Hundreds of young players are at rookie minicamps across the NFL hoping to catch their big break. The Bucs have invited 50 or so tryout players to Tampa through Sunday. These guys have their expenses paid by the Bucs and will try to standout during three practices. Phil Riley, III, out of Hofstra University, who stands a chiseled 6-3, 251 lbs., is trying to make the Bucs as a fullback and/or long snapper. He talked to Joe about his career and his first 24 hours with the Buccaneers.

Joe: So how did your first practice go for you?

Phil Riley: I was really excited. It was really a great day. It’s a beautiful place, man. I thank Doug williams and Coach Morris for giving me the opportunity to be down here. I was proud of my performance.

Joe: How did the Bucs find you? You’re a Hofstra guy, and so is Coach Morris. Was that the connection?

Riley: They contacted my agent for me to come down. That’s all I know. I never spoke to anyone personally and had no contact with them last year when I came out of school. Last year I was at rookie minicamp with the Vikings, and I had a tryout with the Bills. But nothing stuck.

Joe: So after you didn’t latch on with the Bills last year, what have you been doing?

Riley: Odd jobs, working with my dad in his business fixing up houses, working as an electrician’s helper, cutting grass, anything to make a couple of bucks. I’m really committed to the football thing right now. I workout at home [in Maryland] running consistently and working with a local high school quarterback and coach.

Joe: Here in Tampa, did you get an extensive playbook on Thursday night, and how hard were the Bucs coaches on the players Friday?

Riley: Coaches are realists. That’s for sure. They tell it to you like it is. We got a playbook last night. I had the experience with the Vikings to know what was coming. Here it’s about pushing you mentally as much or more than the physical. That mental side is so important. That’s football. The mental side of your game has to be there. [The Bucs] installed a lot of plays and we were out here running them [Friday], and then I’ll be studying at night.

Joe: What are your goals here?

Riley: My main goal is just to come down here to have fun. Coach Morris said to all the guys [Thursday night], ‘It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, and it’s all about having fun, taking it all in, working your hardest and being a professonal.’ He reminded us it’s not college football anymore and to carry ourselves like professionals around the building and you got to act like you’re Buccaneers until you hear otherwise.

Joe: What kind of player are you and did anything about your game stand out today? Did anyone else catch your eye?

Riley: There are so many talented players here at all positions. It is tough for anyone to standout. You have a lot of guys going 100 percent, and I was right there with them. I’m more of a blocker type. I can catch, too. The Bucs aren’t very deep at fullback, so there’s a real opportunity there. I’m just trying to play my best. I don’t care about first-team this or winning awards. I’ve always been like that. I just love playing football and I’m trying to make the most of this.

There are few people walking the face of the earth who would say publicly that Sabby the Goat was a good player last year.

If Sabby the Goat, the Bucs’ incumbent starting strong safety, wasn’t getting seared by various NFL quarterbacks, he was getting abused by anyone carrying the ball.

Don’t believe Joe? Well, consider this nugget unearthed by Aaron Schatz of FootballOutsiders.com. He Twittered last night about the results of his research documenting all broken tackles in the NFL last season.

No defensive player gave up more broken tackles than Sabby the Goat and it wasn’t even close who was No. 2.

Just finished final count of broken tackles from game charting. TB’s Sabby Piscitelli ends up with 19. No other player above 15.

This is a positively heinous piece of information and in Joe’s eyes is grounds for Sabby the Goat to begin going door-to-door service for the U.S. Census bureau rather than collecting an NFL check. This is beyond galling to Joe and should also be to any sober Bucs fan.

Now Joe is pretty sure veteran NFL players are forbidden to work out with the rookies this weekend at One Buc Palace, but by slim chance that they can, if Sabby the Goat had any sense of pride, he’d be on the practice fields of One Buc Palace this very moment.

Standing on the set of the NFL Network studios this evening, Warren Sapp shook his head in disgust and looked to the floor of the set after five seconds of watching Gerald McCoy run through a pass-rush dummy drill at rookie minicamp today. 

Shown to NFL Network viewers, the drill work was followed by a clip of McCoy telling reporters “Coach [Todd] Wash said ‘I had a good first day.’ By the time the vets get here I should be rolling.”

Sapp’s immediate reponse was one of disgust and eagerness to get hands-on with his new student. “I gotta get to Tampa. He’s stepping behind himself,” Sapp said.

