The leader of the New Schiano Order wants plenty of what he calls “execution” penalties

The leader of the New Schiano Order doesn’t want some pansy-ass soft football team that doesn’t commit penalties.

Being an aggressive Buccaneer Man means you’re going to drill skulls unintentionally at times, explained Schiano on WDAE-AM 620 Tuesday.

Schiano said he puts penalties in three categories: Selfish, Silly And Execution.

“Where you’re playing hard and you happen to fly over the top and hit somebody out of the hit zone” is how Schiano described “execution” penalties. “I don’t want to slow our guys too much down that way. Right? It’s a fine line between being physical aggressive football team and, you know, getting a flag. You gotta be careful. I don’t ever want to be the least penalized team in the league, because I don’t think you’re trying hard enough then,” Schiano said.

Well, what Bucs fan in his right mind wouldn’t get fired up if the Bucs had the kind of physical defense to draw those kinds of flags. Raheem Morris used to talk about being “violent,” but Schiano painted a much better picture with his definition.

During the interview, Schiano went on to talk about running when the defense puts eight guys in the box and how he defines “commitment to running the ball.” He also shared his philosophy on developing pass rushers. Take a listen below.

It’s easy to forget that Vincent Jackson and Josh Freeman are still building their chemistry and communication, and it’s easy to forget that the Bucs are running a brand new offense with loads of fresh elements under a first-time offensive coordinator.

But that newness was top of mind at one point in practice today. During an 11-on-11 drill, Freeman eyeballed Jackson on the left flank, and then Jackson turned back for the football while Freeman threw about 15 yards away from him to nothingness down the field. Freeman slapped his thigh. It was one of those moments that seemed to be all about a couple of guys still feeling things out.

On Friday in Miami, Vincent Jackson didn’t catch a pass. And Joe doesn’t recall a ball thrown his way.

There’s plenty of time for Freeman and Jackson to connect before opening day, but Joe would sleep better if Jackson was at least targeted a few times against Tennessee on Friday.

Greg Schiano has talked about using preseason games to “tick mark” things he wants to see individual players and the Bucs do against other teams. Hopefully, one of those ticks is Freeman throwing a good handful of routes to No. 83.

Earnest Graham talks all things Bucs

There was quite an intelligent converstation with Earnest Graham on WDAE-AM 620 this morning.

Graham talked all things Bucs, and he broke down LeGarrette Blount’s skill set and explained why he believes Blount is in Adrian Peterson’s class when he’s playing well.”LeGarrette’s competition is himself,” Graham said.

Graham also gets into Josh Freeman’s weight loss and Greg Schiano. Enjoy.

Troy Aikman weighed in today on Josh Freeman. Aikman is scheduled to call the Bucs’ first two road games.

Troy Aikman took in Bucs practice today, and he wasn’t in town for a good sweat or a quality lap dance on Dale Mabry Highway. Aikman was taking notes and talking to players and coaches to be prepared for calling two early-season Bucs games.

That’s right, the FOX Sports A-crew of Joe Buck and Aikman will work the Bucs’ first two road games, at the Giants and Cowboys. Of course, most of the country will see those games, and combined with the Bucs-Panthers opener being a featured 4:25 p.m. start on FOX, the Bucs are coming away with a hell of a lot of national television exposure for the first three games of the New Schiano Order.

It’s a great and uncommon spotlight for a team coming off a 10-game losing streak. Hopefully, the Bucs will rise to it.

Aikman believes great things lie ahead for Josh Freeman, so he told Joe after practice.

“I liked Josh a lot when he was coming into the league,” Aikman said. ” We had a chance to do a preseason game of his. And then I think we’ve had him just one other time against Green Bay last year. I think he’s a really talented player. Obviously he was exceptional a couple of years ago and I think his play last year was pretty reflective of the team’s. High expectations and just didn’t play with the same kind of efficiency. There’s a lot of reasons for that. And I think that some of the things they’re going to be doing within this offense and the way that Greg Schiano wants to approach this thing, I think it’s going to help him. I expect him to go on and continue to have a great career. I really do. I think a lot of him.”

