mark Dominik for Blount, then the Bucs must make that deal, considering they’ll never re-sign Blount when he hits unrestricted free agency after the 2013 season. But there’s no way that happens. Running backs, outside of a select few, don’t carry that kind of value.

Joe would prefer to see the Bucs’ offensive braintrust figure out ways to incorporate Blount and play to his strengths. After all, if the Bucs make a win-now move for Darrelle Revis, then Blount’s final year in pewter is one in which he should be maximized.

The D.J. Ware Era with the Bucs is largely forgettable by Joe because, well, can you think of a significant play he made?

Actually for Joe, the most memorable thing Ware did was something that Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman didn’t do, and that was throw the ball away.

Joe can’t even remember the opponent, it may have been New Orleans or Atlanta but it was a home game, and Freeman was back to pass and had time to throw. Freeman looked for his first option, looked for his second option and then his third before he checked down to Ware.

Problem was, Ware was covered like stink on feces by a linebacker, as Ware was a good four yards behind the line of scrimmage blocking for Freeman.

Instead of Freeman just tossing the ball away and/or throwing at Ware’s feet, Freeman throws right to Ware (who was equally to blame for catching the ball). Ware grabbed Freeman’s desperate pass and was immediately hauled to the ground for a four-yard loss.

Joe, watching this with his binoculars was aghast and silently asked, ‘What are you doing?’

Despite every crazy throw Freeman makes that has your jaw drop because it is so good, there are aforementioned plays Freeman creates that makes Bucs fans pull their hair out at night.

And sadly, it is a Freeman hiccup by which Joe will remember Ware.

When Bucs coach Greg Schiano said he wanted competition for quarterback Josh Freeman, it appeared he didn’t mean for that competition to come from journeyman Dan Orlovsky.

So that may be why Orlovsky, who threw a grand total of seven passes as Freeman’s backup last season, is now looking for work, so Twittered plugged-in NFL scribe Adam Caplan.

Orlovsky’s days with the Bucs were forgettable; Joe didn’t remember him throwing a pass until he looked it up.

Orlovsky will be best remembered by running out of the end zone when playing for the Lions, unknowingly, for a safety, in what is known as one of the biggest bonehead plays in NFL history.

The NFL just released preseason schedules for all teams, including the Bucs. Below are the Bucs’ opponents for the 2013 preseason.

Week 1: Baltimore Ravens
Week 2: Saturday, Aug. 16 at New England Patriots (FOX)
Week 3: at Miami Dolphins
Week 4: Washington Redskins

The NFL determines the window in which each week’s preseason game can be played.

Week 1: Aug. 8-11
Week 3: Aug. 22-25
Week 4: Aug. 29-30

Joe’s pleased to see that the most telling preseason games — Weeks 2 & 3 — are on the road and not subject to a local blackout.

The famous $9.95 roundtrip chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field is back for its third season!

Get your seat on the No Excuses Tour chauffeured luxury bus to Tropicana Field, courtesy of Paradise Worldwide Transportation, Lee Roy Selmon’s and Joe, departing from Selmon’s locations in Carrollwood and near International Plaza.

You get to ride in style — with beer and food in hand — and get dropped off right at the gate!!

Click on through to buy a seat and get all the details at NoExcusesTour.com.

Don’t flush your gas and parking money down the toilet. More 900 fans have enjoyed the Tour. Get on board! Check out the BayNews9 video on the tour below.

One great mystery surrounding the Bucs’ 2013 draft plans is how a Darrelle Revis deal/no-deal factors in.

Yeah, one could say the Bucs will draft the best player available and/or they have so many needs on defense Revis won’t affect the draft, but that’s all dream-world talk. There’s no way the Bucs won’t be influenced by the state of the Revis union/non-union come three weeks from today at the NFL Draft.

Renowned Sirius NFL Radio host Pat Kirwan, who also coached Jets linebackers with Monte Kiffin and now works for CBSSports.com, believes he has the Bucs’ draft figured out in his latest mock draft for CBS. Kirwan says the New Schiano Order will stay focused on the trenches in the first round.

12. Miami Dolphins: Xavier Rhodes, CB, Florida State: Rhodes has a rare combination of height, long arms and skills to cover. Sean Smith is gone in Miami and Rhodes is a solid replacement.

13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Ezekiel Ansah, DE, Brigham Young: The Bucs will think long and hard about a corner like Trufant and Rhodes if he was still on the board. Bucs head coach Greg Schiano watched the New York Giants closely when he was the head coach of Rutgers and he knows a defensive end with Ansah’s skills is always a solid pick. You can never have enough pass rushers in the NFL.

14. Carolina Panthers: Star Lotulelei, DT, Utah: The Panthers need to shore up the inside of their defensive line. Lotulelei is versatile and can play either nose or 3 tech. He has quickness to penetrate, and a burst to pursue.

Might the Bucs draft another DE with a premium draft pick, after snagging DaQuan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn just two years ago?

Joe would hardly be surprised, as Joe’s written previously. But the absence of any new cornerbacks bodies in free agency makes that less and likely by the hour.

As for Kirwan’s breakdown, in this scenario, Joe would prefer to see the Bucs bag Lotulelei, who might do more for the pass rush than John Abraham Ansah.