Former Bucs center and captain Jeff Faine, a man who Joe crossed swords with over the years, opened up on all things Bucs this evening to electronic media czar J.P. Peterson on 1010 AM.

In a stunning show of professionalism, Faine said the Bucs made the “right decision” to cut him (and the mega-millions left on his contract) and re-sign Jeremy Zuttah and sign Carl Nicks.

“I can understand the decision. They made an investment in Carl Nicks. Looking into the future and trying to build through youth, and I think it was the right decision,” Faine said. “I’m going to be playing for two, three more years, and they’re looking to build something to last.”

Faine went on to praise rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and how he communicated with Faine through the process that led to his release.

“I had a fantastic time. I have nothing but good things to say about this organization and how they do business,” Faine said. “I can’t be bitter. I still have years to play, and hopefully win games wherever I go.”

In rather telling commentary about the unraveling of the Bucs last season, Faine said Greg Schiano’s leadership style was “desperately needed.”

“Coach Morris will be a head coach again, but he’s gotta be a head coach of a very veteran team that can handle the style that he brings,” Faine said.

That’s not much of an endorsement for Raheem, considering he led the youngest team in the NFL to a 10-6 record in 2010.

Joe will have more goodies from Faine’s interview this weekend.

Yeah, the Bucs have legitimate talent wide receiver. And with the addition of Vincent Jackson, it seems his presence as a top-flight No. 1 receiver puts everyone else where they belong within a hopefully great offense.

Tampa Bay Times beat writer Stephen Holder penned a piece today talking about how wide open competition is in the Bucs’ receiving corps. But Joe doesn’t buy into that premise.

Jackson and Mike Williams are the clear Nos. 1 & 2. Joe realizes some fans are down on Williams, but he has elite skills and he’s caught 65 balls in each of his first two seasons.

Arrelious Benn was the 39th overall pick in what widely was considered the deepest NFL Draft in history (2010). Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik was calling for Benn to get the ball more last season — a very telling statement, on the Buccaneers Radio Network of all places — but Greg Olson and Raheem Morris wouldn’t listen. Benn is fully recovered from his knee issues and Joe has no doubt Benn will be maximized under the New Schiano Order.

Preston Parker got a new contract and was an offseason standout, per Greg Schiano. He’ll fill his role nicely.

And if Sammie Stroughter can remain completely healthy through the preseason, he’s a lock for the No. 5 receiver slot, in Joe’s opinion. Stroughter plays special teams, is an above average returner, and he’s got the work ethic and runs solid routes. The Bucs would be nuts to dump him, assuming he’s healthy, and considering Parker’s past ball-security issues on returns.

Joe thinks it’s a big “if” whether the Bucs will carry six receivers. Given that the New Schiano Order wants to pound the ball like the 1972 Dolphins and will need more than typical depth on the defensive line and in the secondary, Joe would be somewhat surprised to see the Bucs with six receivers on opening day.

Joe’s got nothing against Dezmon Briscoe, but one would think he’s lost his “Buccaneer Man” card with his offseason absences, and he’s not as valuable with Jackson on the roster. Tiquan Underwood and Ed Gant, Joe considers them huge longshots. Briscoe, Underwood and Gant all likely need banged up teammates in the receiving corps to make it to opening day.

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Look, Joe’s not going to even attempt to make an excuse for Eric Wright’s mistake the other morning in Los Angeles, getting into an accident and being charged with a felony DUI.

Joe could sort of understand this happening in the sticks someplace where there is no such thing as a cab. But Wright was in the second-largest city in the United States. Throw in the fact he could afford to buy a limo service much less afford a cab, this was stupidity at it’s worst.

But the dumb move could be worse for the Bucs, so writes Bradenton Herald columnist Alan Dell, who believes Wright’s dumb-headed stunt could really screw the Bucs.

He was brought in to play corner opposite Aqib Talib, who just got a get-out-of-jail-free card, but still hasn’t escaped the long arm of NFL top sheriff Roger Goodell.

The Bucs could begin next season without these two cornerbacks if Goodell seeks to suspend them a few games for conduct unbecoming to everything pure and wholesome in the NFL.

