To help fill the NFL’s unofficial dead period until training camp begins, Pat Yasinskas of ESPN is unveiling his top 25 players in the NFC South. Recently, he released his No. 22 player, which happens to be Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.

What he did in 2011: After a tremendous first full season as a starter in 2010, Freeman appeared to take a major step back last season. He threw for 16 touchdowns and 22 interceptions. At times, he appeared to be nervous. At other times, he appeared to be forcing things. Freeman was bad, but so was his supporting cast and his coaching.

Why he’s No. 22 in 2012: The front office and the coaching staff firmly believe Freeman can be a franchise quarterback. They think the physical tools, work ethic and intangibles all are there. The front office already has done its part, signing free-agent Vincent Jackson to be the No. 1 wide receiver, drafting Doug Martin and planning to use him as an all-purpose running back and adding All-Pro guard Carl Nicks to an offensive line that looks like it has a chance to be very good. Freeman’s learning a new offense with coordinator Mike Sullivan, but it’s an offense that’s supposed to put him in a position to succeed. Freeman didn’t really have a chance last year because so much was going wrong around him. This year, there are no excuses. It’s time to find out what Freeman truly can do.

That’s just it. Which Freeman should Bucs fans expect to see? Is it the Freeman who had the sick touchdown-to-interception ratio of 25-to-6 in 2010, or the Freeman who threw a ghastly 22 picks last season?

Sure, he has new toys to play with and Bucs rock star general manger rid Freeman of a cancer that was the root of many of his interceptions. B But transforming from a bad quarterback to a good quarterback isn’t that simple.

The thing that concerns Joe is that Freeman is now on his third offensive coordinator in four years. Ask Jason Campbell and Alex Smith how a revolving door of offensive coordinators messes with the development of quarterbacks.

Looking around the NFL, Joe sees that a chunk of teams have released training camp dates and practices open to fans. This has Joe fired up, as an announcement from the Bucs must be coming soon.  

Joe’s been lucky enough to watch spring practices under the New Schiano Order, and Joe’s excited for fans to get their shot, especially those that braved the swelter of training camp under Raheem Morris. It’ll be interesting to hear fans’ persepective of the contrast.

Now Joe was concerned that Greg Schiano might not be a big fan of opening practices to fans and/or that he might be interested in getting out of Tampa for future training camps, but then Joe saw that Schiano’s mentor and Patriots chief Bill Belicheat has open practices at New England’s facilities. Therefore, Joe doesn’t expect Schiano and the Bucs to make significant changes to their camp activities.

Hopefully, for old time’s sake, Schiano will at least bark out one “toes one the line” for K2’s memory the Bucs faithful.

It’s Sunday. It’s gospel music. It’s Da’Quan Bowers singing Sail On Superstar!

The Bucs’ second-year defensive end with a healing Achilles spends a lot of time on Twitter sharing his love of music and football. This month Bowers has directed fans to his music, and updated his rehab to get back on the football field. Just yesterday, Bowers Twittered out links to some of his college highlights writing, “I’m determined to dominate like this again.”

Joe’s of the mind that the Bucs should put him on the shelf for the season and let him come back 100 percent in 2013. But Joe likes Bowers’ spirit. Speaking of spirit, here’s Bowers singing a song he co-wrote: Sail On Superstar. 

Definitely click on through to learn more and/or shop online at Ed Morse Brandon Auto Mall. Joe bought his pre-owned Ford at Ed Morse and had a fantastic experience. Not a peep of trouble with the vehicle in 16 months. You’ll be amazed by the selection, price and service at Ed Morse.

When it comes to late-June and July, Joe mines the interwebs for Bucs news and information far more than usual. That’s because it is the unofficial NFL downtime until training camp kicks off.

So Joe was browsing the website of the football geeks ProFootballFocus.com and came across a headline that made Joe wonder if he slipped something a bit stronger than cream in his coffee.

Michael Bennett a superstar? Well, author Nathan Jahnke didn’t exactly go that far but he does classify the Bucs veteran defensive end as a “secret superstar.”

