One of the more interesting developments of the past week was the Bucs releasing running back Allen Bradford, their 2010 sixth-round pick. Bradford gets the boot when the Bucs are thin at running back?

Recruited as a linebacker to the University of Southern California, Bradford had success running the ball in college and was a standout on special teams. But the Bucs didn’t have enough space for him and Pete Carroll and the Seahawks claimed him off waivers and put him on the active roster. Maybe Bradford will be pals in Seattle with former Bucs defensive tackle Al Woods, who played quite a few snaps when the Bucs beat the Saints to close the 2010 season. 

It’s just a growing trend of the Bucs getting plucked where they used to be the pluckers.

The Bucs have been paying top dollar to practice squad players to try and keep them around, and young castoffs are landing on other rosters more frequently. Sackless Kyle Moore and tight end Nathan Overbay are property of the undefeated Lions.

Time will tell whether the recent Bucs draft picks like Bradford and Ahmad Black weren’t good enough for the league, or just not good enough for the Bucs.

Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net peels off the onion skins on the Saints-Bucs game this Sunday. As “Old School” points out, virtually everyone is expecting an ugly game. But should they? Find out by watching the video below.

In an effort to tap every corner of multimedia to reach just about every type of Bucs fan, TBO has a weekly Bucs podcast.

This week, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune sits down to talk all things Bucs and in particular Cummings discusses what ails Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

Unlike many, Cummings does not believe Freeman is regressing during his third season.

“I would not say there are clear signs of regression,” Cummings said. “We see signs of improvement in other areas. He is making a lot of plays but those are being wiped out by penalties and drops. He’s still one of the best in third down efficiency. With six interceptions, he clearly has to clean up some of his game. I think his confidence is getting the best of him. ‘Hey, I did this last year I can do it now.'”

You can listen to the rest of the podcast by clicking this link.

The Bucs offense is not what it was.

First, there’s LeGarrette Blount, out with a gimpy knee. Before Blount became a major cog in the Bucs offense last year the Bucs rushing attack was Connie Chung-like. Actually, before Blount started, Joe is of the mind that the Bucs had no rushing attack.

Second, there is wide receiver Mike Williams, who classified his play this season as “terrible” earlier this week.

Lastly, there is quarterback Josh Freeman, whose touchdown-to-interception ratios is among the worst in the league, a drastic turnaround from last year when his same ratio was second in the NFL to Drew Brees.

But don’t try to tell Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams Freeman is struggling. The long time NFL defensive guru believes no other player on the Bucs offense can hurt a defense more than Freeman, so he told Kevin Spain of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

If there’s a guy on the Tampa Bay offense that you’re afraid of, who is it and why?

“What we do is we take a look at all the targets and we take a look at all their players. I think they’ve done a really good job of getting young and good players, but they have a lot of different guys. We don’t just isolate on one, we try to surround the formation and try to play as hard and as fast as we can and minimize every inch of grass that we can. Sometimes that’s easier said than done. This division has become such a great quarterback-driven division, and Josh (Freeman) has played very well against us. We have our work cut out for us again with having to play him this week.”

It’s a good thing Freeman has played well against the Saints. With no Blount, with Williams admitting he’s not having a good year, it will take a fantastic game from Freeman for the Bucs to be able to knock off the current NFC South leaders.

The national media is smelling blood in the water when it comes to the Buccaneers these days.

In today’s off-the-bandwagon edition from NBC Sports, ProFootballTalk.com guru Mike Florio claims smart guys around the NFL believe the “Buccaneers grossly overachieved” last year and that should be evident for the second straight game on Sunday. And Peter King, showing perhaps one of his drunk on oatmeal and popcorn moments, seems to the Saints will win because Drew Brees lit up a “good” Bucs defense in Tampa in 2009 and 2010.

Joe sincerely hopes the Bucs take out the Saints, which also would fend off the pundits for a couple of weeks.

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Saints defensive lineman Turk McBride talks about what he expects from the Bucs offense in this New Orleans Times-Picayune video.

