Tampa Bay Times beat writer Rick Stroud offered a bit of what it’s been like for him trying to get to the bottom of the Josh Freeman mystery.

Stroud talked about it on WDAE-AM 620. [read more]

The Bucs are on the practice field today and the media is allowed to watch.

Stick with Joe through the afternoon, tonight and tomorrow for all kinds of nuggets, news, notes and assorted drama.

Bucs QB Josh McCown was pretty consistent last year.

It helps an offense immeasurably when the quarterback plays well. Misguided Bucs fans think Akeem Spence could play quarterback and just hand the ball off and the team could win a Super Bowl.

Joe has news for these types: Woody Hayes is dead. [read more]

A USA Today columnist predicts a dire season for the Bucs if they bank on QB Josh McCown.

Bucs coach Lovie Smith and general manager Jason Licht have enacted just about the biggest rebuild of an NFL roster as you might see in one offseason. L&L have purged so many starters, both good and bad, it sometimes spins Joe’s head.

Hell, just the offensive line alone has been gutted and maybe not for the better. Looking back on the past five months, it has been anything but quiet at One Buc Palace. [read more]

So, will it be two or three? That’s what Joe’s bartender often asks (the answer, depending on who is driving, is often woefully under-calculated.).

But when it comes to Bucs quarterbacks, the question is more relevant. Will Bucs coach Lovie Smith keep three quarterbacks on the regular season-53, or is he more apt to keep but two? Depends who you ask. [read more]

There may be no position outside of quarterback that Bucs fans wring their hands over to the point of rubbing their knuckles raw than tight end. Bucs fans never, ever seem satisfied.

For reasons Joe is unsure about, Tim Wright doesn’t pass muster for many Bucs fans and this depresses Joe. For a guy that never played tight end, not even on the college level, Wright was one of the best in the NFL. Look at the numbers. [read more]

It’s that time of year, when loads of high school kids contemplate how much summer cash they can earn flipping burgers or manning drive-thru windows. [read more]

Hardy Nickerson dominated at middle linebacker in the old Tampa-2 at 230 pounds. Mason Foster is almost there. Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Updated 5:56 p.m. Five years ago, the new Bucs regime promptly grabbed its defensive troops and told them to fatten up in a hurry.

Stuff your face and hit the weights! The Jim Bates system demands it! [read more]

There were more than a few eyebrows raised on the second night of this spring’s draft when the Bucs selected running back Charles Sims in the third round. If the Bucs ever had a loaded position on the roster, it was running back.

Most Bucs fans reacted in anger, horror, disbelief. Yet just minutes after selecting Sims, Bucs coach Lovie Smith told Buccaneers.com multimedia maven Scott Smith he was seeking a pass-catching running back, hence the selection of Sims. [read more]

Yes, Ravens Super Bowl winning general manager Ozzie Newsome and head coach John Harbaugh took a look at former Bucs center/guard Jeremy Zuttah and proverbially said, ‘There’s our guy.”

The Bucs traded versatile Zuttah to Baltimore, where he’s impressing already and seems to be a great fit to snap the ball to Joe Flacco, who ironically is often compared to the “quarterback of the future” by the Mike Glennon Mob. [read more]

Former Bucs TE Anthony Becht believes either Da’Quan Bowers or Adrian Clayborn will be on the 53-man roster this fall, but not both.

An initial goal for Lovie Smith when he took over was to find a way to build what had been an anemic pass rush. It was downright criminal how the Bucs simply couldn’t breath on opposing quarterbacks. Shameful in fact.

Poor Gerald McCoy. The dude got double- and triple-teamed week after week and rarely got any help. [read more]

Former Super Bowl quarterback Rich Gannon talks Josh McCown.

A lot of football types are trying to make the connection between Bucs quarterback Josh McCown and former Super Bowl quarterback Rich Gannon. Like Gannon, McCown was a journeyman backup who, at 34, caught fire for five games with the Bears as he filled in for bratty Jay Cutler.

Gannon woeful with the Chiefs and had a modicum of success with the Vikings before he ignited after Chucky got a hold of him in Oakland. [read more]

Lovie Smith loves his players — until he doesn’t.

But Lovie seems to have special, glowing evaluations for the Bucs’ 2013 draft class, the final one of the rockstar general manager Mark Dominik era.

Evidence is everywhere. [read more]

A former Lovie Smith colleague weighs in

From the beginning last year, Joe thought the third-day drafting of Michigan State beast Will Gholston was a nice gamble. He had the perfect size for a defensive end and could play inside when needed.

College football types thought if Gholston fell in the right hands, then he could become a stud. Gholston, who came out as a junior, was thought to be a raw, undisciplined manchild. [read more]

What’s the length of Josh McCown’s leash if he and the Bucs struggle out of the gate?

Broiling Bucs training camp starts in less than two months at One Buc Palace. Yes, football season will be here before you know it.

Despite what Bucs fans want to believe, Joe is suspicious of Jeff Tedford’s offense. Why should Joe be confident? No one has seen the full monty, much less anything in a game situation.

Sure, it appears the Bucs have pieces for a decent offense, so long as you ignore the offensive line. But the quarterbacks? Well, Joe will be polite and say they are a work in progress. [read more]

Joe’s been around these parts long enough to remember how the massive “Packer Backers” fan club used to pack the now defunct Turtle Club in Clearwater (what a fun place that was) wearing goofy gear to cheer their favorite team and share memories of all the beautiful women they knew on cheese farms outside of Green Bay. [read more]

Bucs general manager Jason Licht remarked recently how Mike Glennon has displayed a “cannon” of an arm.

New starting center Evan Dietrich-Smith said the same thing — “a freaking cannon” — to a national radio audience this week, and Josh McCown has talked about Glennon’s velocity, saying “he can really spin it.” [read more]

The days of having a vicious blocker like Lorenzo Neal on the roster are a thing of the past.

It wasn’t that long ago the fullback position was almost as important to an offense as a quarterback. The fullback was the lead blocker, and in some cases, the battering ram in short yardage situations.

Of course, Mike Alstott sort of blew apart the concept of fullback. As he grew older, he improved as a blocker, but make no mistake, he was a runner first, a pass-catcher second. And damn, when he got rolling it was beautiful football. [read more]

Bucs fans always want to know who calls the shots at One Buc Palace. Was it ex-commander Greg Schiano? Was it former Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik? Was it Team Glazer? Is it Jason Licht? Is it Lovie?

To listen to the words of the “Custodian of Canton,” the wizard of words, eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune, let there be no mistaking who runs the show at One Buc Palace these days. [read more]