The veteran NFL writers for the Tampa Tribune, eye-RAH! Kaufman and Woody Cummings, square off on the question of the day in their latest Bucs Video Blog on TBO.com.

This edition has a simple title: “Are The Glazers Cheap?”

Joe’s not going to spoil their answers for you, especially not the part when Kaufman talks about the Glazers’ panhandling and smirks about their Harbour Island condos.

Joe likes this new TBO.com feature. Check it out.

Never at at loss for words, Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson talked to Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly for a feel-good story about rookie wide receiver Mike Williams.

It seems Olson believes Williams has what it takes to become a 100-catch-a-season monster and a punishing runner after the catch.

“We look at him as one day being a Brandon Marshall type, potentially with that kind of impact,” Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. He noted the instant chemistry between Williams, fellow rookie Arrelious Benn and Freeman, admitted the potential, but tempered Instant Feel Good.

“We can’t just totally rely on young players; any time you have a second-year quarterback and possibly two rookie receivers, that’s not necessarily a recipe for success.”

Joe finds it odd, and amusing, that Olson referenced Brandon Marshall. For many Bucs fans, he’s the big 26-year-old fish that got away — for two second round picks — this offseason. And wasn’t Arrelious Benn supposed to be more of the Marshall type?

NFL.com scribe Steve Wyche also picked up on the excitment surrounding Williams at One Buc Palace during his visit there this week.

As for Freeman’s targets, the wide receivers are a physically imposing group, especially rookies Arrelious Benn (6-1, 219) and Mike Williams (6-1, 221). Williams is the more vertical threat of the pair and based on things people in the organization told me, the Bucs have big plans for him if what he’s doing in shorts and a practice jersey translates when the pads come on.

Joe gets the excitement. Watching the receivers’ workouts at the NFL combine, Joe was stunned by what a standout natural talent Williams appeared to be among his peers.

Of course, Joe’s going to hope and cheer for Williams to set the league on fire. But Joe just can’t expect much out of a rookie fourth-round receiver. If he catches 30 balls and shows he can get into the endzone, Joe will consider that a good rookie season.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who will return soon. Now, Joe wants to introduce you to THE OPTIMIST. Click here if you missed his first column last week.

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

Sometimes, we just worry too much! Second-guessing can be a fun part of being a football fan, and a curse for general managers and head coaches.

Case in point: January 2007, and the Bucs just completed a terrible 2006 season. It was a season on the heels of an optimistic ’05 playoff campaign that looked like we had retooled the team. Instead, by the finish of the ’06 season, Tampa Bay looked like a team that needed a complete overhaul instead.

At the heart of the matter, a secondary that had simply the worst safety play the team had seen in years. Jermaine Phillips and Will Allen were simply awful, and there was no doubt replacements were needed.

Another issue was the loss of quality coaching in that department. While guru Monte Kiffin was still on the job, Mike Tomlin had left to become the Vikings defensive coordinator. Before Tomlin left, secondary assistant coach Raheem Morris bolted to become the defensive coordinator for Kansas State, not aware at the time that Tomlin would be leaving, too.

Tampa Bay hired Greg Burns to assume the position, but later on several Bucs reported having a hard time adjusting to the coaching style of Burns. So changes would be made.

Raheem Morris, after his one-year stint as D-Coordinator, was coaxed back to the Buccaneers and assumed the position as defensive backs coach; but no one assumed that would be enough to turn around such a poor safety duo.

Bucs fans waited when free agency started, hoping to hear about acquisitions that would help out in a time of need.

Nothing.

Nada.

The Bucs made NO moves. Mike Adams, Deion Grant, Ken Hamlin, Todd Johnson, Michael Lewis, and Omar Stoutmire, all available free agent safeties to name a few, and Tampa Bay did not sign one single safety, instead going into the 2007 season with only a coaching change.

…And a rookie.

Safety Tanard Jackson from Syracuse was the only player picked up to address the situation, but surely the Bucs had to realize that both safeties needed replacing, not just one? Bucs fans couldn’t believe that the front office could be so shortsighted on the glaring need on this team.

