As we wait for kickoff to the 2012 season, Super Bowl-winning coach Brian Billick and Taylor Jones looked deep inside the NFC South in this FoxSports.com video.

In his post-practice press conference today, the last he will have with the Tampa Bay pen and mic club prior to Sunday’s season opener against the stinking Panthers, Bucs coach Greg Schiano almost seemed playful. He was certainly in an upbeat mood.

When eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune asked Schiano if he knew what the first 15 plays offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan would call Sunday, Schiano looked at eye-RAH! and nodded his head, yes. When eye-RAH! decided to pry further asking Schiano if he would be kind enough to explain the plays, Schiano, with a twinkle in his eye, smiled and said, “No.”

But the first 15 plays, despite what Schiano said, aren’t exactly locked in.

“I want [Sullivan] to have a feel,” Schiano said. What he meant was, yes, the Bucs have 15 general plays already scripted, but what type of defense and what type of down and distance the play is will dictate exactly what Sullivan calls.

“That’s what I hired him for,” Schiano said in breaking down just how the first 15 plays are called. “I want him to do it by feel.”

Schiano noted that some coaches/offensive coaches are rigid with their first 15 plays and won’t deviate. Not Sullivan, per Schiano’s instructions.

“Some [coaches] read [the script] no matter what,” Schiano said. “We mix it up depending on who you are playing.”

The ballots have been cast by Buccaneers players, and 2012 team captains have been named.

In no particular order, they’re Josh Freeman and Vincent Jackson, Ronde Barber, Gerald McCoy, Adam Hayward and Andrew Economos — two representatives from each of the three phases of the team.

Last year, Quincy Black was a captain, but apparently his peers now prefer McCoy. It’s a great indicator of how much McCoy means to the roster and the success of the Bucs.

Yes, the Bucs are thin on the offensive line since right guard Davin Joseph went down with a knee injury.

And of course, with all the injuries and cuts to the defensive line, it isn’t exactly a deep unit either.

Enter cornerbacks. E.J. Biggers is a big question mark as he has been limited in practice this week, still trying to bounce back from a foot injury he suffered colliding with Arrelious Benn on the first day of training camp.

Now add Anthony Gaitor to the list. Gaitor has been nursing a gimpy hamstring and has also been limited in practice this week. He was spotted jogging on the practice field of One Buc Palace this morning and coach Greg Schiano gave a less-than-enthusiastic report on Gaitor’s status for Sunday’s game when Schiano grimaced and said, “50/50, probably.”

That puts rookie Leonard Johnson in a prime position to play Sunday, especially if Eric Wright or Aqib Talib need a break from the brutal Florida summer afternoon.

John Lynch isn’t sold on Ronde Barber the safety.

One great mystery of the 2012 Bucs lies up the gut of the secondary.

Will Mark Barron prove worthy of his draft status?

Can Ronde Barber transition successfully to safety at 37 years old?

Bucs icon John Lynch is bullish on Barron. Lynch thinks he’s the real deal. Barber? Well, Lynch isn’t sold on Barber the safety. Speaking on the Ron and Ian Show yesterday on WDAE-AM 620, Lynch said, “I would not move Ronde outta there,” referencing Barber leaving his cornerback slot.

Joe thinks Barber will do some great things at safety, just on his sheer football smarts and experience. But Joe has to agree that Barber’s seemless transition is not a given. Barber himself has downplayed any talk that it’s an easy move. Joe’s most concerned about Barber taking more of a pounding in run support.

Regardless, Barber’s presence is a big key to Barron’s development. That can’t discounted.

Slur-hurling Trey Wingo, Mark Schlereth, Jason Taylor and Bill Polian break down the Bucs game against the Panthers Sunday in this BSPN video.

Courtesy of the good people of the506.com, Joe brings you the TV coverage map for the late game on FOX Sunday, which is the window the Panthers-Bucs game will be broadcast. In the purple-shaded areas, residents will be able to watch the game via their local FOX affiliate.

“I’m talking about you, Free. Your time is now.”