Bennett is a perfect example of why we grade players in addition to keeping track of various other statistics. He finished tied with Leger Douzable for the 10th-highest Run Stop Percentage for 4-3 defensive ends at 8.6%. While that hints at his talent, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Bennett does an excellent job at pushing the man blocking him back and disrupting the play so the running back has to alter his path. This gives his teammates the opportunity to make the play and get the glory. Among 4-3 defensive ends over the course of the season, only Jason Pierre-Paul and Terrell Suggs had better run defense ratings than Bennett.

In 2010, Bennett managed just one sack and 16 hurries in his 263 pass rushes. The Buccaneers draft picks showed they were looking to upgrade their pass rushing, but they may not have expected Bennett to also be one of the solutions to the problem. In 2011 he increased his pass rushing snaps to 336, but also increased his sack total to four, his hit total to six and his hurries to 28. The teams overall sack numbers dropped in 2011 fro the previous season, but that was because the blitzing linebackers couldn’t get to the quarterback nearly as often as they should have.

Late in the season, Bennett missed two games with a groin injury, and also showed up on the injury report with a toe injury. That didn’t slow him at all, with two sacks, a hit, and six pressures in the Buccaneers’ last three games. His improved pass rushing can allow Bennett to be a three-down player rather than just an excellent run stopper.

If there was one coach Joe hated to see leave last year when Raheem Morris was jettisoned after a grotesque 10-game losing streak to end the season, it was the dismissal of defensive line coach Keith Millard.

Every defensive lineman Joe has spoken to revered Millard. Joe wonders if part of Bennett’s success last year was as a result of working with Millard?

If Bennett — who will get loads of playing time with the injury to Da’Quan Bowers — can continue to improve, that will suggest to Joe he is indeed a secret superstar.

So it goes for older running backs, especially those that are banged up; the NFL rudely kicks them to the curb and routinely seems disinterested in what they have to offer.

Earnest Graham, 32, falls into that boat but says he’s healthy now after his Achilles tear in London last season, so he told the Fort Myers News-Press. Though Graham is a man without a team. 

“I’m spending a lot of time with my family,” Graham said. “If something opens up in the NFL, I’ll consider it.”

A ruptured Achilles tendon injury shortened Graham’s season in 2011. He played in just seven games, starting two at fullback. He finished with 206 yards on 37 carries (5.6 yards per carry) and caught 26 passes for 163 yards.

“I feel fine,” Graham said of his health. “I’m running around well. If training camp started today, I’d be able to do it.”

Graham said he would be open to playing for a team other than Tampa Bay. Although he has not met new coach Greg Schiano, Graham said he could envision playing again for the Buccaneers, perhaps as a midseason signee should any of the team’s backs suffer injuries.

One would think Graham wouldn’t fit the mold of the cast aside NFL running back, given how versatile Graham is. He plays special teams, fullback, catches the ball well, can fill in on any down, and he’s got the A+ work ethic. Teamless Cadillac Williams, 30, for example, doesn’t have nearly the same skillset.

Joe suspects Graham will get a few phone calls at some point, if his agent is actively burning up the phone lines.

For Joe, it is far too early to take a stab at how many games the Bucs might win this season. Look, if Josh Freeman goes down in training camp or in a preseason game, the Bucs are in a world of hurt.

But that hasn’t stopped “The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN, from taking a stab at the Bucs roster come January, and he believes the Bucs will win six games.

Pat Yasinskas of ESPN decided to take a page from Clayton and look in his crystal ball for a 2012 Bucs record. He comes up with a different mark.

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS: Clayton has the Bucs going 6-10. That would be a two-win improvement over last season, which ended with 10 consecutive losses. But I think the Bucs have their eye on something better than 6-10, and this team is capable of more.