Wright could become another Dominik mishap and an embarrassment to himself and the organization.

This is a subject Joe didn’t exactly think about when he heard of Wright’s arrest. There is no guarantee NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell won’t suspend Talib, despite the fact Talib’s charges in Texas were dropped.

Throw in Wright’s wreck, and Goodell could see to it that the Bucs are down two cornerbacks to open the season. This leaves open the door for Ronde Barber to return to a starting cornerback gig.

Reports in their respective cities reveal that the Bengals and Chargers, two teams that struggle to fill their stadiums, are wrestling to decide the best “magic percentage” to choose for their new TV blackout cutoff.

So what the hell does that mean, Joe?

Well, the NFL’s decision to let teams only sell as little as 85 percent of tickets for home games and still have them televised comes with a catch. Per Mike Florio, of ProFootballTalk.com, a team must pick an exact percentage that covers every game for the entire season, and if a team sells more than whatever percentage it chooses for a game — 85 percent, 88 percent, 92 percent, etc. — then the team must give 50 percent of the ticket revenue over the percentage to the visiting team, versus the 34 percent previously required.

That could discourage every team from picking 85 percent as its new blackout threshold. The San Diego Union-Tribune says the Chargers are unlikely to take advantage of any rule change, despite two blackouts last season.

If a team lowers the bar for blackouts, the number is fixed for the season. Whenever the team clears the mark, it will be required to share more ticket revenue than usual with other teams in the league. It’s that part of the new rules that the Chargers believe would be too high a price to pay, said A.G. Spanos, the team’s executive vice president and chief executive officer.

“And even if you went to 15 percent lower, hypothetically an 85 percent manifest, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a lift of the blackout for every game,” Spanos said Monday. “It’s also important to understand that the manifest is set for the year for every game, whether it’s a big game for us or a game with a less attractive opponent.”

Joe gets teams like the Bengals and Chargers wrestling with the new rule; the Bengals have a night game against the Steelers and their home-opener against state-rival Cleveland, two guaranteed sellouts. The Chargers also have two night home games.

But the Bucs on the other hand have no home night games and no opponent guaranteed to put butts in the seats other than Philadelphia in December. Joe would think it would be an easy decision for the Bucs to choose the 85-percent mark or something darn close to it.

Regardless, barring an intervention or a huge rush of ticket sales, Joe’s not seeing how the Bucs’ preseason games are going to find their way to live television next month.

It’s a blast to go to one of the official Rays watch parties at Hooters, and there’s one tonight at the Original Hooters on Gulf to Bay Boulevard in Clearwater, aka State Road 60, just east of US Hwy. 19.

Why watch the Rays at home when you can take advantage of the great beer and food specials at Hooters? Plus there are amazing Rays giveaways all night long — gear, tickets, all kinds of stuff. Nobody can top the great viewing at Hooters. (Yes, Joe’s talking about the multitude of cutting edge TV sets).

Visit OriginalHooters.com now to find the location near you.

National NFL insider and all-around wiseguy Mike Florio, creator and curator of ProFootballTalk.com and a NBC Sports personality, reminds Bucs fans in this video that Eric Wright can be punished by the Buccaneers for his recent actions. The Bucs don’t have to defer to Roger Goodell, Florio says, and while Wright has rights, he also has the right to “take his medicine” for his alleged misdeeds if the New Schiano Orders wants to send a message.

Florio’s got some intriguing takes here, including one that says the Bucs might not care as much about public perception of how Wright is handled because the change in blackout rules will alleviate much of the pressure to sell tickets.

When Mike Sullivan was hired as the Bucs’ new playcaller and offensive coordinator, much was made of his twirl drills with Eli Manning and other unconventional quarterback training techniques.

Bucs fans’ hopes/expectations were that Sullivan would be able to help Josh Freeman recapture his 2010 form and develop into the poised, two-time Super Bowl champ Manning is.

“I don’t know if he’s gotten any credit but … he’s certainly been a catalyst in the good year Eli’s had,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said last month.

Manning also threw much better while moving in the pocket and on the run, which backup quarterback David Carr attributed to Sullivan’s unconventional drills.