At the end of the broadcast, Sapp’s cohorts on the NFL Network replayed the tape of McCoy’s drill work and playfully asked Sapp ,”What don’t you like?” Sapp responded by praising McCoy’s feet in one drill but just shook his head and didn’t comment again on the pass rush dummy drill.

Former Bucs defensive end Steve White, a JoeBucsFan.com analyst, explained what likely was eating up Sapp.

“When you clear a dummy you want to step through with your inside leg so that it’s past the dummy and you can continue on smoothly.  To do this at some point you have to take a crossover step, though. When a guy leaves his foot behind that means he never does the crossover step, and so he never gets that foot past the bag, which means that he isn’t likely to get past whomever is blocking him,” White said.

Joe sincerely hopes Sapp keeps his word and parks himself in Tampa for a few days.

Sapp told the Associated Press today that his work with McCoy and Price would be in the film room, not on the field.

“I can’t get out on the field with them. I can’t do it any more, I’m too old,” the 37-year-old Sapp said by telephone from Los Angeles, where he works for NFL Network.

“But I think I have somebody who might want to sit down and watch a little tape with me. I can show you and talk to you about it. … I’m not telling you how to do it. I’m just showing you something that worked.”

Joe super sincerely hopes Todd Wash is prepared to develop McCoy, the latest next Warren Sapp.

In this video, Bucs beat writer Stephen Holder, of the St. Pete Times shares his thoughts on the Bucs’ rookie minicamp this afternoon. He tabs rookie WR Mike Williams as someone who had a standout day.

Ironically, eye-RAH! Kaufman, NFL writer for the Tampa Tribune, reported that Williams struggled to hold on to the football.

Nothing like fresh controversy. 😉

If you’re a glass half-empty kind of guy, you might have listened to Raheem The Dream talk to Steve Duemig, of WDAE-AM, yesterday and been blown away by his comments about former practice squad running back Kareem Huggins.

If you’re an optimist, you would have walked away impressed that an NFL team could have been led consistently by a rookie who has barely sniffed the field.

Kareem Huggins, no doubt about it, he was absolutely the driving force of our football team in practice. Every day he touched the football he made our defense work harder …no matter what the call was, what the duty was, he was able to do it. And the old saying goes, ‘You’re driven from the bottom up.’

Joe never played in the NFL, so Joe can’t really speak to what makes winning leadership in the locker room and on the practice field.

Joe’s always been a fan of Huggins. Joe even interviewed his college coach last year and wrote a feature on him for a New Jersey newspaper. But Joe is stunned to learn just how big a role Huggins played on the 2009 Bucs.

What it all means for this team, Joe will leave that up to his readers.

It’s hard to guage how much, if at all, the Bucs value leadership.

They cut longtime locker room leader Derrick Brooks and purged many other veterans last year. And despite drafting two defensive tackles, they cut Chris Hovan this week, their most experienced defensive tackle and a proven leader. The Bucs seem destined and determined to become possibly the youngest team in the NFL at all costs.

But why?

Speaking to the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, yesterday, Raheem The Dream praised the effective leadership of Hovan without being prompted.

We started last year getting a guy like Roy Miller in here, getting him acclimated with the system. He was able to be groomed by a guy like Hovan, a guy like Hovan with toughness, a guy like what he did in practice, how he was able to push Hovan, how he was able to learn from Hovan in the classroom, and how he was able to grow from some of those guys.  But now it’s his show. And now with the two young guys that we’re bringing in here, it’s their show now. And they’ve got to drive us from the bottom up. And they’re going to have to drive us from where they come in. And they’re going to have to fill a role right away. And they look forward with it.

Joe’s excited to see Gerald McCoy and Brian Price take the field, but surely it would have been a wise, effective investment for them to have Hovan here to mentor them. Raheem The Dream all but spelled that out.

If Hovan was so beneficial to Roy Miller …

Now Team Glazer just told us “money will never be an issue” when it comes to building the Bucs. So Joe can’t figure out why a proven leader and a healthy 10-year veteran like Hovan is gone and 30-year-old Ryan Sims, whose career has been a disppointment, is still on the roster.

Surely, the $4 million due Hovan in 2010 couldn’t have any thing to do with that. Right, Team Glazer?

The State Attorney in Hillsborough County has closed the case against former Bucs linebacker strong safety Jermaine Phillips, who was charged with felony domestic battery by strangulation back in January and later had that charge reduced to a misdemeanor battery in March.

