So Bucs general manager Mark Dominik decided to wheel and deal and figured he outsmarted the rest. Unfortunately for Bucs fans, Dominik got played.

He was playing poker with the ultimate gambler, Jerry Jones. Dominik figured he could trade back with the Jags and just wait out the Rams pick who wouldn’t get Morris Claiborne.

Instead, Dallass owner Jerry Jones pulled the trigger, jumped in front of Dominik, and high-fives all around in Dallass as Jones picked Claiborne.

Not only did Dominik get snookered out of a stud cornerback, he got taken by the Jags in only getting a fourth round pick.

Bucs draft is off to a horrible start.

The Bucs have traded with Jacksonville and moved back to the seventh spot.

It sure smells like Luke Kuechly now or perhaps Stephon Gilmore.

If Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik thought the Vikings would draft Morris Claiborne, he got snookered.

It appears Trent Richardson will not be a Buccaneers running back.

Cleveland just swapped first round picks with Minnesota and Cleveland now holds the No. 3 pick with Minnesota drafting No. 4.

This really means nothing to the Bucs, outside of not drafting Richardson, as the two teams drafting ahead of the Bucs are the same teams.

It’s almost time folks. Enjoy and try to make it to Joe’s draft party at Pete and Shorty’sin Pinellas Park.

Joe (and his good friend Justin Pawlowski of WQYK-AM 1010) will be there until the first round ends, probably at midnight.

Earlier today, Joe stated the only way Joe would cough up the ransom required to draft a running back at No. 3 overall would be if said running back would be the second-coming of Jim Brown.

Well, it appears the original Jim Brown wouldn’t pull the trigger on such a deal, either. Brown, arguably the best player in NFL history, much less the greatest running back, spoke on BSPN radio today and scoffed at Alabama running back Trent Richardson, documents Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com.

“I’m not overwhelmed with it,” Brown said of the idea that the Browns could take Richardson. “The problem is that he’s ordinary. I think he’s ordinary.”

While Joe will never say Richardson is “ordinary,” as Joe wrote once before, Joe didn’t think Richardson was that much better than Wisconsin’s Montee Ball, and Joe doesn’t see or hear of that many people doing backflips and genuflecting over Ball the way many Bucs fans do over Richardson.

If the Bucs only needed one running back to get over the hump to win a Super Bowl (reminder: the Bucs already have a proven running back), then maybe Joe would drink the Richardson Kool-Aid.

The Bucs are far, far away from a Super Bowl contender.

The smokescreens, nonsense and outright lying that is circling each and every team as the hours countdown to tonight’s NFL draft seems to be continuing.

One of the countless reports about movement of teams comes out of Cleveland where one of the most respected NFL writers in the business, Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer, claims via league sources Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is attempting to swap picks (and other presents) to Minnesota to acquire the No. 3 pick.

And what, per Cabot, would Dominik do with said pick? Draft Alabama running back Trent Richardson.

Bucs, Jets like Richardson? The Tampa Bay Bucanneers at No. 5 are very interested in Richardson and might consider trading up to No. 3, league sources said. The Jets at No. 16 are also interested, but might not be able to afford it.

Joe’s not going to go all crazy as he’s trying to keep his blood pressure down and knows too many Bucs fans lust over Richardson like Joe does Rachel Watson.

Joe will offer two comments:

1) If Dominik really is trying to spend a No. 3 pick (which won’t be the only ransom) on Richardson, this guy better be the reincarnation of Jim Brown. That’s an insanely high price to pay for a running back in a passing league when your defense is so porous.

2) Save the draft picks Mark. Draft the best player available who falls in your lap tonight (Morris Claiborne, Matt Kalil or, yes, even Justin Blackmon), draft Nebraska linebacker Lavonte David with your second round pick tomorrow night, and use your third round pick in a trade to the Giants for Osi Umenyiora (and be like the Giants where you have an overpowering defensive line).

Then load up on running backs Saturday.

With all the BS flying around everywhere about the draft and what the Bucs might do tonight, Joe keeps coming back to one piece of real information available.

