"I can't believe my jerseys were on the clearance rack at Marshall's for $5. I'm still on this team, you know."

Joe hates the Eagles so much he couldn’t bear to post this until late at night.

Anything Eagles typically turns Joe’s stomach (hopefully not Sean Jones and Reggie Brown).

In this installment of the NFL Draft countdown, draft guru Justin Pawlowski breaks down all things Eagles and the draft. And Pawlowski says the Eagles smell like a candidate for a draft-day trade with the Bucs.

In honor of Joe’s hatred of the Eagles, Joe will giveaway one Reebok replica Sabby (The Goat) Piscitelli jersey. You’re eligible to win the jersey if you subscribe for Joe’s unbelievable draft coverage between now and 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 1. No, this is not an April Fool’s Day stunt. Joe will announce the winner at 3 p.m on Thursday.

Enjoy the Eagles breakdown. {+++}

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The NFL released the preseason schedule for the 2010 season. Though the specific dates for all of preseason Bucs games are not yet known, where and what week and who the Bucs will play is known.

Bucs 2010 Preseason Schedule

Week 1: Bucs at Dolphins
Week 2: Chiefs at Bucs
Week 3: Jaguars at Bucs
Week 4: Bucs at Texans

Diva-ish Dez Bryant, widely considered the most talented wide receiver in next month’s draft but already building a resume as a world-class moron, apparently has Pearl Harbored his chances of being selected by the Bucs.

Bryant, banned by the NCAA last year for a dubious relationship with Deion Sanders, lied to the NCAA about his background. That got him thrown off his Oklahoma State team. And Bryant put an exclamation point on his shady past yesterday when, just before his most important interview for millions of dollars, forgot his shoes (cleats) to his pro day workout.

Joe wonders if the reason he forgot his cleats was because he remembered to bring his weed?

Today, per the Associated Press via Sirius NFL Radio, Bryant lashed out at critics who wondered how he could forget his most important attire for his biggest interview for millions of dollars. Bryant barked, using grammar mastered apparently in graduate-level classes at Oklahoma State, “What do this got to do with me playing football? Even if I did forget my cleats, what do that have to do with me playing football? I don’t think it has anything to do with me playing football.”

Well, it’s kinda hard to play wide receiver wearing only socks. Sort of like Albert Pujols forgetting to bring a bat to the plate.

This latest dumb stunt apparently was the last straw for the Bucs. Eye-RAH! Kaufman, of the Tampa Tribune, writes that the Bucs want nothing to do with this Terrell Owens-wannabe early in the draft.

The former Oklahoma standout is the most talented wide receiver in the draft and the Bucs have a desperate need to upgrade targets for Josh Freeman, but Bryant comes with risks and the Bucs are adamant about avoiding risks this time around.

After catching 87 passes for 1,480 yards and 19 TDs in 2008, Bryant missed most of last season due to an NCAA suspension for lying to investigators about his relationship with Deion Sanders. He ran a pedestrian 4.53 in the 40 during his Pro Day Tuesday in Texas, with Bucs WR coach Eric Yarber in attendance.

Even if Bryant is still sitting there at No. 25, don’t expect the Bucs to move up to get him. There are too many questions about his character and his love for football—a top priority for Dominik and the Glazers.

Pat Kirwan, of Sirius NFL Radio and a former NFL executive, had this Bryant character pegged weeks ago when, after interviewing Bryant and talking to his contacts in the front offices of various NFL teams, said he wouldn’t touch Bryant in the first round and that he had no heart or burning desire to play in the NFL. Kirwan added that Bryant’s greatest passion was cashing checks.

Joe is glad to learn Dominik is forgetting about this dope.

Despite Clifton Smith being a victim of a brutal assault on a kickoff return, Raheem the Dream never used injuries as an excuse.

One of the things that drove Joe nuts about Chucky was his constant whining about injuries.

Um, Chucky, this is the NFL. People get hurt all the time. Good coaches adjust and conquer.

Rarely does a Super Bowl champion not have to deal with a significant injury at some point in the season, including the Bucs (remember, Booger McFarland never played in the playoffs).

So eye-RAH! Kaufman, of the Tampa Tribune, decided to do some number crunching and found that the Bucs were the least injuried team in the NFC South last season, as he posted on the TBO.com Twitter feed.

The Bucs had 17 players make at least 12 starts in ’09. That’s the highest [number] in the division and a hint injuries weren’t the problem.

This is both an uplifting statistic, and a depressing one as well. Just how brutal were the Bucs last year that other teams’ scrubs in the NFC South regularly put a hurt on them?

