Mike Glennon is the man. He’s the battlefield commander of the Bucs offense.

Joe set out today to learn what Glennon may or may not be showing his teammates that represents an upgrade from the Bucs’ previous franchise quarterback, the artist formerly known as No. 5.

Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan was happy to answer Joe’s question: “Can you give a sense of how the on-field leadership and practice leadership has changed since you made the switch to Mike Glennon?”

“I think Mike, from the day that he got here, had a great work ethic and a maturity about him. I mean, kind of you talk about those rookies that are 22 going on 42, in terms of just really knowing when it’s time to focus and bear down and put in the time,” Sullivan said.

“I think his teammates, through practice at least and even in our most recent ballgame, have been able to see a guy that it’s not too big for him. That he is willing to stay in there and put his face in the fan so to speak. In the pass plays he doesn’t get rattled — in terms of his first time out of the gate with the huddle calls. He’s put in the time. He’s shown the maturity. He’s making some plays. There’s been a level of execution and tempo that we’ve had that’s been very, very good. That’s a credit to Mike and all the hard work he’s doing. And I think his teammates have responded to that. … I think the other offensive layers and even some of the defensive players are taking note of that.”

Darrelle Revis says Glennon looks and acts the part.

“Mike, he has that demeanor like a quarterback is supposed to have. He comes in here he works hard; he has like a leadership role to him,” Revis said. “He’s doing what he needs to do, man.”

There was plenty more love for Glennon today at One Buc Palace.

Joe’s eager to see how Glennon bounces back Sunday against a poor Eagles defense. Against Arizona, Joe saw a rookie who crumbled after a third-quarter intentional grounding call. After that point, Glennon was 7-for-15 with two interceptions.

One thing stands out with the Eagles under Chip Kelly — you know, the same team under this offensive guru Kelly who has two more wins than the Bucs — is the quickness of the game.

Quickness meaning if Kelly had a way to figure it out, he’d snap the ball the instant the referee spots the ball. If nothing else, it keeps both the defense and offense on its toes, and in many cases, prevents situational substituting by a defense.

When asked if there are any tricks in order to slow down such an offense, Bucs commander Greg Schiano admitted there really is only one way to slow down Kelly’s offense.

“Well, no, there are no tricks,” Schiano said. “If you hit them hard, if you hit them hard, they don’t get up so fast.

“We are not into — we are not going to feign any injuries or that stuff to slow them down. That’s not what we do. That is not in the spirit of the game.”

Now a cynic would wonder if diving at the football on kneel-downs is in the spirit of the game, but that’s another story.

And Joe loves Schiano’s theory of slowing down Kelly’s offense. If a defender drills a guy hard enough, then he either won’t, or can’t, bounce up so quickly to take another snap to get drilled again in such a short span of time.

No. 24 says the Bucs are not outcoached or outclassed every week

The men practicing football over at One Buc Palace are not Jaguars. The Bucs are losing but they’re not having the spirit beaten out of them and they’re no laughingstock, says Darrelle Revis.

The Bucs’ $1 million-per-game cornerback says the Bucs know how close they are to being 3-1, so that’s what’s got the attitude right in the Bucs’ locker room.

“We could have been 3-1, you know,” Revis said. “We really felt that [only] New England really legitimately beat us. I mean, I think that’s the thing you can pull out of the whole situation is, and I think that’s what makes guys positive and keeps them rolling and not sink and fall into the trap of saying, ‘Oh, we’re 0-4.’  … We’ll be fine. We’ll win some games. We’ll rack some up. We’re not getting outclassed. We’re not getting outcoached. You guys see the games; they come down to a couple of plays, man, one or two plays.”

Joe gets what Revis is saying; Bucs players know how close they are. Just like Falcons players know how close they are to playing winning football.

Unfortunately, close doesn’t count.

Fans love the HBO series “Hard Knocks,” which annually chronicles a team’s training camp with fantastic access to behind-the-scenes information that no one short of a team employee has. It is riveting TV.

But coaches, specifically NFL head coaches, largely despise the access given to NFL Films/HBO. Mostly, NFL coaches are secretive creatures by nature who believe the NFL is akin to Enigma, and that the free world would crumble before their very eyes if a rogue, leftist nation gained information from their inner circles.

Yes, it is foolish, if not childish, but that’s the DNA of football coaches.