Less than two weeks ago on WQYK-AM 1010, Ronde Barber said everybody at One Buc Palace is on the Morris Claiborne bandwagon. In case you missed it:

J.P. Peterson: You might bring in another [cornerback], Mo Claiborne.

Barber: We probably will.

Peterson: What do you think of him?

Barber: I don’t know. I haven’t watched any film of him. I don’t know how he plays or anything. He was actually in our [secondary] room. They did those little unofficial [predraft] visits or whatever. He’s a good kid. He looks good. He looks the part. Everybody’s high on him.

In all seriousness, outside of Barber’s take, one Joe is sure he was being candid about, what else do Bucs fans have to predict what will happen in the first round? Nothing.

At 64 years old following a distinguished career as a general manager, Charlie Casserly is not a guy Joe suspects would concoct trade rumors or fall for agent-driven, team-driven BS the day before the NFL Draft. 

Therefore, Joe brings you Casserly’s Twittering yesterday that claims the Buffalo Bills are looking to trade up from their No. 10 pick to get in position to draft offensive tackle Matt Kalil.

@CharleyCasserly – Buuffalo I am told would like to trade up to take Matt Kalil and will give up a second rd draft choice to do it.

Buffalo’s second-round pick is No. 41 overall. If the Bucs found themselves in this position, with Kalil still on the board, it would be an intriguing deal indeed. In this scenario, the Bucs likely could still snag Luke Kuechly with the 10th overall pick, and two quality second-round picks to bolster their secondary and/or snag running back Doug Martin.

Bucs fans might want to be sure not to spend the early minutes of tonight’s NFL Draft chattering with the pizza guy or in the men’s room at Pete & Shorty’s, so says BSPN draft analyst and former NFL offensive linemen Mark Schlereth.

Schlereth, sporting his three Super Bowl rings, believes the Bucs might get “cold feet” with the fifth overall pick and trade up to the Minnesota Vikings at No. 3 to draft Morris Claiborne.

That’s right. Claiborne.

Schlereth told WHBO-AM 1040 host Tom Krasniqi yesterday that he believes the smoke coming out of Minnesota is a calculated mission by the Vikings to get the Bucs to trade up. Schlereth is of the mind that Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier is drooling over what he’s seen on tape of Claiborne and the Bucs will have a similar grade and feeling.

It’s yet another interesting scenario to consider.

On the Trent Richardson front, Schlereth said he firmly believes any team can grab a successful back in later rounds or off the street with the right offensive line in front of him. However, Schlereth thinks that’s a dumb argument to make against drafting Richardson, who Schlereth thinks would simply be that much more effective than the next guy in the same system.

(This is a repost of a previously published article Joe will use as an annual tradition for the morning of the first day of the NFL draft.)

Joe’s going to go slightly personal here, a rare, albeit tiny window into Joe’s background.

On this holiest of high football holidays, Joe got hooked on the draft as a kid from an alien-like voice that floated through the night air from a city Joe finally got to visit for the first time last fall,

Growing up as a kid, there were two people who turned Joe into the football freak he is today. One was Joe’s high school football coach, a guy who played for a virtual who’s who of football coaches: John Madden, Tom Landry, Gene Stallings and Lou Holtz. It kills Joe how much he has forgotten about football from a man unknown by 99.99999 percent of the populace. Joe remembers warmly when, covering his first NFL training camp with Stallings as the coach of the team Joe covered, the grizzled Stallings vividly remembered Joe’s coach playing for him.

After learning Joe played for one of his proteges, Stallings treated Joe like one of his family members.

The second source fueling Joe’s unwavering football fetish originated from an unlikely of sources: a Brooklyn apartment.

Joe first heard of Joel Buchsbaum on a blowtorch radio station out of St. Louis, KMOX. There, each Monday night (prior to Monday Night Football broadcasts during the season), and Sunday nights (during the baseball season), Buchsbaum, the original draftnik, would talk to strangers throughout the Midwest, giving listeners knowledge on college football players and the NFL that to this day, Joe finds unmatched; not even by Mike Mayock, not even by Mel Kiper, not even by Pat Kirwan.

People would call the show and ask Buchsbaum about (pick a player) and often before the caller finished his question, Buchsbaum would interrrupt the caller and begin rattling off the talents of said player.

