Preseason Game 3
Dolphins at Bucs
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
TV: WTSP-TV Channel 10 locally. The game is blacked out in the Tampa Bay and Orlando TV markets and will be broadcast several times on a tape-delayed basis with the first airing, tentatively at 11:30 p.m. tonight in the Tampa Bay region on WTSP Channel 10. Other airings will be Sunday at noon on WTSP and Sunday at 11 p.m. on the NFL Network.
Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (in Tampa WFUS-FM, 103.5 and WDAE-AM, 620); Sirius Channel 93.
Weather: Please watche the detailed forecast video from Joe’s proud partner WTSP-TV Channel 10. Per Accuweather.com, temperatures will stay in the high 80s throughout the game under mostly clear skies.
Odds: Per Sportsbook.com, Bucs -3.
Outlook: This should be a dress rehearsal of the Sept. 11 season opener against Detroit. The Bucs will have for the first time this year Kellen Winslow, Arrelious Benn and Brian Price. How those three play will be critical to the Bucs, though we all know what K2 can do. … The offensive line must improve from last week’s debacle against the Patriots. The Bucs simply don’t have the defense yet to lock down opponents like the old Bucs did. If LeGarrette Blount has no holes to run through, if Josh Freeman doesn’t have enough time to throws, this is a major problem. The Dolphins quite frankly are not the Patriots so there should be some improvement tonight. … How the secondary plays will also be key, specifically the second and third string guys. The Bucs have depth at that position but Myron Lewis is hurt again and we all know about the very real possibility that NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell will throw the book at Aqib Talib so solid play from guys like Anthony Gaitor and Larry Asante will go a long way to calming Joe’s fears. … Joe trusts you enjoy former Miami Dolphins cheerleader Fabiola, who is simply fab-u-lous! Fabiola is the Rachel Watson of Miami in Joe’s eyes. Trivia: She, along with Tampa native and traitor Jenn Sterger, were the original Florida State Cowgirls.

Joe’s friends at WTSP-TV, Ch. 10 have served up a gamenight weather forecast for Bucs fans. Here it is from Chris Suchan. And don’t forget, Ch. 10 has the tape delayed broadcast of tonight’s game starting at 11:30 p.m.

Last year wide receiver Arrelious Benn had a slow start. Understandable, coming from one of those garbage high school spread-option offenses at Illinois.

Just when Benn turned the corner and was making an impact, he blows out a knee.

During his rehab, laid up, unable to walk yet much less run, what did Benn do? He had his brother throw him passes when he couldn’t even get on his feet so he could work out in some manner.

That’s the word from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

He was off the couch and back on a football field near his Washington D.C. home sooner than doctors and team trainers thought; sooner, perhaps, than they wanted.

“I was doing things during the lockout that I wouldn’t tell the trainers I was doing,” Benn said. “I did a lot of little things on my own just to keep my body going and keep it right.”

The results are visible. The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Benn is thicker through the chest and shoulders than a year ago and running so well [Bucs wide receivers coach Eric] Yarber often can’t tell which knee was injured. For the record, it was the left.

Joe thinks that Benn coming Back healthy is a very big thing for Josh Freeman and the Bucs. With Mike Williams, Kellen Winslow, Dezmon Briscoe, Michael Spurlock and Benn, that gives Freeman all sorts of dangerous toys to play with.

Bobby Fenton

Yes, it’s game day. The Bucs are playing tonight. At The CITS.

Being one of the two flagship stations of the Bucs, WDAE-AM 620 is pulling out the stops today. The good people of Clear Channel already had Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski on the air this morning with his sometimes Saturday show, “The Blitz.”

Now, from 2-5 p.m. leading into the Bucs pregame show is one of Joe’s favorites, Bobby Fenton. He’s bring his rapid-fire, well-researched information to the WDAE airwaves and Joe encourages his readers to call in.

