One of the most candid and respected Buccaneers in recent years was Earnest Graham. And over the years Graham delivered his most open interviews with J.P. Peterson, of 1010 AM.

The two co-hosted The Earnest Graham Show in 2009 & 2010, (there may have been earlier years) and it was there that Graham had no problem saying he thought 30 percent of the NFL was using HGH, a story that went national back in ’09.

Yesterday evening brought another one of those candid Graham chat sessions with Peterson.

Peterson asked Graham about who deserved more of the blame for the 2011 Bucs season, players or coaches. Graham prefaced his answer by saying he response would be no reflection of his love for anyone, but “a lot of that burden will lay on the coaches.”

Graham said the unraveling of the Bucs was “not because veteran guys didn’t speak up” or that there weren’t enough veterans. Graham didn’t elaborate with a lot of detail but said coaches didn’t back up those veterans looking to right the ship.

Interestingly, Peterson mentioned to Graham that the Bucs collapsed in London after he was hurt during that game, and Graham responded citing the loss of Gerald McCoy “as a young leader” as a major turning point in the team’s collapse.

Joe found that intriguing considering Ronde Barber previously pegged the season-ending injury to McCoy as one that doomed the defense. So it seems that McCoy was an impact leader on multiple fronts, per Barber and Graham.

Graham said he doesn’t know Greg Schiano at all, but regarding Schiano’s attention to details, Graham said that was absent when the Bucs needed it last season.

“We didn’t have them down the stretch when we got tired,” Graham said.

For Joe, Graham asssigning more blame on 2011 coaches than players — not absolving players — is significant because Joe knows Graham woudn’t hesitate to call it the other way if that’s what he believed. Barber, for instance, said the Bucs got Raheem fired. Joe’s not calling Barber a liar, just pointing out the perspective of two respected players.

Joe hopes the coaches were at the root of the Bucs’ collapse from a 4-2 record. That would bring more hope for a big rebound under the New Schiano Order.

Joe will deliver more from Graham’s interview through the weekend.

Yes, the Bucs, specifically, rock star general manager Mark Dominik, made a big splash in free agency in the offseason, luring in wide receiver Vincent Jackson, offensive guard Carl Nicks and cornerback Eric Wright.

Of course, Joe is excited to learn just how Jackson can help what was a woeful Bucs offense last season. It seems many have high expectations for Jackson, and not just the Bucs.

ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas is counting down the top 25 players in the division and he has Jackson as the NFC South’s No. 16 ranking.

Vincent Jackson, wide receiver, Tampa Bay

What he did in 2011: Playing for the San Diego Chargers, Jackson caught 60 passes for 1,106 yards and nine touchdowns. His most impressive statistic might have been that he averaged 18.6 yards per catch. The Chargers wanted to keep Jackson, but they had some salary-cap limitations. The Buccaneers didn’t and they broke the bank to get him to Tampa Bay.

Why he’s No. 16 in 2012: Jackson instantly gives quarterback Josh Freeman a much-needed true No. 1 wide receiver. He’s a proven commodity and he allows Mike Williams and Arrelious Benn to step into supporting roles. Jackson’s a big target (6-foot-5) and he has shown the ability to get open downfield and to break tackles after shorter catches. He and Freeman seem like a perfect fit. New coach Greg Schiano has said his offense will run the ball a lot and take some shots downfield. There aren’t many receivers more worth taking deep shots to than Jackson.

Already Jackson is making an impact with the Bucs and the team has yet to put pads on. Mike Williams has told Joe about how Jackson is helping him watch film and not just what to look for, but develop a hunger for watching additional tape on opponents.

That’s the kind of work ethic the Bucs sorely need, not the ‘tude of a certain highly-paid, pampered tight end crying about how he can’t joke around at practice.

Live at a football camp in the Atlanta area this week, on the heels of his community work with Greg Schiano, Aqib Talib joined 790 AM in Atlanta and talked about the New Schiano Order versus the Raheem Morris era and his feelings about the dismissed felony assault case against him in Texas.