Coaching Was The Difference

Opening day at Seattle, Jermaine Phillips and Will Allen started at safety, but by the second half Tanard Jackson had replaced Allen permanently, establishing himself as one of the first rookies to start on a Monte Kiffin defense since 1996, when Donnie Abraham did so. Jackson shined and, in fact, the position as a whole, and the secondary too, excelled during 2007 under the leadership of Raheem Morris and his assistant, Jimmy Lake.

Sound familiar? The two are reunited again in 2010.

The Bucs had realized that the problem wasn’t so much the players, but the coaching the players were getting. Burns was not up on the intricacies of teaching the Tampa-2, thus Philips and Allen suffered lapses in fundamentals. The front office was convinced that with proper coaching, the safety position could be a strength on the team.

2010 Is For The Patient

Switch to offseason 2010, and Bucs fans were equally up in arms over the lack of wide receiving talent. Several receivers were out there available to be picked up along with their baggage, but the Bucs decided to start anew with their corps — highlighted by a receiving tandem of rookies to grow together with quarterback Josh Freeman.

Will it be the right move? Do the futures of Arrelious Benn, Mike Williams and Sammy Stroughter outshine the tail-end careers of some of the high-priced free agents that the Bucs passed up on? It depends on if you need the Bucs to win next year, or if you’re patient enough to build a team that goes beyond 9-7 year in and year out.

We’ll stay tuned!

Derrick Ward seems to have landed in his coaches' doghouse, perhaps taking the spot vacated by Antonio Bryant.

Sure, Derrick Ward was back at Monday’s OTA practice after some sort of extreme dental makeover that caused him to miss all of last week’s OTA festivities.

He’s all peachy now at the voluntary workouts, but it seems damage has been done. That’s the word from St. Pete Times Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud, aka The Mad Twitterer, who claims Greg Olson and others say Ward’s no-show act has consequences.

“If Derrick Ward has any more reasons not to come, legitimate or not, I just don’t know,” Stroud said to J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010 on Friday evening. “You know, in talking to Greg Olson and other people, they’re just like, ‘Well, you know we’re going to be loyal to who’s here.’ And you can’t really blame them for that.”

Sure sounds like Olson and the Bucs brass don’t consider dental work enough to keep a guy out of three practices — voluntary or not.

Joe’s not surprised by any of this. It would be hard for an offensive coordinator to avoid giving preferential treatment to the players who sweated it out every day with him installing the offense in June.

Joe’s only surprised (but not really) that Olson and company are spilling all this to the media, saying those in attendance at OTAs would earn loyalty from the coaches. The Bucs new media czar really needs to send Olson a stern message, or at least some fresh duct tape.

Joe loves his tens of thousands of loyal readers. Ok, well, a few of them Joe could do without.

But Joe is committed to interacting with as many as he can, even those who bomb Joe with heinous venom and personal attacks. 

So now Joe is going to take that previously off-line hate mail that landed in his inbox and bring it here in a weekly feature simply titled, Hate Mail.

If you have a problem with Joe, fire away to hatemail@joebucsfan.com.

Every Sunday Joe will answer some select questions right here, likely those void of profanity.

According to one local writer, Tanard Jackson is among many Bucs veterans fighting for a starting job.

The last time Joe listened to The Mad Twitterer, aka Rick Stroud of the St. Pete Times, go head-to-head with electronic media czar J.P. Peterson, Stroud was rambling on TV in May about how the Bucs are a “house of cards”  and Josh Freeman is “holding it all up.”

On Friday, Stroud chatted with Peterson again on WQYK-AM 1010  and admitted he was “ridiculed a little bit by the GM” for the house of cards line. But more important, Stroud bizarrely stated the Bucs have open competition for every starting job outside of quarterback.

“Every job essentially, it’s a free for all out there,” Stroud said. “There’s not a guy out there that can say, ‘I know I’m going to run out of the tunnel Week 1.’ …That’s what’s so exciting about the camp, and I think that kind of breeds the competition and the seriousness that you need. And there were times last year when they just didn’t work as hard as needed to. I think Raheem went back and saw that.”