Writing this really got Joe thinking more about the Bucs’ first three games. Man, these tough, high-profile games are going to set quite a tone for the season.

Joe believes the Bucs will be ready. Whether they’re good enough to hang with any of these teams is the real question.

Two years ago it seemed the Bucs found a major hidden gem in Michael Bennett. Now in his fourth NFL season, Bennett is the Bucs starting left defensive lineman.

While Bennett may not have topped his 2010 play last season — who on the defense did? — Bucs fans may be pleased with what they see from the Texas A&M product this campaign.

“I feel I understand the game better,” Bennett said after the final training camp practice of 2012 this morning. “I’m in my fourth year now so I recognize plays quicker and digest them faster. So it feels way better this [camp] than last year.”

Bennett should get ample time to match his play with his intelligence. With Da’Quan Bowers likely out for the season with an Achilles tendon injury, Bennett will have the lion’s share of snaps at left defensive end.

Many Bucs fans who have come out to training camp have seen Bucs first round pick Mark Barron practice.

But that is not the real Mark Barron, so Mark Barron says.

One reason Barron was drafted was that he lays the wood to opponents. He hasn’t done much of that yet, Barron said, because the Bucs don’t want him hurting others.

“In practice, we are limited because we have to keep each other healthy,” Barron said. “You can’t really strip because you don’t want to hurt anyone’s shoulder. So yeah, most of the time, a safety won’t stand out unless a day in practice when a safety has a lot of interceptions.”

Barron noted that his real self will be displayed in games, and Bucs fans are still waiting. Barron was hobbled by a bum toe last weekend and was a game time scratch at Miami to open the preseason slate.

Provided Barron’s toe is healthy, he will play Friday against the Titans, and show NFL fans how punishing he can be.

Wallace Gilberry was very active on defense for the Bucs on Friday, and former Bucs defensive end Steve White came away impressed and said he’d likely stick on the final roster. 

Count Greg Schiano among those who like what they see from the former Chiefs defensive end, who recorded seven sacks in 2010.

Today, Joe asked the leader of the New Schiano Order to talk about Gilberry’s impact and any history he had with him before the Bucs signed him as a free agent this winter. Here’s Schiano’s response:.

“I knew nothing of him before he got here. Mark [Dominik] and Dennis [Hickey] brought him in to me,” Schiano said. “I watched the tape . He flashed and did some things. You loved his effort. He’s a hard effort player. I think he’s been a good addition out there. He’s a positive guy. He works his tail off. It’s going to be interesting to see how this thing shakes out inside, but he’s definitely right in the middle of the mix. He’s a guy that can go inside and outside, too. That helpes his cause a little bit.”

Joe had a chance to chat with Gilberry, 27, who wants Bucs fans to know he’ll deliver for them in all ways. “High energy, I want to work hard. I’m definitely going to be an on-the field and off-the-field kind type of person they can get behind and cheer for,” Gilberry said.

As for rushing inside, Gilberry said he did plenty of that in Kansas City and has no preference as to how the Bucs choose to use him.

“Whatever I was told to do, I just do it,” Gilberry said. “You don’t really have a choice in this league, whatever you’re built for and whatever you’re good at, you hope the coaches bring it out of you, and that’s what happened for me in Kansas City and that’s what’s going on here. God blessed me with this talent and I’m just hoping to be able to use it.”

The battle for roster spots on the defensive line is intriguing. If the Bucs deem Gilberry capable of delivering as a reserve inside and outside, he might make banged up Amobi Okoye or Gary Gibson expendable. Or he just sticks as a backup defensive end. There’s not much to speak of behind Michael Bennett and Adrian Clayborn.

Joe was out at the final training camp practice for 2012 this morning and jotted down some highlights, and not-so-highlights.