Props to Raheem the Dream for never whining about an injury as his predeccesor did seemingly each week.

It has been well documented that the Bucs are going to build from the draft and when they need specific holes to put the team over the top, then Team Glazer’s pen will emerge from mothballs along with a checkbook.

While this sounds good in theory, Brad Biggs of the NationalFootballPost.com is calling Team Glazer’s bluff. In short, Biggs claims this building through the draft is nothing but a smokescreen to try to deflect attention from Team Glazer not spending cash.

“We endured a lot of criticism many years ago in that journey to get there (to the Super Bowl),’’ Glazer said. “That’s fine. We’ll do what’s best. A lot of people can’t handle criticism. A lot of people react to the press. We’re used to it and sometimes that’s leadership, to be able to take it on, fight through it and lead.’’

This doesn’t absolve the Glazers from keeping their hands in their pockets to guard their wallets. The cash committed by the Bucs over the last five years is dead last in the league. They’re not spending money, period. They replaced Allen and former coach Jon Gruden with two inexperienced men in Mark Dominik and Raheem Morris. Those guys are under pressure to deliver right now and you have to remember that they didn’t have a lot to work with when they took over.

As Joe has written many times, Joe firmly believes Team Glazer — and many other teams — just are not going to loosen up the pursestrings until a new CBA is signed with the NFLPA.

To be blunt, it’s rather difficult for anyone to justify paying out a big signing bonus when said player likely won’t be playing next year.

With the exception of Trent Dilfer and perhaps blocking icon Michael Clayton, Joe cannot remember a local sports figure as reviled than Raheem the Dream.

Just the mere mention of the Bucs’ coach’s name results in Bucs fans frothing at the mouth. To many Bucs fans, Raheem the Dream  — rightly or wrongly — is the face of a once proud franchise that has returned to its sordid roots.

Vacation Man, writing for Vyacheslav Molotov’s favorite media outlet, BSPN.com, writes that Raheem the Dream could not have “looked more overwelmed” last year. But after a few missteps, Vacation Man likes what he sees with Raheem the Dream as the Bucs leader.

But if you look closely at the chaos that was Tampa Bay’s season last year, you can spot some progress, particularly from the head coach. The guy showed an ability to admit his mistakes and move on from them. That’s a unique quality and that’s why there’s a chance Morris might have grown quite a bit last season.

We’ll have to wait to see how this season plays out, but Morris is in a much better spot than he was a year ago. Morris realized Jim Bates’ defensive scheme wasn’t working out and fired the veteran coordinator. Morris took the reins of the defense, went back to the Tampa 2 and the Bucs actually played decent defense at the end of the season.

They now will spend an entire offseason working on the defense they’ll actually play all season. Same for the offense, where coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski was fired just prior to the start of last season. There were a lot of issues (more than we’ll ever know) going on with Jagodzinski, but the bottom line was the offense wasn’t getting any real coaching. Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson suddenly had the offense dumped on him at the same time he was trying to get rookie quarterback Josh Freeman ready to step on the field and the early results weren’t pretty.

Just the fact Raheem the Dream will be the defensive coordinator and that the Bucs have a full-time quarterbacks coach should be a big plus. Unless Raheem the Dream falls flat on his face, per recent comments from Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer, Raheem the Dream will be around for a while.

Might the Ravens snag one of the cornerbacks Raheem The Dream covets?

You know the drill.

It’s all things Ravens today from NFL draft guru Justin Pawlowski — all part of the daily team-by-team look at every NFL club’s draft strategy.

For those who have purchased Joe’s NFL draft subscription, it’s beyond obvious what a guru Pawlowski really is. This is really fun stuff. His new mammouth mock draft comes out later tonight or tomorrow.

Enjoy. {+++}

Thanks again to you subscribers! Any feedback is always appreciated, joe@joebucsfan.com

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So yesterday, Joe’s good friend, the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig, brought up a great conversation on WDAE-AM 620 about how NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell believes the NFL needs to make the stadium experience better than the staying home experience of watching games.

In short, the radio chatter posed the question, how could the Bucs make the stadium experience better than staying at home? Joe has suggestions:

* As Joe had detailed before, he once was a season ticket holder but opted out mainly due to the way he was treated by the Bucs’ sales staff. No other reason. But this post isn’t about that issue.