Josh Freeman tells a story of Aqib Talib obsessed with improving his hands

Joe’s already harped on the dropped potential interceptions from Aqib Talib, the ones that keep him from the class of elite cornerbacks.

But Talib himself won’t let them go, so said Josh Freeman on The Josh Freeman Show on WDAE-AM 620 Wednesday. Freeman painted a picture of friendly quarterback warmup tossing at Wednesday’s practice that turned into a hands workout for Talib. Freeman, Mike Williams, Josh Johnson and Talib were loosening up when Talib took it up a notch.

“Aqib’s having Josh [Johnson] throw him hard passes, up, all over,” Freeman said. “I’m like, ‘Why don’t you just have him throw it to you?’ He’s like, ‘Man, I gotta work on my hands. I have at least three miss-ops this year. I could easily have four picks.'”

Joe’s glad to hear of Talib’s commitment. Actually, he’s often working with receivers in training camp.

As the headline says, the Bucs rank last in interceptions in the NFC with two picks, a stat that probably has to change Sunday if the Bucs are to pull out a win.

Joe hears doom and gloom from fans regarding Sunday’s game against the Saints. But Joe thinks the Bucs could hang with the Saints Sunday if they only stay committed to the running game.

The Saints are allowing an average of 5.2 yards per rush this season, third worst in the NFL.

Think about that number for a moment. Throughout 2009, when the Bucs were gashed up the gut routinely, they allowed 4.8 yards per carry. In 2010, when things weren’t much better, they allowed 4.7 yards per carry.

The point is, the Saints haven’t showed they can stop the run. And the Saints got a gift in Jacksonville two weeks ago when the offensive coordinator over there decided to have Blaine Gabbert drop back to pass seven consecutive times to open the game. Blaine Gabbert! The Saints quickly got up by two TDs, and Gabbert finished 16-for-42.

The Bucs have got to let their high-priced offensive line earn its money and get a legitimate shot to control the game. Isn’t that why they’re paying those guys? Just pound it on first and second downs and see what happens.

At the end of the day, the Bucs’ chances probably lie in Josh Freeman turning in a Pro Bowl-caliber performance, but that’s going to be a hell of a lot easier if he can run on 3rd-and-short and the Saints defense is worn out in the fourth quarter.

Listen to former All-Pro defensive end Hugh Douglas talk about the Bucs, as well as some other guy that likes the Saints on Sunday.

Jason Horowitz and Pat Kirwan break down the Saints-Bucs game Sunday in this CBSSports.com video.

Sadly, the people that still are of the misguided belief that BSPN produces quality sports viewing (sans college football) are outraged over how the four-letter crucifies the local market.

At first, when Joe heard people whine how the BSPN types always mock the area for lack of attendance to baseball and football games, Joe’s initial response was, “Well, that’s what you get for watching BSPN. You should know better. Watch the NFL Network and MLB Network instead.”

But the more Joe heard from people whining about BSPN and their mocking of the Tampa Bay area, Joe began to smell an agenda.

Did BSPN ridicule Cincinnati not selling tickets to Reds games despite having a division winner last year? Does the same outfit howl about the Chargers and the Raiders and the Bengals having blackouts? Nope.

Did BSPN mention how Wednesday night, Game 3 of the NLCS in St. Louis wasn’t sold out, you know, the best baseball town in America if you are to believe some baseball pundits? Doubt it.

(For the record, nothing on radio makes Joe change the station quicker than people talking about attendance. Joe doesn’t give a whip if two people or 40,000 people are at a game. If Joe wants to watch said game, he’ll go to the game. It’s the game, not the seats, Joe cares about.)

NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell feels Bucs fans’ pain. Unlike BSPN, Goodell understands if the local economy was thriving, seats would be packed at Bucs games, so he told eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.

“Tampa’s a great market,” Goodell told The Tampa Tribune this week at the NFL’s fall meetings in Houston. “I know how passionate the fans are down there. I also know the team is doing everything it can to get people into the stadium.”

Goodell noted the effect a down economy is having on the region.

‘We have to recognize what fans are going through right now,” he said. “These are challenging times, and Tampa has been hit particularly hard.”

