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The leader of the New Schiano Order joined ESPN Radio to talk NFL playoffs, Bucs and Chip Kelly on Thursday.

Schiano sounded like the stress of the season was off his back and he was upbeat and even talked about how much fun he had without being prompted. Schiano also kept it real. He agreed the Bucs could have had a better record if they got it done in some tight games, but also acknowledged the flip side. “It could have been worse,” Schiano said.

You can enjoy the entire interview below.

The culture has changed at One Buc Palace the past 11 months or so, but even Bucs coach Greg Schiano admits it’s not a finished product.

Kellen Winslow didn’t want to tow the line. Some players wanted a buddy for a coach, not someone who is intolerant of sloppy play, turnovers and overall lousy attitudes.

This, however, doesn’t mean Schiano is a tyrant. That’s what Pat Yasinskas of ESPN tries to explain in an NFC South chat.

Kevin (Tallahasseee): Greg Schiano seems to be a reincarnation of Ray Perkins…Perkins was also known to run his teams ragged and the teams fade throughout the season.

PY: Yeah, but it’s not quite the same. Perkins was doing three-a-day practices in training camp. The new rules don’t allow Schiano to do anything close to that.

This is over the top and trying to compare apples and oranges. Perkins was a glorified drill sargent and wannabe Bear Bryant. He worked his players to death, sort of put them through a Junction Boys-type training camp each summer, a stunt that even Bryant admitted was a massive mistake when he was coaching Texas A&M.

As Yasinskas points out, the Bucs, like every other NFL team, are limited to what they can do. Only X-amount of practices in the regular season can be in pads and there is a ceiling to how long practices can be.

If the Bucs were wiped out from practices under Schiano, that tells Joe practices under the previous regime were little more than recess sessions.

So early this week, Bucs coach Greg Schiano made no bones about how the Bucs want to give embattled quarterback Josh Freeman competition. Schiano was less than forthcoming how the Bucs would acquire said quarterback.

Joe knows the Bucs really do want competition for Freeman, and if that means drafting a guy in the middle rounds of the draft, so be it.

That’s why a little nugget on Twitter from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune was so interesting when he typed that Bucs fans should watch and become familiar with Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones in tonight’s Cotton Bowl because the Bucs are kicking the tires on possibly drafting the four-year Sooners starter.

Joe doesn’t know what to make of this. Jones, once thought to be a high draft pick, has seen his stock steadily decline the past two seasons.

Joe does know that Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik greatly respects the opinion of Sooners coach Bob Stoops. After all, it was largely based on Stoops’ high recommendation that Dominik drafted defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

Also, Dominik is fond of Big XII and Big Ten players, having used high draft picks on players from those conferences in Freeman, GMC, Adrian Clayborn, Roy Miller and Lavonte David.

Joe has no clue if the Bucs really would draft Jones in a middle round. But it doesn’t surprise Joe that Dominik might be watching Jones with a sharp eye.

Bucs outgoing QB coach Ron Turner opened up this evening

The Bucs’ 2012 quarterbacks coach, Ron Turner, has exited the New Schiano Order for Florida International University. But Turner was back talking Bucs this evening with Tom Krasniqi on WDAE-AM 620.

Turner was adamant that Josh Freeman has all the makings of a franchise quarterback, and Turner explained that a Freeman offseason of studying the Bucs offense, versus learning it, will make all the difference in his performance.

“A second year in the system will definitely help him as far as consistency goes,” Turner said.

Turner praised Freeman’s work ethic and said Freeman “wanted to be coached” and “wanted to learn.”

Interestingly, Turner said Freeman’s game-film grades were better than many might think. And Turner specifically mentioned the Rams-Bucs game when Freeman had four interceptions, as an example.

In all, Turner was very positive about all things Bucs and very matter of fact about Freeman’s struggles, saying all quarterbacks have rough stretches.

Joe was geeked when the Bucs drafted running back Michael Smith out of Utah State. A guy gifted with blazing speed, Joe was of the mind he could be the Bucs’ version of Darren Sproles of the Saints, a dangerous scatback out of the backfield and a lethal kick returner.

But this never happened as Smith was only activated on opening day. It became such a joke to Joe, he renamed the weekly Bucs inactive list as the “Michael Smith List.”