* Cody Grimm was seen working with the third team defense.

* A morning practice is not complete without Greg Schiano barking instructions with his bullhorn.

* Eric Wright the past week or so has really stood out on defense. Early in practice he breaks up a Josh Freeman pass intended for Vincent Jackson.

* Ronde Barber fakes a blitz up the middle but it wasn’t needed as the run was stuffed at the line.

* Jackson breaks open over the middle for a completion.

* Michael Smith is shifty, even in heavy traffic.

* Najee Goode grabs a pass at midfield and turns it into a pick-six.

* Josh Freeman rifles a pass to the left sideline for Vincent Jackson who taps his toes just inbounds for a catch.

* Michael Smith takes it to the house on a kickoff return, much to the delight of Bucs fans. The next play, Sammie Stroughter matches the score by running up the left sideline.

* Mike Williams grabs a pass over the middle with Leonard Johnson draped all over him.

* Dallas Clark extends high for a pass just out of the reach of Lavonte David.

* Eric Wright with some perfect defense on Vincent Jackson, preventing the Bucs wide receiver from coming down with a catch in the far left corner of the end zone.

* George Johnson gets his left mitt on a Josh Freeman pass using an inside stunt to the left, nearly picking off the pass.

* Robbery! Greg Ellingson clearly burns Myron Lewis for a touchdown on the left sideline but one of the scab refs claims he never got both feet in the end zone. The play happened right in front of Joe and Ellingson has both feet well inside the line with plenty of green to spare. There was no replay to be had.

* A field goal sails so long on the north end zone that it drills a car in the parking lot, triggering the vehicle’s alarm system.

* Second day in a row that during two-minute drills when Schiano pipes in crowd noise, the fans in the bleachers begin yelling at full throat. This time, the fans stood as one, stomping on the bleachers while chanting, “DEE-fense… DEE-fense… ” Joe’s pretty sure a training camp tradition is born.

* Eric Wright and Gerald McCoy would have easily sacked Josh Freeman if not for Freeman’s green no-hit jersey.

* Sammie Stroughter gets the best of Eric Wright over the middle for a completion.

* Mossis Madu with a good gain catching a pass from Josh Freeman in the left flat.

* The scab refs catch an offensive lineman putting Mason Foster into a sleeper hold.

* Eric Wright blitzes and would have beheaded Freeman. Michael Bennett was also in Freeman’s face.

* The defense has played as well as it has played in a few days.

* Eric Wright continues to shine, just missing a field goal block by laying out on a dive.

* Tiquan Underwood hauls in 39-yard pass down the right sideline from Josh Freeman. Joe is getting the sense that Underwood may be your Bucs No. 3 receiver.

* In a very public display of bonding with players about working out in the Tampa heat, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik donned black garb, jogging down Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. joined by director of player personnel Dennis Hickey.

The Bucs are exactly two weeks from their final preseason game in Washington. And now it seems that there’s no shot that Arrelious Benn will make his 2012 debut in that game.

Greg Schiano said yesterday Benn is “probably a few weeks” away from returning from the knee injury he suffered July 27.

Perhaps the Bucs stick Benn on the physically unable to perform list to start the season? That would force Benn to miss the first six games, and buy the Bucs some time. Of course, the Bucs could surprise and keep six wide receivers including Benn, a move that would be unexpected to Joe given all the injury and depth issues on defense.

As Joe’s written previously, Joe just can’t wrap his head around the New Schiano Order gifting Benn a roster spot when he hasn’t earned a job. The Bucs have little financial commitment in Benn, and Schiano surely has no personal stake in the 2010 pick.

Partially because of the addition of wide receiver Vincent Jackson, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune believes the Bucs have never had this talented of an offense.

Joe learned in Day 1 of journalism school an objective reporter is not to get emotionally involved in his/her beat.