Earlier this week defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan heaped a pile of pressure on Gerald McCoy, emphatically saying McCoy will be a “dynamic playmaker.”

Now, offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan is proudly spouting that Josh Freeman “has improved in each and every phase” of the game, so Sullivan said yesterday at One Buc Palace.

Joe loves how the coaches aren’t dancing around setting high expectations for key players.

Fans know that Freeman, who we’ve learned has now improved in every phase, also has been given loads of new weapons in Dallas Clark, Vincent Jackson and Doug Martin, plus a Carl Nicks upgrade on his line.

Freeman has to, absolutely has to improve quickly. Rockstar general manager Mark Dominik even said this week that Freeman’s aware “he has two years left on his contract.”

The pressure is on, No. 5.

Are Buccaneers afraid of the Panthers? Afraid of the IRS? Afraid of what those girls running around Blue Martini might be carrying?

Nope. Lots of Bucs tremble at the thought of letting down the leader of the New Schiano Order. Roy Miller explained to beat writer Rick Stroud in a piece published by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

“I don’t think any team, any player could frighten us more than messing up for (Greg) Schiano,” defensive tackle Roy Miller said of the Bucs’ head coach. “I think we all want to do exactly what he tells us to do. People are more scared of him than anything. That’s a good thing.”

Well, it’s clear that order is in full swing on the Bucs, and there’s a wave of healthy fear rumbling through the locker room at One Buc Palace right now. Whether it will equal wins or not is a mystery.

Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Derrick Brooks talked about how much he loves Greg Schiano’s commitment to his ways. Brooks’ only concern was what might happen to the Bucs if players defect from the current buy-in after some losses. Schiano won’t change, Brooks said, but the roster might have to.

Panthers all world quarterback Cam Newton is not shy of confidence. Given what he has done on football fields the past two seasons, both in the NFL and in college, no man could pull off those same feats if he didn’t have a bit of an air about him.

And while Newton is concerned about the Bucs, and the Bucs defense, he’s more concerned with how he and his fellow offensive mates perform on Sunday to open the 2012 season.

“It’s all about execution,” Newton said of the Panthers’ gameplan against the unknown, the Bucs new defense with a new coaching staff. “It is somewhat of a challenge, not just a whole new scheme but you wonder how they will attack us. That is our challenge.

“But we just have to execute the plays that are given to us.”

Newton was pressed a bit later, asked if maybe the Panthers will be walking into a lion’s lair, a revenge trap of sorts given how the Panthers manhandled the Bucs last season. Newton calmly dismissed that notion.

“It is not about what the opposing team does; it is about how we do, how we execute, how do we do the things we know what we are [capable of] doing,” Newton said. “It all comes down to accountability.”

Newton also dismissed distractions. While the Democratic National Convention has downtown Charlotte on lockdown, preventing the Panthers from getting about, the team decided to work out all week in Bradenton at the IMG Academies to escape the crush of security in Charlotte, and perhaps get a little acclimated to the hot and humid Florida weather as well.

For Newton, this week is no different than other weeks.

“No, it’s not a distraction,” Newton said. “There is no chaos. This is the NFL and you have to prepare in a different environment almost every week. It’s no different than traveling anywhere to prepare for another team.”

If Newton has any pause when it comes to the Bucs, it is when he is on the sidelines and Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman is directing the Bucs offense. Newton admitted to being a fan of Freeman’s.

“I respect everything Josh Freeman does,” Newton said. “He has a big arm, big talent. I’m pulling for him and I look for a great upcoming season [by Freeman]. I expect great things from him.”

As far if Newton plans to slash through the Bucs defense with his wheels, one could almost see the smile on Newton’s face as he said, “You will just have to watch the game and see.”

Cadillac Williams launched his career with 27 carries for 148 yards. Bucs fans could see that kind of load on Doug Martin against Carolina.

The leader of the New Schiano Order has set no limit on Doug Martin this weekend.

The rookie running back’s carries will be based on feel and urge, so Schiano said today. Schiano said he knows it’s a long season, but that’s not relevant Sunday and he’ll worry about that kind of stuff in future weeks.