Joe has often documented that while the CITS is a nice stadium, there are nicer stadiums, including whatever-the-hell-that-place-is-called-in-south-Florida-today.  Joe’s not about to advocate for a new stadium. There’s a team currently in St. Petersburg that is mired in a tomb that desperately needs a new crib first.

What Joe would like to see at the CITS is something akin to “The Bud Zone” at Jacksonville. There, in the end zone on the upperdeck level, is a massive sports bar. Fans before, during and after the game can go there, have a few beers, watch all the NFL games on HD flatscreens, have some good grub (not the standard stadium schlop) and watch the game on the field if they so choose, all in air conditioning.

Granted, the Bucs have something called a “party deck,” but to Joe’s knowledge it’s private and is nothing more than a small patio in the end zone. Instead, use that end zone to build a sports bar. Said sports bar could also be open on non-game days, much like the tiki bar at Out House Networks Field in Clearwater, and the sports bars/restaurants located at Comiskey Park in Chicago and PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

How cool would it be to go have lunch in the middle of the week at the CITS in, say, May?

Said sports bar could be in the south end zone. One of the biggest flaws Joe sees in the CITS is the open end zones. In Joe’s eyes, unless there is something picturesque to look at like at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and Qwest Field in Seattle, where one end zone has views of a downtown skyline and the other end zone has views of the mountains, there’s no need for open end zones.

Gazing out upon parking lots and Dale Mabry Highway is not what Joe calls picturesque. Close up the south end zone with a massive sports bar/restaurant that can be used year-round.

* Joe has noticed that other stadiums actually have a store where fans can buy gear. The CITS does not. Oh, sure, they have a glorified vendor’s window and maybe rope off an area to showcase T-shirts, but that’s not a store.

Build an actual Bucs gear store that, like the Rays have at the Fruitdome, is open year-round. Make it an actual store so fans from out of town can actually get geared up before the game.

* Hall of Fame. Joe has noticed that at Heinz Field, part of a concourse is dedicated to the history of the Steelers. Joe believes it’s called a Walk of Fame, or some such thing. The concourse is full of exhibits of the team’s history. Also there, radio stations broadcast pregame shows and there are actually bleachers for fans to sit and listen. Just a few steps away, there are live bands.

   Why can’t these elements also be used at a concourse at the CITS?

* Joe noticed that in Miami, the Dolphins will actually erect monster tents for temporary sports bars in the parking lot, replete with TVs. Yes, Joe knows the Bucs have a tailgate party where people can eat and drink non-stop, for a three-figured price.

   Why not set up a tent in the parking lot(s) where fans can come and go as they please if they just want a cheeseburger or even a soft drink, and watch the pregame shows on the NFL Network?

* No more $8 beers! Look, Joe is a man, therefore he has the NFL Network, and enjoys a cold beer now and then. A minor reason — not the entire reason (see above) — that Joe ditched his season tickets is the obscene price of $8 for a beer.

   Now Joe partially understands why beers (and other concessions) are so outrageous at the CITS. It’s a massive profit center for the Glazers, who don’t have to share that concession revenue with the stadium authority.

   And if the vendors there pay handsomely to operate at the CITS, that alone, just to break even, drives up the costs of concessions. This is standard practice all over the country, including Out House Networks Field for Florida State League games no less.

   Perhaps the surcharges to vendors could be adjusted just a little bit so fans aren’t horribly gouged? Or couldn’t Team Glazer simply drop the price. Beers were only $3 at the 2009 draft party at the CITS. Can’t all parties make sufficient money at, say, $5 a beer?

   Joe trusts that even when Team Glazer sits down for a nice meal at a restaurant, even they would blink if the establishment charged $8 for a cold frosty.

   Joe is certain that when fans ponder going to a game, $8 beer is a significant factor in their decision whether to sit on the couch or get up and go to the game.

  Joe will even venture to guess the good people at the CITS may sell more beers if the price is lowered, and the loss on dropping the price just might be made up. Joe knows quite a few people who just load up before the game and only sip water during the game as not to be gouged with $8 beers.

   Even Joe has some standards!

* $20 parking. When thinking of going to a game, Joe has a hard time getting past this: For $20, Joe can buy a pizza and/or a good sandwich at a local eatery, and a six-pack. If Joe goes to a game, he is already out that amount  before he has even stepped out of his truck.

   Trust Joe, there are far worse examples in other NFL stadiums than this (Dallass charges $75), but if the Bucs are worried about getting people to the CITS…

* Let people go up in the pirate ship. Ever try getting up in the pirate ship? If not, imagine what would happen if you tried to drag one of the “entertainers” out to the parking lot at one of the clothing-optional establishments across the street.