That may change next season, as Woody Cummings explained in a Bucs TBO Q&A.

Q: What is the plan with Michael Smith? He’s never activated. Will he back up Doug Martin at some point? He’s a real burner.

— Alan, Zephyrhills

A: The Bucs definitely have a plan for Michael Smith and you’ll probably see it come to fruition next year. A lot depends on whether they retain LeGarrette Blount or not, but the Bucs see what you see and believe Smith has a lot of value. He was inactive for the most part this year for a couple of reasons. First, the Bucs had a greater need for bigger bodies on special teams in other spots than return man and there was also a desire to keep Smith practice squad eligible for next year. Smith is definitely part of the future here.

— Woody Cummings

Color Joe a little skeptical. Now the Bucs will say that Smith just got caught up in a numbers game because coach Greg Schiano wanted so many linebackers and defensive linemen on the bench ready to go.

That does not explain, however, that when the Bucs were playing musical chairs with return men early in the season, rather than activating Smith, the Bucs went out and signed Roscoe Parrish.

How many bodies did the Bucs go through at kick return? Yet the Bucs had a guy on their own roster they could have used, but Smith sat rotting the season away after the season opener as an inactive.

To Joe, it was borderline criminal.

So the Bucs are saying they have plays for Smith in 2013. In short, Joe will believe it when he sees it.

Mike Sullivan can ramble on a topic with the best of them, so Joe’s not too freaked out by this report. However, it does have an ominous vibe to it.

Former Giants beat writer turned USA Today NFL writer Mike Garafolo is Twittering that Sullivan had an extra long interview for the Bears head coaching job earlier this week.

@MikeGarafolo – Sounds like Mike Sullivan and the Bears had a very good meeting the other day. Went six hours, about twice as long as expected.

Joe’s not surprised that would be an engaging candidate. Flashing Super Bowl rings and presenting his years as an Army Ranger and familiarity with a tight ship under Tom Coughlin and Greg Schiano likey would peak the interest of any owner in need of a head coach.

It would be hard for Josh Freeman to overthrow this guy

Bucs beat writer Woody Cummings, of The Tampa Tribune, took to the wee-hours airwaves this morning on 98.7 FM and reminded Bucs fans that their favorite team “is still all about No. 5.”

Cummings, speaking to The Fabulous Sports Babe show, acknowledged the Bucs’ deficiencies on defense but insists tight end is a huge priority and the Bucs might just be tempted by star Notre Dame tight end Tyler Eifert in the first round of April’s NFL draft.

Eifert, at 6-6, 250 lbs., seems like a can’t-miss talent, is hands down the best tight end in the draft, and a typical Notre Dame character guy. Various draft gurus now peg him as a middle to late first-round pick.

Obviously, his performance in Monday’s national title game and at the NFL combine will be game-changers for his draft stock.

Joe would rather see the Bucs go defense, but Joe could stomach the Bucs scoring a beastly, versatile pass catcher like Eifert, especially if they can’t get Dallas Clark to return, or score a decent tight end in free agency.

In a state of his beloved Bucs address yesterday, former Bucs quarterback Shaun King fired a brutal dagger at rockstar general manager Mark Dominik.

King didn’t mince words.

“I don’t think Mark Dominik’s very good at his job,” King said on WDAE-AM 620.

One of only three quarterbacks to lead Tampa Bay to the NFC Championship game, King said the Bucs’ biggest weaknesses are stains on Dominik’s hands. Investing in Carl Nicks versus a premier cornerback in free agency last year is something King has been talking about since March, and King believes the chickens have come home to roost.

“Very rarely in free agency do you have elite cornerbacks that are on the market. And not getting Cortland Finnegan and Brandon Carr is going to be a problem that is going to continually to rear its head as we move forward,” King said.

“What are the two most deficient areas that we have? Secondary, and most people would say pass rush. We spent seven picks in defensive linemen since Mark Dominik has been our GM. Four of those seven picks were in the first and second round.