That was when newspapers had a monopoly on news content and often the messages put forth. Now, in the age of the Internet, objectivity is too often a curse. Look at CNN’s ratings, a news outlet that prides itself in its objectivity.

Consumers crave opinion, whether they like the opinion or not.

So when Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune made a rare appearance — in studio, no less — with Joe’s good friend, the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig, to discuss his analysis of the Bucs, Joe was taken aback with Cummings’ perception of the Bucs.

“I haven’t been this excited about a season starting probably since 2003, after the Super Bowl,” Cummings said. “That team was special. I don’t know if this teem is going to be as special of a team or have as much success but i don’t know if the Bucs have ever had a more talented of an offense than they ever had.”

Other cool tidbits from Cummings and Duemig can be heard by clicking the button below.

There’s a fun video up on Buccaneeers.com, behind the scenes from the Dolphins-Bucs game on Friday. If NFL Films type stuff gets you jacked up and ready to run through a wall, then you’ll enjoy it. Click the link. Tell your boss you’re doing it for him or her.

Among other stuff, you get a different look at the Tiquan Underwood bomb, Bryan Cox coaching on the sidelines, and the tipped pass that led to the Lavonte David interception.

Now Joe knows fans are irritated because the Bucs’ first preseason game will be blacked out Friday from a live broadcast.

Joe knows there is a lot of hand-wringing about this, but clearly, the public has spoken and buying a ticket (or tickets) to a preseason game isn’t high on people’s entertainment list.

What, should the State of Florida legislature pull an ObamaCare stunt and tax citizens a hundred dollars a year in order to pay for tickets to ensure sellouts? If people don’t want to go, they don’t want to go. It’s (allegedly) a free country.

This doesn’t mean the Bucs couldn’t someday be on TV more in the future.

Cricket-watching, scone-loathing Peter King of Sports Illustrated typed a piece yesterday where he mentioned that the high interest in the “look-ins” of team training camps broadcast last month on the NFL Network proved to be so popular, it has caught the eye of the NFL owners.

PEOPLE WOULD WATCH. “I would love to see NFL teams start to televise their training camps. The Pats have been averaging over 10,000 fans per practice this year. I know most teams don’t have that kind of following on a daily basis, but it seems to me that there’s an unmet need there. I’ve seen some coverage, but it’s been dominated by the Tebow and Manning shows. From a purist’s prospective, I would probably tune in occasionally just to see how my rookies, star free agents and previously injured players are doing. Not to mention that there might be a Fantasy Football draw as well.”
— From Ray, of Southboro, Mass.

The NFL has proven that it could televise anything and get ratings. As I’ve gone from camp to camp, I’ve noticed quite a few camps televised lived on NFL Network. Don’t think the league’s not thinking about it.

Yes, this could work. Joe would guess that Bucs fans would much rather watch a Bucs training camp practice than that glorified track meet known as the NFL Combine.

It’s actually a beautiful mix of needs and wants. Bucs fans would want to watch, all NFL owners want to make a shekel or two, and there are broadcast companies dying for content in the late summer.

Two years ago, the NFL Network-hostile Bright House Networks, which continues to hold local football fans hostage by denying them the greatest channel known to man while shoving every friggin’ shopping channel down consumers throats, broadcast live from the Bucs’ night practice but it was all interviews the entire night, no shots of the actual practice, likely because the cable outfit didn’t have the rights to broadcast the actual practice on the field.

Yesterday, Joe spoke with a prominent employee of Bright House Sports Network, who said the outfit is thirsty for content and programming this time of the year. There are only so many CFL, KHL and taped high school sports to regurgitate for 24 hours a day.

Same with Fox Sports Florida/Sun Sports. Outside of baseball, there is only so much fishing and poker playing that can be broadcast. Joe seems to recall Sun Sports broadcasting a controlled scrimmage from the Orange Bowl years ago between the Bucs and Dolphins, if memory serves.