Pleasantries were not a forte of Buchsbaum. He was not rude, not even close, but he was very short and impatient with rambling callers.

To this day Joe remembers some guy asking Buchsbaum about (name of the player long ago forgotten) who the caller claimed was a starting cornerback at Utah. Buchsbaum, in his nasally, thick Brooklyn accent, corrected the caller almost immediately. No, the player is not from Utah, Buchsbaum said, but from Utah State. And in fact he was a backup cornerback.

This did not stop Buchsbaum from launching into why the player was not starting and why coaches thought he had some promise.

Mind you this was long before the days of laptops so Buchsbaum couldn’t have Googled the player’s name in five seconds to pull up his information.

It was unreal what this guy knew. And in Joe’s circle of fellow football friends, guys who rarely if ever listened to an AM station, would listen to Buchsbaum. He was like the Rain Man.

Fast forward maybe 15 years and the Sporting News decided to find out who was the best draftnik. They researched Buchsbaum, Mel Kiper and a third guy who Joe had not heard of before and still can’t remember the name. The Sporting News broke down each man’s final mock draft through four rounds for three consecutive years.

Buchsbaum won not only the race but he had more correct picks each year.

Buchsbaum, a recluse, died 11 years ago. In a perverted way Joe was jealous of the guy. All he did was study football, read football, write football, talk football and work his many NFL inside sources which included at the top of the list, Bill Belicheat, who tried to hire Buchsbaum but was spurned with each offer.

So as Day 1 of the draft is here, and in a few hours or so we find out if the Bucs trade back into the first round, Joe can’t help remember Buchsbaum and that unforgettable voice.

Here’s a nugget from acclaimed football scribe and a friend of Buchsbaum, John McClain of the Houston Chronicle.

Did you know Buchsbaum was on ESPN when the network first televised the draft? He looked like such a nerd. I imagine the network executives didn’t like the way he looked or sounded, so they hired Mel “Ki-pa.”

Chad Finn of the Boston Globe decided to dig up Buchsbaum’s breakdown of Tom Brady coming out of Michigan and with the “positives,” Buchsbaum nailed the analysis.

Positives: Good height to see the field. Very poised and composed. Smart and alert. Can read coverages. Good accuracy and touch. Produces in big spots and big games. Has some Brian Griese in him and is a gamer. Generally plays within himself. Team leader.

Negatives: Poor build. Very skinny and narrow. Ended the ’99 season weighing 195 pounds and still looks like a rail at 211. Looks a little frail and lacks great physical stature and strength. Can get pushed down more easily than you’d like. Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush. Lacks a really strong arm. Can’t drive the ball down the field and does not throw a really tight spiral. System-type player who can get exposed if he must ad-lib and do things on his own.

Summary: Is not what you’re looking for in terms of physical stature, strength, arm strength, and mobility but he has the intangibles and production and showed great Griese-like improvement as a senior. Could make it in the right system but is not for everyone.

Urban legend is that Belicheat, one of the few friends Buchsbaum had, took a flyer on Brady based on Buchsbaum’s recommendation. Belicheat since has acknowledged he would annually go over his draft board with Buchsbaum in the hours leading to the draft.

Joe will raise a bottle of beer tonight for Buchsbaum… after the draft and Joe is finished banging out story after story.

Here and here and here and here are some cool stories about Buchsbaum.

Popcorn-munching,coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, beer-chugging Peter King, famous for his decades of NFL coverage in Sports Illustrated and now on NBC Sports, is about as burned out on draft smokescreens, rumors and speculation as Joe is.

In fact, King seems a lot more frustrated and resorted to a group masturbation reference on his Twitter account regarding the endless Trent Richardson chatter.

Joe tries to run a dysfunctional family website,  but this was too funny for Joe to pass up. And now Joe has a new hyphenated adjective to decribe King! (See opening paragraph).

There’s another 27 hours until the draft. Joe wonders what the madness will lead King to Twitter next?

There is one word to describe the linebacker play of the Bucs last year.

“Grim.”