“We’ve spent seven picks on defensive backs since Mark Dominik has been GM, yet we go into this offseason with those as the most glaring issues on this team in a free agent period where, and I know some may laugh at this, Aqib Talib is probably be the top cornerback on the market. Brent Grimes will be available but he’s coming off of a major injury. There’s not the market in free agency that was there last year that we didn’t take advantage of.”

King went on to say that Dominik has “not done a good job in accumulating and developing players.”

Joe can’t buy in to all of King’s logic. The Bucs have a pile of talent on the defensive line, including Tampa-developed Michael Bennett from the NFL scrap heap and resurrected Roy Miller from his Raheem-era haze. And the Bucs should get a lot more next year from Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers. All of those guys, including homegrown Pro Bowler Gerald McCoy, should have their best football ahead of them. Plus, Dominik pickup Daniel Te’o-Nesheim (four sacks) proved to be a legitimate young backup, who should truly shine in spot duty next season.

Joe does place some blame on the Bucs secondary on Greg Schiano buying into Aqib Talib’s I’m-a-new-man baloney. Schiano was conned into counting on a guy that was unreliable. Surely Talib would have been gone last winter if Schiano had given the nod.

Also, Schiano could have moved Ronde Barber to cornerback and played Ahmad Black at free safety, something that would have left more talent on the field, an alleged goal of Schiano to get the “best 11” out there.

As for Dominik, yes, he left the Bucs’ cupboard bare in the secondary last season, and the Bucs paid dearly. Overall, Eric Wright was a bust. But Dominik has plenty of money to repair when the free agency bell rings, and a guy like Grimes and perhaps durable veteran CB Quentin Jammer, plus a cornerback in the draft, could make everyone quickly forget the 2012 secondary.

One positive to Josh Freeman and the Bucs winning the final game of the season, though it could cost them the chance to draft the Baron of Berlin, Florida State stud defensive end Bjoern Werner, is that for a brief moment it has softened the cries for Freeman’s head.

Freeman frustrates Bucs fans and a loss would have done nothing but fuel the flames of anti-Freeman chatter on sports radio through the entire offseason.

Freeman will enter his fifth season as a Bucs starter in 2013, and there are a number of Bucs fans tired of his inconsistency and patches of frightening inaccuracy, despite the fantasy football-like numbers he put up last year. He’s 24-32 over his career as a starter and has been upstaged by a crop of up-and-coming quarterbacks, evidenced by the playoffs which begin tomorrow. Consider a handful of starting quarterbacks this weekend:

Cincinnati: Andy Dalton, second year in NFL.
Minnesota: Christian Ponder, second year in NFL.
Indianapolis: Andrew Luck, rookie.
San Francisco: Colin Kaepernick, second year in NFL.
Seattle: Russell Wilson, rookie.
Washington: Robert Griffin III, rookie.

So half the starting quarterbacks in the NFL playoffs are either second-year guys or rookies. Throw in the fact that Mark Sanchez, a guy who was drafted just ahead of Freeman, has already played in two AFC championship games, it is easy to see why Bucs fans are losing patience with Freeman when they see him one-hop passes to running backs in the flat, miss wide open receivers terribly in the end zone and occasionally force a pass into triple coverage.

Does this mean Freeman is or will be a bad quarterback? No. Just that Bucs fans see the aforementioned quarterbacks lead their teams to the postseason, and wonder why the former Bucs first round pick cannot play up to the same level as rookies or others with half the NFL time logged than Freeman has.

So Joe can understand why Bucs fans have lost trust in the Bucs signal-caller.

For weeks, it appeared Bucs consigliere Butch Davis was heading for Florida International University to fill the void left by the firing of Mario Cristobal. Instead, it was another member of the Bucs organization.

Per Joe’s good friend Brett McMurphy of ESPN, FIU has actually hired Bucs QB coach Ron Turner, not Davis, so McMurphy Twittered.

@McMurphyESPN: Tampa Bay Bucs QB coach & former Illinois coach Ron Turner will be named FIU’s coach, sources told @ESPN

For Joe this is not a big loss. Joe was never a fan on Turner, the brother of Norv Turner. Aside from the immortal Kurt Kittner, name a quarterback that Turner developed. Rex Grossman? Please.

Turner was bad with the Bears, mediocre at Illinois and upon his return to the Bears, even worse.