“He has some different drills where it’s uncomfortable movements,” Carr said of Sullivan last month. “You’re not just dropping back, moving to the left and right, stepping up and throwing the ball, which never happens in the game.

“You move up, you sprint out, run away from someone and then try to throw off balance. We do that drill every Wednesday and something every Thursday and Friday that’s similar to that, where we move around and twirl.

So it was interesting to Joe to read NFL Films guru Greg Cosell’s new breakdown of Manning. It’s a long enjoyable read for football junkies, and one that seems to back up that Sullivan’s tactics with Manning brought direct results.

In 2011, I saw significant improvement in two other elements of Manning’s game: progression reading and pocket movement, with the corollary ability to extend plays outside the pocket. We all remember the 38-yard completion to Mario Manningham late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLVI; it was the single biggest play in the game. It also reflected many of the attributes that I have often written about, beginning with pre-snap recognition of the coverage. … …

The other part of Manning’s game that dramatically improved in 2011, and I believe it was a defining reason as to why he had his best season yet, was his efficiency moving both within the pocket and outside the pocket. As I’ve discussed numerous times, pocket mobility is an essential trait to perform consistently at a high level. Manning, once a little frenzied and out of control when he was forced to react in response to the pass rush, is now more poised and composed. His movement is more deliberate and calculated. His downfield focus is sharper, with better clarity. In addition, his ability to extend plays on the perimeter was particularly evident last season. In years past, there were times Manning would be somewhat scattershot with his throws off movement. That deficiency has been lessened, and it’s led to better overall play. It’s a huge reason why Manning elevated his game in 2011.

Now Freeman is not Eli Manning, and surely Sullivan is busy crafting his playbook and Joe is concerned that Sullivan has never called plays on any level. However, there’s no question that Sullivan is here, in part, because of his work with Manning and for what he can do for Freeman.

The optimist in Joe believes Sullivan, while busy with other duties, will at least be successful in improving Freeman in the areas noted above: progression reading and pocket movement. Joe suspects the former will be most critical, given that the Bucs’ pocket should be more stable than usual given all the accomplished beef on the offensive line.

The strange tale of the Aqib Talib local fender bender in 2010, after which Talib allegedly told the other driver that he was going to put “a cap in” her, has not gone away.

Four months ago, grandma Betty Atwood, 54, sued Talib in Hillsborough County civil court (not criminal) for damages related to the car accident and alleged resulting pain and suffering.

Joe’s recent review of the civil court hearings and events of the case reveals that motions to dismiss two of the three counts against Talib were denied, and after various subpoenas of Atwood’s medical records, the court recorded two “notice of service of proposal settlement” entries last week, covering all three counts against Talib. So one can assume a check likely is forthcoming to put this matter to rest.

Another weight off Talib’s shoulders should only help him as he works to stay out of trouble and on the positive path he’s been on the last eight or nine months.

Joe will keep you posted on the case, and Joe promises to look deeper into the case file.

Good morning. Joe wants to wish all his loyal readers (and even his haters), a very happy Fourth of July.

This is always Joe’s favorite holiday. For Joe, it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day all rolled into one.

Joe wallows in beer on this day, usually participates in some water activity on the Gulf, stuffs his grill with all sorts of grilled up goodies and, often after watching a little baseball, heads out to watch the fireworks.

Joe hopes all of his readers have fun today. Don’t forget, Joe is here 24/7/365, and the fact that July 4 is here, that means training camp is just a few weeks away.

It’s over for Derrick Ward, so the former Bucs running back has Twittered, via ProFootballTalk.com.

Ward is hanging it up after nine seasons in the NFL.

Now many Bucs fans might say Ward retired the moment he finished signing his fat free-agent contract with the Buccaneers in 2009, when Ward was supposed to be part a ridiculous 2-2-1 rotation, a three-headed monster at running back (Ward-Cadillac Williams-Earnest Graham) engaged in a bizarre Raheem-Olson shuffling per offensive series.

That plan failed and Ward was used sparingly and was inconsistent. After getting cut late in the 2010 preseason, Ward went on to have a couple of solid seasons for Houston as a backup.