Phillips’ arrest came after an alleged incident with his wife at their Tampa home. 

Per court records obtained by JoeBucsFan.com, Phillips’ case was closed last week after he completed 10 court-approved classes taken through the local Salvation Army as part of a diversion program for domestic violence intervention.

Phillips, 31, played for the Bucs from 2002-2009 and is a free agent.

Joe was a big fan of Phillips and sincerely hopes he can get back to the NFL.

NFL player turned journalist Matt Bowen is feeling quite upbeat about what Josh Freeman and the Bucs can accomplish in 2010.

He’s not predicting the Bucs contend for a division crown, but he tells his NationalFootballPost.com readers that Bucs fans should be very excited.

With Benn and Williams, the Bucs now have two receivers who can match up physically against NFL DBs and who can both provide something different in the passing game.

Williams can get vertical and can go up, high point the ball and make plays down the field. From a size/speed impact, he could turn out to be one of the steals of the draft. In Benn, the former Illinois product, Tampa might have a player who can emulate what Anquan Boldin did for the Cardinals and is expected to do with the Ravens this season once he gets the ball in his hands. He is the type of player who can break tackles and pile up yards after the catch.

Both are major upgrades from the WRs that Freeman had to work with in ’09.

Joe’s all for the rampant optimism Bowen has for the team. It’s nice to see the Bucs getting some national love. But does Bowen really believe, as he states, that both rookie receivers are upgrades from Antonio Bryant?

Joe would be very happy if Arrelious Benn or Mike Williams turn out to be upgrades from Bryant in two years.

Joe just can’t place that high an expectation on a rookie.

Joe took a look at the list of 50 or so tryout players participating in the rookie minicamp that runs through Sunday at One Buc Palace, and one name jumped off the page at Joe.

That would be Hofstra. That’s where Raheem The Dream played 1-AA ball.

The head coach embraced the well liked Bucs practice squad running back and Hofstra alum Kareem Huggins, who was signed last offseason. Now the Bucs will take a look at fullback/tight end/long snapper Phil Riley III, who seems to be a workout warrior type at 6-3, 248 lbs.

Heck, the guy’s got his own Web site.

The Bucs have K2, why not Phil3?

In all seriousness, Joe’s just thinking that Riley’s got the eye of Raheem The Dream. He won’t go unnoticed, which could give him a leg up on the field — or get him packing quickly.

Joe has already written this: Joe believes the pick of Florida State linebacker Dekoda Watson just may be the Sammie Stroughter-like steal of the 2010 draft.

Florida State’s defense has largely had pathetic coaching since former linebackers/assistant head coach Kevin Steele left for Alabama after Watson’s freshman year. Longtime fixture at defensive coordinator, Mickey Andrews, had understandably lost the fire after his son’s suicide (the details were pretty spooky) and had to be coaxed out of retiring twice by FSU icon Bobby Bowden. Chucky the Chest Amato sucked.

So given that Watson hadn’t been coached up, despite his obvious talents, Joe believes Watson could be polished into a productive NFL player, especially on special teams.

Seems as though NFL.com’s Pat Kirwan is of the same mindset. Kirwan broke down the Bucs draft and singled out Watson as one to watch.

Tampa Bay —  After getting rid of both coordinators last year, the Bucs finally settled down and played decent football. Raheem Morris returned the defense to the Monte Kiffin package and went out in this draft and double downed on defensive tackles Gerald McCoy (first round) and Brian Price (second round). There will be some real quickness upfront with those two on board. Second-round WR Arrelious Benn is a fine blocker, as well as receiver, and he may be good enough to crack the lineup this year. Seventh-round LB Dekoda Watson will be a factor on special teams.

Bucs general manager turned rock star Mark Dominik has for months preached about last week’s draft. In four years it will be fair to grade the draft, though grading drafts hours after their completion is good fun.

If Watson does become a good player, it is moves like this late in the draft that can earn it a high grade.

Just a note from Joe to remind you to check back here through the day, as always.

Joe’s got some interesting stuff coming later, and Joe will have reports out of today’s rookie minicamp at One Buc Palace.

And NFL Network will give their take from Tampa later tonight, and Joe will bring that to you, as well.

No more Joe Barry at OTAs and minicamps this offseason.