Paranoia runs deep in the NFL.

This is why so many teams have never been the subject of a “Hard Knocks” series, and so many other teams simply refuse to even consider such an enterprise.

That may be ending soon. Tired of begging teams to open their secret back rooms to NFL Films, the NFL passed a resolution at their recent owners meetings that the league can force a team to host a “Hard Knocks” series, or deal with severe and harsh penalties from the league.

Two criteria that would leave teams exempt from hosting a “Hard Knocks” series would be if a team has made a postseason appearance in either of the previous two seasons, or if a team has a first-year head coach. That means the Bucs could be a candidate if Greg Schiano reaches 2014 in Tampa Bay.

When asked about his reaction to being forced to appear on a “Hard Knocks” series, the controlling Bucs commander Schiano had a simple resolution to such a predicament.

“So let’s get to the playoffs,” Schiano said in his daily press conference today at One Buc Palace.

Chip Kelly took to the podium in Philly moments ago and was gushing over Gerald McCoy. The cool thing was he wasn’t asked about McCoy directly.

“Gerald McCoy may be the best 3-techinique in the league. He’s explosive. He’s fast. He’s dynamic. He can run,” Kelly said.

Kelly, who talks at least as fast as Raheem Morris, is very intrigued by the speed of Buccaneers defenders. He says they have no weaknesses in that area. “Their overall team speed’s outstanding.”

In the running game, “you may increase a gap because they’re not as big as some teams,” Kelly said of the Bucs. But he explained that gap closes quickly.

The Bucs will need to revive their 2012 NFL-best run defense. It’s been good this season but not great. Bucs fans can hope that the Bucs’ speed will neutralize Philly’s offense. Given the stalled Bucs offense, that may be Tampa Bay’s best hope for their first victory.

Longtime Redskins and Texans general manager Charley Casserly, now an NFL Network analyst, spoke this morning on the The Sports Page on WDAE-AM 620 about the good and bad of Mike Glennon.

Ironically, Casserly painted a picture of Glennon being rather Josh Freeman-like in college and said Glennon’s baffling inconsistency at times is what made him a third-round pick. Casserly also gets into the Eagles’ “option game” and their unstoppable running game outside of the red zone. Casserly also compares Nick Foles and Michael Vick within Chip Kelly’s offense. Enjoy!

Ronde Barber did a radio interview this summer and talked about how teams really go crazy for insider intelligence on opponents. Clubs will sign a released player and grill anyone on their roster or anywhere else to pick up knowledge.

Barber talked about how it can backfire, but he didn’t dismiss the value of the knowledge.

That kind of enemy intelligence will be in play against the Bucs on Sunday. The Eagles have former Bucs linebacker Najee Goode on the roster, but they’ve also got safety Earl Wolff out of North Carolina State, a 2013 fifth-round pick. He spent years lining up across from Mike Glennon in practice.

Yesterday, Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis talked about how Wolff, who is getting extensive playing time, is being tapped for Glennon’s tendencies that might not show up clearly on film.

As for additional Bucs knowledge, Davis worked with Mike Sullivan on the New York Giants’ staff.

Joe knows some readers roll their eyes at Josh Freeman stories. That’s too bad. Freeman’s ousting from the team may be the biggest story to come out of One Buc Palace since Chucky was jettisoned.

When a proclaimed franchise quarterback, a first round quarterback, is cut midseason, before his contract runs out, that is huge news and speaks to a lot of things going on behind the scenes at One Buc Palace.

So what went wrong with Freeman? Tom Pelissero of USA Today decided to ask scouts and, essentially, it seems a combination of bad coaching from his quarterbacks coaches along with mental struggles on the field doomed Freeman with the Bucs.

“You see the physical tools,” the second scout said, “but you see regressive qualities in his footwork, mechanics, location – the technical precision of the game that is required to play that position beyond the physical dimensions that you can evaluate.”

A new scheme and new coordinator last year may have hurt. But it’s disappointing, the second scout said, that Freeman didn’t continue to grow as the Bucs gave him more weapons, including receiver Vincent Jackson and running back Doug Martin.

“The up-and-down play, the inconsistent performance, selective decision-making under pressure,” the second scout said. “Some of those things you wouldn’t expect for a guy who was a developing player in Year 3 or Year 4 of the maturation process.”