Huh? The Mad Twitterer actually believes that guys outside of Freeman don’t have starting jobs locked up?

The fact is more than half the Bucs starting defense on opening day is all but etched in stone. Same goes for the offense.

After a comment like that, Joe is almost concerned about The Mad Twitterer’s health.

 Stay out of the sun, Rick.

Tampa Tribune Buccaneers beat scribes Woody Cummings and Anwar Richardson slug it out again on TBO.com’s new Bucs vlog.

This time they take a the topic always good to get a rise out of even the most numb Bucs fan: Raheem The Dream’s magic survival number of wins in 2010.

What do Cummings and Richardson have to say about Raheem the Dream? Joe’s not going to spoil it for you. So check out the video. It’s worth your three minutes.

Personally, Joe’s still sticking with Raheem The Dream needing six wins to sleep soundly after the final whistle in January (assuming the Bucs don’t make the Super Bowl). The Bucs finished 3-6 after defrocking Jim Bates. So Raheem The Dream must at least continue that losing winning pace to show “progress.”

On a side note, Richardson appears to have a veiled criticism of someone using the “Raheem The Dream” nickname, and Joe is not entirely sure who that may be. Hhhmmm? Wonder who Richardson is referring to? 

Good guy and former Buccaneer Will Allen is hosting a fabulous golf tournament and party this weekend. And it’s all to benefit his charity foundation, which helps local kids.

Allen talked to Joe all about it last week.

Click on the picture below for all the details.

After the BBC reported that Team Glazer– largely using information dug up by a noted rival of Team Glazer — is further underwater with their English kickball team than an uncontrolled British Petroluem oil gusher in the Gulf of Texaco,  Team Glazer put it’s new media relations director and former GOP operative to work typing a release denying the BBC report, per Vacation Man of the Bolshevik-like BSPN.

“Buccaneers fans should know that the Glazer family is as financially well-positioned as ever before. Companies they own generate revenues in excess of $800 million each year.

“Sophisticated real estate experts know that the family’s refinancing of their commercial real estate before the global meltdown has proven to be the wise move.

“While First Allied represents only a small portion of their asset portfolio, it continues to generate significant profits, enjoys over 90% occupancy, and has long term non-recourse financing.

“This franchise remains committed to bringing the resources to build its next championship team.”

Does Joe believe Team Glazer is in the red or the black? Joe believes this is all speculative and the only ones who really know are Team Glazer’s accountants and creditors.

Joe wonders what this Green character, the source of much of the information in the BBC report and a guy who wants to buy Team Glazer’s English kickball team, also dug up that he didn’t share with the BBC that would have damaged his chances of purchasing said kickball team?

Conflict of interest anyone?

For Joe, the reason the Tampa Bay area is facing the embarrassing prospect of Bucs home games being taken off local television this year is simple:

Ugly record + Ugly economy + Little star power = Ugly attendance.

Sadly, the Bucs aren’t much of an attraction beyond Joe and the rest of the hardcore fan base. That’s just reality of years of poor drafts, flimsy spending and now a head coach with low approval ratings and little experience. And ownership seems to be just fine with enduring the result of all this in 2010, in order to build a “lasting contender.”

Typically, the local voice of the Kremlin-based BSPN.com, Pat “Vacation Man” Yasinskas, misses most of these points. Vacation Man was asked recently by one of his readers why Tampa Bay is having so much trouble selling tickets when a smaller market like New Orleans packs in the fans.

Pat Yasinskas: Technically, Tampa Bay has sold out every game since Raymond James Stadium opened, but team officials are bracing for local television blackouts this season. That will be reminiscent of the bad old days of the 1980s and ‘90s. Tampa Bay is a unique market. I live here now and have spent about half my life here. Any Florida city is going to have lots of transplants from up North, who hold onto their allegiances. The weather also presents lots of opportunities to do other things on a Sunday. This isn’t New Orleans where children are born and raised to be Saints fans. The Bucs have a great crew of die-hard fans. But the nature of this market means there also are a lot of fringe fans and they show up only when the Bucs are playing well and going to games becomes trendy. Even then, this is a tough market. Just ask the Tampa Bay Rays. They’re having a great season, but Tropicana Field doesn’t draw huge crowds.