Joe thought he’d give Bucs fans the offseason, post-draft schedule for the Bucs.

Minicamps
April 30-May 2 (rookies)
June 21-23

OTAs
May 17-19
June 1-3
June 7-10
June 14-17

A lot has been made in recent days of Seattle offensive tackle Walter Jones, who announced his retirement this week.

How many knew the future Hall of Famer came to the Seahawks thanks to the Bucs?

It was 1997. The Seahawks were jonesing for an offensive tackle. So they swung a trade with the Bucs, shipping the 12th overall pick and a third round pick, 66th overall, to the Bucs for Tampa Bay’s sixth overall pick which the Seahawks used to select Jones.

Those two picks the Bucs received in return turned out to be Warrick Dunn and Ronde Barber, two key elements in the rebirth of the Bucs.

While Jones helped lead the Seahawks to a Super Bowl some eight years later, and Dunn left the Bucs after Father Dungy was fired, it’s quite possible the Bucs wouldn’t have made it to the Super Bowl without Ronde Barber, thus not being able to win the Super Bowl.

In Joe’s eyes, the Bucs got the best of the deal: A Super Bowl title. 

Before getting into this post, Joe must mention that last week Woody Cummings, Bucs beat writer for the Tampa Tribune, quoted Gerald McCoy saying Warren Sapp would spend time working with him in Tampa.  Yet today Rick Stroud, aka Mad Twitterer, trumpets this same news in a story about McCoy, Sapp and Brian Price as if it’s a revelation in the St. Pete Times.

The Mad Twitterer talked to Sapp about the Bucs’ new defensive tackles, and Sapp didn’t have specifics on when he’ll be in town. But Sapp did offer some good takes on the challenges facing McCoy and second round pick Brian Price.

“The biggest transition will be the holding,” Sapp said. “In college I’d look at the referee and the flag would be dropped for holding. The first time I did that in NFL, I turned to the referee and said, ‘You didn’t see that hold?’ The ref looked at me and said, ‘Grow up.’ I said right then that it looks like I have to get this on my own. It’s a learning curve, that nobody, nobody can understand or appreciate. He’s going to have some fun and some sleepless nights. It goes with that position right there.

“We’re about to see how much does he really love it?” Sapp said. “You see his enthusiasm, but does that correlate to hours and hours in the office? When you want to go home to Oklahoma, maybe you should want to bring the family to Tampa. Does he take that mentality? Everything he needs is here. Disney is right up the road.”

Of course, Sapp’s talking about commitment.

Price and McCoy have an awful lot of work to do to even come close to being impact players in 2010. Joe has high hopes for them, just not this season.

If Sapp himself couldn’t impact the league or his team significantly in his first season, Joe can’t figure out why anyone should expect that of McCoy and Price.

Joe’s putting his big expecations in 2010 on guys like Aqib Talib, Tanard Jackson and Barrett Ruud to step up to near Pro Bowl levels, and the Bucs actually being able to move the chains on the ground.

Shortly after the close of the NFL Draft, the Bucs reached out to undrafted free agent James Ruffin, who was a star defensive end at Northern Iowa, a two-time defensive player of the year in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, and a two-time Division 1-AA All American (Yeah, Joe realizes they don’t call it 1-AA anymore).  He is now a Buccaneer and will join drafted playes and other rookie free agents at a three-day minicamp in Tampa that starts tomorrow. Ruffin will then return to Northern Iowa to graduate with a degree in construction managment on May 8. Joe talked to Ruffin this morning. Here’s what he had to say:

Joe: What should Bucs fans know about you as a football player?

James Ruffin: I think I’m a type of guy that’s going to come in and know that I’m an underdog with something to prove. I’m a leader and I give 100 percent all the time. And I can bring a lot to the team as far as that kind of effort and attitude.

Joe: What kind of pass rusher are you?

Ruffin: I can mix it up a little bit. I have an inside move and an outside move. I’m relentless rushing the passer. I really can get it going.

Joe: What’s your football story? How’d you get to this point in your career?

Ruffin: Getting to Northern Iowa and moving positions a couple of times was unique. I was told I would be fullback out of high school, then the first day at Northern Iowa they moved me to linebacker. They asked me to play as a freshman as a backup linebacker, but then I said I would redshirt because I didn’t want to do that. Then they asked me to be a defensive end. At first I didn’t like it because I never played defense before. I thought I would never get over 250 pounds, and I didn’t want to be one of the fat guys.  I didn’t like it. But I gained 35 pounds that first year and got up to 274 pounds with low body fat. And then I’ve been progressing every year and learning the position. I’ve always been a coachable kid.