Let people experience the pirate ship! Let people go up there and cheer the Bucs. Why is it only a select, chosen few (usually plain-clothed cops and Bucs employees) are allowed up there?

* Do the Nazis who patrol the tailgate lots still crack down on throwing footballs around? This is beyond asinine. Lighten up Francis, or Joe can grill out in his backyard rather than hand over $20 for that right, and throw the football around with the neighborhood kids instead before retiring to the couch for an afternoon of football.

 These are just some examples Joe has off the top of his head that might make the game day experience more exciting and motivate fans to get off the couch.

  In short, the NFL in general has gotten to the point that it has all but forced fans to stay home as it has gouged fans too much. If, Mr. Goodell, you want fans to come spend money on your product at a game, you have to entice fans.

  Slapping fans in the face with $8 beers, $20 (or more) in parking and nun-like practices of forbidding fans to toss around a football will chase more people away than it will entice people to participate.

   As Richard Nixon would say, it’s the art of compromise.

   So Bucs fans, what are some of your suggestions about making a game more exciting that you will go to the games rather than stay home?

If Joe has heard it once, he has heard it a thousand times:

After the Bucs purged their veterans last winter, including iconic linebacker Derrick Brooks, it was because the Bucs wanted to get younger and build from within.

Last year ,when Bucs general manager Mark Dominik decided his big free agent signing on defense was injury-prone linebacker Angelo Crowell, Joe scratched his head.

This made no sense: Not only wasn’t Crowell young; he had a hard time staying healthy. Guess what? He got hurt again and missed the entire season.

Joe’s head-scratching continued when Dominik again went after Crowell, signing him to yet another contract Monday. Even eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune seemed puzzled as he posted the following item on the TBO.com Bucs Twitter feed.

Even if Angelo Crowell is healthy, there’s no reason to believe he’ll edge younger Quincy Black as Tampa Bay’s strong-side LB in 2010.

Upon learning of Crowell’s signing (again), Joe texted a Bucs beat writer (not Kaufman) and asked, “What does Mark Dominik see in this Angelo Crowell?”

The response from the Bucs beat writer?

“Good question!”

Yesterday Joe brought word that Mike Florio, the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com, would “bet” that the Bucs would not only play more games in London, that they would pull up stakes and move to London.

Joe noted on face value the assertion was outrageous and he e-mailed Florio to see how he came to this conclusion.

Joe heard nothing from Florio.

If Joe didn’t know any better, Joe would have thought such tripe would have come from the former colorful yet environmentally hostile magazine now web-only outfit that covers the Bucs.

Later in the day, Florio had his weekly appearance with the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig, when “The Big Dog” point blank asked Florio how he came to that conclusion.

Florio, a former lawyer, was off his game Monday. He had some convoluted logic to explain why he thought the Bucs would move to London; Joe had a hard time following it.

In short, it was gobbledegook.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune actually detailed how this notion of the Bucs moving to London is nonsense. It was such a throw-it-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-sticks ca-ca that the Bucs wouldn’t even respond to it.

The report also suggested the Bucs could eventually end up re-locating from Tampa Bay to Europe on a permanent basis, playing home games at London’s Wembley Stadium.

The Glazer family owns both the Buccaneers and Manchester United, a Premier League power that boasts of being the world’s most popular soccer club. The Bucs faced the Patriots at Wembley last October, sacrificing a home date at Raymond James Stadium.

The Bucs declined to comment on the unsourced report.

Joe respects the hell out of Florio but yesterday morning was not one of his better moments. Joe hopes he wrote that piece before he has his daily requirement of caffiene, thus, his brain wasn’t functioning properly.

Hey, Joe’s not just about the Bucs. He’s about the Bolts, too! While the job status of general manager Brian Lawton is certainly up in the air, and who knows even if coach Rich Tocchet will return, the future of one of the Tampa Bay area’s most popular athletes, Marty St. Louis, isn’t exactly locked in stone. He’s getting long in the tooth and his contract is up soon. Joe takes a look Marty’s future in Tampa Bay over at JoeBoltsFan.com. Give it a look.

Fans of any sport turn ugly and bitter when they believe there’s no hope for success entering a season.

It’s just how fans roll. They need to believe.

Even the overhyped New York Yankees ranked in the bottom half of the American League in attendance from 1989 to 1992. Guess what? The Yankees had crappy teams in those years.

Joe is certain that hope for the Bucs among fans is near an all-time low. It’s beyond depressing. Especially considering optimism is much easier to come by for NFL fans because of the short season and the promise a quick start can bring. 