“You get to play this game this Sunday. It’s a one game season, you know, as far as I’m concerned,” Schiano said. “And then we pick up the next one after that. So, you know, you do everything you can to be 1-0 after this one-game season.”

Frankly, Joe would love to see Martin get 25 carries and passes out of the backfield. And see LeGarrette Blount get his 20+ totes of the rock and be used diversely, as well.

If the Bucs are doing that, they’re going to stay out of trouble and beat Carolina. Schiano says he loves to run the football. Joe hopes that passion is evident.

Joe has been writing this for some time. The NFL has all but confessed it to be true.

In what Joe believes is a cultural change among American sports fans, more and more fans prefer the at-home experience (giant HDTVs in Sensurround, multiple replays at various camera angles, DVR rewind, multiple games via NFL Sunday Ticket, cheaper beer/food) than the in-game experience.

The evidence is all over the place but for Bucs fans, Joe has stumbled upon the smoking gun.

Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger has unearthed an item that documents NFL gear sales and it appears Tampa Bay area residents are among the best in the NFL at buying swag.

According to Fanatics.com, NFL fans in Tampa rank in the Top 10 in the NFL when it comes to buying NFL merchandise.

Tampa ranks ninth on the list of U.S. cities purchasing NFL gear. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re buying Buc gear but at least they’re NFL fans. According to the list, which data was compiled after the NFL Draft through the NFL preseason, Houston was the top city buying NFL swag, followed by Jacksonville (huh?), New York, Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chicago, San Antonio, then Tampa and Phoenix.

For Joe, this should end the debate as to why the Bucs aren’t moving tickets despite all the perks offered by Team Glazer this weekend. More and more fans believe what SiriusXM Radio college football personality Bill King always says.

“If I go to a game I miss too much.”

The season-opener Sunday between the Panthers and Bucs is blacked out for those living in the Tampa and Orlando TV markets.

Joe is not surprised, as the Bucs warned last week that some 9,000 tickets needed to be sold in order to reach the 85 percent threshold on non-premium seats to meet the NFL standards for broadcasting the game live locally.

Those living outside the Tampa/Orlando TV markets will be able to enjoy the game via NFL Sunday Ticket.

(Joe will display a map tomorrow showing which FOX TV affiliates will be broadcasting the game, but Joe cautions that because the Green Bay-San Francisco game is played in the same broadcast window and was deemed the national game, scant areas will see the Panthers-Bucs game.)

As of 2:30 p.m. Friday, available single game tickets on Tickmaster.com start at $51.00. Secondary market sites like StubHub.com and TiqIq.com have seats in the $35 range.

The game can be viewed in its entirety on a tape-delayed basis after midnight Sunday night on NFL.com as well as via NFL Sunday Ticket.

And no, this is not on Team Glazer. They spent like drunken sailors on free agents. They brought in a new coaching staff. They are offering some free parking, plus half-off concessions for Sunday’s game. There’s a giveaway for Ronde Barber’s 200th start. Team Glazer has been no less than gracious with their generosity in trying to lure fans back to the stadium, especially the season-opener.

Joe vividly remembers one of his many interviews with Bobby Bowden, then still lording over the Florida State football program, on a hot May morning on a Clearwater golf course.

Among the questions Joe asked of Bowden was about how his Noles would open the 2001 season on Labor Day night against Miami. Butch Davis had just run off to Cleveland (and Canes defensive coordinator Greg Schiano had just bolted to Rutgers), and Larry Coker was taking over.

Joe asked Bowden how he can prepare for a team in the first week of the season that has a new coach and new assistants.

“You can’t,” Bowden said in his famous Alabama barbecue drawl, shaking his head. Bowden went on to say a team just had to go by tape of what coordinators and coaches had done in the past and hoped they used the same tactics. Bowden added that in a situation like that, a team generally just focuses on what they do more than the mystery of an opponent’s new coaching staff.