Joe: How was the NFL Draft for you? What were your expectations?

Ruffin: I was told I was going to go sixth or seventh round. I was sitting around with my family. That was the hardest thing. Really hard.

Joe: Who told you to expect to be drafted?

Ruffin: It was a combination of coaches, scouts and agents. They said I could slip through but they didn’t think so.

Joe: How did the Buccaneers come into play?

Ruffin: The Bucs were the one team that I had never talked to, never talked to them personally. The Bucs came out of nowhere. I was talking to Kansas City, Jacksonville, Denver and Cincinatti. I think the fact that they drafted [defensive end] Erik Lorig in the seventh round and the coach [defensive line coach Todd Wash] was telling me that there could be a couple of spots open, that’s what made Tampa Bay more attractive to me and intriguing. It’s ideal to not have a big bunch of vets in front of me.

Joe: Do you know anyone on the Buccaneers? And have you gotten advice on how to approach rookie minicamp?

Ruffin: I don’t know anyone. My [agent] also represents a couple of the Bucs’ linebackers, but I’m not sure which ones. I’ve gotten all kinds of advice. ‘Don’t count your reps; make your reps count’ was something I heard. I’ll follow that.

Former Buccaneers defensive end Steve White (1996-2001) is a devoted student of the game. He’s even authored a coaching guide and coached defensive linemen at the University of South Florida. And after all those years breaking down film with former defensive line coach Rod Marinelli and the other architects and legends of the Bucs’ defense, White shares his knowledge with JoeBucsFan.com readers every week in his must-read Bull Rush column.

Yesterday, White served up a deep Xs and Os look at how the Bucs could successfully integrate their young defensive tackles.

Today, White offers up a bonus take in hopes the Bucs organization takes notice and considers this subtle change to its defensive line play.

I want to make a direct plea to whom it may concern over at One Buc Place.

When I got into the NFL almost every NFL team lined up their defensive end to the strong side in base in a 7-technique (outside foot splitting the tight ends stance) with their outside hand down.

I’m not quite sure who came up with it, but every team did it. And it was horrible. Not only did we still allow the tight end a free release on passing plays. We also, by alignment, made it easy for even mediocre tight ends to cave us inside on stretch running plays outside. To make matters worse, we were constantly losing our gap, which was the inside C-gap between the tight end and tackle, even though we were lined up there initially because with our outside hand down we ended up stepping outside while the tight end was stepping outside and bam, there goes a cutback lane.

But then one day in the offseason after my rookie year, the defensive ends and Coach Marinelli, our defensive line coach, decided that instead of doing what had always been done, we would start lining up head up on the tight end, most of the time with our inside hand down.

With that alignment, tight ends had to work to get around us before they could get down the field on a pass. It also made it a mano-e-mano matchup with the tight end on blocking plays. And we expected to, and usually did, dominate that matchup. But maybe most important of all with our inside hand down even though we were head up by alignment we would always be taking our first step towards our gap, which makes it easier to keep the tight end from cutting us off.

Needless to say the new alignment worked, and all of a sudden a bunch of other teams in the NFL were doing the same thing. Nowadays you will be hard pressed to find a team still employing a 7-technique on the strong side of base defense in a 4-3.

That point leads me to this one.

There are some formations that cause the current Bucs linebackers to remove themselves from the tackle to tackle “box.” In that situation, or even sometimes just for the hell of it, defensive coordinators may ask the nosetackle to play what is commonly referred to as a “G” technique, where they are head up to just shaded inside on the backside guard but still have the -gap inside of them as their gap responsibility.

The thought process generally is that if the nosetackle can get push on the guard while maintaining their A-gap, they will make it hard for a running back that starts strong to make a downhill cut all the way back to the B-gap, which is open initially because of the linebacker being out of the box. Instead, in theory, the running back will have to keep running strong or, if they try to cut back, they have to go laterally or even give ground, which gives the removed linebacker and the rest of the defense a few split seconds to rally to the ball.

The problem is that forever and a day, for whatever reason, the nosetackle has been taught to put his outside hand down in this alignment. This creates the same problem for the nosetackle that it created for us when the guard blocks inside. Either the nosetackle has to come off cautiously so as not to lose their gap, in which case they end up getting pushed off the line of scrimmage, or they come off hard and the guard gets inside them easily. Either way it gives the running back an immediate downhill cut back lane.