When history looks back on Ward, yeah, he had a 1,000-yard season and earned a ring with the Giants, but his South Tampa pool parties might be more memorable as well as his Kardashian-dabbling. Joe wishes Ward well.

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Veteran Bucs fans know all about culture change.

Father Dungy walked into Tampa in 1996, and brought new rules, order and overhauled the defense, replacing wacky Sam Wyche, whose ’95 team started “5-dash-2” but finished 7-dash-9.

The Bucs struggled mightily out of the gate for Dungy, but finished 6-10 in 1996, before making the playoffs in ’97.

Former NFL safety Matt Bowen, now a scribe for NationalFootballPost.com, relayed a similar story of successful culture change when he was with the Redskins. The loose ship of Steve Spurrier gave way to the return of legendary Joe Gibbs.

Gibbs did alter the “culture” in our locker room and on the field. We were prepared, dealt with adversity in a professional fashion and displayed a much more physical attitude in our play on the field.

Accountability. That’s the word I’m looking for under Gibbs.

But that first year was still a transition period for our team. No playoffs, some rough losses and plenty of film to work with. However, in our second season under the new coach, we ran off five straight wins to get into the playoffs, won the Wild Card round and eventually lost to the eventual NFC Champion Seahawks up in Seattle.

In Tampa, Schiano has some young talent, a QB in Josh Freeman and has already made some roster moves. And I expect to see a very physical football team this season on the field. Does that mean we will see the Bucs compete for a playoff spot this season? I can’t say that without seeing them play under the new coach. But this will fall on the shoulders of the players.

As a locker room, we bought into Gibbs, his style of coaching and a training camp environment that was pure hell on a humid August day.

Is Greg Schiano a Tony Dungy or Joe Gibbs? Surely nobody knows.

But even if he is in that caliber, the Bucs are still looking at an uphill battle for 2012. They’ve got an offense with win-now weapons everywhere, but the defense has so far to go and so many question marks, it pains Joe to think about likely growing pains on that side of the ball.

Naturally, the Bucs have received word of the troubling situation early this morning when cornerback Eric Wright was charged with a felony count of driving under the influence, and thus have released a statement.

“We are aware of the arrest and are in the process of gathering information. We take such matters very seriously and will handle it appropriately.”

Joe has touched upon the first tough decision of the New Schiano Order. Rest assured, Joe feels it is safe to assume, that if the Bucs do not penalize Wright in some manner, NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell certainly will.

The arrest of Eric Wright is a pivotal situation for the leader of the New Schiano Order

Today’s felony impaired-driving arrest of Eric Wright is new ground for the leader of the New Schiano Order.

This isn’t Rutgers. Wright just signed a contract reported to deliver $15.5 million guaranteed, and $37.5 million total, over five years (not too shabby for a guy without a Pro Bowl.)

Joe gets that some fans will want the Bucs to cut Wright and send a message. But given his contract, that’s about as likely as Joe getting a call from Rachel Watson requesting shaving assistance.

One can be sure that every Buccaneers player is watching closely. Joe believes how this is handled is a pivotal moment for the team. Yes, the legal system has to play out and the situation must be investigated. Yes, Roger Goodell is lurking. But Schiano’s next move will speak volumes.

Wright will need to be disciplined. Joe’s eager to see how the new “Buccaneer Men” are handled in such a situation, but it’s likely Schiano will keep any discipline of Wright under a cone of silence.

UPDATE: Wright posted $100,000 bond and was released from L.A. County jail at 1:34 p.m. EST.

Bucs cornerback Eric Wright was charged with a felony count of driving under the influence by Los Angeles police early this morning after he was involved in a wreck in which an injury occurred, per the Los Angeles Times.

Police responded to a report of an injury accident about 12:20 a.m. involving a Chevy Silverado pickup and a Mercedes SLS luxury sports coup at James M. Wood Boulevard and Georgia Street, said Norma Eisenman, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Wright, who was not hurt, allegedly told officers he had been drinking earlier at a friend’s home in the Hollywood area and refused to submit to a Breathalyzer or field sobriety test, Eisenman said. The driver of the truck complained of pain but refused medical treatment.