After Bobby leaves the air, it’s Bucs game day brought to you by the co-hosts of Bucs pregame and postgame radio, Justin Pawlowski and Ryan Nece.

Those chained to a computer today can listen to Bobby at the station’s website at 620WDAE.com.

Ok, Joe’s trying to clean out his notebook before the Bucs host the Dolphins tonight.

After the Patriots beatdown, Joe got a chance to go back to the way back machine and talk to wide receiver/return specialist Jock Sanders. It was hardly the first time Joe has spoken with Jock. Joe remembers writing about him when he was a freshman at St. Petersburg Catholic, a terrific running back.

Joe vividly remember seeing his name and confirming with school officials, yes, his first name is “Jock.” Then, filing a story on deadline, Joe just knew copy editors would call within seconds screaming about his first name.

It happened like clockwork.

Last week was a special moment for Sanders, even he admitted it. He grew up worshipping the Bucs and went to some Bucs games as a kid. Now, he was returning punts wearing a Bucs uniform in a game at home, with his family in the seats. This is Hollywood stuff for a guy.

Joe, however, was impressed with Sanders in that rather than be giddy, he was upset with the loss.

“Yeah, it’s a dream come true but I have got to go out and handle business,” Sanders said.

By all accounts, Sanders making the squad is a long shot. He’s a 5-6 receiver in a crowded roster filled with talented receivers. The only ways Sanders will make the Bucs is as a return man.

Thus far Sanders hasn’t really exploded enough. He did have a nice kickoff return of 25 yards against the Pats but his punt returns have been nondescript.

He genuinely felt miserable after the Patriots loss.

“Of course we can do better,” Sander said. “Immediately after this game you were already down because you knew you could have played better.”

Joe likes the attitude. But Sanders will have to give Bucs officials more to like on the returns if he is to return kicks against the Lions come Sept. 11.

Joe will serve up his traditional “Gameday Tampa Bay” post up later this afternoon in advance of the Bucs-Dolphins game tonight at 7:30 p.m. The television replay, thanks to the asinine blackout, is at 11:30 p.m. on WTSP, Ch. 10.

During the live game, Joe will have an open thread here for you to comment, cheer, moan, etc. It was pretty popular last week.

And, of course, Joe will be at the C.I.T.S. covering and Twittering the action. So check back here into the wee hours after the game and all day Sunday, as Joe rips off all kinds of great stuff from the Bucs locker room and takes on the game.

Joe’s not big on anonymous sources, so take this from Yahoo! Sports as you will.

Jason Cole of Yahoo! says three sources “familiar with the situation” of Roger Goodell yearning to punish Aqib Talib are telling him that Talib will get a four-game suspension to open the 2011 season. The story is here, delivered by the good folks at ProFootballTalk.com.

Again, Joe’s not big on anonymous sources for major stories. Months ago, Joe remembers reading in the St. Pete Times about how the Bucs had decided to dump Talib after the asinine lockout ended. Uhh, that didn’t happen.

From the public record details of Talib’s assault with a deadly weapon case, Joe gets that hypocrite Goodell might be incensed that Talib didn’t call 911 before heading to his sister’s house to confront trouble. Joe gets that Goodell might be miffed that a police summary claims Talib wasn’t 100 percent truthful to police and apologized for a comment during questioning.

But beyond that, Joe can’t get why Goodell would want to drop a four-game hammer on Talib and the Bucs before all the facts of the case are known. Is the man’s ego and power trip that big?

Why not two games now and reserve the right for additional suspension time after the facts are out?

What really happened at Talib’s sister’s house in Texas is sketchy at best, and it was a sad family situation, not a night at a strip club gone bad or a sleazy event that bristles league feathers. Why Goodell is in such a hurry, if he’s really in a hurry, is a bigger myster than what happened in Texas.

Studying all things Dolphins in preparation for Saturday’s game, Joe has learned that Dolphins cornerback Vontae Davis is a funny guy.