Joe’s not buying any Rays-Bucs analogy. It’s apples and oranges. Bucs tickets would be a scalper’s dream if the Bucs were loaded with talent — and successful — like the Rays.

Vacation Man is wrong. This isn’t a “tough market” for a good football team. And how Vacation Man could have omitted the economic downturn affecting the entire NFL is hard to understand.

“Our football people have never been told no because of money. Money will never be an issue when it comes to building this team the way we think it should be built.” — Buccaneers owner Joel Glazer, during a March interview with the Tampa Tribune about the state of team.

Just read the quote above a few times to soothe yourself after soaking in today’s Team Glazer news from the BBC.

The reputable British public broadcasting arm reports Team Glazer has borrowed $95 million against the Buccaneers (whatever that exactly means) and is over $1.5 billion in debt, far more than previously thought.

Mortgage documents seen by the BBC show that the Glazers have borrowed £388m ($570m) against shopping malls and £66m ($95m) against their American National Football League team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In addition to their mortgages in the US, a portion of the Glazer family’s £700m Manchester United debt will soon see them charged interest at a rate of 16.25%.

Fans fear that, despite the club’s record of success on the pitch, the Glazers’ leveraged buy-out of United has saddled the club with debt and that may mean that there is no spare money in the future to buy a new generation of star players.

The BBC report goes on to explain how it uncovered previously unscrutinized aspects of Team Glazer’s financials — with the help of an agenda-driven disgruntled Manchester United fan determined to force Team Glazer to sell the soccer team.

… But Mr Green discovered that the Glazers’ shopping mall mortgages had been bundled with other loans as Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities. Those bundles are publicly traded and therefore require the Glazers to provide detailed information on all the mortgages, which are then publicly available in the US.

Mr Green found mortgages – confirmed by the BBC – on 63 of 64 First Allied shopping centres, totalling £388m ($570m).

Now Joe has no idea of the rules governing how an NFL owner can use his franchise as an asset. So Joe’s not sure whether borrowing against a team is a common or acceptable practice. And again, Joe doesn’t know what “borrow against the Buccaneers” really means when the books are opened.

But Joe is quite certain that if the BBC is pulling a Dan Sileo here, Team Glazer and its new pit bull will be all over it shortly.

Right now, Joe’s glad to see Team Glazer is eager to borrow funds and rack up credit. Perhaps that’ll make them more likely be the player in 2011 free agency that Mark Dominik claims they’ll be.

Joe is so happy that Derrick Ward apparently has overcome his debilitating mouth issues that kept him out of three days of OTA practices last week.

Man, that must have been some painful stuff, especially since it sidelined a rugged veteran who wants to be a team leader.

Per TBO.com and the Twitter feed of Tampa Tribune beat writer Woody Cummings, Ward is back on the field right now at One Buc Palace for today’s OTA.

Joe hopes Ward talks to the media today about his mouth troubles. Perhaps he can inspire young athletes to keep working hard.

Joe has written several times how it’s dangerous to count on — prospectively — four rookies to be solid contributors, hence this is among the reasons why Joe believes the Bucs may struggle this year.

Bucs general manager Mark Dominik loaded up on significant areas of need with his first four picks trying to shore up massive holes at defensive tackle and wide receiver, drafting Gerald McCoy, Brian Price, Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams.

Since, Dominik has all but said he expects the quartet to start.

Rarely do rookie defensive tackles shine, and banking on rookie wide receivers is dicey at best. But this move by Dominik has won over former Bucs secondary coach and current BSPN contributor Herm Edwards.

Edwards, since joining the world of Twitter in recent weeks, has been a Twittering fiend, answering scores of NFL questions from fans each and every day, often at the break of dawn. Today, he wrote about the Bucs dependence this season on the rookie fab four.

@Professor_Joe:  How do the Bucs fair starting a pair of rookie WO & DTs?