So Ron Turner and John McNulty weren’t much for mechanics, eh? Who would have thought?

When Joe read this, the first thing he thought of was last year when Shaun King, one of three Bucs to lead the team to an NFC championship game, famously said that Freeeman needed a shrink.

Look, if you hire position coaches who openly admit they don’t teach mechanics and technique, should Freeman imploding really surprise anyone?

Joe isn’t sure this is good news or not. Nick Foles will be the Eagles starter Sunday against the Bucs because Michael Vick has a tender hamstring.

Remember, folks. It was Foles, as a third round draft pick of a rookie, who beat the Bucs at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway last year.

Now, on face value, one would think wundercoach Chip Kelly (are Bucs fans still pining for this guy?) may scrap the read option because Foles is about as mobile as a mailbox. Bucky Brooks takes a look at how the Eagles’ offense may change with Foles, but scrapping the read option is not one of those changes.

Kelly’s offense has been met with skepticism from traditionalists who question heavy utilization of the read option, but there is no denying the success of the Eagles’ running game. Philadelphia comfortably leads the NFL in rushing yards per game, partially due to the confusion created by the read option at the point of attack. With Vick at the controls, opponents were forced to assign a defender to the quarterback, reducing the number of defenders in the box to stop LeSean McCoy. As a result, opponents were unable to effectively bottle up the Eagles’ ground game.

Although Foles definitely is not a dangerous runner like Vick, the Eagles will continue to use the read option. The simple threat of the quarterback keeping the ball or firing out a bubble screen to the perimeter is enough to keep a handful of defenders from pursuing the ball aggressively, which leads to bigger running lanes on the front side.

Foles may be a better option than Vick in that one could argue Foles is a better passer than Vick.

But Joe gets the sense the unknown factor of how, or if, Kelly will change the offense with Foles ccould be enough to confuse the Bucs’ defense early Sunday.

The end of the Josh Freeman era in Tampa was a shocker for No. 5. Unsourced reports said he was “blinsided,” but Freeman himself explained his stunning demotions for the Vikings media.

The Star Tribune took notes yesterday.

Freeman on how it ended in Tampa Bay: “I think anybody in any situation, quarterback-wise, they always think they’ve got the skill, the potential to be the guy. I’m not going to say delusional, but I think you have to see yourself, your game through a different lens. Otherwise, you’re not going to be the guy. You’re not going to be the special guy because you’re not going to truly think you deserve it when you’re opportunity comes. I think me going through this past few months, until the coach called me down to his office and told me he was making a switch, that was the first moment I realized I wasn’t going to be the guy moving forward. That hit me like that.”

Joe wonders whether Freeman totally believing he was “the guy” had to do with what he saw from Mike Glennon in practice and throughout the spring, training camp and preseason. Might Freeman have reacted differently if Glennon had won the Bucs’ starting QB job versus getting it from a guy that lost it? Bucs fans will never know.

Freeman is not starting on Sunday, but it’s reasonable to believe he’ll be “the guy” in Minnesota after that. One thing that’s very interesting about the Vikings’ schedule: after Sunday, they play three of their next four games at night in prime time — at Giants on Monday Night Football, home for the Packers on Sunday Night Football, and back home for the Redskins on Thursday Night Football.

Freeman will be on display for the entire football world. Literally, Freeman has the chance to go from the cranky, demoted QB to hot soon-to-be-free-agent commodity in less than a month.

DeSean Jackson vs. Darrelle Revis is one of the great subplots of Sunday’s game. The Bucs should have the young legs throughout their defense to give Chip Kelly and friends fits.

How the Eagles’ fast-paced, high-octane offense matches up with the Bucs’ talented and speedy defense will be fun to watch Sunday. Joe’s looking forward to it.

Fortunately for the Bucs, Michael Vick is not expected to start because of a bad hamstring, giving way to Bucs-killer backup Nick Foles, who played more than a half in the Eagles’ road win against the Giants on Sunday.

Philadelphia offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur took to the podium in Eagles land this afternoon and talked about how the Bucs defense is nothing like the Giants defense the Eagles torched for 36 points.

“This is a fast [Bucs] defense that runs around, so it’ll be important to us to be able to block movement,” Shurmur said.

Shurmur also went on to say that receivers winning 1-on-1 on the outside will be key. Joe surely believes DeSean Jackson vs. Darrelle Revis should be a matchup that shouldn’t let Jackson go for seven catches for 132 yards like he did against the Giants.