The cupboard isn’t bare here. The Bucs have stockpiled some nice young talent in recent drafts. Those players haven’t completely proven themselves yet, but players such as quarterback Josh Freeman, defensive tackle Gerald McCoy and defensive end Adrian Clayborn can prosper under the guidance of new coach Greg Schiano. The Bucs also gave themselves an infusion of veteran talent by signing receiver Vincent Jackson, guard Carl Nicks and cornerback Eric Wright, which should bring veteran leadership that was lacking.

More or less? I think the Bucs have a chance to finish closer to 8-8.

Joe would be shocked if the Bucs duplicate last year’s horrid win total of a mere four games. How much more? Joe isn’t sure. Again, it’s June.

It just seems bizarre to think with all of the additions and Freeman almost having to improve on his nasty 22-interception season that the Bucs would still lose 12 games.

Talk about a pay-per-view Joe would fork over good money to see. It seems Warren Sapp is ready to get into a bare-knuckles street brawl with Jeremy Shockey.

Now Sapp is good with Shockey in the aftermath of Sapp fingering Shockey as the Saints Bountygate snitch, but if Shockey ain’t good with Sapp, well, No. 99 will throw down, so Sapp told sports radio 98.5 in Boston, via Deadspin.com. Here’s an excerpt:

On if Shockey is OK with him:
“The two times I’ve seen him I haven’t had a problem with him, but if he does we can go out in the grass and get it over with. … I don’t have a problem with getting my knuckles a little scarred up.”

On reporting the information from his source:
“It isn’t something that I’m running from or hiding from or anything like that. It is what it is. You’ve got a source that gives you information, you’re gonna go with it. It’s simple, because I’m not a reporter. My boss made that clear to me. Got it. Check. You won’t have to worry about it again. Some things you don’t share, some things you do.”

The whole Shockey-snitch thing with Sapp cracks Joe up. Joe gets that the NFL Network doesn’t want Sapp “reporting” anymore, but Joe thinks that’s a bit of a joke. Sapp’s got a load of sources around the league and certainly he should be able to tap those and run any information he gets by the NFL Network producers.

And Joe really does hope Sapp and Shockey settle any score — if there is one — in a steel cage match on pay-per-view. Sapp certainly could use the money, and Joe could use a great laugh from the weigh-in shenanigans.

One of the freshest breaths of air for Joe in the New Schiano Order is the drafting of first round pick Doug Martin.

The few times Joe has had a chance to talk to Muscle Hamster, he’s really a cool guy. Always wears a smile on his face, not unlike Hines Ward. Dude just loves football, and Joe supposes given his less than towering height, Martin loves to prove people wrong about how smaller players can’t play football.

Bradenton Herald columnist Alan Dell isn’t yet buying Martin as the next Ray Rice, however. Dell points to Muscle Hamster’s high school recruiting and Boise State’s soft schedule as caution flags for Bucs fans’ expectations for Martin.

Among the 32 first-round picks in this year’s NFL draft, Martin was the lowest-rated player coming out of high school by Phil Steele’s magazine, which is commonly known as the most accurate college football prognostication publication in the country.

Martin was rated the 279th best running back by Steele and one of just three first-round picks in 2012 who was not rated among the top 100 at their positions during their senior year of high school.

The others are defensive lineman Shea McClain (also from Boise State) and Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden, who at 28 years old is an anomaly.

While Dell has a point about Boise State’s schedule, there is little a school can do about its conference. A school has to be invited to join a conference; it can’t pick or choose and there is no logical reason a big-time conference would want Boise State.

In its non-conference schedule, Boise State always played a top-notch opponent. And when the Broncos played Georgia at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in 2011, a virtual home game for the Bulldogs, Muscle Hamster fared well against a team that if memory serves Joe later played in the SEC Championship game.

Oh, and Boise State beat Georgia 35-21.

As for his high school recruiting ranking, well, Rivals and that type Joe will rant on some other time (and Joe used to be a Rivals subscriber). But let’s not forget that there was this quarterback from northern California who didn’t receive one Division-I offer and had to play juco ball. Yeah, some guy named Aaron Rodgers.