Officers booked Wright on a felony because the accident involved injury. He was booked into the LAPD’s downtown Metropolitan Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The report gets more disturbing, not just because of this accident. The Los Angeles Times writes in the same article that Wright, who initially played football at Southern Cal, left the school under a cloud of suspicion of rape as Wright was also busted for having 136 Ecstasy pills in his apartment.

The rape charge was dropped due to insufficient evidence.

The Bucs are thin enough at cornerback as it is. Suddenly in a few weeks, the title of “troubled Bucs cornerback” has quickly shifted from Aqib Talib to now Wright.

“Big Nasty” will always be at Bucs games. But throughout the NFL, more fans enjoy watching games from home. The NFL is combating that trend with new bells and whistles this season.

Joe was killing time at Lambert Field in St. Louis, waiting to catch his flight back to Tampa Saturday afternoon, when he came across the Wall Street Journal story about how the NFL was going to relax blackout restrictions.

Locally, just about every Bucs fan jumped on the angle of “less blackouts.” We will see. Per reports, NFL teams must sell 85 percent of tickets as opposed to 100 percent.

It has been Joe’s contention that one reason blackouts have spiked (and ticket sales slumped) throughout the NFL is because going to NFL games is less and less a good investment and staying at home watching multiple games, including the Red Zone Channel, with access to replays (and watching them multiple times with your DVR), all with HD quality flatscreens, and access to cheaper and more plentiful beer and food have made staying at home a far better experience.

Kevin Clark, who wrote the Wall Street Journal piece, types this evidence is too obvious, and NFL teams are thinking of different tricks to get fans to drop cash to attend games.

The league also is planning to introduce wireless Internet in every stadium and to create smartphone apps that could let fans listen to players wearing microphones on the field.

With declines in ticket sales each of the past five years, average game attendance is down 4.5% since 2007, while broadcast and online viewership is soaring. The NFL is worried that its couch-potato options—both on television and on mobile devices—have become good enough that many fans don’t see the point of attending an actual game.

“The at-home experience has gotten better and cheaper, while the in-stadium experience feels like it hasn’t,” said Eric Grubman, the NFL’s executive vice president of ventures and business operations. “That’s a trend that we’ve got to do something about.”

Grubman is right.

While waiting for Joe’s plane Saturday, Joe was sitting with five random professionals ranging in ages from 25-50 from various walks of life from different corners of the country, Boston, Denver, Dallas, Houston. All claimed to be rabid football fans.

None of them said they would ever drop a dime on season tickets in their neck of the woods for many of the same reasons listed above. One gent from Dallas had an interesting point.

“When I buy a ticket, I buy a ticket for a seat, not a speck of concrete to stand on for four hours or waste an afternoon staring at the back of some clown’s Tony Romo jersey.”

Joe was a former Bucs season ticket holder and got rid of his season tickets years ago for several reasons. Joe would hope the Tampa Sports Authority do a few upgrades to the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway to make it more fan-friendly.

1) Bud Zone: Joe believes, though he hates the Jags, that the Gator Bowl is the most underrated NFL experience in the league. Aside from boat access to games from watering holes, there is shaded tailgating with concrete parking lots.

Now Joe knows that putting up overpasses near the stadium to give tailgaters shade isn’t going to happen. But how about paving those dust-choking parking lots. Who the hell wants to eat food, much less drink beer, when ever time you open your mouth you are eating dust. It’s damned near an environmental hazard, especially for parking attendants.

If those lots cannot be paved, at least hose the damn fields down the night before.

Also, the Gator Bowl has the infamous “Bud Zone,” a sports bar above an end zone where fans can escape the heat (or rain) and get in air conditioning while watching both a game on TV, as well as the game just below them.

2) Free water: While in Illinois, Joe was reunited with the brutal three-digit temperature, roasting Midwestern summers. On Saturday with temperatures at 105, the St. Louis Cardinals were playing a mid-afternoon game. The team offered free “complimentary” water stations throughout the stadium, partially to help the 37,000+ fans avoid a heat stroke.

(Strangely, no whining about needing a domed stadium from the locals.)