Davis, a first-round pick in 2009, tells the Miami Herald that he and cornerback running mate Sean Smith (2nd round pick in ’09) are the best cornerbacks in the NFL.

Man, that guy is funny. Davis and Smith combined for TWO  interceptions last year.

Regardless, the Bucs’ first-team wide receivers couldn’t get open last week against New England and will face a youngry cornerback duo on Saturday night. They need to step up.

Oh, and Joe’s darn glad Bucs receivers — and Josh Freeman — test their skills against Ronde Barber and Aqib Talib daily in practice rather than against those clowns on the Dolphins.

As you have already seen today, Joe’s been doing research on the interwebs and has now come across a really interesting piece on the Kansas City Star website.

Apparently Kansas City, once thought to be — along with Green Bay — the mecca of NFL experiences in the Midwest, is having trouble selling tickets.

For a playoff team no less.

Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star stated he didn’t blame fans for not buying tickets. In his mind, fans are better off at home with the NFL Sunday Ticket.

Using the Team Marketing Report numbers, going to 10 games at Arrowhead Stadium would cost more than $3,500 for a family of four.

For that money, you can buy a 42-inch LCD television with surround sound, three leather home theater seats, the Sunday Ticket package to watch every game, and still have nearly $150 per week to spend on beer and food.

Which one sounds like the better deal? Reasonable people can disagree, but the numbers indicate that more people are choosing technology and comfort at home.

This sort of reminds Joe what a friend of his once told Joe years ago. “I can see more plays at home and I can drink just as much beer.” Bill King of SiriusXM College Sports channel has a similar response. Whenever someone calls and invites him to a tailgate party at a game, King always responds, “If I go to a game, I miss too much.”

Joe wouldn’t be shocked at all if in the not-too-distant future, NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers will be able to buy single Bucs home game broadcasts for $50 a pop.

So Bucs fans, don’t scream at area citizens if you can’t watch your games for free. It could just be that local fans have been ahead of the curve of other markets.

Longtime Orlando Sentinel columnist and Orlando sports radio host Mike Bianchi has ripped off a pointed blast at the Tampa Bay area and its fans, calling out national media types for suggesting the Jacksonville Jaguars are doomed to relocate to Los Angeles when it’s the Buccaneers that are the stain on Florida’s NFL landscape.

“What about the L.A. Buccaneers?” Bianchi writes. You can raise your blood pressure and read the whole thing by clicking through the link above.

What troubled Joe most is the revelation of further evidence of the Bucs’ falling off the media radar in Orlando. The Orlando Sentinel abandoned daily beat coverage of the Bucs before the 2010 season. And Bianchi claims the Bucs have no local radio outlet in town.

“The fan apathy toward the Bucs is even more baffling because Tampa has always fancied itself as a football town. But I would argue Jacksonville is much more passionate about its perennially mediocre Jags than the Bucs are about one of the hottest young teams in the NFL.

“Here’s all you need to know about how far the Bucs’ popularity has fallen not only in Tampa but throughout Central Florida: As I am writing this column, the Bucs do not even have a radio outlet to broadcast their games in the Orlando market. Radio stations in Orlando used to fight over the Bucs, but now the team has gone through much of the preseason without its games being broadcast in this thriving market.”

Now Joe hasn’t confirmed whether or not the Bucs can be heard in Orlando via radio, but they aren’t carried by either of the two top sports stations in the market. And that’s rather sad. On his radio show, Bianchi interviewed CBSports.com NFL writer Pete Prisco yesterday and the Bucs weren’t even discussed, as if they weren’t coming off a 10-6 season and played 90 miles away.

Frankly, Joe believes Orlando media types are just extraordinarily bitter that the Bucs pulled out of holding their training camp at Disney World. And they’re under the false notion that fans out there don’t care about the Bucs anymore because the team doesn’t sweat there in August.

As for the the Bucs moving to Los Angeles, Bianchi’s a bozo and might want to treat his readers by investing a few minutes to find something to write about that might actually happen.