Joe also seems to recall Steve Smith having to go the juco route as well. So Joe isn’t going to sweat Martin’s college recruiting rankings as a harbinger of doom in the NFL. After all, how many five- and four-star recruits didn’t amount to a hill of beans in college ball? Does the name “Willie Williams” ring a bell? How about “Fred Rouse?”

Remember: New York Giants general manager Jerry Reese, largely regarded as one of the top executives in the NFL, was allegedly ready to draft Muscle Hamster before Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik pounced in with a trade to swoop up Martin.

Joe feels for the many Bucs fans that have to endure blacked out games.

Sure, there are unlawful Internet streams, blackout tours, tape delays, NFL Game Rewind, and the radio to satisfy fans. But for most, nothing compares to sitting at the local Hooters or on the family couch watching a Bucs home game in HD with a remote in hand to catch other games when the Bucs trail by four touchdowns go to a commercial break. This is especially gratifying when you can’t afford to go to a Bucs game, or physically handle what going to a game entails.

Joe is often asked what effects the New Schiano Order and the Bucs’ dive into free agency are having on ticket sales. And while Joe doesn’t have a definitive answer, Joe points to $30-per-game season tickets ($15 for kids), and $35-per-game season tickets still being available for sale.

That’s not a hopeful sign for those hoping blackouts fade away, especially considering how far prices have dropped for some season tickets and the various food and parking discounts the Bucs now offer.

Yeah, the economy in the area remains poor, but it still saddens Joe that the Bucs haven’t yet sold their fabulously priced tickets. Click the link above to see what’s available throughout the stadium.

Joe has no doubt Bucs attendance will improve in 2012, but Joe’s not seeing that translating into fewer blackouts. There’s no London “home” game or home night game this season, so the Bucs might actually have less of a television presence.

Of course all Bucs fans know full well about “toes on the line.” It’s a theory embraced by one of the greatest of all Bucs players and scorned by former Bucs more interested in spinning discs in Las Vegas, having a social hour at practice and quitting on teammates.

But the New Schiano Order isn’t about Marine-like rigid ways. It’s also about having enthusiasm for your job, taking pride in your job, and fostering camaraderie among teammates.

Bucs left tackle Donald Penn explained after he caught a punt to end minicamp earlier this month.

“A couple of times, a defensive guy made a great play and I had to go congratulate them, even though I am competing out there,” Penn said. Anthony “Gaitor made a great play on Vincent Jackson in the end zone. I had to go congratulate Gaitor, it was such a good play.”

For Joe, this is very cool to know. Penn is right; guys are out there competing for a job, for their livelihoods, for their childhood dreams. But any hint of selfishness is put aside when a teammate does well.

This is not a bad thing.

In the aftermath of Kellen Winslow’s admission that he couldn’t deal with non-padded practice anymore because it was too much work to run around and learn in a disciplined fashion, many Bucs fans are applauding the team’s transformation under the New Schiano Order. 

Count Derrick Brooks in the mix. The Bucs icon explained why “toes on the line” is criticial and offered some great perspective during an interview on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM this week.

“Is his whole tenure going to be like this? I don’t think so. I just think he has to come in and set his foundation down in terms of discipline, meaning everything we do is going to be disciplined, whether we put our toes on the line or running a sprint, that’s going to be disciplined. You know what, that’s an offsides penalty or not an offsides penaltly in a game,” Brooks said.

“He’s transitioning these small decisions that, ‘Hey, these are going to be our habits. These are going to be our foundation that we’re going to build on.’

“It’s going to transition. Think about when Mike Tomlin first went to Pittsburgh. All the veterans hated him. (laughs) ‘Oh, we’re not a college team. He’s got us doing all these things. We’re not a college team. We’re in pads every day.’ Now look, three or four years later they love him. And [Tomlin] has transitioned his coaching style to fit his football team. I see a similarity here with Coach Schiano. But, you know, I’m never going to be a guy that goes against discipline because I think this football team needs it in every single area.”