So it’s no shock to believe that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik will add a linebacker or two to try to beef up this unit that is already down a starter now that Geno Hayes has moved on to Chicago.

Some, such as Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski of WQYK-AM 1010, believe Dominik would be wise to reach for the tackling machine known as Boston College middle linebacker Luke Kuechly.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, however, doesn’t believe Kuechly is a reach. In fact, he suggested it wouldn’t be a shock if Dominik has Kuechly graded out as a top-five player.

And it would be an immediate fix. Kuechly is one the few linebackers in this draft who scouts believe is ready to step in and immediately run his new team’s defense as its starting middle linebacker.

“He’s one of the 10 best players in this draft,” NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock said of Kuechly, who is ranked 6th overall on Mayock’s list of the top 100 2012 NFL draft prospects.

“I think he’s the best pure zone drop pass linebacker I’ve ever seen on tape. What usually knocks inside linebackers down is their inability to stay on the field for three plays. It’s the opposite with Kuechly.’’

Well. There was a sentence in Cummings’ write-up that sort of caused Joe to pause. So Kuechly would be calling plays for the defense in the New Schiano Order?

No one knows with certainty what defense Greg Schiano plans to run, though it’s a good guess it will be somewhat like the Giants’ scheme. Schiano has even hinted at a 34-defensive front.

But if Kuechly is to be calling plays, Joe is confused. Isn’t this why the Bucs drafted Mason Foster last year and started him out of position to call defensive plays?

It’s the silly season of crazy draft rumors and smokescreens, and here’s a new one that will punch the Trent Richardson-to-the-Bucs crazies in the gut.

Sal Paolantonio of BSPN just reported that he talked to Trent Richardson who had just heard from Jets officials calling him to confirm his contact information on Day 1 of the draft. Paolantonio also said he had recently concluded a meeting with Rex Ryan and Jets officials that told him they like Richarson and that Ryan longs to see Richardson’s feet to get back to his core beliefs of pounding the football.

(Side note: Paolantonio was extraordinarily rude to Joe about 10 years ago in the Bucs locker room. Who knew a grown man could be such a weasel just because Joe stepped on his microphone wire that wasn’t even in use.)

As Joe wrote the other day, if Richardson truly is the prodigy everyone seems to think he is, then there’s no way he lasts to the Bucs at No. 5. If he did, that would be a truly bizarre occurence and it would make Joe wonder if Richardson really looks that good on film.

Of course, the Bucs could always trade up for Richardson, a move Justin “The Commish” Pawlowski says he would applaud.

It’s not often that a team drafts in the top five. That means in the previous season the team was pretty much horrible.

And even a (former) Bucs cheerleader like Tiffany Jimenez would argue the Bucs stunk last year.

One reason the Bucs have stunk is, in his short tenure as the Bucs rock star general manager, Mark Dominik’s draft selections haven’t exactly made people forget Bill Walsh, though his ability to find gems off the street as free agent signings has been uncanny.

Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald writes that for the Bucs to turn around what was a horrible season, Dominik will have to raise his batting average with draft picks.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager admitted he and his draft choices are running out of time when he addressed the media last week.

The draft on Thursday will be the fourth under his wing. “We don’t have much more time, nor do the players,” he said. “If you don’t learn from your mistakes you are a bound to create them again. So you really try to look at it and say what was it about that that I missed on, that as an organization we didn’t make the right selection.”

There are two ways for a general manager to not have his contract extended. The first is if the team losses. The second is if the team isn’t getting the job done drafting.

The 2009 draft was bad for Dominik. The 2010 draft isn’t looking that great, but it would help its key draftees could stay on the field.

It’s way too early to judge the 2011 draft but the early results are promising.

Dominik could do well to get a(nother) contract extension if he hits a couple of home runs this weekend.

Joe sees the Bucs offense as a veteran group built to win immediately.

There’s the massively paid veteran offensive line with multiple Pro Bowl types in their prime. There’s the veteran No. 1 wideout making massive cash with experienced third-year guys at Nos. 2 & 3. There’s the 29-year-old tight end with 39-year-old knees who probably has one or two good seasons in him, at best.