Joe knows day games in Tampa early in the season can be awfully oppressing as well. Why not take a page from the Cardinals and hand out some water, not just the few drinking fountains around the stadium? The Cardinals also employed “misting stations,” which are not unlike what NFL teams have on sidelines for players, a fine, air-conditioned mist being blown in the air. Joe has been through one of these before, and trust Joe, it’s an instant 20-degree chill down, if not more.

3) Better replay boards with more replays: Dallas has massive HD screens for fans. The Titans are installing the same kind. Currently, the Bucs’ scoreboards pale in comparison. Upgrade those to giant HD screens and show more replays, not just of the Bucs game but other contests (via Red Zone Channel) during breaks in the play.

Joe’s going to guess fans would rather see out-of-town highlights as opposed to Captain Fear during timeouts. There can always be time set aside for commercial videos from sponsors.

Of course, all this is moot if fans have smartphones and free WiFi.

Joe loves the idea of WiFi for all. With that, and your NFL Sunday Ticket app, or even just your NFL.com app (which includes a live feed of the Red Zone Channel), highlights are at your fingertips from around the league.

The idea of having special apps for season ticket holders where they can have access to audio from coaches and select players is a bulls-eye, not unlike what NASCAR does with its driver teams.

Though Joe would still prefer soaking up NFL games on the leather couch with his cold beer in air conditioning, there are many ways both the NFL and the Bucs can upgrade the fan experience at games (and thereby increase ticket sales).

It’s good to see the fine folks of the NFL are seeing the light.

Besides, without these bells and whistles, getting a sellout at Bucs home games will just be that much more difficult.

After leaving NFL.com and NFL Network for CBS Sports, it seems one of Jason La Canfora’s first orders of business was to bust out contract figures for various players and identify the steals and deals and wastes of money around the league.

Regrettably, La Canfora has pegged Gerald McCoy among his “11 worst contracts.” (The figure below is the cash GMC will earn in 2012.)

Gerald McCoy, Bucs, DT, $6.85M: McCoy has yet to find his way in the NFL, with injuries derailing the 2009 first-round pick. The quick emergence of Ndamukong Suh didn’t help much, either, and this given that McCoy is set to make roughly $20M in salary between 2013-2014, and his $11M average per year makes him the fourth-highest paid DT in the NFL, it’s fair to say the Bucs need much more out of him.

If he can produce anything remotely close to Suh’s rookie season and display more of an ability to explode into the backfield and collapse the pocket, then that changes everything. But he’s being paid as one of the very best at what he does — again, the fatal flaw of the compensation of the top eight picks or so under the old CBA — and another lost season and people will start throwing around that B-word.

It’s tough to argue with the take. McCoy, as stated here, is the fourth-highest paid defensive tackle in the league. He has to produce. Period.

Yeah, Joe will write about the changes in the NFL blackout policy shortly, (Joe is finishing some research), but first Joe wants to share a Twitter funny from Adrian Clayborn.

The only Buccaneer that could consistently scare quarterbacks last season (7.5 sacks), Clayborn is hungry as the 2012 season approaches. This is no suprise, as the Bucs’ second-year defensive lineman is half-man/half-dog and he plays borderline illegal, as Raheem Morris liked to say.

Adhering to a strict diet regimen was getting to Clayborn around midnight last night, so he Twittered.

Every Bucs fan knows about Brian Price taking his sister’s recent accidental death extremely hard. It went so far that Price landed in a Tampa hospital for days drained by grief, and the Bucs excused him from manadatory minicamp this month to train in California near his family.

In what Joe believes is Price’s first interview since his family tragedy, Price talked to Rashaun Haylock of FOX Sports West about his grief and challenges since his sister’s death.

  “(I’m) having a hard time sleeping,” Price said. “I’ll be up until six in the morning (and) then I’ll sleep for an hour and go about my day.”  A part of his days now include trying to help his nephews deal with losing their mom.  “That’s the hard part,” he said, “Explaining to a kid that their mom is gone and their dad is not in their life. Sometimes they get it. Sometimes they don’t. “It’s a process.” 

Price plans to adopt his nephews and bring them with him to Tampa. 

“I’ve been taking care of them since they were born. They love me like crazy and I love them,” Price said. “I just love hanging out with them and they love hanging out with me. We just do the most simple things but it means a lot.