Joe polls his readers a few times a month, but this is an official JoeBucsFan/WTSP-TV 10 News Poll. How about that! Joe’s pulling a Zobgy. Results here may be used during a Ch. 10 sports report or even a Bucs preseason broadcast. Have your say.

"Merry Christmas, Free. We hope."

One thing that frustrated Joe about the Bucs’ offseason was the scant, if any, upgrades to the Bucs offense.

More juice at wide receiver? No.

Scat back type? No.

Yes, the Bucs were roughly the 10th best offense in the NFL over the second half of the 2010 season, but it seemed that with legend-in-waiting Josh Freeman at quarterback, the Bucs might have wanted to added more weapons around him.

This seemed especially important to Joe with Arrelious Benn coming off major surgery and the Bucs waving goodbye to their productive third-down back, fan favorite Cadillac Williams.

Essentially, to get more dangerous, the Bucs drafted running back Allen Bradford — a longshot to wear a helmet on Sundays — and grabbed rookie tight end Luke Stocker with their late fourth-round pick. On paper, they’re hardly impact moves. But Stocker makes his debut Saturday following a training camp injury, and Joe can’t wait to see him, especially after Raheem Morris raved about the young man at his Friday news conference.

“Stocker’s really been fun to watch because he’s kind of that new present you get at the end of the day on Christmas. We finally got a chance to gift wrap him last week and this week,” Raheem said. “And looking at him go out there, he’s a big blocker type but he also has some foot quickness. We’re starting to see the stuff we fell in love with at the Senior Bowl come alive for him. …  I’m really fired up about that young man.”

Joe’s been naughty, but he’s ready for a Merry Christmas. And surely Freeman earned something from Santa. Hopefully, Stocker is another late-round gem from Mark Dominik.

Every Bucs fan hopes opening day against Detroit is sold out. But the reality is that it will take a minor miracle for that to happen 72 hours before kickoff in order to get the game on local TV.

So Joe has revived the Blackout Tour for the home opener on Sept. 11, to give Bucs fans an opportunity to watch the game live in HD-TV in Fort Myers at Lee Roy Selmon’s, if they can’t swing getting out to the game in Tampa.

Joe ran the Blackout Tour last season with his great partners at Paradise Worldwide Transportation. And this year the price has dropped and there will be stops in Tampa (Lee Roy Selmon’s near International Plaza) and at Derby Lane in St. Petersburg for the chauffeured luxury bus that will take fans fans to Fort Myers to catch the game.

The cost is only $22.95 per person, which includes roundtrip transportation and a FREE draft beer and a FREE plate of wings at Lee Roy Selmon’s in Fort Myers, plus free soft drinks on the bus.

Joe is pleased to offer this stunning deal. The Blackout Tour was a blast last year and is a fun, affordable way to catch the game. Visit BlackoutTour.com to grab your seat and get all the details. The luxury bus will sell out and another bus will NOT be added.

Don Shula, Howard Schnellenberger, Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer. Those are just some of the giants of football who made their mark on the state of Florida.

For some reason, Jimmy Johnson is forgotten.

Before Johnson won three Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, Johnson took over an upstart program from Schnellenberger and transformed the Miami Hurricanes into a dynasty.

So it was interesting to learn of Johnson having developed an admiration for current Bucs coach Raheem Morris, so Johnson told Dan Sileo on WDAE-AM 620 earlier this week.

“I was really surprised,” Johnson said of how Morris came within a whisker of winning a playoff berth tiebreaker to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. “From Day 1, I was a little bit skeptical [of Morris’ hiring]. I thought he has done just a fantastic job. They really played well [last year].

“Raheem has had a lot to do with [last year’s success]. He coaches them with such confidence. He brings out the best in those players. I have been very impressed with what Raheem Morris has done.”