Would it be better for fans if they could watch games locally on TV? Of course. But Joe is of the mind that if you want to watch a game and money is tight, pick out a game or two when the schedule is released in April and squirrel away a few bucks here, a few bucks there, and pretty soon one can afford to go to a game or two.

It’s nice to have breakfast in bed. But sooner or later you have to get out of bed and pour the cereal in the bowl yourself.

Like St. Petersburg Times veteran columnist Gary Shelton has pointed out, when Van Halen comes to the Ice Palace, that concert isn’t even on HBO much less free TV. Yet no one complains, not one peep. But God forbid an NFL game is blacked out by the NFL.

Why the double-standard?

First, Joe must commend safety Tanard Jackson for staying in such top-flight shape during his substance abuse suspension that he can walk off the couch last Monday and be ready to play in the NFL on Sunday.

Kudos for him for staying clean through his consistent drug tests and for taking his latest second chance at his career seriously.

Per the Buccaneers official Twitter feed this afternoon, Jackson was placed on the active roster today. Allen Bradford was waived yesterday, presumably to make room. There’s no reason to think the Bucs would have activated Jackson — they had another week or wiggle room — if he wasn’t going to play Sunday.

It’s just a pretty wild concept to digest that Jackson can get back on the field successfully after all that time away and a few days of practice. Forgetting about the physical side, there’s the mental part of picking up new nuances in the Bucs’ defense and reacting during live play.

A myriad of former Buccaneers took to the sports radio airwaves this week and threw a ice water on Jackson having any kind of success on the field Sunday, if he even played so soon.

Joe hopes Jackson can shock the world.

Back for his weekly trip to the end zone of the NFL universe, popular sports radio personality Adam Schein travels through football space and time outs. Check out what Schein has to say about the Bucs this week. Consider yourself sucked in to the latest episode of Cosmic Schein!

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=0d1cace8-5eb0-4bda-9e41-cd689b6d79bd" target="_new" title="">Cosmic Schein: Week 6</a>

Sunday is a really interesting spot for Earnest Graham with LeGarrette Blount on the shelf with a knee injury.

Frankly, Graham’s career could be on the line. Graham’s in the final year of his contract and, at 31 years old, he can’t afford to turn in any clunkers with this shot at reviving his glory season of 2007, when the Bucs locked up the NFC South with two weeks remaining.

Old and old-looking running backs won’t be in demand around the NFL come March.

Joe’s pulling for Graham, who’s really a class act.

Graham was buried inexplicably on the Bucs bench in 2009, though Greg Olson sort of said otherwise to the St. Pete Times yesterday.

“If we felt that way, we wouldn’t put him in there,” offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. ” … We have all the confidence in the world in Earnest, and we always have in the time that I’ve been here.”

The Bucs handed the ball off to Graham just 14 times in ’09, even though they went into the campaign with a stated plan of having a three-headed monster backfield of Derrick Ward, Cadillac Williams and Graham and the famous 2-2-1 rotation that never got off the ground. Graham kept his mouth shut, played a little fullback, and then bulked up and showed up for 20 carries and the fullback job last year.

As a regular listener of Graham’s former radio show, Joe suspects Graham will come out as the prototypical “angry worker” Raheem Morris likes to have on Sunday. There were numerous times over the years when Graham nicely implied on the air that he wanted the damn rock again.

Whether he’s successful or not Sunday as the Bucs hopefully try to pound the ball and keep Drew Brees off the field is anyone’s guess. Joe’s wouldn’t bet on what happens, other than fans will see the absolute best Graham has to offer.

Listening to Raheem Morris’ radio show Monday, there was one point when Joe rewound the tape.

It was when Raheem was talking about the heart — and presumably the knee — of Aqib Talib.

“I don’t know how he played, but he did for his team,” said of Talib’s performance at less than full strength against the 49ers.

It was a pretty dramatic comment from the head coach, so Joe was looking to see whether Talib hit the practice field at full-go Wednesday and Thursday. He did, but he is on the official injured list. Though given Raheem’s comment, how healthy is Talib?