This is the corner Carolina coach Ron Rivera finds himself in. Not only do the Bucs have a new coach (Schiano), the Bucs (thankfully) have both a new defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator.

Like Bowden a decade ago, Rivera admits trying to prepare for the unknown is sort of a stab in the dark.

“That is always tough,” Rivera said. “When I was a coordinator, I always wanted to open up against someone that you knew, and that you felt confident about. Going up against Coach Schiano, and really what they are going to do both offensively and defensively is going to be new. We’re only going to see parts of it, based on what they do in the preseason. Some of it is a guessing game but the one thing you do know and you do expect from a Coach Schiano football team is a bunch of hard-nosed football players.”

If the Bucs — and Schiano — do have an advantage Sunday, it is the unknown factor. Mike Sullivan has never been an offensive coordinator before. Though Bill Sheridan has been a defensive coordinator before, he certainly didn’t have the same roster to work with when he called the shots for the Giants defense.

King thinks the Bucs are lacking athleticism in their receiving corps

NBC Sports NFL analyst Shaun King, one of only three quarterbacks to lead the Bucs to a NFC Championship Game, has put his foot down on the Bucs’ 2012 season.

Speaking on the Ron and Ian Show today on WDAE-AM 620, King says he sees the Bucs’ brutally tough schedule possibly leaving them with a 1-5 record and he predicts a 5-11 finish.

King is very down on the Tampa Bay defense. “We’re undersized yet I don’t think we’re overly athletic. I think that’s kind of a bad mix,” King said.

As for the Bucs offense, King says fans should look for the Bucs to pound the ball because they don’t have the horses to open up the action.

“I really think that they’re going to try to establish the run. Just because I think for them to create big plays in the passing game, it has to be off of play-action. I’m still not convinced that we’re good enough at wide reciever to just line up and throw the football around the field,” King said. “Like we don’t have Dez Bryant/Miles Austin. We don’t have Hakeem Nicks/Victor Cruz. Vincent Jackson’s good but I still think he’s maybe a notch below those guys. And from an athleticism standpoint, I still think, you know, we have some holes in that group.”

Joe doesn’t agree completely. Joe thinks more highly of the Bucs receivers than King, Mike Williams especially, and the Bucs surely have at least some size and true athletes in the secondary. Though Joe doesn’t see the Bucs with a winning record either.

You can listen to the entire interview below. (The annoying jokes at the start don’t last long.)

Wake up truck, van and SUV owners!

Check out the good guys (and great Bucs fans) at Topper Town on U.S. Hwy. 19 in Clearwater. They’ve got all kinds of accessories to improve appearance and functionality of your vehicle — toolboxes, ladder racks, utility covers and toppers — for work or fun. Topper Town does it all.

So stop by Topper Town, check them out online, or give the guys at Topper Town a call today to get a quote to freshen up your car, truck, van or SUV.

Topper Town has been a family owned business for 35+ years. These guys will take care of you big time and already have impressed many JoeBucsFan.com readers. Check out the Topper Town website today.

Josh Freeman was pressed yesterday to name the No. 1 one way he’s improved since last season.

No. 5 gave two answers. First, Freeman replied, “fundamentals.”

Next, he went on to explain how his understanding of the game is much better. “I’m seeing it all a lot faster, a lot clearer,” Freeman said.

Put aside all the blubbering, predicting, hyping, overanalyzing for the 2012 season, the Bucs will ride where Josh Freeman takes them. The defense can’t carry these Bucs, and the heralded offensive line has already been dealt a massive blow. If No. 5 is good, then the Bucs will be good.

And now back for your weekly regular season serving of statistical nonsense, here is Zubin Mehenti of BSPN. Man, Joe misses the gorgeous Jenny Dell.

Just about every young boy playing football at some point dreams of taking the field for his favorite team.

For Bucs cornerback Leonard Johnson, in three days, that will be reality.

Johnson, who grew up in Clearwater and was a four-year starting quarterback at Largo High School, leading the Packers to two consecutive state semifinal appearances, made the Bucs 53-man roster last week after being an undrafted yet highly touted free agent out of Iowa State.