And there’s franchise QB Josh Freeman, with 40 starts under his belt, entering a pivotal season.

That leaves running back, where Joe’s a big fan of LeGarrette Blount, but Joe fully realizes you need two quality backs — three wouldn’t hurt — especially when you claim to be a run-first team. (Look at the RB talent on every team in the NFC South.) So Joe sees running back as the only hole on offense and one the Bucs can’t whiff on in the draft, when failing at that position can bring the entire offense down.

Using that logic, Joe could see how the Bucs might believe versatile Trent Richardson is the missing piece for a true playoff-caliber offense. If that’s the mindset of rockstar general manager Mark Dominik and Greg Schiano, then Joe could understand how they could take a whatever-it-takes mentality toward drafting Richardson.

However, that doesn’t mean it would make any sense with a defense filled with as many holes as the Bucs’. The Bucs have five positions with serious question marks in their back-7, and possibly lousy depth at cornerback if Aqib Talib lands in prison or gets suspended.

Joe sees drafting a running back in the first round as an extreme luxury the Bucs just can’t afford.

Grab a back in the second or third round and hurry up and sign the best available free-agent veteran back on the street. Outside of that, the Bucs have to load up on the defensive side of the ball. The cruel facts dictate the move.

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One NFL writer trashes Luke Kuechly by claiming he's just another Barrett Ruud.

For the first time Joe can ever remember, he just wants to hide somewhere away from any draft information until the beers begin pouring at Joe’s draft party Thursday night.

The speculating, posturing and — dare Joe say? — lying has reached crazy proportions.

All of a sudden yesterday, Joe heard things that made the antennae jump out of Joe’s head. For weeks, months, all Joe heard was that USC tackle Matt Kalil was an all-World offensive tackle, a franchise stud.

Now, thanks to a secretive offensive line coach talking (planting?) information to Pat Kirwan like Deep Throat, hiding in a parking garage in the dark of the night, all of a sudden Kalil is a no-good bum and another Robert Gallery?

Last night Tuna Parcells, who never won a championship without Bill Belicheat at his side, claims Alabama safety Mark Barron is a “box safety,” thus is not a first-rounder?

Parcells, a pillar of honesty, wouldn’t be playing BSPN so one of his boys still in the league (Jerry Jones, Belicheat, Tom Coughlin) might benefit from Barron sliding thanks to getting shat on from Parcells, on national TV no less, would he?

Where was all of this talk at the Senior Bowl?

Another crazy item comes from Andy Benoit of the New York Times. He recently Twittered about Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly.

Benoit is an avowed Barrett Ruud hater. To Benoit, Ruud is a walking version of an Ebola virus. When stuck for something to write, Benoit salves his inner writer’s cramp and will type many dozens of words about how Ruud has stained the soil of NFL playing fields.

Now Benoit is trying to sully the name of Kuechly by comparing him to a young version of Ruud.

@Andy_Benoit: In the very, very little I’ve seen of Luke Kuechly, he seemed like a faster Barrett Ruud (not a compliment).

Couple of things: First, this comparison is nearly as bad as Benoit’s attempt to document how baseball is dead. Strange, the game has never been better, financially. Eh, an annoying fact.

But trying to cut the knees out from Kuechly because he is another Ruud is crazy on many levels.

Now Joe knows many Bucs fans hated Ruud as well because they wanted Ruud to be a Jack Lambert-type when that is not the position he played in a Tampa-2 defense (there’s another one of those irritating facts).

So Kuechly is rotten because he covers receivers well and racks up tackles like Joe does beers on a Friday night, all of which were traits of Ruud (not the beers)? My, how horrible of a linebacker that is!

Or is Benoit irritated that Kuechly is white?

If, as Benoit suggests, Ruud was so miserable, how is it — just as Tim Ryan of SiriusXM NFL Radio correctly predicted — the Bucs defense totally collapsed to a historic franchise low without him. The Bucs linebackers unit may very have been the worst in the NFL.

If, again, as Benoit believes, Ruud was so pathetic, shouldn’t the Bucs linebacker play have improved without him? No?

At least Joe gives many props to Benoit for being honest and claiming he hasn’t really watched Kuechly play.