The way the NFL continues to grow and grow and grow and grow, it wouldn’t shock Joe one iota if next year, a local cable network would secure the rights to broadcast Bucs training camp practices that are open to the public, and for the hundreds of thousands of fans that cannot take off work to come out to practice, they can DVR the broadcast for viewing later in the day.

It really makes too much cents sense for this to happen.

Joe’s good friend, sports director Dave Wirth at WTSP-TV Channel 10, the preseason TV home of the Bucs, just confirmed via his Twitter feed that the Bucs game Friday against the Titans did not sell out by today’s 7:30 p.m. NFL-mandated deadline and thus will be blacked out from live broadcasts in the Tampa and Orlando TV markets.

In short, fans failed to lap up a minimum of 85 percent of the stadium’s non-premium seats.

@TBDave: Bucs confirm… Friday’s game
is blacked out, no 85%…

However, the game will be broadcast of a tape-delayed basis by WTSP three times, per the station’s website.

Friday night’s pre-season football game will be blacked out, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have announced.

10 News will air the game on a delay. The game will be shown on channel 10 beginning Friday night at 11:35. At approximately 2:35 a.m., we’ll broadcast David Letterman and Craig Ferguson.

The Bucs game will be re-aired Saturday from 9am to noon on 10.2. A third replay will be aired on 10.1 from noon to 3 p.m. The CBS sports spectaculars will air at 1 and 2 p.m. on 10.2.

The channels “10.1” and “10.2” are the station’s severe weather channel that is available on local cable carriers.

Add to that the NFL Network rebroadcasts, and Bucs fans who aren’t going to the game will have ample opportunities to see the game.

It seems the Bucs braintrust is uneasy about its depth at wide receiver and return specialists and is giving track star and former Florida Gators slash player Jeff Demps a look-see, so reports Scott Reynolds of the PewterReport.com.

Demps, who has run the 100-meter in a time as fast as 10.01, did not sign with an NFL team after going undrafted in April because he wanted to focus on training for the 2012 Olympics at the time. He is now a free agent and has several teams interested, including the Buccaneers, who have been touching base with Demps as far back as the early summer prior to the Olympics.

In fact, the Bucs came close to signing Demps this summer when he failed to qualify for the Olympics, finishing seventh in Oregon. He was added to the 2012 U.S. Olympic roster as a member of the 4×100 meter relay teams, as a replacement for Mike Rodgers who had suffered a stress fracture. Instead of signing with the Bucs in July, Demps wanted to focus on racing in the Olympics and then concentrate on football in August.

Demps raced the first leg of the of the second qualifying heat, helping the team to a time of 37.38, breaking a 20-year American record. Demps didn’t run in the final, but his teammates ended up finishing second, earning a silver medal. As part of the team, Demps received a medal.

What does this tell Joe? It tells him that Preston Parker and Sammie Stroughter better be watching their backs, and perhaps Arrelious Benn.

Now Joe doesn’t expect Benn to be cut, but it wouldn’t shock him, as Joe wrote earlier this training camp, Schiano is a stickler for many things, including showing up to practices. Benn, who has been nothing but injury-prone in his first two seasons, hurt his knee in a collision with E.J. Biggers and hasn’t practiced since the opening days of training camp.

Parker and Stroughter appear to be one of the odd men out if Demps is signed. Right now Joe would have to assume Tiquan Underwood is the No. 3 receiver the way he continues to make play after play in each practice, much more so than Parker or Stroughter.

Schiano loathes fumbles and penalties like Joe hates warm beer. Parker, last Friday against Miami, not only coughed up a punt, he got flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, which is dumber than dumb and all but begging Schiano to cut him.

Stroughter has been struggling hanging onto the ball as well in return drills in camp, even letting a punt go through his arms this morning.

While Joe isn’t high on Demps — name the last time a track star did anything in the NFL, Willie Gault? That’s 25 years ago. The history of track stars in the NFL is paper-thin.

