Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik are looking for a teacher to replace Todd Wash.

This is a bit late but better late than never, so Joe apologizes beforehand.

The Bucs have yet to fill the void left by the jettisoning of former defensive line coach Todd Wash. Generally, when an opening lasts into Super Bowl week, it often means said team may be eyeing someone on the staffs of the Super Bowl teams.

Now Joe doesn’t know if that is the case or not, but Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik told good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times that Raheem Morris is wanting a teacher of sorts.

“(Yarber) had some experience in the pros a little bit. . . but he also came from a college mentality where it is about teaching fundamentals,” Dominik said. “And because of where we’re at with our football team, that’s an important thing we’re looking at as well.”

If the Bucs could land someone like Yarber for the defensive line, given the job he has done with the receivers, wow, would that be a catch.

Now here’s something Joe is just going to throw out there. A little birdie told Joe that the Bucs last week at the Senior Bowl interviewed Iowa defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski. Let Joe be clear: Joe could not confirm this, despite working the phones and e-mail with those in the know.

But those same sources also told Joe they could not confirm Kaczenski wasn’t interviewed.

At first blush, Joe wondered why on earth a college coach would jump to the NFL this season when there may be no season? If anything, NFL coaches are jumping to college because there are jobs this fall.

But then Joe remembered what’s going on at Iowa of late and it very well could be a case of the rats are jumping off the ship. It’s quite possible there will be heads rolling in Iowa City.

More likely, Joe is guessing someone spotted Kaczenski talking to Dominik or Raheem about Adrian Clayborn and the person who sang to Joe was putting two-and-two together and coming up with five.

Joe really tried not to get all worked up watching the Senior Bowl yesterday, but the dreamer in Joe wouldn’t take a day off from envisioning another Lombardi Trophy for the Bucs.

Joe got fired up watching defensive end Ryan Kerrigan and running back Derrick Locke, and imaging them wearing pewter red. Those guys looked like potential impact players where the Bucs could use some juice.

During the broadcast, NFL Network draft guru and color analyst Mike Mayock said Kerrigan has an “unreal motor” and is “a starting left defensive end.” In the postgame, Matt Millen gushed about him: “The Kerrigan kid from Purdue, that’s a good football player. This kid can come off the ball. He’s got a good spin move. He plays with good leverage. He can burst.”

Joe suspects that Kerrigan would get many more sacks than the zero Kyle Moore recorded in his first 16 games played.

Locke, the little back/returner out of Kentucky, probably isn’t anything extraordinary, but just the sight of a change-of-pace back impacting a game — likely what the Bucs hoped Kareem Huggins would be — was enough to get Joe excited. 

Pretty cool feature by BSPN on Bucs Super Bowl-winning quarterback Brad Johnson.

Joe really liked this photo of LeGarrette Blount at the Gasparilla parade. From undrafted to 1,000 yards rushing to sitting on a float next to a naughty blond before screaming fans on a warm winter day. It’s good to be king.  …Photo courtesty of Joe’s media partners at WDAE-AM 620.

Already in San Diego training/rehabbing his torn bicep like a madman and loving it, per his Twitter acccount, Gerald McCoy fell a little less in love with his left coast experience on Friday.

McCoy wrote that he got punished by local cops for talking on his cell phone and driving.

Apparently driving and talking on the phone is illegal in Cali bc I just got a ticket for it!! Not even a warning. I have a Florida license.

Joe knows the dangers of chatting on the phone and/or texting and driving, but Joe will never understand how these states crack down on that stuff yet it’s perfectly legal to have two hands on a hamburger or a mitt in a bag fishing for a french fry.

Big Fast Food has quite a stranglehold on the government.

Joe’s bleary eyed this morning after watching NFL Network all night, which has been airing NFL Films versions of every Super Bowl.

If you don’t have NFL Network, well, you know what Joe thinks.

For those doing the couch potato thing this afternoon, the Bucs’ crushing of the Raiders is on at noon.

Each Super Bowl rewind is 30 minutes.

Watching this great stuff from years gone by, Joe sincerely hopes NFL Films founder Ed Sabol gets in the Hall of Fame this year.

He caught 46 balls, blocked like a champ, protected the football, and rushed for a whopping 6.4 yards per carry in the second half of the 2010 season, yet Cadillac Williams is just about washed up, so says BSPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas.

This take was floated by Yaskinskas during a live chat Friday on the website of the Bristol Soviets.

Robert (Arlington Tx)

Hey Pat…do u see Caddy staying Tampa next year? Or is he now considered a clunker?

Pat Yasinskas:  Hate to say it because I respect Caddy as much as any player in the league, but I think he is near end of the road.

Joe might have agreed with this take if Cadillac, who turns 29 in April, hadn’t been completely healthy over the past 32 games and extremely productive in his role as third-down back and running backs mentor.

Of course, “near the end of the road,” can be interpreted in many ways. But Joe thinks that’s harsh to drop on the soon-to-be free agent, and it makes Joe wonder whether Yasinskas watched every Bucs game.

If the Bucs are playing for a Super Bowl run in 2011, then Cadillac is a critical piece to the puzzle.

If the Bucs are still building their hypothetical “lasting contender,” then, sure, Cadillac is expendable. They could always draft a running back in, say, the third round, use Earnest Graham more on third down, and give Kregg Lumpkin and Kareem Huggins more looks.