Talib doesn’t do many radio interviews, and Joe found him extremely relaxed and a man that knows the Bucs were all out of order in 2011.

On Greg Schiano, Talib said his militant approach is fine for a young team and corrects the problems of the Raheem era, when things were” too loose,” Talib said.

“Man, he’s suited,” Talib said of Schiano. “He is a former college coach, but we have such a young team, you know what I’m sayin’. We are fresh out of college ourselves. So we’re kind of used to that, kind of used to that kind of format of practice, that kind of, you know, discipline kind of thing. That’s kind of where we just came from. I feel like Ronde, man. We did need it. It kind of got a little loose last year, where I’m saying, where people kinda, it got a little too loose around the building, you know. So Schiano came in and definitely brought that order back to the building.”

Talib also said the dismissed assualt charges against him were an attempted money grab by the complainant. And Talib went on to further contrast the old Bucs regime to the new one. “The biggest difference is just, I think, the attendance, man,” Talib said. “We have probably like 97, 98 percent attendance since April 4, since we started our offseason program.”

It sounds to Joe like Talib — and other Bucs — are not just accepting the New Schiano Order, they’re appreciating it coming off the mayhem that engulfed the team in 2011.

Joe thinks that’s a significant distinction and a great sign. Few, if any, remaining Bucs will be thinking the grass is greener with a different type of coach. That should seriously speed up the critical buy-in factor needed for the Bucs to be competitive.

A couple of weeks ago, Joe brought you highlights and a link to the lengthy return of Raheem Morris to a media podium, this time as secondary coach for the Redskins.

Now CSNWashington.com is offering a video snippet of Raheem’s chatter in a short feature on the ex-head coach. You can hear Raheem talk about not having an ego — followed immediately talking about how he’s one of the best in the world at his job.

But most distressing and telling to Joe, is the footage of Raheem on the sideline during last year’s home beating at the hands of the Panthers. The Bucs were in the midst of their heinous losing streak, the Panthers had scored a touchdown on their opening possession, and there’s a Buccaneer standing directly behind Raheem laughing his head off.

The Bucs trailed that entire game from the Panthers’ opening-drive TD. That laughter behind Raheem was quite telling.

"I will be around for another year, won't I Mr. Glazer?"

The one thing a new coach in the NFL has is a honeymoon. Aside from a couple of malcontents more interested in left-handed cigarettes (allegedly), spinning discs pool-side in Las Vegas and turning practices into alcohol-free happy hours, most Buccaneers seem to be buying in to the New Schiano Order.

It was new Bucs coach Greg Schiano who has told his team, in so many words, the quicker you buy in the quicker wins will come.

So it was a bit surprising that when Eric Edholm of SportingNews.com, by way of Yahoo! Sports, listed all the NFL coaches in terms of job security and has Schiano only listed at No. 12.

12. Greg Schiano, Buccaneers
2011 record: 0-0
All-time record: 0-0
Seasons as head coach: None

The Buccaneers don’t intend to hit the reset button again, not after taking steps backwards as a franchise under Raheem Morris and fans starting to pine for Jon Gruden. The choice of Schiano wasn’t universally lauded, and the recent history of college coaches (Jim Harbaugh notwithstanding) has been a bit murky. But he’ll have every opportunity to set his plan in motion this season and build with an eye toward the future. There are expectations that QB Josh Freeman could regain his mojo, perhaps soon, which speeds up the process a bit for Schiano. But it would be stunning if GM Mark Dominik did an end around and let go of his new coach after a single season.

What Schiano needs to do to keep his job in 2013: Not look like most college coaches who stumble in this league. If Freeman improves at all, getting back closer to what he did in 2010, it’s a great start. Winning 3-4 games should just about ensure Schiano is back, although Freeman playing better almost certainly would result in more victories than that. Unless, that is, the defense incredibly found a way to get worse …

Unless something goes horribly awry, Joe just cannot fathom Schiano not lasting more than a year. He’s not a cradle-robbing, home-wrecking fraud like Bobby Petrino, though Joe has heard a respected voice in the NFL compare Schiano to Petrino.