Asked if he saw evidence of the Bucs’ lack of discipline last season, Brooks chuckled and said it was clearly evident on the football field. “It wasn’t hard to figure out,” Brooks said.

Brooks went on to say everything that encompasses transforming into a disciplined football team in a new defensive system might very well lead to a rough start for the 2012 Bucs defense, one Brooks points out has a very young front-seven that has a lot of players in their “learning phase.”

Joe, too, is unsure how long it will take for the Bucs’ defense to scare offenses. Joe’s not expecting that to happen in 2012. However, tackling well, not playing soft, and big years by the playmakers in the secondary will go a long way toward Bucs fans not cowering under a blanket every time an opponent runs a handoff.

The skeleton of a football season is usually constructed in the offseason. If a team succeeds in the offseason, devising offenses and defenses and ways to get the most out of players’ talents and skills, then that often translates into success in the fall.

With that premise, Vinnie Iyer of The Sporting News believes the Bucs will have a solid season. He gives the Bucs the highest offseason grade of any NFC team with an “A.”

GRADE: A
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Key additions: WR Vincent Jackson, G Carl Nicks, RB Doug Martin, TE Dallas Clark, CB Eric Wright, QB Dan Orlovsky.

Key losses: TE Kellen Winslow, QB Josh Johnson, S Tanard Jackson.

Josh Freeman needs to break out of his slump, and having a bona fide No. 1 receiver in Jackson is a huge boost. He’ll also get more consistency in the running game with Nicks blocking for the versatile Martin. Clark is a good replacement for Winslow as Freeman’s security blanket. Meanwhile, Wright will start at cornerback, where Aqib Talib—recently cleared of an assault charge—will join him. The attitude adjustment brought on by Schiano’s hiring will help get the Bucs back on track.

Yes, of course, whether the Bucs taste a playoff berth will likely come down to how well Freeman bounces back from an ugly 22-interception season. That will be the key factor.

If Joe had to quibble with this analysis, Joe doesn’t exactly know how you can classify a backup quarterback who has yet to win a game as a starter (and is now a No. 3 quarterback with the Niners) as a “key loss.” To be fair to Johnson, Joe cringed reading his name lumped in with Jackson and Winslow.

NBC Sports Network guru Shaun King, one of three quarterbacks to lead the Buccaneers to an NFC Championship game, joined PFT Live yesterday and without hesitation proclaimed that the Saints Jimmy Graham is the best tight end in football.

So what, you say?

Well, the presence of Graham and others like him is a serious step in the evolution of the NFL and a big part of the reason the Bucs drafted Mark Barron in the first round of the 2012 draft, so says former NFL Scout and FOX Sports analyst Chris Landry.

Landry gave a fine Xs and Os explanation as he joined the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig, on WDAE-AM Friday.

“When you’ve got guys that are big enough and athletic enough, what you want to able to do is to cover guys inside cover the slot. Now what has changed, and what makes Mark Barron so valuable, and why they coveted him even more than Mo Claiborne, the reason is look where the league has gone in the past couple of years even: the big athletic tight ends. Because what has happened is while people have gone to the spread formation, defenses have come out and said we’re going to get more of these slot, these smaller cover corner guys into the slot to cover those two-way goes,” Landry said. 

“Well, offenses know have found these [Rob] Gronkowski types that can run, Jimmy Graham types that can run but also have size. So how do you combat that? Well, if you can find a rare guy like a Mark Barron, who’s got size and athletic ability, that’s how you have to be able to cover those tight ends now. Becuase the real athletic corners are not big enough to match up against those guys. And so it is a game of catch-up with what the other side is doing, and that’s exactly why teams are trying to make that move.

“Now Mark Barron guys are very, very rare, which is why he was so coveted by a few teams and mainly the Bucs, because what division do they play in? Who do they have to cover in that division? Some very good tight ends. That becomes a factor when you have a lot of Y-Flex, the tight end being flexed out and being your inside reciever. That becomes a mismatch for your third and fourth corners in most cases, so your safeties have to be guys that can cover and be physical enough to handle those big guys.”