Yes, it’s easy to feel good about what Morris has done. There’s no denying how quickly he rebuilt the team from woeful in 2009 to near-playoffs last season.

Now whether the Bucs can duplicate that success this year and make the playoffs, well, that’s why they play the games. We will all know the answer to that in four months.

But if the Bucs don’t make the playoffs, what then? As Jerry Glanville famously said, the NFL means “not for long.” If the Bucs do not make the playoffs this season, meaning that would be three seasons under Morris the Bucs have not played in the postseason, does that make 2012 a make or break year for the Bucs head coach?

A week ago tonight the Bucs were blasted by New England at The CITS in both teams’ second preseason game. Afterwards, Bucs coach Raheem Morris said to the flock of fourth estate members that part of the reason for the lopsided loss was that the Bucs did not devise a gameplan for the Patriots.

Many cynics and Bucs fans scoffed at the suggestion that the Bucs didn’t have a  gameplan. Morris tried to explain later how he sets up preseason games each year and that the second game he doesn’t game plan.

The explanation did little to calm the nerves of Bucs critics, who thought Morris’ words were outlandish.

Well, now Joe can write definitively that the Bucs indeed did not have a gameplan going against the Patriots.

Thursday afternoon, Joe was privy to audio of Morris by way of NFL Films. On the last Sunday of training camp, the Sunday prior to the Patriots game, Aug. 14, Morris was wired by an NFL Films production crew and mentioned there would be no scheme for the Patriots.

In the audio clip, Sunday afternoon practice had just ended. It was the final practice of training camp that was open to the public. The Bucs gathered in a huddle around Morris as is tradition of sorts once practice is over. Morris, in sort of a pep talk to his players which he is so good at, reminds the Bucs they are still working hard to get better and make sure to thank the fans that came out to watch practice.

“This is the last practice that is open,” Morris told the team. “Let’s go over there and sign, wish everyone well. Thank them for coming. That’s who we are. We are still in camp mode. We are still getting better. We are still going good on good. We are not trying to scheme New England.”

Those words were straight out of the mouth of Morris, a full four days before kickoff against the Patriots.

So no, the Bucs weren’t trying to game plan against New England.

But they will against Miami Saturday.

Earlier Joe reported that cheap seats for opening day on Sept. 11 were all gobbled up, per what Joe was seeing on TicketMaster.com.

Well, Joe must stand corrected. There are about 100 $44 seats — total — available in sections 329, 328, 327, 344, 343 and 342 for the Bucs-Lions game featuring half-price concessions and hopefully decent refereeing.

So hurry up and get your credit card humming. 

In an eye-opening column by good guy Maoist Michael Silver, he details on Yahoo! Sports exactly why Bucs troubled cornerback Aqib Talib was summoned to the Park Avenue chambers of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell for Talib’s alleged involvement in a Texas pistol whipping and attempted shooting this spring.

Per Silver, in the final minutes of the asinine lockout when the new CBA talks were wrapping up, Goodell insisted on lording over players he deemed incorrigible despite the fact that players were locked out, prevented from stepping foot on any NFL or team property, and players and their families denied health benefits.

And what did Smith do when Goodell demanded authority to sentence players while locked out? Per Silver, Smith caved.

It doesn’t surprise me that Goodell is eager to ignore the absurdity of this position. I understand why the commissioner wants to “protect the shield” and ensure that those players whose actions he feels tarnished the league’s brand face harsh consequences. However, when he presumably informed Smith of this as the final stages of CBA negotiations were playing out, the union leader’s answer should have been, “I’m sure you do want to punish them. Well, you and the owners should have considered that before you locked us out.”

I don’t know for a fact that Smith didn’t object, but if he did, he should have fought harder. The mere fact that Goodell summoned Britt and Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib to his office is a sign that the union went too soft on this issue. It may have been a lot worse than that: One source familiar with the negotiations claims Goodell, before resolving the issue of whether personal conduct violators during the lockout could be disciplined, “wanted eight names off the top who would definitely get punished, and apparently he got his way.”