Joe, who considers himself a diehard fan and optimist, can find real hope for the Bucs in 2010 at every position, except receiver. This assumes, of course, the Bucs draft one of the defensive tackle beasts in the first round.

But even if the Bucs snag a promising wide receiver in the second round, or trade up for one, Joe just doesn’t believe that will be enough at the position to give even the most optimistic fans hope for 2010.

There’s just not enough there.

Joe aches for Josh Freeman at the thought of his receiving corps. He’ll need a miracle.

Mark Dominik can’t take this team to training camp without more juice at wide receiver and crossing his fingers. Hope is the fans’ job, not the general manger’s.

Buccaneers Madness finishes its semifinals today. A reminder: Buccaneers Madness is run in conjuction with the NCAA basketball tournament (Joe cannot remember a better one in years than this March), largely influenced by his good friend Jason McIntyre of TheBigLead.com and his annual Culture Tournament.

Not upgrading the receivers could lead to Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman running for his life and perhaps imploding.

The Bucs have so many needs, that general manager Mark Dominik could throw a dart at a wall and whatever position it would land on would be an upgrade.

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com breaks down what positions the Bucs need help at and has an interesting twist on the Bucs.

Second-year general manager Mark Dominik has a lot of work in front of him. This is a team filled with holes, but they can fill a big one with the third overall pick. They also have two second-round picks.

The Bucs are the perfect case study in how quickly things can turn around in the NFL. They better hope the flip the other way can happen just as fast as the fall.

Prisco lists the Bucs greatest need as wide receiver, not defensive tackle. This gives Joe a chance to detail an item he’s been holding onto for a few days.

Last week on Sirius NFL Radio while co-hosting “The Blitz” with Adam Schein, former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon was discussing why so many quarterbacks taken early in the draft are busts.

The premise is, that for every Peyton Manning, there are a Ryan Leaf, Akili Smith and Tim Couch. Part of that, Gannon said, is that quarterbacks taken high in the draft are often selected by lousy teams, which stands to reason, otherwise the teams wouldn’t be drafting high up the ladder.

One of the reasons why the teams that draft quarterbacks high are lousy is that the teams lack virtually anything on offense: the line is subpar and there are few if any receivers. This, Gannon said, puts a young quarterback behind the eight ball; that young quarterbacks need what Gannon called “protection” with either a decent offensive line in front of them, or weapons to throw to, or both.

While discussing the plight of young quarterbacks, Gannon invoked the name of Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman and the (current) miserable lot of receivers on the Bucs roster. Gannon suggests that unless the Bucs acquire some receivers to help Freeman out, it will be “a nightmare” and that the Bucs are risking Freeman imploding by not upgrading the wide receiver position.

While Joe understands that Gannon is a Chucky acolyte and listens to what Gannon says about the Bucs with a grain of salt, Joe thinks Gannon is right on target in his analysis.

Joe has given Dominik the benefit of the doubt and understands his philosophy. However, Joe is still perplexed by the release of Bryant and the dumpster diving the Bucs have undertaken in an attempt to upgrade the receivers position.

While the Bucs may have thought Bryant was a bad influence, or freelanced too much or may have been an injury risk, can anyone at One Buc Palace look in the mirror and honestly say the Bucs receivers — and indirectly Freeman  — are currently better off without Bryant?

It would be different if the Bucs also had an All-Pro receiver. They don’t.

Today Joe read the intelligent analysis of former NFL personnel executive Mike Lombardi on NationalFootballPost.com and walked away concerned — again — about the Bucs’ scouting department.

All spin aside and without wagging a finger of blame, the group has been at best subpar over the past several years.

After reading the following passage from Lombardi, even the most optimistic Bucs fan has to be concerned the Bucs might not have the scouting horses needed to hit the grand slam they need in April. 

More mistakes are made by organizations incorrectly evaluating their own teams and counting on the wrong players. This is called a “convenient truth” that allows teams to believe something is true and failing to address the problem. Ask any quality NFL talent evaluator about the 49ers and he’ll tell you they need offensive line help and a quarterback. But the 49ers don’t see QB as a need, which is convenient for them.

Horizontal board, vertical board and more convenience

As we enter the final phase of draft preparation, all teams must make sure they have someone who can make an actual determination of the position board and the value board. For example, if a team has a cornerback rated the same as an offensive tackle, it will always take the position of need. But are the players really the same value? If the corner was graded by different scouts and coaches than the tackle, who makes the call on who is actually the better player? This is the reason teams say they go with their board and not their needs, but in reality, the board is rigged to fill their needs.

