Photo courtesy of Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Will the Bucs pay Vincent Jackson about $10 million next season to be their No. 2 receiver?

Great question. And it represents one the most interesting elements of the Bucs’ final seven games. [read more]

Last year, Lavonte David had a whopping seven sacks and five interceptions. That landed him the record books for a linebacker.

This year? David has a goose egg when it comes to picks and sacks. Lovie Smith is not getting the most out of him. [read more]

Fans love raw, emotional reactions of professional athletes. “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” is how they characterized it back in the day on Wide World of Sports.

Gerald McCoy talked about his emotional, Sunday rip of his teammates last night. [read more]

The Bucs’ passing game, well, Joe holds his breath whenever Josh McCown/Mike Glennon goes back to pass. The run game? Thought the Bucs gave up on that.

Still, since he was reinstated to the starting lineup, McCown believes the offense is more complete than it has been this season. [read more]

Michael Koenen is last in the NFL in average yards per punt.

Bucs fans are outraged and Joe not only senses their anger, but understands their disgust.

Contractors who hang drywall in the area are reporting a brisk increase in jobs due to Bucs fans punching holes in their walls when Michael Koenen is punting. [read more]

The power of suggestion has made its way into Tampa Bay’s’ pre-snap calls.

The Bucs are trying all kinds of angles to force turnovers. So far, it hasn’t worked well at all. [read more]

The decline of Bucs RB Doug Martin is surprising.

Sometimes, for reasons not quite clear, running backs just lose it. Often it is the wear and tear of the position, which can be brutal physically.

Take Bucs running back Doug Martin. After a strong rookie season, Martin has steadily declined to a point where he may be the No. 3 running back for the Bucs. [read more]

Redskins stud RB Alfred Morris should be a stout test

About the best thing Joe can say about the sorry 1-8 Bucs is that its rush defense ranks 15th in the NFL.

It’s sad when that is about the best thing you can say about a team, that maybe its best element is average.

But that is the 2014 Bucs.

Well, that average No. 15 rush defense is going to get a helluva test come Sunday. [read more]

The Bucs’ defensive leader missed practice today. [read more]

Redskins OLB Ryan Kerrigan is a one-man gang.

Bucs coach Lovie Smith always preaches turnovers. Win the turnover battle and you likely win, Lovie says. It’s a football axiom as old as the game itself.

What was true in 1900, is often true in 2014: Turnovers will kill you.

It is the same edict former Bucs commander Greg Schiano demanded. Unlike Lovie, Schiano’s players responded to this. [read more]

A former Buccaneer talks offense

What do the Buccaneers do well?

The wiseass might say, “lose.” But in all seriousness, it’s a critical question as Tampa Bay tries to salvage something from the season and the Lovie Smith regime attempts to evaluate its needs. [read more]

Once upon a time at the NFL Scouting Combine, Bucs head coach Lovie Smith told Joe the following:

“Oh, no. We want a bellcow [running back]. But along with a supporting cast. You need a one-guy and Doug [Martin] is our one-guy. But he needs a supporting cast. We want a bellcow with a great supporting cast. That’s what we have in our running back situation.” [read more]

Bucs cornerbacks coach Gill Byrd

Joe’s written previously about how there’s some sort of disconnect going at One Buc Palace.

The Bucs are repeating mistakes yet Lovie Smith has said countless times his primary criteria for hiring assistant coaches is that they be “stern teachers.” [read more]

Crab-legs-stealing, BB-gun-shooting, obscenity-hollering, Heisman-Trophy-winning, national champion James Winston, the pride of Florida State University, continues to look like a much better quarterback prospect than Mike Glennon and Josh McCown.

It’s Joe’s regular nugget on the Jameis Watch, celebrating the best quarterback to wear No. 5 ever in the state of Florida. [read more]

Redskins defensive coordinator Jim Haslett’s charges are pretty vanilla, notes the Washington Post.

Bucs fans should start embracing that, at 1-8, Tampa Bay is a horrible football team. If not for an accident, the Bucs could be winless and in the NFL basement.

What we all thought would be strengths before the season are weaknesses. Hell, there is no such thing as a strength when at team is 1-8, it’s only what element of the team sucks least? [read more]

The unexpectedly steep learning curve for the Bucs defense seems to be personified by Mason Foster.

He’s a big part of that woeful, 31st-ranked Bucs pass defense, and former Bucs defensive end Steve White (1996-2001), a coaching intern this season under Lovie Smith, has seen enough of Foster. [read more]

Bobby Rainey and the run game have all but vanished. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com)

Talk to sober defensive minds and they will tell you the best way to shut down an offense is to make it one-dimensional. That makes a team predictable and often plays right into the hands of a defensive coordinator.

That is part of the problem with the Bucs offense; just one of many, many, many problems. Either Bucs coach Lovie Smith has all but abandoned the run game in the past six quarters, or the Bucs run game is just slightly better than Northeast High School’s. [read more]