“That reputation [Revis] has as a shutdown corner, you know, you see that on tape now,” Shurmur said. ” I don’t know if he’s all the way back [healthy], but he’s playing at a very high level.”

Interestingly, Shurmur said the Eagles “won’t change how we function running or throwing” even with Vick out of the lineup. Joe finds that hard to believe, but the Eagles basically did just that last Sunday.

It’s a new day in Tampa Bay. The Bucs dumped Josh Freeman, installed Mike Glennon, and had a bye week to help right the sinking ship.

Da’Quan Bowers was among the many Bucs talking about staying focused in the face of adversity yesterday at One Buc Palace. Per Lakeland Ledger beat writer Rick Brown, Bowers described a Festivus-like airing of grievances between players and Greg Schiano, and now the team is ready celebrate its rejuvenation.

“There were a lot of things going on around here; a lot of stuff starting to be a distraction to the team,” said defensive end Da’Quan Bowers. “But I think it’s handled. Coach (Greg Schiano) spoke to us this morning. He got some things off his chest, we got some things off our chests. We’re both looking forward to sticking this thing out together and getting on a roll.”

Joe’s glad to hear there’s player-coach bonding happening. Joe needed some good news. Joe hopes this cleansing will lead to victories.

If the Bucs can’t win two of the next four games, then Joe believes that could seal doom for the New Schiano Order.

Tampa Bay’s schedule was, on paper, brutal to open the season; those Bucs opponents are a stunning 15-5 combined.

But now the Bucs take on three NFL bottom-feeders in three consecutive weeks — home for Philadephia (2-3), at Atlanta (1-4), and back home for the Panthers (1-3), before heading to Seattle. The Bucs absolutely have to find a couple of victories. There are no excuses.

The second half of the season isn’t exactly filled with juggernauts, either, with St. Louis, Buffalo, Carolina, Miami and Atlanta on the docket.

One victory feels miles away, unfortunately, the way the Bucs’ offense has sputtered. That written, Greg Schiano needs to find a way to play .500 ball the rest of the season. That’s not too much to ask of a team that has all the winning “components” in place.

The Bucs offense is struggling. The passing game is moribund. The Bucs have defrocked and turned loose their franchise quarterback.

And the Bucs have an Olympic sprinter on the roster.

Only in rare cases the past 30 years or so has an Olympic track star shined in the NFL, Willie Gault. Well, given how the Bucs offense smells, and subscribing to the theory of “speed kills,” the Bucs, says Bucs commander Greg Schiano, may try to use speedy Jeff Demps more. It’s the second time in as many weeks that Schiano talked about expanding Demps’ role. Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune took notes.

The Bucs focused largely on ways to get their 31st-ranked offense and 32nd-ranked passing attack back on track. Their hope is that by going vertical more often and making more use of Olympic sprinter Jeff Demps, they spark their attack.

“We talked about it last week – throwing the ball down the field a little more,’’ Schiano said. “The fact we haven’t done that as much as we’d like isn’t from a lack of trying, because sometimes defenses just take you out of it.

“But I think Jeff Demps is getting more and more comfortable with what we’re doing here so I think there will be some things we can do with him there that can make us better. He’s a valuable weapon.’’

Now this is a good mindmeld that Schiano could play. If the Bucs just show Demps at wide out, it could (should?) scare teams into preparing for the deep ball. By doing so, this may loosen up the soft underbelly of opponents.

One thing that did work in the Bucs passing game with Josh Freeman this season was slants to Vincent Jackson. If a defense prepares for the long ball, this route should be open more.

And if Glennon can get enough protection in the pocket to allow Demps to run down field, then all the better.

“Look, Boss, you know and I know there’s only one boss around here. And it ain’t the Jersey guy.”

Could Warren Sapp get whacked in the next 34 days, before the Bucs enshrine him in their prestigious Ring of Honor on Nov. 11?

It seems No. 99, according to No. 99, just put himself in danger. Sapp spoke out against Greg Schiano during a new NFL.com podcast with Brian Billick. Sapp took direct shots at Schiano’s competency and says he needs to change his consigliere ways.