So my suggestions/recommendation/plea is that we experiment with having our nosetackles play a “G” technique with their inside hand down. This allows them to still get off the ball hard while maintaining their gap. An added plus is it also helps them get into a pass rush should that occasion come up.

If you try it in pads and it doesn’t work, then you can always go back and scrap it. If you try it and it DOES work, however, you will have helped your young nosetackles immensely. And I bet that soon enough other teams will follow your lead.

Just a thought.

The Bucs could have used Chris Hovan's experience and leadership. But his salary may have prevented his return.

With Mark Dominik now an NFL rock star, with some of the top names in sports broadcasting now begging him for airtime, Bucs fans seem to be equally giddy over Dominik and his selections in last week’s NFL draft.

The way people are raving over Dominik, he may be the most popular Bucs employee since Chucky hoisted the Lombardi Trophy aloft in victory.

It seems, however, that eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune isn’t totally drinking the Dominik Kool-Aid. Kaufman seems to be of the mind that because the Bucs are so full of youth with a limited number of veterans, that it spells doom for the coming season, so Kaufman posted on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed.

Going all young doesn’t work in the NFL. Never has. You need some veterans to show the kids the way. The 3-13 Buccaneers need leaders.

Veterans are one thing. Stiffs are another. Sure, Chris Hovan may have been able to help out rookies Gerald McCoy and Brian Price, but if Hovan was going to be a part-time player (at best), it was hard to justify his hefty salary.

Blocking icon Michael Clayton is a veteran. Does anyone want him tutoring the young receivers?

While Kaufman is on the mark as usual, a veteran has to be both cost effective and productive on the field. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Sitting at a breakfast table at the NFL winter meetings with Raheem The Dream and/or schmoozing with Mark Dominik in a hallway doesn’t mean you’ll learn much.  

Bucs rookie cornerback Myron Lewis was quite a student and had an interesting pre-test ritual

Now Joe couldn’t resist making a big deal when Gerald McCoy told the world his favorite movie is Little Mermaid, a Disney classic and a booger-nosed toddler favorite to this day.

So, to be fair, Joe can’t just blow off learning that Bucs third-round pick Myron Lewis listens to Barry Manilow in order to loosen up and get focused.

Also, educating his readers to this bizarre fact gives Joe a chance to put out there that Lewis graduated Vanderbilt in 3 1/2 years and was an honor roll student. The dude’s a smart guy.

What does it take to be academically successful at Vanderbilt?
[Lewis:] Knowing how to manage school work and leisure time. Also, avoiding procrastination is key to being academically sound.

How do you manage your demanding schedule?
I am a guy who usually goes with the flow, but at this level scheduling and writing down important times and dates are very imperative in order to get things done.

What is your ritual before taking a test?
I usually read over my notes before class and listen to a little Barry Manilow!!!

Joe’s got no problem with Little Mermaid or Barry Manilow. (the “Showgirl” reference in the headline is a popular Manilow lyric.)

And the new-era Bucs defensive players in touch with their feminine side is all good with Joe, as long as they play like savages on Sundays.

Yeah, Joe’s a Rays fan.

And with the Rays jumping out to a 16-5 record with a sound team loaded with pitching, it’s a pretty good bet that the Rays will be back in the playoffs or at least playing very meaningful games in September and October.

Back in 2008, Joe was in the press box on Mike Alstott Night when the Rays were in the playoffs and the Buccaneers still had plenty of seats available for a Sunday Night Football game honoring perhaps the most popular Bucs player in history.

Joe remembers looking around at the empty seats and being flabbergasted that the then 4-2 Bucs were struggling to sell tickets. Especially considering that fresh in Joe’s mind was the absolute sea of New York Giants fans at the Bucs’ last playoff game nine months earlier.

That was enough evidence for Joe that the Bucs were in a popularity freefall, which has now culminated in Team Glazer admitting to looming blackouts in 2010.

Given the still-painful economy, Joe can’t help but wonder how ugly it could get for the Bucs as early as September, if  the team isn’t winning and the Rays are buzzing toward a division crown.

There’s only so much money to go around nowadays, and Joe knows quite a few middle class Bucs fans who would rather save their cash for a Rays playoff ticket then go out to the C.I.T.S. to watch a losing football team.