Losing P.J. Fleck was bad. The potential of losing Mike Sullivan is awful. Losing Turner, no biggie.

Joe wishes Turner success.

“Toes on the couch for you, big fella.”

Three months ago Shaun King was pounding the proverbial drum saying Josh Freeman was in need of a sports psychologist to help him with his confidence and his troubling disappearing acts in Bucs games.

King had said Drew Brees personally told him what a great help a sports shrink had been to him, and King, one of three quarterbacks to lead the Bucs to the NFC Championship game, believed counseling could do wonders for Freeman. King repeated the take today on WDAE-AM 620.

Interestingly, Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon, a genius motivator and people manager (though what he does with a lineup card is very debatable), recently did an interview on 98.7 FM and talked about how the Rays are one of only two teams in Major League Baseball that use sports psychologists regulary and extensively. And Maddon went on to say it’s ludicrous that professional teams and players still attach a stigma to the use of psychologists.

This got Joe thinking even more about Freeman getting mental help. So Joe did some research and found many intriguing quotes from Rays superstar Evan Longoria on his sports psychologist, via MLB.com.

“What he’s done for me and for my baseball career, there’s no measure,” Longoria said. “He’s allowed me to have another tool — and not a physical tool — that’s really allowed me to slow the game down. I can think about certain things I might not be able to think about if I didn’t have that skill set from him.”

Joe learned a lot about sports psychology years ago. It was a random coincidence that in the late 1980’s, Joe’s grandmother was nursing home roomates with the mother of New York Mets team shrink Allan Lans. Joe was a Mets fan at the time and became very interested in Lans’ work, which was rather groundbreaking in that era.

Assuming Freeman is not using a sports psychologist and the Bucs haven’t yet ordered him to do so, Joe agrees with King that Freeman should pursue that avenue. No. 5, aka “Good Josh” and “Bad Josh, seems like a prime candidate to benefit. How could it hurt?

Joe had never seen Ronde Barber as angry as he was after the gutless loss to the Eagles.

It is that time of the year when just about everyone with a keyboard does a postmortem on the Bucs. Patrick Southern of CBSSports.com, has chimed in with what he considers the Bucs highs and lows of the season.

Interestingly, the low came in the gutless performance against the Eagles before the 2002 Super Bowl champs no less.

Letting one slip away in Week 14 vs. the Eagles: At 6-6 entering a home game against the hapless Eagles, Tampa Bay still felt like it was in playoff contention. Those chances all but ended with a difficult-to-handle 23-21 loss to Philadelphia at Raymond James Stadium. The Bucs made rookie QB Nick Foles look like a Pro Bowler. He threw for 381 yards and led a comeback from an 11-point deficit in the final seven minutes, capping it off with a game-winning 1-yard TD pass to Jeremy Maclin as time expired.

This game was the definition of futility, from Josh Freeman’s horrific first half to the pass defense, which couldn’t have stopped Clearwater Central Catholic most of the season.

The Giants ending was brutal. The Dallass game was awful. The loss to the Dixie Chicks, Broncos and (first) Saints game were all frustrating. The second Saints game was no less than embarrassing.  But none were as gut-punching as losing to an awful team with a lame duck coach and a third round pick of a rookie quarterback.

Not too long ago, left tackle Donald Penn smothered opposing right defensive ends.

Penn still does a number on opposing ends, but former Bucs defensive lineman Steve White believes Penn can once again be a star if he does one hard-to-do thing:

Stop eating, so White Twittered last week.

@sgw94: Donald Penn has to lose weight next year. He is still decent, but if he ever wants to be dominant again he has to put the damn fork down. … He can’t bend now and that means better DL are going to get him. Doesn’t have to be that way. Shouldn’t be that way

Now Joe knows Penn has a clause in his contract that forces him to weigh in and rewards/punishes him for the results. It sure seems Penn gets bloated as a season progresses and has his best games early in a season.

Penn is not getting any younger. If, as White says — and who would know better than a former NFL defensive linemen? — all Penn needs to do is lose some weight, maybe he could do that and extend his career a few years and collect more cash?

Bucs backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky took a whopping zero percent of practice reps with the first team offense this season. Orlovsky said it himself in a recent interview.