Joe simply can’t imagine Schiano not being the Bucs coach in 2013. That’s why Joe is surprised by the No. 12 ranking.

The way the Bucs ended last season with a grotesque 10-game losing streak, Joe just wanted to throw up, and still does when recalling the absolute and total pathetic play of the defense last year.

It seems former Cowboys, Dolphins and Miami Hurricanes coach Jimmy Johnson’s stomach turned as well.

In a recent trip to Gulfport, Johnson spoke with Joe’s treasured media partners, WTSP-TV Channel 10, and strongly applauded the Bucs cleaning house after the stench of the 2011 campaign, reports good guy Dave Wirth.

“You need to change the atmosphere,” said Johnson. “And when you’ve lost football games, you need to change the culture. And that’s what I think Greg Schiano has done.”

Johnson added that moving from college football to the NFL, is a huge jump and a completely different coaching style. Johnson did the same thing, when he switched from the University of Miami, to the Dallas Cowboys. He said, hiring coaches with NFL experience, which Schiano has done, is a very smart move.

Johnson should know about college coaches jumping to the NFL. He too was a celebrated college coach with no NFL experience. Two Super Bowl rings later, Johnson proved he knew a thing or two about the transition from college football to the pros.

In this WTSP video, Johnson expands on how difficult the transition is, and how he believes Schiano can pull it off.

In what’s clearly an effort to satisfy TV networks paying gobs of cash for NFL games, the league officially bumped all 4:15 p.m. starts to 4:25 p.m. today.

The move will significantly cut down the overlap of early and late games. ProFootballTalk.com has all the data, if you want every last detail.

Joe can already hear the celebrations of sports bar owners nationwide, as they celebrate squeezing one more cold beverage out of customers hanging for the extra 10 minutes.

Two Bucs games are affected: the opener against the Panthers, and later in September for Raheem Bowl I, when the Redskins come to Tampa.

Greg Schiano wants what he calls Buccaneer Men.

In fact, he won’t tolerate men who aren’t Buccaneer Men, guys who exemplify caring, work ethic and accountability.

So it stands out that Aqib Talib got a powerful endorsement from the leader of the New Schiano Order, which can be seen in this new video on the Bucs’ official website. “That’s the kind of men we want in our program,” so Schiano said of Talib’s activity in the community alongside Schiano during the players’ vacation Tuesday.

Scroll down the page to see more about where this video was shot. Joe touched on this hours ago, but now the video drives it home.

Talib and Schiano. Who saw that marriage coming five months ago?

As many of Joe’s regular readers know, Joe is a two-headed monster: one grew up in the cornfields of southern Illinois, the other in the wilds of Sopranos country in New Jersey.

For the Joe of the cornfields, when he grew up, college football (at the time) was little more than a bore. All that damned wishbone offense. Joe was allergic to the wishbone as in high school, as a safety, that offense simply buffaloed him.

With the exception watching Notre Dame game replays early on Sunday mornings (Lindsey Nelson, anyone?) featuring Jerome Heavens, Joe’s Saturday afternoons were limited to watching Nebraska hero Johnny Rodgers and Oklahoma icon Billy Sims slice through helpless defenses and seeing wildman Ohio State chieftain Woody Hayes deck a sideline cameraman.

More importantly to Joe, those cloudy, gray, cold Saturday afternoons in the fall brought NFL Films into Joe’s home, which was must-see TV for Joe. He’d watch NFL Films’ Game of the Week and other NFL Films highlight shows before he’d watch the boring Big Ten (and some people think the Big Ten is boring now, ha!).

This was long before the NFL Network, long before BSPN, hell, before cable. So for millions like Joe, NFL Films was the weekly window into the NFL. It was where Joe first heard (and saw) the likes of Jim Plunkett, Rocky Blier, Mick Tinglehoff, Doug Plank and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson.