When Joe caught up with Johnson this week, he was too locked in to make his scheduled weightlifting session than to talk about dreams, but did give Joe a brief few moments.

“I am excited just to be back home,” said Johnson, who went to Bucs games growing up as a youngster and attended Greg Schiano’s local football camps in high school. “In [three] days, my dream will have come true.”

Don’t be shocked to see Johnson play at cornerback, not just special teams. There is a reason why the Bucs earlier this week signed Brandon McDonald and waived offensive lineman Derek Hardman, despite the Bucs’ right side of the offensive line being in disarray since Davin Joseph was lost for the season. That’s because the Bucs secondary is now thin as well thanks to nagging injuries to E.J. Biggers and Anthony Gaitor.

Biggers is still a bit hobbled from an injured foot he suffered on the first day of training camp when he and Arrelious Benn collided. This week, Biggers has had limited participation in drills preparing for Carolina as has Gaitor who is nursing a tender hamstring.

This opens the door for the hometown guy, Johnson.

“When my number is called, all I have to do is just go out there and execute and make plays,” Johnson said.

Johnson has been busy these days. He grew up in a rough area of Clearwater known as North Greenwood, where a path to crime and gangs is too often taken than the initial harder road Johnson chose of going to college, getting a degree and reaching his dream of playing in the NFL. Even as a college player, Johnson was active in neighborhood youth activities, often speaking to youngsters in the area about how dreams can be reached through education, encouraging them to go to school, that if good things can happen to him, it can happen to them as well through hard work.

Tuesday was a bit different. Johnson showed up, representing the Bucs, wearing his Bucs No. 29 jersey.

“I see those kids a lot but to let them see me with my Bucs jersey on, it meant even more,” Johnson said.

That’s because the City of Clearwater, through a grant from the Bucs and the NFL, built a youth football complex for the North Greenwood area, near the old Jack Russell Stadium where the Phillies used to play spring training games.

“Now that I’m home, I’m just doing God’s work,” Johnson told Jared Leone of Clearwater Patch. The complex comes replete with lights, irrigation system and field goal uprights.

Johnson was sort of the emcee of the event, the native son done good.

For the youngsters in the neighborhood to have a state-of-the-art complex to play and practice football on, Johnson said, “Is awesome, really awesome.”

Just like the story of how a neighborhood son grew up to reach his childhood dream.

THE PESSIMIST is a diehard Bucs fan whose negative writings have appeared previously on JoeBucsFan.com. THE PESSMIST is rarely happy, but he is happy to return to these pages for the 2012 season. His views surely do not necessarily reflect those of Joe. But Joe sure gets a kick out of them.

THE PESSMIST can’t find one allegedly knowledgeable person picking the Bucs to win Sunday. Not Vegas. Not a genius national talking head.

Somehow all these idiots think Carolina off a 6-10 season is a stone cold road lock Sunday. What a bunch of crap.

So Cam Newton can run to daylight and he racked up gargantuan numbers — twice — against the December 2011 Buccaneers to pad his stats. That was the worst defense of the modern era. Steve Smith is old. Defenses will catch up to Newton. And the Panthers defense still sucks. Let’s see Luke Kuechly play a game before he gets the Rookie of the Year trophy.

But perhaps these pundits also take a look at the Bucs and are confused. Maybe they see Quincy Black, Roy Miller, Mason Foster and wonder why, why, why these guys have the same jobs in 2012.

Maybe they see Josh Freeman needing time to bounce back to 2010 form with new targets, a new playbook and new coaches and little from the preseason to get them excited. Crap, there’s not even enough local excitement to sell out one damn game with seven months of sales effort since Greg Schiano was hired, despite a bunch of gameday perks and big money and free agents.

THE PESSIMIST has little belief in the Bucs for Sunday, either. Just how the Rutgers defense looks in the NFL and how Mike Sullivan runs an offense are complete mysteries, let alone how Doug Martin might lead a run-first team.

Smart money doesn’t wager on hope.