It takes one or more evaluators in the organization who know their own team really well and can apply the horizontal and vertical boards to their team. The draft is about improving, and improvement can only happen when you focus on the real areas that need improvement. It might be convenient to believe that your team is solidified in a certain area, but is it actually true? And it might be convenient to believe the corner and the tackle are the same grade, but it might not be true.

Do the Bucs have the ability in their personnel department? Joe isn’t sold.

This is why Joe scoffed at Joel Glazer last week when he told the media money is no object for the Bucs and the key to the team is scoring in the draft.

Joe still firmly believes that if Glazer was being truthful on that point, he would have insisted Mark Dominik take a blank check to build the best damn scouting staff in the NFL. It sure seems like that never happened.

Might the Cards reach for this guy in Round 1?"

Man, those Cardinals have been busy this offseason.

What might they do in the draft?

You’ll find out here in the daily Draft Countdown, a look at every NFL team’s strategy and focus leading up to draft day on April 22. NFL Draft guru Justin Pawlowski, of WDAE-AM 620, does the honors in his analysis of the Cards with a keen eye on how Arizona’s moves might affect the Bucs.

It’s all part of the in-depth draft coverage here on JoeBucsFan.com.

Enjoy. (The Ravens are up on next on Tuesday) {+++}

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Like a lot of Bucs fans, Vacation Man is not a fan of Byron Leftwich.

Writing for his Soviet-like employer, BSPN.com, Vacation Man argues with a Bucs fan that Leftwich has no trade value.

Ed in Cape Coral, FL writes:  You said again that Byron Leftwich has no trade value, but if Charlie Whitehurst (never even thrown a meaningful NFL pass) can garner a 3rd rd pick and Kevin Kolb (only 2 starts) is shopped for two first-round picks why can’t Leftwich or even Josh Johnson get something in between?

Vacation Man:  At absolute best, the Bucs might be able to get a sixth- or seventh-round pick for Leftwich. But I think even that might be tough to pull off. Your points on Kolb and Whitehurst are taken, but the reason they have value is because they are younger and teams view them as quarterbacks who might ascend. Leftwich is 30 and has flopped as a starter several times. There’s no upside with him. Also, every team around the league knows the Bucs probably will cut Leftwich if they can’t trade him. So why give up a draft pick if you might be able to sign him as a free agent? Also, you mentioned Josh Johnson. If I were the Bucs, I’d hang onto him. Not saying he lit it up by any means, but I saw some positives when he played last year. I think he can be a decent backup to Josh Freeman.

Here’s why Joe believes Leftwich has trade value, though Joe agrees with Vacation Man, it will be limited: Exactly what trade value did the great Luke McCown have last year? He was about to be cut. And Mark Dominik found a sucker (Jags) to give up a draft pick for him just before he was about to be cut.

Leftwich had a whole lot more success than McCown ever did.

"Yo Mark, that dude hasn't played a game since '07. You think he's better than me?"

Mark Dominik is a man of faith and confidence.

He sure needs to be, given the state of the Bucs. But Dominik is obviously a man who believes strongly in his ability to evaluate players.

Today, per TBO.com, the Bucs have re-signed linebacker Angelo Crowell. You remember him, he was the Bucs premier free agent signing in 2009. Back then, Crowell was fresh off a missed 2008 season and a rare knee surgery for a football player. He was very good in 2007 for the Bills, however.

Well, Crowell turned out to be unhealthy when he joined the Bucs. He played a bit in training camp, didn’t look sharp, and shredded his arm in preseason shortly after allegedly fighting off Aqib Talib in a taxi. Crowell found his way to injured reserve and a $2.5 million payday from the Bucs.

Welcome back, Angelo.

Yeah, Joe realizes Crowell surely has a prove-yourself-or-get-cut contract. But this is hardly an inspiring move.

Some folks have big money riding on their mock drafts.

One of those would be the oddsmakers for the popular European sports book SkyBet.

SkyBet just moved its odds on its NFL Draft wagers, and Sam Bradford has unseated manbeast Ndamukong Suh as SkyBet’s most likely No. 1 pick. You can now get 2-1 odds on Bradford being picked No. 2 overall or later.

Sure, its rather meaningless. But it could add to the growing speculation that Suh and Gerald McCoy will be waiting for the Bucs at No. 3.

[Update: If anyone is so inclined, Bradford’s workout is streamed live here.]