It seems Warren McCarty of the NationalFootballPost.com was enamoured with NFL Films  from his Texas outpost as Joe was. It was there, McCarty writes, that he fell in love with the ultimate workhorse running back, James Wilder of the Bucs.

McKay realized that after a dismal 2-14 campaign in 1983, he needed to ride the best player on his roster. To say that Wilder was the focal point of the offense might be an understatement…he was the offense. Wilder ran for 1,544 yards that year on an amazing 407 carries. That was a single-season NFL record, which has only been surpassed twice (Larry Johnson now holds the record with his 416 carries in KC in 2006). On September 30, 1984 he carried the ball 43 times against the Packers, which is the 2nd most carries in a single game in NFL history.

Okay, so the Bucs fed Wilder the ball a lot, you saw him a few times on the Sunday pre-game shows and liked their unis, but they went 6-10 that year and went on to stink for another decade. Big deal. Golf clap, right? Wrong.

In 1984, Wilder also led the Bucs in receiving with 85 catches. That’s not a type-o. He had 85 catches to go with those 407 carries. 492 times the Buccaneers put the ball in Wilder’s hands, hoping for something positive, and the end result was 2,229 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns. 45% of the Bucs offensive plays ended up in his hands. That’s a lot of collisions, and a lot of pounding. No other player in the history of the NFL has touched the ball more in one season than James Wilder did that year.

One can only wonder exactly what Wilder would have done on a decent team with the overall talent he had.

While no NFL coach with a conscience will ever feed a running back that many times again, Wilder, in many respects, is the type of running backs teams are still seeking.

“Coach told me that he was going to come by [Pepin] and get a tour and learn more about the school and I was in town just working out,” said Talib. “So he asked if I wanted to come along. I definitely wanted to come along to see a different learning environment, something I had never seen before, something I didn’t know existed, really.”

It’s a nice story and Joe suggests you click and read it above.

Perhaps Talib really has his toes on the line and has overhauled his life? And Joe wonders how that might translate positively on the field.

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Leave it to a former offensive lineman to call for the Bucs to pound the rock relentlessly and thoroughly play to the strength of its O-line.

Ex-Bucs guard Ian Beckles drilled home that point this week during the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, explaining that the Bucs had a strong line last year but didn’t put enough faith in them, and this year the line is even better and the running backs might be as well. (Beckles is not one to believe in a rookie, Doug Martin, until he proves himself.)

“They didn’t let the offensive line lead last year; We averaged 4+ yards a carry last year and didn’t run the ball nearly enough,” Beckles said. “Hopefully they’ll let the offensive line lead now. We should have the players to get it done.”

In fact, the Bucs averaged 4.2 yards per carry in 2011, tied with three other teams for 15th best in the NFL.

Hell, if the Bucs dropped the damn Benn’d around play, which clearly hurt their average, they might have ticked up a notch to 4.3 yards a carry and finished tied for 12th with the Ravens, Lions and Chargers.

Joe’s all in favor of the O-line leading and Greg Schiano resurrecting the undefeated 1972 Dolphins’ offensive philosophy, with two 1,000-yard backs — in a 14 game season — and homerun shots downfield. It certainly would play to the talent core of the team, and keep the defense off the field, a defense that right now makes Joe tremble.

Now Joe and just about every Bucs fan has noticed Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has been active in the offseason picking up free agents.

But lost in the glitz and the accolades of landing high profile players like Carl Nicks and Vincent Jackson, if one is to believe Khaled Elsayed of ProFootballFocus.com, Dominik’s signing of lesser known interior defensive linemen will have as much or maybe more of an impact as Jackson and Nicks.

Elsayed decided to put interior defensive linemen from last year under the microscope, and two of the defensive tackles who graded out the best for pass pressure under Elsayed’s study were picked up are now Buccaneers: Amobi Okoye and Wallace Gilberry.