Wow. It seems Goodell has been out to sentence Talib for some time now.

This does not bode well for Talib, nor the Bucs.

This smells to Joe like a nasty, ugly, lengthy suspension.

Strictly working off today’s TicketMaster.com data here, Joe’s seeing zero cheap Bucs tickets available for opening day against the Lions.

The good news is they’re sold.

The bad news is there are loads of tickets still available all over the stadium. The lowest price available that Joe could find, with service charge, is $71.25, and there are plenty in the end zone for $105.25.

Joe wishes he could envision any scenario that would have a stampede of ticket buyers jumping at these prices to meet the NFL blackout deadline for opening day, which is 14 days from today.

Even with half-price concessions for the opener, the Bucs just have too many tickets left to sell for what likely will be a blistering hot 1 o’clock kickoff.

A recent JoeBucsFan poll (with more than 1,000 respondents) revealed that 45 percent of you plan to watch the game snuggled up to a pirated Internet feed to beat the blackout. Joe wonders whether the NFL plans any kind of 11th-hour covert operation to bust up that racket.

Joe’s hardly wishing that on Bucs fans, but it’s odd to Joe that the NFL doesn’t seem to be flexing its muscle — or handing out stuffed brown envelopes — to combat the Internet feeds. Perhaps Roger Goodell is too busy exalting perverts.

UPDATE: Well, if you tinker with Ticketmaster long enough… it seems there are a few sections where $44 tickets are indeed available, about 100 altogether in sections 327, 328, 329, 342, 343 and 344.

Even a guy walking around with a white cane could tell the impact that LeGarrette Blount had on the Bucs last season.

Connie Chung was depressed because the Bucs rushing attack was so impotent early in the season. Opposing defenses rarely concerned themselves with the Bucs running attack, instead schemed only to stop the pass.

The moment Blount started running wild on defenses and teams began to adjust to the run, that opened up passing lanes, and voila! Offense!

The Bucs win at Arizona was a perfect example of Blount’s impact on the offense.

But Christopher Harris of BSPN isn’t buying this. He is of the mind Blount is all hype and that if Blount was truly valuable, he’d be on the field on third downs.

It’s not that I’m calling Blount a potential bust. I think he’s got too much job security for that, and he doesn’t strike me as an inordinate injury risk, jumping or no. I just don’t see an excess of upside. For all the Buccaneers’ beat reporters writing stories about Blount “looking good” catching the ball during training camp, the big man hasn’t stayed on the field for third downs much at all this preseason, and Earnest Graham and/or Kregg Lumpkin look like the pass-catching backs in the Tampa offense. Blount caught all of five passes last season, and I didn’t see any evidence in either of the Bucs’ exhibition games to date that indicates he’ll even threaten 20 grabs this year. And an offensive line that a few years ago seemed promising now just seems bleh. The tackles, Donald Penn and Jeremy Trueblood, got new contracts this summer but are at best average in my eyes. Davin Joseph got a huge extension at right guard but hasn’t yet proved he’s the mauler he was supposed to be when Tampa took him in the first round of the ’06 draft. Center Jeff Faine is very strong when he’s in there, but he’s missed 12 games the past two seasons combined. It’s not a bad group, but it’s pretty average. I know much has been made of new offensive line coach (and former Vikings coach) Pat Morris, the subtle implication being that Adrian Peterson enjoyed running behind a Morris line, so maybe Blount suddenly has AP-like openings. But while Blount is surprisingly shifty for a guy his size, he doesn’t have anything close to Peterson’s long speed, nor, I would argue, does Tampa have any lineman who could match up with guys like Steve Hutchinson or Bryant McKinnie in their primes.

Later, Harris went on to claim Blount is the 20th-best running back in the league and Joe had to do a double-take. Ah, ha! Joe noticed that Harris qualified this as “fantasy back.”