LeGarrette Blount and Gerald McCoy have gotten plenty of attention for their injuries what will knock them out of Sunday’s game against New Orleans, but another guy banged up is Mason Foster, who came out of the 49ers game with a messed up ankle. He’s been limited in practice and there’s still no word on whether he’ll play Sunday.

Quincy Black seems to be just fine, though, a fact not very soothing to Joe.

Some guy named Brees out of New Orleans talks in this Times Picayune video about what he expects from the Buccaneers.

In the wake of the alley-beating the Bucs took in San Francisco, Joe was concerned the mood of Bucs fans would be so downtrodden that they would not seem moved to buy tickets to the New Orleans game this Sunday.

Joe’s fears were realized as the Bucs failed to meet the NFL’s mandated sellout 72 hours prior to kickoff. Hence, again, the Bucs will be blacked out this weekend. This was documented by eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune using the TBO Bucs Twitter feed.

It’s official. Sunday’s Bucs-Saints matchup will be blacked out in the Tampa Bay market. That makes 11 blackouts in last 12 home games.

As usual, this only pertains to the Bucs primary TV market, Tampa Bay, and the secondary TV market, Orlando.

LeGarrette Blount goes down and out with a knee injury and the Bucs cut rookie running back Allen Bradford?

It’s true, so Twittered Rick Stroud, the St. Pete Times beat writer.

@NFLStroud – Bucs release RB Allen Bradford has been released by the Bucs.

Presumably, the move was made to create a roster spot for safety Tanard Jackson so he can play Sunday against the Saints, only six days after ending his 56-week suspension for substance abuse.

Perhaps the Bucs bring back Bradford on their practice squad, but as of now 2010 fifth-round pick Ahamad Black is on the practice squad despite the Bucs’ multiple injuries in the secondary, Bradford is in limbo, and seventh-round tight end Daniel Hardy was cut long ago.

It’s a lot harder to make the young Buccaneers and/or rockstar general manager Mark Dominik didn’t belt late-round home runs this year.

Wondering whether Tanard Jackson will go from a yearlong NFL league suspension Monday to staring down Drew Brees in the Bucs’ secondary in only six short days? St. Pete Times beat writer Rick Stroud has the answer for you.

“He’s absolutely going to play this week [against the Saints],” Stroud told J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010 this afternoon.

It’ll be interesting to see how much Jackson actually gets in the game. Of course, the Bucs still must officially add Jackson to the roster.

If he plays a lot, what does that say about the value of Corey Lynch? And what would it say about the value, or lack thereof, of training camp and practice?

With LeGarrette Blount out, this is going to be one wild Sunday.

J.P. Peterson, of WQYK-AM 1010, is reporting that LeGarrette Blount will be out several weeks with a Grade 2 MCL tear in his knee.

Peterson offered the doctor’s name on the air and said it’s a source he’s known for years.

Wow! Joe is speechless and miserable.

Earnest Graham now returns to his old role as No. 1 tailback, one he gave up during the 2008 season. But Graham is no Blount.

Joe will update as more information becomes available.

Saints beat writers offer their takes — and some historical perspective — on how the Bucs might perform coming off their humiliating defeat in San Francisco.

When last offseason Joe broke out JoeBucsFanTV, it was met with rave reviews. One reason was insight offered from Joe’s good friends Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620, former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson and musings from NFL.com blogger Jenna Laine.

But the person who was the glue as both a co-host of the studio shows and reporter of on-site videos was none other than Sarah Tyson. As a result, Joe is confident his readers would want to help her, and see more of Sarah.

Sarah is a finalist to be the official host for the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl held at the Fruitdome in St. Petersburg Dec. 20 pitting a team from Conference USA against a Big East squad.

Joe’s readers can help Sarah, a former reporter for the Sunshine Network, secure this gig by voting for her. It’s free. Just vote at this site.

Anyone want to guess who the official host of the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl was last year? It was none other than Jenna Laine!

So let’s keep up the streak and see to it another of Joe’s friends gets the gig.

Joe, and of course, Sarah, thanks you for your support.