Hello, Renaldo Nehemiah.

Speed is great but in football, players are not running straight lines. While Demps might sell two dozen tickets to those wearing orange and blue glasses, Joe is very skeptical, based on NFL history, of Demps making a dent with the Bucs.

Remember, 31 other NFL teams thought so much of Demps, he was never drafted much less signed to a free agent contract as we near the halfway point of preseason.

Joe has come to the conclusion that Gerald McCoy is the new Barrett Ruud. Bucs fans always have to have a player (or coach) to hate and this year it is Gerald McCoy.

What coaches and front office types have told Joe about GMC is eerily similar to what Joe was told about Ruud: That he is doing exactly what is asked of him.

Like Bucs fans did with Ruud, GMC has turned many Bucs fans into an angry lynch mob where they slam their bottles of beer on the bar and have scared neighborhood cats away for fear of being dropped-kicked because GMC is not racking up sacks like Warren Sapp once did.

But if one talks to coaches and front office types, even the cream like Bill Polian, they state GMC’s disruption in the backfield is sometimes better than a sack because busted plays can turn into turnovers.

Nevermind. Bucs fans seem to have made up their minds on GMC, no matter who speaks logic.

With this in mind, J.P. Peterson, former (and soon to be?) local sports personality, has tried to keep an open mind and while weighing input from both sides of the GMC debate, Peterson has tried to offer a reasoned analysis of GMC after watching the Bucs beat the Dolphins last week in Miami on Peterson’s TampaBaySportsCentral.com site.

If Gerald McCoy could finish plays in the backfield he WOULD BE Ndamukong Suh! He is getting great penetration but fails to finish too many times. As a sidebar, I spoke with McCoy today out of pads and he looks much leaner…almost too small for a DT in this league. He’s built more like an end. He is such a great guy I wish him much success and HEALTH! He deserves it… we ALL want to see what he can produce with a full season. I liked that he said he is not focused on sacks but rather the Schiano mantra “do your job”… as he should be.

If a player performs and completes the tasks asked of him by his coaches, what more can be said? It doesn’t seem to matter to Bucs fans though that Greg Schiano boasts about McCoy, like the way he spoke of him earlier this year.

“He plays defensive tackle the way I like. He comes off the ball with a flat back, he’s a penetrating guy who can change direction. We’ve got to get him back healthy and keep him healthy. I think he can be a dominant force if we can just get some miles underneath him, some plays.”

Despite the accolades McCoy gets from Schiano, Polian and the likes, the torches seem to be lit.

Joe was out at camp today, what may have been the hottest to date. Here are the sights — and sounds — Joe noticed.

* Davin Joseph called for holding. Joe waits to hear Greg Schiano’s ire but a word is not spoken from the Bucs coach. At least, not a word that Joe can hear.

* Sammie Stroughter calls for a fair catch on a punt and the ball goes right through his arms. Joe is confident the priests at Jesuit High School could have heard the groans from the fans and the shrieks from the coaching staff and players.

* Eric Wright rolls on the ground writhing in pain of some sort but bounces back on his feet and doesn’t appear any worse for wear.

* Bucs having the case of dropsies on punt returns today. This time it is Michael Smith’s turn.

* Interesting: Dekoda Watson playing down lineman in 11-on-11 drills.

* Sammie Stroughter catches a slant from Freeman for a big gain.

* Mike Williams beats Anthony Gaitor along right sideline and Gaitor whips his arms around in disgust.

* Cody Grimm blitzes from Freeman’s blind side and would have had Freeman on the ground, save for the no-hit jersey.

* First errant pass Joe has seen Freeman throw since last week. Tiquan Underwood had a step on his defender but the pass was way overthrown/behind Underwood.

* “Situation, situation: 1:38 left. Field goal ties; touchdown wins. “

* Freeman flushed out of the pocket by three defenders and cannot connect with Mike Williams.