That explains it. You know, Joe reads feces like this and toward the end of the story he notices it’s is about “fantasy” football, which just reinforces Joe’s theory “fantasy” football is pure horsemanure.

Fantasy football — keyword, “fantasy” — is to real football like Rachel Watson is to Joe’s bedroom.

Only in “fantasy” football would an alleged sober person suggest Blount is a low-rung NFL running back.

The dean of Tampa Bay TV sports news guys, Dave Wirth, of WTSP Ch. 10, keeps it real for freaked out Bucs fans in the video below. It’s all part of Joe’s new partnership with WTSP.

Remember, the Bucs-Dolphins game is blacked out Saturday. You can watch it tape delayed on Ch. 10 first at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, then again at noon on Sunday.

Frank “Mount” Okam, who filled in for injured Gerald McCoy last year at under tackle, has a big fan in former Bucs defensive end Steve White (1996-2001), the definitive authority on all things Bucs D-line.

Last year, White was calling for Okam to play nose tackle, and now White’s fired up about the results of Okam at the nose against New England, so he said on 1010 AM Tuesday night with Derek “Old School” Fournier.

“This guy’s a gargantuan. Put him at the nose and they won’t be able to move him. And now because of injury they had to throw him in there, and that guy had a really good game. It was really hard for [New England] to move him. There were a couple of times when they tried to block him single with a guard and (laughs) it looked like literally an adult playing with a kid. Like ‘Get off me. Get off me so I can go make this tackle.’ It was kind of ridiculous as a matter of fact,” White said.

“So, you know, I understand why [the Bucs] really can’t, air quotes, play him at nose because there’s kind of a log jam now with guys who were draft picks, but I’m not so sure that he wouldn’t be the best option right now.”

White went on to say he likes Brian Price a lot and acknowledged Roy Miller’s knee injury but Mount Okam is probably top dog regardless.

“You got a healthy Frank Okam who’s really hard to move and has got quite a bit of wiggle for a man that size. You might want to go ahead and make that move right now [to start Okam] and be ahead of the game and get him acclimated to starting at nose tackle,” White said. “And go ahead and start the season with him. If [Price and Roy Miller] are good enough to overtake him after the season starts, then so be it. But right now, for my money, he’s the best nose we’ve got.”

Interestingly, at Raheem Morris’ Wednesday news conference, the head coach responded to a question about Brian Price’s ideal role and talked about the luxury of having Miller and Price at nose tackle, so Miller can play first and second downs and Price pass rush, and occasionally come in earlier in different packages.

There was no mention of Mount Okam.

Joe sincerely hopes the but-we-drafted-him politics aren’t in play for that nose tackle job, as White implied. “Best man up” should always prevail. Raheem himself has glowed about Mount Okam. Joe’s pulling for the man.

So what’s the status of Da’Quan Bowers and his role on the 2011 Buccaneers?

The Bucs’ second-round pick is a second-stringer at left defensive end and has a long way to go to catch the guy ahead of him, so said Raheem Morris today at his news conference at One Buc Palace.

“It’s not going to be easy [for Bowers] to get on the field, if Michael [Bennett] continues to play that well and you can’t keep up,” Raheem said.

Raheem went on to express his excitement about seeing Bowers’ “power and get-off” returning. But Raheem cited Bowers flashing a tentative side against the Patriots that Keith Millard is all over.

“It was almost like he was scared to hit Free [in practice],” Raheem said. 

Bennett was praised for “giving us maximum effort” and there’s love in Raheem’s voice when he talks about him.

Joe’s excited for Bennett. The guy has flashed explosive get-off over the past two seasons. Maybe this is his breakout year.

It sure seems like Bowers, who allegedly is a No. 1-pick-in-the-draft talent, isn’t going to get any kind of playing time gifts like those bequeathed to Kyle Moore last year. Joe’s all about the best-man-up philosophy, which doesn’t always fly on the Bucs and throughout the NFL.