@HermEdwardsESPN:  Their [sic] will be some growing pains. It’s the right thing to do.

Wow, even Herm agrees the Bucs were devoid of talent at wide receiver and defensive tackle, that the Bucs needed to go young. That tells Joe all he needs about how vapid those positions were for the pewter pirates last year.

Still, for the Bucs to have a successful season this year, it doesn’t mean Dominik hit a  home run in this spring’s draft, he would have have hit a grand slam.  For the Bucs to sniff a playoff berth, all four rookies have to contribute in Joe’s eyes.

And no, Joe has no clue who “Professor_Joe” is on Twitter.

Joe found it rather interesting that the Mad Twitterer caught Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson is a somewhat testy mood recently, or so it seemed.

The Bucs beat writer from the St. Petersburg Times had an interesting quote from Olson in a story about Olson dealing with young quarterbacks. If the depth chart for quarterbacks remains the same as it does now, third-year “career backup” Josh Johnson is the veteran backup to Josh Freeman, he of the career 10 games. Third string is the vaunted Rudy Carpenter, yet to field his first regular season NFL snap.

Now Joe doesn’t expect Olson, even if he wanted to, to unload on the Bucs front office — in June no less — for his quarterback depth (or lack thereof), but Joe did find Olson’s quote interesting.

“We’re going to coach and play with the players we have here,” offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. “That’s an organizational decision, and we’re all in this thing together. That’s the direction the organization decided to go, so I’m comfortable with it. I have a lot of confidence in Josh Johnson.”

Hhhhmmm? What is Olson exactly getting at here? It didn’t seem as if Olson was giving an absolute endorsement of his players.

Joe’s going to have more about this quote later, perhaps today. Stay tuned. Until then, begin chewing the fat on that quote.

Joe just wanted to share some good news and notes with his legions of friends, haters and followers in Bucs cyberspace on this dreary football-free Sunday.

(First, Joe’s never really football free, since Joe is a manly NFL Network watcher. The Don Shula feature Joe just watched had Joe wondering if Raheem The Dream could be a candidate to knock off Shula’s ridiculous record of 347 wins. After all, Shula was a defensive backs coach turned defensive coordinator, too, who got his head coaching gig at 33. Right now, the comparisons end there.)

To the good news at hand, Joe will introduce two big, new sponsors of JoeBucsFan.com this week. One is a major player in its local industry and a very savvy advertiser, so Joe is extra pleased they pored over Joe’s traffic data and saw fit to cut Joe a check. Not as exciting as a Rachel Watson encounter, but it’ll work.

And the other company is a real quality, hard-working, up-and-comer in its field. Both companies work brutally hard for their clients, so Joe will be very proud to endorse them after spending many hours with the owners.

Joe’s advertisers are the lifeblood of JoeBucsFan.com. They let Joe keep raising the quality and profile of this website consistently. And Joe promises you will reap the benefits as a reader in 2010.  

On that note, clicking on the pretty company images you see around you, and truly checking out what is offered, is the equivalent of tipping your bartenders and waitresses at your favorite watering hole. It’s just the right thing to do.

Also this week, Joe will roll out his new “Hate Mail” feature, as well as “Ask Joe.” It’s going to be a much more fun way to handle the venom, love and queries that fill Joe’s inbox every day.

And for those who savor endless football reading on the toilet, in a format bigger than a cell phone, Joe really recommends buying a copy of the inaugural ProFootballTalk.com season preview magazine. Per ProFootballTalk.com curator, creator and guru Mike Florio, the magazine is 128 pages of in-depth work from people who really know each team, plus some great features.

No, Joe has no financial stake in the magazine sales, but Joe did pen a Bucs preview for the new rag.

Long before the end of last season, it was apparent who fans wanted jettisoned from the team more than they wanted cheaper beer at the CITS: blocking icon Michael Clayton.

For whatever reason, the Bucs embattled wide receiver became a symbol of the bungling Bucs as the team sank from playoff contender to doormat of the NFL in a nightmarish season.