“When they were younger they would say ‘Dad, I mean uncle’ and I’d tear up a little bit because they just mean the world to me.”

Joe recommends clicking through above and reading the entire story. There’s not much football-related stuff in the piece, but it’s interesting regardless. Joe wishes Price the best.

Joe’s not ready to count out Price, not after turning only 23 in April, and not after displaying extraordinary toughness during his recovery from horrific surgery.

One of the most candid and respected Buccaneers in recent years was Earnest Graham. And over the years Graham delivered his most open interviews with J.P. Peterson, of 1010 AM.

The two co-hosted The Earnest Graham Show in 2009 & 2010, (there may have been earlier years) and it was there that Graham had no problem saying he thought 30 percent of the NFL was using HGH, a story that went national back in ’09.

Yesterday evening brought another one of those candid Graham chat sessions with Peterson.

Peterson asked Graham about who deserved more of the blame for the 2011 Bucs season, players or coaches. Graham prefaced his answer by saying he response would be no reflection of his love for anyone, but “a lot of that burden will lay on the coaches.”

Graham said the unraveling of the Bucs was “not because veteran guys didn’t speak up” or that there weren’t enough veterans. Graham didn’t elaborate with a lot of detail but said coaches didn’t back up those veterans looking to right the ship.

Interestingly, Peterson mentioned to Graham that the Bucs collapsed in London after he was hurt during that game, and Graham responded citing the loss of Gerald McCoy “as a young leader” as a major turning point in the team’s collapse.

Joe found that intriguing considering Ronde Barber previously pegged the season-ending injury to McCoy as one that doomed the defense. So it seems that McCoy was an impact leader on multiple fronts, per Barber and Graham.

Graham said he doesn’t know Greg Schiano at all, but regarding Schiano’s attention to details, Graham said that was absent when the Bucs needed it last season.

“We didn’t have them down the stretch when we got tired,” Graham said.

For Joe, Graham asssigning more blame on 2011 coaches than players — not absolving players — is significant because Joe knows Graham woudn’t hesitate to call it the other way if that’s what he believed. Barber, for instance, said the Bucs got Raheem fired. Joe’s not calling Barber a liar, just pointing out the perspective of two respected players.

Joe hopes the coaches were at the root of the Bucs’ collapse from a 4-2 record. That would bring more hope for a big rebound under the New Schiano Order.

Joe will deliver more from Graham’s interview through the weekend.

Yes, the Bucs, specifically, rock star general manager Mark Dominik, made a big splash in free agency in the offseason, luring in wide receiver Vincent Jackson, offensive guard Carl Nicks and cornerback Eric Wright.

Of course, Joe is excited to learn just how Jackson can help what was a woeful Bucs offense last season. It seems many have high expectations for Jackson, and not just the Bucs.

ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas is counting down the top 25 players in the division and he has Jackson as the NFC South’s No. 16 ranking.

Vincent Jackson, wide receiver, Tampa Bay

What he did in 2011: Playing for the San Diego Chargers, Jackson caught 60 passes for 1,106 yards and nine touchdowns. His most impressive statistic might have been that he averaged 18.6 yards per catch. The Chargers wanted to keep Jackson, but they had some salary-cap limitations. The Buccaneers didn’t and they broke the bank to get him to Tampa Bay.

Why he’s No. 16 in 2012: Jackson instantly gives quarterback Josh Freeman a much-needed true No. 1 wide receiver. He’s a proven commodity and he allows Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn to step into supporting roles. Jackson’s a big target (6-foot-5) and he has shown the ability to get open downfield and to break tackles after shorter catches. He and Freeman seem like a perfect fit. New coach Greg Schiano has said his offense will run the ball a lot and take some shots downfield. There aren’t many receivers more worth taking deep shots to than Jackson.

Already Jackson is making an impact with the Bucs and the team has yet to put pads on. Mike Williams has told Joe about how Jackson is helping him watch film and not just what to look for, but develop a hunger for watching additional tape on opponents.

That’s the kind of work ethic the Bucs sorely need, not the ‘tude of a certain highly-paid, pampered tight end crying about how he can’t joke around at practice.