But this is the silly season (on steroids) we are in, where nothing is really to be believed on face value.

Damn, the clock can’t begin to start soon enough for the Colts to satisfy Joe.

Who has better sources than Pat Kirwan? Joe wouldn’t bet on anyone.

The former Bucs scout, Jets assistant coach and Jets personnel executive now works for NFL.com, CBS Sports and SiriusXM NFLRadio. And Kirwan jumped on the Movin’ The Chains airwaves this afternoon fresh off meeting with a current NFL offensive line coach.

Kirwan said the coach has worked out the top 2012 O-line prospects and pored over film of all of them. Kirwan wouldn’t name his source but said this coach considers Southern Cal tackle Matt Kalil a pick in the No. 15 overall range and that there are no other O-linemen worthy of a first-round or second-round grade.

“Pretty bad,” Kirwan said his source says of this year’s O-line class.

Now let’s say this assessment is accurate. Perhaps the poor overall class makes Kalil that much more attractive as trade bait if the Bucs are ready to pick at No. 5 and Kalil is still there (and the Bucs’ potential other top-5 targets are gone)? Left tackles are always in demand. Or perhaps Kalil’s mid-first-round grade scares the Bucs away from taking him and they look to one Luke Kuechly?

While the Bucs taking Kalil makes great sense if Morris Claiborne is unavailable, that only applies if they’re sure he’s a homerun pick.

Gauging the pulse of Bucs fans, it seems no subject has fired up fans more than the debate about the merits and drawbacks of drafting Alabama running back Trent Richardson since the Bucs cut soon-to-be Hall of Famer and all-time favorite Derrick Brooks.

Joe has made his voice clear on this issue. So Joe’s trying to bring additional views into the mix.

Good guy Charlie Campbell, formerly of PewterReport.com, has been working for WalterFootball.com for just about a year now. Campbell’s main focus year-round is the NFL draft.

In a recent mailbag on his site, Campbell explains why he would take both Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon and/or LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne over Richardson.

From Edmund Kuhn, Bangor, Maine

“I noticed in your big board you have Trent Richardson behind Justin Blackmon and Morris Claiborne. Most rate Richardson ahead of them. Why do you have Richardson behind them? “

That is another good question, and I can answer that in a number: 30. In doing the Big Board, I take into account longevity and how long a player will be playing. By the time those three players hit 30, Richardson could easily be on his last legs or he could already be done in the NFL. That is just the nature of the beast at running back. Wide receiver and cornerback are different. There are many effective wideouts and corners who are Pro Bowlers at 30 and even playing well into their mid-30s. You don’t see that at the running back position.

Thus, Blackmon and Claiborne could be in the middle of a second long-term contract and performing well while Richardson’s career is at the end. Blackmon and Claiborne could be starters for 10-plus years. Richardson won’t make it that far and is more like a 5- to 8-year player. That is the reason why I have Richardson behind Blackmon and Claiborne.

This spooks Joe a great deal as well. Few running backs short of Barry Sanders make it to 30 unscathed. Many are on fumes by the time they get to 30.

Richardson reminds Joe of one of his favorite running backs, another Crimson Tide man, Shaun Alexander. For seven years, Alexander was a wonderful back, thrilling, fantastic. One of the NFL’s best.

But the constant wear and tear and the brutal beating he absorbed finally took its toll. Alexander’s last year in Seattle, he was 30, and a mere shell of his former self. He was out of the league a year later.

Candid former Bucs tight end and current Buccaneeers Radio Network analyst Dave Moore threw a bucket of cold water on the idea of the Bucs drafting Trent Richardson this morning during the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620. Moore said Richardson is a not a running back that will take over a football game and the Bucs can get the back they need later in the draft.

Moore would like to see the Bucs trade down and address linebacker and secondary in a big way. He also weighed in on the culture change of the Greg Schiano regime and more. Click to listen below:

Joe bought his pre-owned Ford at Ed Morse Auto Plaza in Port Richey about 14 months ago. What a great experience and the car has been completely trouble-free. Click on through below to shop their great inventory. You won’t go wrong at Ed Morse.