If the loud, vocal critics didn’t get Clayton’s attention, a somewhat minor transaction by Bucs general manager probably did: acquiring Eagles veteran receiver and former University of Georgia stud Reggie Brown for a draft pick.

(Drafting two receivers in the first four picks also certainly must have gotten Clayton’s attention).

Brown fell out of favor with the Eagles, not unlike Clayton with the Bucs. But Brown believes his career is rejuvenated with the Bucs, so he told Joe’s friend the Backwards Hat, aka dapper Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger.

“I had a little hamstring injury in the preseason of my fourth year,” Brown said following an offseason practice at One Buc Place on Wednesday. “I wasn’t practicing, and the coaches never felt confident in me after that. I was hurt at the wrong time.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “But I knew I could still play this game. All I needed was a chance.”

The Bucs now have a crowded corps of wide receivers. In addition to rookies Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams, there’s second-year stud Sammie Stroughter, special teams guru Mo Stovall and the oft-forgotten Mark Bradley to factor in along with Brown and Clayton.

Joe is of the belief that Clayton will be back for his final year with the Bucs, as he will play out his contract, though this is hardly locked in stone. For Clayton to retire with the Bucs, he’ll have to repeat the success he had his rookie season where he appeared to be an All Pro in the making.

Ex-Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages and writes a quarterbacks blog via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.

OTA news is usually reserved for disgruntled veteran “no-shows” looking for a new contract, as Barrett Ruud was last year and Donald Penn is currently. Not many revelations come out of these offseason practices, but they are very important for getting the team prepared overall and certainly more than glorified flag football, as I read some believe.

The biggest news of the offseason was revealed by Raheem this week when referring to quarterbacks Josh Freeman and Josh Johnson, “Don’t be surprised if you see them out there playing together.” 

After I suggested this very scenario in early November of last season, detailing how best to use the two QBs at the same time, the conversation on this website got mired in trying to figure out the definition of the “Wildcat” and not debating the merits of Johnson’s athletic ability and affect on the defense, if used as an updated and more effective “slash” player than Kordell Stewart was a decade ago.

The reason this Josh-a-licious concept is so intriguing, and a better option for these Buccaneers, is because the “smash-mouth” style of offense that they had intended to transition into was never a very good idea from the get-go. A more wide-open or spread-out offense can better compete with lesser players than trying to out-physical the other team at the NFL level. 

That can still be done in college and high school with bigger, stronger players than the opponents, but the NFL is a different animal. Over recent years we have even seen in college where more, and more lower-level teams (Boise State, Utah, TCU, USF, Appalachian State), can compete with the “big boys” when they spread out the defense properly.

Having Freeman at QB full-time — both under center and in shotgun — and bringing Johnson behind the formation quickly, will make the defense react just enough to create the blocking angles and holes for the running game. Plus it equally will give Freeman bigger holes to throw into in the regular passing game, and it should also slow the pass rush enough to make the offensive line look like Pro Bowlers.

Since we are a bit over six months since I suggested getting this to happen, if anyone (at One Buc Place) wants to know how to make this work really well, I am easy to find (AmericasBestQB.com) and have just enough time to input my ideas before mid-season.

I have put some real time into this concept, as I am hard at work designing a unique offense with many of these characteristics right now for my son’s youth league team. I know the Bucs are a young team and not a youth team, but that is exactly why they need to make this an integral part of the 2010 offense.

Good-guy St. Pete Times columnist Gary Shelton has been studying and hounding Raheem The Dream at One Buc Palace of late, and Shelton shared his observations in a column today.

He found the head coach confident, non-committal and using the lastest talking point to describe the Bucs’ 2010 plan — to build a “lasting contender.”

… The Bucs played better, and there were hints that he had finally left his imprint on his team. Still, a bit of improvement doesn’t offset a bad season. Morris knows that.

“We have one ultimate goal, and that’s to win a championship,” Morris said. “I’m not going to tell you that if we went 13-3 and lost in the first round that I’d be happy. I would be a liar if I said that.”

Yeah, but wouldn’t you be happier?

“You guys would be. The town would be. But I don’t think my team would be. If you don’t win some form of championship, I don’t know that you can be truly happy.”