Of course, football always comes first for Joe, but just how many hardcore fans are there to stand behind a rebuilding team in a rough economy?

If the Bucs can’t win early and Rays keep humming along, we’re all going to find out.

Bucs general manager Mark Dominik has truly turned into a rock star since, by all accounts (on paper), he had one of the best drafts in the NFL last week.

There doesn’t seem to be a decent or respectable radio show, both locally and nationally, that Dominik hasn’t appeaed on since last week’s draft.

Wednesday, Dominik decided to walk into the lion’s den, joining Adam Schein and Rich Gannon, co-hosts of “The Blitz” heard exclusively on Sirius NFL Radio.

Gannon is a Chucky disciple and intimate and is not overly friendly towards the Bucs, partially because the Bucs not only beat him and his Raiders in the Super Bowl, but that Derrick Brooks basically ended his career. But Gannon at least tries to be objective.

Schein may have been the most vocal critic of Dominik and the Bucs over the past year, using loud versions of either “I don’t think they know what the hell they are doing,” or “I don’t know what the hell is going on down there.”

To be blunt, the Bucs did little to dispute Schein’s statements in 2009.

At one point, Schein suggested the Bucs were one of the worst organizations in the NFL and openly guffawed at Dominik’s personnel moves in choosing wide receivers.

So it was more than interesting to hear Dominik choose, of all shows, to join Schein and Gannon. Joe snickered when Schein — in person, a truly kind fellow — introduced Dominik as “a friend of the radio program.”

Here are some of Dominik’s nuggets:

On Brian Price and Gerald McCoy:

“We stayed with our board. We took who we thought was the best player available. We brought him in and talked to him in Tampa about the possibility of picking him if he was still there at the 35th pick. We asked him what he wanted to play and he was on board with us about playing [different positions alongside Gerald McCoy].

“We are happy to have Brian Price. People on the east coast don’t know much about him but people on the west coast do. 

“McCoy is a fantastic kid. You can understand how he can turn it on and be the face of the franchise. He can plug right into this defense right away. We believe [production on the defense will go up]. That’s why we went back to Price. The way McCoy plays, he will get others to produce around him.

“Price has great leverage and great use of his hands. He can go full throttle and create disruption. That is what we look for, anything to collapse the pocket. With his leverage, he can play nose tackle. Now we have two legitimate inside pass rushers.”

 On Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams:

“Both have size and that’s what I believe in. In the west coast offense, I’m, a big believer in getting out of breaks and getting open. Ben can get yards after contact. The same thing with Mike Williams. He has big play ability. He can attack the football and dominate games. Both should have a great opportunity not just to play, but to start.

“[Williams] is competitive. He made mistakes and paid the price. He is coming in with a new clean slate. It made a lot of sense for us in the fourth round to bring him to Tampa.”

On Josh Freeman:

“I expect him to deliver the ball quicker. It was good experience for him to win two of the final three games to end the season. He’s excited to play with the two young guys and Sammie Stroughter and Reggie Brown.”

[Joe’s note:  No mention of blocking icon Michael Clayton. Hhhhmmmm?]

“[Lack of experience at receiver] is not as concerning. It’s a position that a player can jump into and produce. Look at Percy Harvin. [Rookies] can be productive. Stroughter certainly was for us as a seventh rounder.

“We will just look for Freeman to have more accuracy and limit turnovers. He had some great moments last year but also had five interceptions against Carolina. He put us in position to win in six of nine games and that was important. He just needs talent around him.”

On Alex Van Pelt and Greg Olson:

“Alex Van Pelt is a great hire. We have four young guys at quarterback, partially because we have Alex Van Pelt. I am looking forward to the quarterbacks taking advantage of Van Pelt.

“Olson will have his own offense. He will try to get this offense in the right direction.”

On Raheem the Dream:

“Very few coaches call plays from a defensive perspective. But Raheem dialed in and the players responded with the same crew. I think he does a great job with the players. They respond to him. I think — myself included — he has learned.”

On perceived money restrictions for the Bucs.

“We are able to do whatever we want in Tampa. [Budgets are] never a concern for this organization. We will build through the draft and add as we need to.”

On Myron Lewis:

“I’m really excited about his ball skills. He can play with his back to the ball and turn around and make a play. I like his feet and his movement skills.’