That’s not a sign of a regime that really believes in the benefits of competition at every position.

On Monday, Greg Schiano said he craves competition across his roster, and he didn’t rule it out at quarterback, buy Joe’s not fully buying that at QB. The evidence just isn’t there.

First, Joe, Schiano, and everyone else who understands sports, knows that competition only works if it’s legitimate. Otherwise, it’s not really competition, merely a preschool game of pretend. Also, established, driven and successful professionals don’t need competition to perform.

Schiano and just about everyone associated with the Bucs have talked about the extraordinary work ethic, dedication and hunger of Freeman, so it’s fair to say Freeman doesn’t need competition to push him to work harder. Also, Schiano repeats over and over the benefits of repetition, whether it’s learning plays or the details of the new Bucs culture. Schiano even went on a rant Monday about how repeating every process, from installation of plays to offseason practice routines, is absolutely critical to the Bucs’ success in 2013 and beyond.

So why exactly would a detail guy like Schiano, who treasures every one of his 1440 daily minutes, want to take precious practice time from Freeman so somebody can allegedly compete with him? And what quarterback would the Bucs invest in that has the ability to truly be competition for Freeman?

And why would this QB want to land in Tampa when there are so many teams desperate for a starting quarterback?

Then there’s the unrealistic matter of Schiano or rockstar general manager Mark Dominik having to tell Team Glazer that Freeman will earn $8.5 million in 2013, “but we need to invest in real competition for him.”

Sure, the Bucs could blow a coveted mid-round draft pick on a quarterback in 2013. That’s unlikely. But regardless, that quarterback would not represent authentic competition for Freeman next season.

The most Joe can envision the Bucs doing at quarterback this offseason is bringing in a third veteran quarterback for Freeman to learn from and to possibly oust Orlovsky. Nothing else is realistic given the marketplace.

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It’s a new year: 2013. The first season of the Greg Schiano Administration is over. Time to start working on a new season.

Thus, the first mock draft Joe is linking to in this new calendar year is here, from Joe’s good friend Jason McIntyre, the brainchild and mastermind of TheBigLead.com. It has Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik selecting cornerback Jonathan Banks of Mississippi State with the No. 13 pick.

13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7-9 – Johnthan Banks, CB, Mississippi State. The worst secondary in football needs help. Trading Talib created a hole. This isn’t a strong CB class, so options could be thin later. It is a deep pass-rushing draft (Tampa had just 27 sacks last season, tied for 3rd worst in the NFL), so that need to be filled later.

What is interesting in this mock draft is that it has the Baron of Berlin, defensive end Bjoern Werner, going 24th to the Colts.

Let Joe state this for the record right now and feel free to mock him come April. Unless Werner (who is expected to enter the draft) completely flops at the glorified indoor track practice NFL combine and blows all of his individual workouts, there is flat out no way Werner gets past the Bucs.

Look at Dominik’s draft history: He covets defensive linemen (remember sackless Kyle Moore?). There is not one starter on the Bucs defensive line that does not have a question mark hanging over his head. Michael Bennett and Roy Miller are free agents, Gerald McCoy has only had one injury-free season, Adrian Clayborn is coming back from major knee surgery, Da’Quan Bowers, though effective, cannot stay healthy, not to mention that degenerative knee issue of his.

If a stud pass rusher, like Werner, is still sipping water at Radio City Music Hall waiting for his name to be called, believe Joe, there will be a bratwurst and käse party at One Buc Palace highlighted by oompah music replete with scantily-clad cheerleaders bearing large, overflowing steins of Warsteiner bier.

It didn’t take more than but a few seconds before Bucs coach Greg Schiano said in his end-of-season press conference that he was going to begin a thorough and rigorous exam of his organization and if changes need to be made, they will.

This will come as good news to one Bucs fan from Australia who tried to lobby “The Professor,” John Clayton of ESPN, that Schiano needs to be jettisoned by Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.

Q: I’m a big Bucs fan, and I was interested to see where you see our team? While I can understand no mention of Greg Schiano in your hot seat article, I found this season to be frustrating. The defense has been terrible.