At 3-13, however, who is searching for true happiness? At 3-13, a winning season would look pretty good.

“What we’re trying to do is build a lasting contender,” Morris said. “To do that, you have to have young players play together.”

Raheem The Dream had much more to say, and Joe is all good with his infectious optimism. But, frankly, Joe misses all the offseason talk last year about being “violent,” running downhill and play-action passing.

These young Bucs, Joe believes, need to get back a real nasty edge on their defense and establish a smashmouth culture on the offense, not just from the blocking icon.

That, and Josh Freeman progressing, will go a long way toward pulling the team out of the NFL crapper.

There were lots of critics — Joe included — who were not doing cartwheels when Mark Dominik traded up last spring to draft quarterback Josh Freeman.

Pete Prisco, of CBSSports, had a national audience for his disgust.

If intangibles were able to win games alone, Freeman would be a Hall of Famer. Joe loves his attitude and his work ethic and his personality. This also seemed to have won over Prisco, who now believes Dominik got a steal in Freeman.

After watching Freeman start nine games last season, I really believe the Bucs have the right guy to turn their team around. Even though he didn’t exactly light it up, he showed me enough to think he can be special.

After talking to him this week, I’m convinced of it.

There are certain players you talk to that just seem to get it. They are fans of the game. They know the league. They know what they need to do to be a success, unlike a player like JaMarcus Russell, who only seemed to know what he had to do to increase his pants size.

There are a lot of positions on the Bucs that are a concern: running backs, wide receivers, defensive tackles and linebackers.

The starting quarterback doesn’t seem to be one of them.

There are few bigger fans of Ronde Barber than Joe. What’s not to like about the guy?

Last year, in the final stage of his professional career, many didn’t believe Barber could play in the horrid abortion known as the Jim Bates Experiment, thinking Barber is nothing more than a system cornerback.

Instead, Barber was pretty much a stud player, one of the few Bucs to have played well within the nasty Jim Bates Experiment.

Despite this, Vacation Man, of Stalinist BSPN, better known in most circles as Pat Yasinskas, answeres a question dealing with Barber and the Hall of Fame without showing Barber much love.. In short, if Yasinskas ever has a vote in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he likely won’t cast a ballot for Barber.

Nate in Palmer, Alaska, writes:  I do believe Ronde Barber one day he will be in the HOF. The only thing Ronde is lacking compared to a guy like Deion Sanders who is almost guaranteed the HOF is some height (4 inches)and a big mouth. Barber unfortunately had the luck of playing for a semi-sour Bucs squad for a lot of his years, a lack of playoffs and, National media coverage. I don’t believe he is 1st ballot HOF but I believe in looking at him as a player and person in the NFL, he has the HOF stats, he’s played hard, he’s a classy guy, and he is a positive representation of the NFL. Maybe that isn’t what gets a person to the HOF though.

PY:  All valid points. Ronde got some national exposure back when his twin brother, Tiki, still was playing. He also got plenty of attention when the Bucs were good. But the Bucs weren’t all that good when Barber first joined them and it took him a few seasons to make a real impact. He then went into a very productive stretch that forms the basis of his argument to be a Hall of Fame candidate. The problem I see there was the Bucs won only one championship and a lot of people view Barber as a system player, who benefited from playing Tampa Two in Monte Kiffin’s scheme with Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and John Lynch there to help him look good. I respect Barber’s durability, but 3-13 seasons with no interceptions aren’t the best way to put the final touches on your résumé.

In Joe’s eyes there are two locks from the Bucs who will make the Hall of Fame and one guy who likely will as well: Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp and John Lynch, respectively.

Joe believes Barber may get in, but it will be a while. While Barber has the stigma of being a system cornerback, can’t that also be said for a lot of players in the Hall of Fame? Wasn’t Joe Montana a system quarterback?  Wasn’t Lawrence Taylor a system linebacker?

Besides, Joe believes Barber proved last year in the heinous Jim Bates Experiment, in the twilight of his career no less, that he could have played in just about any defensive scheme.