Joe will like to take a short time out to give thanks that Barron has replaced serial loafer Sean Jones in the Bucs secondary. To the best of Joe’s knowledge, Jones remains unemployed.

Regardless, the Graham-Barron matchup this season should be one of the most itriguing of the season for the Bucs’ defense. It’ll also be damn interesting to see how the Bucs handle Tony Gonzalez this season. 

One of the most bizarre statements by Kellen Winslow during his now famous “toes-on-the-line/woulda-take-a-bullet for [Raheem]” speech was Winslow moaning that the Bucs “fired the wrong dude up there.”

Now unless Winslow has issues with someone on the Bucs scouting department or cafeteria staff — surely possible — just about everyone else he might have dealt with in Tampa was fired outside of rockstar general manager Mark Dominik. So it’s quite likely that the “wrong dude” is Dominik.

To Joe, the veiled reference to Dominik was obvious and completley laughable. Dominik made Winslow the game’s highest paid tight end (at the time) and rescued him from the stench that is the Browns franchise. So what beef could Winslow have with Dominik?

The man paid K2 a king’s ranswom and plopped him into an offense lacking in elite wide receivers with a quarterback that looked to him. Essentially it was a dream job for Winslow.

Joe can’t imagine why Winslow would be bitter at Dominik. Joe can only speculate as to how Winslow could be so bitter.

Take your car, truck or SUV to a national tire shop or muffler chain and count on sleazy waiting conditions and a second-rate mechanic doing who knows what to your vehicle. OR, you can get better prices and top-shelf services at Ed Morse Cadillac Tampa. This is such a no-brainer. Make a real appointment, relax in luxury, and rest easy knowing you’re being serviced premier professionals.

GMC is digging learning tackling and the New Schiano Order. Joe digs GMC's lid. The tank top? Not so much.

When a business has gone awry, it’s not uncommon for new management to gut the place, strip its inner-workings to the very core and rebuild from the foundation up.

For those who prefer spinning discs, using practice time as a social hour or perhaps (allegedly) smoking left-handed cigarettes, this method may seem a bit harsh.

Not for Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. In a piece typed by Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, GMC admits he is digging the New Schiano Order and that the attention to detail and the rigid focus on fundamentals may prove fruitful later this season.

A level that third-year DT Gerald McCoy said is making him a better player. McCoy said he was never really shown proper tackling technique until he started working for Schiano.

“We do a tackling circuit before every practice, and I’ve never done anything like that before,” McCoy said. “I realize now that, before, I was just playing football. Now, I’m really learning how to tackle and I think it’s going to help me a lot.”

Given how awful the Bucs employed matador tackling skills last season, Joe is pumped to see this has been a key drill this offseason: learning to tackle.

Fundamental are good and all, but for Joe, a simply request is offered to GMC: Stay healthy man and you should be a stud.

And the defense will be so much better off as well.

Joe appreciates readers that take time to send Joe news tips, as well as letters of thanks and the popular hate mail, which typically starts with “How dare you defend Dominik.“

But look around. Joe’s never had a “tips” button or a “contact us” page. Joe’s really not interested in getting hammered with nonsense when it comes to potential stories. This is not Bucs TMZ. Joe just doesn’t go there when it comes to players’ and coaches’ personal lives.

Joe brings this up now because Joe got hit with a couple of classic pieces of ridiculousness yesterday by two different readers. It’s rare that two of this kind of stuff would arrive in one day, and Joe thought he’d share as a way of telling people what not to send Joe.

The first was a wacky long tale of what was supposedly LeGarrette Blount reacting to a heckler in a Tampa Publix. Joe wrote back to ask the reader how he knew it was Blount, and right on cue the reader replied. “Well, I’m like 80 percent sure it was Blount.”