* Fans at practice join in to add hollering to piped in crowd noise. Never seen that before. Pretty cool.

* Same play as before, this time on a pass over the middle, Mike Williams takes away interception from Mark Barron.

* Fans on their feet in the bleachers, screaming for the Bucs defense.

* Josh Freeman screen right to Muscle Hamster for 30 yards.

* Josh Freeman telegraphed a pass to Mike Williams and his perfect pass is off Williams’ hands. Williams was standing flat-footed over the middle, wwwiiidddeee open.

This morning was the Bucs last open practice to fans for this summer’s training camp, which concludes after tomorrow’s practice.

Despite this, the fans — a fair amount — that attended on this roasting morning may have started a training camp tradition of sorts, an act Joe has never noticed before.

Almost all camp, Bucs honcho Greg Schiano has employed piped-in noise when running two-minute drills late in practice. A giant speaker is placed on a golf cart and the golf cart is always parked at the line of scrimmage.

The noise is so loud, it sounds like a jet about to race down a runway.

Today, Bucs fans joined in the noise. When Schiano first barked the situation and had an assistant flip on the volume, most of the fans in the bleachers at practice raised to their feet as one, screaming, hollering, whistling, trying to add to the noise pollution.

In fact, in subsequent plays, fans were chanting “Defense… defense… defense… ” even with the Bucs first team offense on the field.

Joe has never seen a training camp crowd react like that. It was as if the Dixie Chicks had the ball at the Bucs-20 with seconds left in a five-point Bucs lead.

Joe thought that was pretty cool and hopes it evolves into a training camp tradition. Somewhere, Joe is sure, Schiano was smiling at the audience participation.

Joe applauds Tampa Bay Times Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud for what perhaps is the most outlandish Bucs analysis of the decade.

In a story on Gerald McCoy, Stroud wants us to believe that McCoy’s change in social media habits is evidence he’s a more driven football player.

If anything, McCoy’s sunny disposition has been confused for something else. You can’t live soft and play hard. That has been the popular refrain regarding McCoy.

This season, he seems even more focused. He has 30,000 followers on Twitter but has posted only one tweet since June 25.

Where does Joe begin with such nonsense?

Maybe if Michael Clayton had cut back on texting he would have caught more passes. Perhaps Facebook is what kept Stylez White from a 10-sack season. Surely, it was video games that led to Geno Hayes’ inconsistency.

Stroud knows sending a Twitter message takes less than one minute. If McCoy wants to sit on the toilet and rip off a handful Tweets while delivering a movement, Joe’s quite confident that has nothing to do with football focus and performance.

Former Bucs DE Steve White (1996-2001) has studied film of the Bucs-Dolphins game and weighed in on the defensive line play.

White, who doesn’t sugarcoat, came away encouraged, so he told Ronnie Lane on WDAE-AM 620. And White says fans shouldn’t worry about Gerald McCoy’s performance, if he can stay healthy.

“[I saw] what I’ve seen for the last couple of years, especially last year before he got hurt, he’s got that phenomenal get-off and he’s getting penetration in the backfield and he’s cleaned up some things with his pass rush,” White said. “Once again, it comes down to this, if he plays 16 games, he’s going to be a great player for this year. If he gets hurts, then it’s all for naught. But he’s got everything you want for a 3-technique right now when you watch him on the field.”

White also was encouraged by Michael Bennett mixing in more speed rush, and “I think Wallace Gilberry’s going to stick and I think he’s actually going to get some good playing time,” White said.

Gilberry, a defensive end, had 2 1/2 sacks and forced two fumbles for Kansas City last season. He didn’t miss a game for the Chiefs over the past three seasons in a reserve role.

Joe’s pleased to hear good things from White, but Joe’s sort of numb to all talk when it comes to the defensive line as a unit. It’s been so long since the Bucs have stopped the run or generated a pass rush that isn’t at the bottom of the NFL. Joe has to see it happen in a few real games to become a believer.