“If I’m down in Tampa, I’m questioning this whole thing because it’s a mafia style,” Sapp said. “I know [Mike] Glennon is not the quarterback that Josh Freeman is. There’s no question about it. The film tells me this. Practice tells me this. Even my quarterback demeanor tells me this. If you wouldn’t let [Freeman] throw the ball at the end of the game, why is Glennon throwing the ball at the end of the game? Why is [Darrelle] Revis standing eight yards off [Larry] Fitzgerald running a slant route and nobody’s there? Touchdown! Are you kidding me?  Let’s lock up our No. 1 corner who we’re paying $16 million and then we rotate the coverage. There has to be a plan. Because when you’re my way or the highway, you must win now. Because guys don’t believe in your way when you’re losing. And you lose the way they lost the first two weeks, you gave away those football games. And whenever you’ve given away football games, your style needs to change.”

Just when you think it can’t get any lower for the Bucs, Sapp, the franchise’s second Hall of Famer, a guy who has spent a lot of time over the past year at One Buc Palace and has had a private meeting with Schiano, has now joined the ranks of those who publicly say the head coach is leading the Bucs in the wrong direction.

Sapp’s damning comments, ironically, stop only a hair short of calling Schiano a laughingstock.

What next?

“Men, I’ve extended the official Monday beef portion to 13.4 ounces”

Listen to the human armoire, Carl Nicks, talk today about the state of the Bucs and the bye week.

Nicks explained that it was a working/conditioning bye week for him because he sat out the first two games of the season. And Nicks scoffs at the notion that the Bucs are embarking on a fresh start. “That’s not real life. You know, you can’t just, ‘Alright guys, whatever happened the last four weeks,’ No. You just got to be adults about it and be professionals about it and keep it going.”

Nicks podcast below via WDAE-AM 620.

Joe knows some Bucs fans are deep in the sad denial that the 2013 season is viable. They think that if the Bucs just pull together, they, too, could be a wild card team.

Joe sincerely wishes these same fans can rid themselves of whatever demons possess them. This season is done. Joe can’t find the statistics he read recently, but starting a season 0-4 is a deathknell for playoff hopes.

Now there is a very real likelihood the Bucs could be drafting a quarterback in the first round. But Joe’s hunch today is the Bucs would try to trade for a veteran quarterback first. There are too many good veterans on this team to saddle with a quarterback who likely will be going through growing pains for a couple of seasons.

The proprietor and brainchild of TheBigLead.com, Joe’s good friend Jason McIntyre, decided to look into his crystal ball and he sees the Bucs taking a flyer on LSU quarterback Zach Mettenberger.

Josh Freeman’s gone, and Mike Glennon, even though coach Greg Schiano loves him, won’t be the long term guy. While a read-option QB would be dangerous with Doug Martin, I don’t get the sense Schiano is a fan. Dating back to his time at Rutgers, he seems to lean to statuesque pocket passers, which is why Mettenberger could be the guy. I put Bridgewater here because yes, I think Tampa could implode and end up with a top three pick. Another option: Bolster offensive line early, grab McCarron at the top of the 2nd round.

Now this is a very interesting pick for a number of reasons. Joe believes McIntyre is right on the money in that Schiano prefers a pocket passer. Given the fact that Mettenberger is schooled in an NFL offense by (S)Cam Cameron, Joe can easily connect the dots to where Mettenberg would be a Buccaneer Man.

But also in McIntyre’s last sentence he throws out Alabama’s A.J. McCarron. Joe told WTSP-TV Channel 10 executive producer Matt Sinn before the 2013 draft, if somehow Freeman was not with the Bucs in 2014 (this just in: he won’t be), then Joe could easily see the Bucs going after McCarron. In Joe’s eyes, McCarron would be the perfect Schiano guy. A quarterback schooled in NFL discipline by Nick Saban, fundamentally sound, a game manager.

Personally, Joe would love, if the Bucs do go for a quarterback, for them to land Johnny Football, but Joe knows that Schiano would never tolerate Johnny Football’s partying ways, no matter how talented he is.

There is virtually zero chance, barring a 2-14 season, the Bucs have a shot at Teddy Bridgewater.

Cut by the New Schiano Order last week, safety Ahmad Black is grilled by reporter Chris Fischer in this WTSP-TV, Ch. 10 video. Black is all smiles and short answers. He downplays alleged locker room turmoil at One Buc Palace, and he’s not sure he can bear to watch the Bucs.