Adam in Melbourne, Australia

A: The finish to the season has been bad for Schiano and the Bucs. They looked like a tired team. They were close to becoming the first team in NFL history to allow 300 passing yards per game. But change the coach? Not happening. He signed a five-year contract, and any coach who gets a contract that long gets to at least the fourth year. Schiano inherited a defense that lacked talent. He’s got to build that back in the draft. His first mission was to establish discipline, and that was accomplished. The long contract keeps him off the hot seat.

Let Joe correct Mr. Australia. The defense was not terrible. The run defense was dynamite, the best in the NFL. The pass defense was horrific and Joe has gone on record that a head should roll as a result (only when a team finishes 15-1 can it excuse a miserable pass defense like the Bucs had this year).

This will be an important offseason for Greg Schiano. Joe is convinced there will be a second player purge as Schiano identifies who really is a Buccaneer Man after a season full of both game and practice tape.

Just a hunch, but Joe believes the Bucs could have a very, very different look on defense. The defensive line has two free agents. Quincy Black is anything but a sure thing to return from injury this fall. The Bucs very well could have three new starters in the secondary if Ronde Barber retires.

And all of those decisions will have Schiano’s fingerprints all over them.

Joe remembers chatting with Ronde Barber early this season about new lingo in the New Schiano Order.

Essentially, Barber said don’t dare call it a “punt” or “punt return” team, it’s now known as the “punt block” team around One Buc Palace. Barber went on to explain that Greg Schiano fancies himself as the greatest punt block magician around.

Impressively, the Bucs officially led the NFL this season with three punt blocks — two by Dakoda Watson and one by Aqib Talib. Aside from the Texans’ two blocks, every other NFL team had one or zero punt blocks. Then throw in the fact that Watson choked away a clear blocked punt by clobbering the Cowboys’ kicker, and Ronde Barber had a deflected punt against the Chiefs, and the Bucs were even more impressive.

At his season-closing news conference Monday, Schiano himself even pridefully dropped a stray one-liner about how allegedly blocking punts is for college level and lower. “You’re not supposed to be able to do that in the National Football League,” Schiano said.

For Joe, the punt block attitude and approach represents real evidence of positive culture change.

The Eagles found out the hard way with Nnamdi Asomugha that a name doesn’t mean a player will fit in a specific defensive scheme.

Joe is reminded of some wild Friday (and/or Saturday) nights in his younger days (and not so younger days) when thinking of the Bucs’ pass defense because of the rancid taste in his mouth that quickly develops.

The Bucs’ rank pass defense ranked last in the league and came a Matty Ryan first down completion away from setting a wretched 93-year NFL record for worst pass defense in the annals of the sport. This is no less than unacceptable and all but demands a head to be rolled.

To say the Bucs secondary needs an upgrade is to suggest that a rusted out 50-year old sedan in a junkyard merely needs an oil change.

So eye-RAH Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune took a gander at the Bucs secondary, and what may be expected in the offseason.

The Bucs allowed the most passing yards in the NFL, despite a top-ranked rushing defense that often turned opposing attacks one-dimensional. Veteran S Ronde Barber may not return for a 17th season and CB Eric Wright’s future is uncertain, leaving an inexperienced group of defensive backs struggling to get off the field in a division crammed with skilled quarterbacks.

Since the Bucs have cleared salary cap space recently by reworking Vincent Jackson and Carl Nicks’ pacts, they now have money to play with in free agency.

Joe knows many Bucs fans have had a Nnam-gasm for years (!), lusting for cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, given his hefty salary and low rung play, may very well be cut. Two years ago he left the Raiders and Bucs fans nearly crashed Joe’s servers they panted for him so hard. Asomugha went to the Eagles and become no less than a bust, a highly expensive bust at that. Besides, Asomugha doesn’t seem to be a Buccaneer Man in that he’s not much of a physical corner, which Joe knows Greg Schiano wants.

Then there is free agent Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, another member of the less-than solid Eagles secondary. Would he be an upgrade for the Bucs? Well, there likely is a corpse or two that could be an upgrade. But again, can DRC be a Buccaneer Man? Joe wonders.

Just because people recognize a name doesn’t mean said person is a good fit. Think round peg, square hole.

Joe would be shocked if Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik didn’t go shopping in the coming months for secondary help, especially if Ronde Barber retires.