Next, a reader sent Joe a photo of Josh Freeman sitting in what looked like a very respectable establishment drinking what appears to be a beer as he sits in front of a plate of food. Of course, the reader insisted that Joe publish the photo and share his story about how Freeman had the nerve to consume this drink during an OTA week. … Yeah, like Joe’s going to blast Freeman for allegedly drinking a beer with his dinner.

Joe just thought he’d share to advise readers that this kind of stuff is not what JoeBucsFan.com is all about. Though Joe does enjoy the humor these tales and photos provide.

Joe’s all-time favorite? That has to go to the guy that once sent Joe a nearly inaudible audio file of what allegedly was Geno Hayes being too loud in a movie theater while a film was showing. Second place goes to an email that detailed an alleged conversation with the writer and a Bucs defensive lineman while standing side by side using urinals in a Tampa church bathroom.

Again, Joe appreciates the enthusiasm, but Joe just doesn’t go there.

With the exception of a possible — keyword there, “possible” — suspension by NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell, the book is closed on Aqib Talib’s legal troubles in Texas.

For this reason, writes Chris Burke of SI.com, the Bucs cannot move Aqib Talib.

Now some believed Talib was a goner after he was charged last summer after he was hit with a felony charge. Many howled that the Bucs should wash their hands of Talib, given how he previously seemed unable to stay out of trouble’s way.

That’s not likely to happen now, Burke notes, largely because the Bucs have no one to replace him.

Schiano and his staff have moved forward with the plan to shift longtime cornerback Ronde Barber to free safety. Then, rather than take a cornerback in the draft, the Buccaneers nabbed safety Mark Barron at No. 7 overall.

Had Talib ended up facing a lengthy trial or, worse yet, been sentenced to prison time, Schiano would have been forced to reorganize. The obvious option would have been to slide Barber back to cornerback, but Tampa Bay doesn’t really have a ready replacement at safety — last year’s starters there were Sean Jones and Tanard Jackson, with the latter being cut due to a failed physical.

E.J. Biggers would likely be first up at cornerback in Talib’s absence, after starting six games last season. The other choices for Schiano there are Myron Lewis and 2012 sixth-round pick Keith Tandy.

Now Joe has gone on record as saying Talib is not an elite corner. Is he good, yeah, not elite.

That stated, not once has Joe heard Talib is a bad teammate, sans an ugly helmet-wielding incident years ago. In fact, last summer Talib was every bit a leader on the field, helping younger defensive backs during Josh Freeman’s workouts during the asinine lockout.

This summer, new Bucs coach Greg Schiano has lauded Talib for his work ethic, attention to detail and how good of a teammate he is.

So given that the Jerry Springer-like Texas episode is now over, criminal charges dropped, now is not the time to move Talib, even if his trade value has risen. The Bucs are just too thin currently in the secondary.

Bucs icon Derrick Brooks fired off a huge endorsement of Aqib Talib and explained that he’s personally seen Talib evolve into a significantly better person, so Brooks said during a powerful segment of his interview on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 today.

Brooks revealed he’s been in steady contact with Talib, his former teammate.

“Personally, you know, because I’ve personally seen the young man transition here the last eight months, I’m happy for him,” Brooks said. “I hope justice was served, and I’ll just take it at that. But personally, you know, I’ve been in steady communication with him and I’ve seen that he’s become a changed man at this point. And I hope, and I told him yesterday, ‘I hope that this continues to put you on the same road you’re on of redemption. Be the guy that you’ve been transitioning to be the last eight months. Make sure that’s the guy that’s moving forward.’ I honestly believe that he’s a changed man at this point.”

This was very interesting to Joe. Brooks twice mentioned “eight months,” which is a rather specific timetable. Perhaps this “transition” Brooks speaks of is Talib choosing to become more religious or involving himself in some sort of personal rehabilitation program? Also, Brooks makes it very clear he’s been part of Talib’s life and supporting him consistently.

Hopefully, Roger Goodell sees the same growth in Talib and passes on punishing him, much like the State of Texas passed on prosecuting him.