Per Elsayed, Okoye was sixth in the NFL for logging plays on pass rushing snaps and Gilberry was rated at No. 6 for getting heat on the quarterback. (Two spots lower than Gilberry is former Bucs defensive tackle Facestomper Haynesworth.)

Now there’s also a cautionary tale amid this study. Fourth-year Bucs defender Roy Miller was graded as the fourth-worst defensive tackle in the NFL in 2011 for getting after the quarterback.

Joe believes Miller has scant time to prove himself in training camp. The way Dominik loaded up on defensive tackles, that’s not a sign of security for Miller, who in three seasons has done little to establish himself as a solid NFL defensive tackle.

Update: The luxury bus is staying for the postgame concert on Saturday. We’ve had many sellouts this season, so don’t wait too long.

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If Brian Price can put heat on more quarterbacks as he did Matty Ice, the Bucs could develop into a fearsome defensive front.

The folks in Bristol, looking to fill air time in the downtime of the NFL just a month before training camps open, are mining the NFL for what it calls “hidden treasures.”

So ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas picked up the baton and points to the Bucs defensive line as a treasure, albeit, hidden.

Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, the third overall draft pick in 2010, has been slowed by injuries his first two seasons. But he did show some promise when healthy. The new coaching staff believes McCoy can be a dominant player and cornerstone of this defense. But the obvious key is he needs to stay healthy. If he does, he ideally will line up next to fellow third-year pro Brian Price, who also has dealt with some injury issues. But the Bucs went out and got Amobi Okoye and Gary Gibson in the offseason and the hope is to use them in a rotation that can help keep McCoy and Price fresh.

If McCoy and Price finally can blossom, that should provide a tremendous boost for second-year defensive end Adrian Clayborn. He recorded 7.5 sacks as a rookie without much around him. The Bucs believe Clayborn can hit double digits in sacks. The line suffered a big blow when Da’Quan Bowers tore his Achilles tendon in the offseason. At best, Bowers could return around midseason. At worst, he’ll miss the entire season. But this still has a chance to be a decent defensive line because Michael Bennett can start opposite Clayborn.

Well, Joe believes Yasinskas may be on to something, but perhaps a year too early.

Yes, GMC must stay healthy. Yes, Price has to somehow bounce back from an injury that would put most people in a wheelchair, or at least crutches.

The Bucs defensive line could be a treasure at full strength. And Joe firmly believes Clayborn will be a stud for years to come.

But until GMC, Price and Bowers can stay on the field, Joe doubts that the promise of the Bucs defensive line will be met.

Joe is still trying to dry out from the monsoon that the trollop known as Tropical Storm Debbie dumped on the area. It was so bad, as many know, Bayshore Blvd. in Tampa became Bayshore River. But this didn’t stop Captain Fear from taking advantage of what was a bad situation.

(Hat tip Tiffany Jimenez! Yes, THAT Tiffany Jimenez.)

In a move clearly designed to start the New Schiano Order on the right foot and end the community stain of TV blackouts of home Bucs games, Team Glazer has announced it is selling home-opener tickets early — starting Friday — plus opening-day concessions will be half price and some free parking will be available for that game.

One can only hope this means Joe’s Blackout Tour will not have to resurrect for its third season.

Fans attending the game will be treated to a commemorative Ronde Barber gym sack, while also receiving 50% off all concessions (excluding alcohol) in both General and Club levels, and being offered free parking in select lots.

“As we usher in a new Buccaneer era that kicks off in September, we are looking forward to celebrating Ronde Barber’s 200th straight start,” said Buccaneers Co-Chairman Bryan Glazer. “Ronde has made us all proud during his 15 seasons with the team, and this next milestone is yet another along the road that we expect will lead to Canton. Our fans have a lot to look forward to this season, and we hope this promotion helps give everyone the chance to both celebrate a Bucs great and join the fight.”

While Joe would hardly wager on the game selling out, one can legitmately hope that this move, plus premier free agents in house, plus a new regime, plus Cam Newton in the building will get the job done.

Trying to remember the Bucs’ 2011 season, including the grotesque 10-game losing streak, it reminds Joe of the fateful night he experimented with peppermint schnapps.

So Joe can understand how new Bucs coach Greg Schiano’s stomach has turned several times over, especially watching so many turnovers.

With this in mind, Joe and other members of the pen and mic club at One Buc Palace over the past several weeks were witness to how taking care of the ball has been a paramount focus of the New Schiano Order.

It has been such a focus that eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune explained how ball security is so important to right the Bucs ship.

“For everyone who touches the ball, we give specific coaching points about ball security being paramount,’’ said new running backs coach Earnest Byner. “It is consistently emphasized and coached. The bottom line is we can’t score if we don’t have the football.’‘

The three teams with the fewest turnovers—San Francisco, Green Bay and New England—went a combined 41-7 last season. The clubs with the most giveaways—Tampa Bay, Philadelphia and Washington—were a collective 17-31.

“More games are lost than won in this league,’’ Byner said. “That’s because people are giving away opportunities, shooting themselves in the foot.’‘

This can be easily corrected, Joe believes.

First, Josh Freeman had an unthinkable 22-interception season. Say, cutting that in half — not unlikely — would be a big boost right there.

And to see all of the Bucs running backs biting the football in preseason practice, Joe wouldn’t be shocked if the Bucs force more turnovers this season than times they cough up the ball.

In what Joe hopes sends a resounding message to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about the validity of the recently dropped felony assault case against Aqib Talib, the Dallas County District Attorney dismissed the felony assault with a deadly weapon charge today against Okolo Talib, Aqib’s mom.

Okolo Talib also had a charge against her of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, based on a previous conviction, which also was dismissed today.

Aqib Talib and his mother’s nearly simultaneous arrests had stemmed from the same March 2011 incident outside Talib’s sister’s home in Garland, Texas.

This is very curious considering that both Aqib Talib and his mother told police, per police affidavits, that Okolo Talib fired a gun multiple times during the March 2011 domestic disturbance that led to their arrests. In that affidavit linked above, there also are reports of witness statements that Okolo Talib fired at Shannon Billings, the sex offender who was involved with Talib’s sister and was reportedly fleeing from the scene.

Not that Joe wishes ill on Talib’s mom, but something really stinks here in the dropping of both charges. And the stench isn’t coming from the Talibs.

Again, Joe hopes Roger Goodell takes note and passes on holding Talib accountable for the events surrounding the March 2011 shooting.

There are many questions coming into Bucs training camp in just a hair over a month. But one question does not surround the No. 1 receiver.

That question was stamped in red ink when Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik signed Vincent Jackson as the new toy in quarterback Josh Freeman’s playpen.

Joe is pretty sure, barring injury, that Mike Williams is the No. 2 receiver. In fact, Joe would be shocked if he isn’t to hear Freeman talk.

But new wide receiver Tiquan Underwood seemed to open the door to the belief that the No. 2 receiver position is not yet set in stone, as he told Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times.

“Once you get past (Jackson), it’s just a bunch of guys trying to make a name for themselves in this league. That just brings about competition. Competition is always good, because that makes the cream rise to the top.”

Underwood added that he likes the fact that the Bucs are “a younger team. And in this league, it’s a quarterback-driven league. Josh (Freeman) came out the same year as me and is going into his fourth year. And I just like the direction Coach is taking and the attitude he has with this team. It’s all about hard work and I want to be a part of that.”

This is an interesting quote, but again, Joe will believe it when he sees it, if Williams is not the No. 2 receiver.

After that, it’s a jumble between Arrelious Benn, Preston Parker, Sammie Stroughter, Dezmon Briscoe and Underwood at this early date.

If Joe had to bet, it would be that Underwood makes the team before Briscoe, who missed much of the Bucs offseason practices due to a variety of things that Joe doesn’t want to get into as he’s not a reality TV kinda guy.

Just a hunch, neither is Greg Schiano.