Sniffing around all week at the Senior Bowl, Tampa Tribune beat writer Woody Cummings has dumped the tidbits in his notebook into a nifty little piece on TBO.com.

Among many subjects, Cummings writes of the Bucs’ commitment to the right side of their offensive line.

Should free agency come around, the Bucs will do everything they can to retain RG Davin Joseph. Though Derek Hardman played well in Joseph’s absence late last season, the Bucs believe Joseph is an integral part of their offensive line. They don’t necessarily feel the same about RT Jeremy Trueblood, but probably will try to retain him anyway. The Bucs don’t want to cut into their newfound depth along the offensive front, and letting Trueblood go would do that. …

ProFootballtalk.com reported Thursday that NFL teams will, in fact, have the typical use of their franchise player tags at the end of February. There was much uncertainty surrounding the franchise tag and the potential lockout.

The Bucs probably could slap the franchise tag on Davin Joseph for about $10.5 million, per Joe’s research. 

With the uncertainty surrounding 2011 free agency, which would be stopped and later restructed if a lockout kicked in early next month, maybe the safe route for the Bucs is to make Joseph their franchise guy rather than risk losing him on the market.

Joe can’t see a lot of negatives in making that move. Joe’s always leery of big guys and foot injuries, which Joseph has had during multiple seasons.

What’s wrong with making Joseph prove he’s durable before breaking the bank for him?

Joe follows lockout-related news religiously but doesn’t bore readers here with the details unless they legitimately relate to the Bucs somehow.

Like every other fan, Joe just wants football and has no capacity to understand why both sides would mess with the virtual cash machine that is the NFL. Make the sure the retired players have health coverage, pay the cheerleaders more, and split the rest and go play ball.

On Thursday the NFL invited 10 media types to its New York headquarters for an explanation of the all things lockout from the league perspective, as documented by Gregg Rosenthal of ProFootballtalk.com. Rosenthal penned a brief summary of the meeting with more detail forthcoming.

Apparently, the Bucs stated distaste for free agency could keep them away from a pile of good players.

… 495 players are scheduled to be free agents in 2011, with the assumption that the league goes back to a system where four accrued seasons are needed to become a free agent.  That number includes 170 starters and 70 Pro Bowl players.

It will be the biggest free-agent class ever, and it will have the highest percentage of starters available ever.

Joe’s heard Mark Dominik and Raheem Morris explain that they want to build through the draft and how free agency is the wrong path. But Joe can’t imagine the Bucs’ business model for greatness truly includes turning their nose at the biggest crop of free agents — and scores of young free agents — in recent history.

Call Joe stubborn. But that just makes no sense for a 10-6 team centimeters from the playoffs.

Friday morning a Bucs fan called to gush over his hero, Mr. Derrick Brooks, while the former Bucs great linebacker co-hosted “The Opening Drive” with Bob Papa, heard exclusively on Sirius NFL Radio.

The fan, after singing to Brooks, admitted that like many Bucs fans he loathed Bucs coach Raheem Morris but after seeing the Bucs’ turnaround and nearly make the playoffs this season, losing on a tiebreaker to the Super Bowl-bound Green Bay Packers, he is now warming to Raheem.

Brooks began talking about the Bucs, Raheem and Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman. Like others in the Bucs organization, Brooks thought Raheem was up to the task of being head coach, but having so many things thrown at him at once may have set the Bucs’ progress back temporarily, Brooks said.

“He was a defensive backs coach and in a matter of weeks went from defensive backs coach to defensive coordinator to interviewing for the head coaching job at Denver to being name head coach in Tampa Bay. That’s a lot of things to happen to a guy in a short time.

“He had to grow into the position. It showed what kind of coach he is that even when they were losing, the players played for him each play. They never quit.”

Brooks also touched upon the element that disturbs many Bucs followers. Despite the Bucs having one of the most exciting teams this past season, scores of empty seats were found at The CITS.

Brooks told Freeman how this can be solved:

“Whenever I see Josh I tell him that he has to get involved in the community, that he has to be seen in around town. You have to get out there and be with the people and then the community will embrace you. Until you do that, you will always be chasing the shadows of Mike Alstott and Lee Roy Selmon and Johnny Lynch and the rest of those guys.”

Brooks went on to say the Bucs are building an offense just like the Bucs built a defense under Sam Wyche, adding that in this spring’s draft, the Bucs “need an edge rusher.”

Look, if an intelligent man, a football man, a future Hall of Famer who knows what it takes to build a winner, Derrick Brooks, gives Raheem his stamp of approval, only the most hardcore, head-in-the-sand, bitterest of bitter haters would still want to jettison Raheem for no good cause.

Former Tampa talking head with different color eyeballs, Jay Crawford of BSPN, sits down with Josh Freeman to introduce him to America in this BSPN video.

Freeman buzzed around the Disney outfit this week. Perhaps he was cutting a goofy commercial for the Sovietesque empire.

Regular readers of Joe who subscribed to Joe’s draft coverage the past two years know just the type of unmatched draft coverage Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski, the sometimes host of the critically-acclaimed “Blitz” on WDAE-AM 620, can deliver with articles, podcasts and chats.

This year, Joe’s draft coverage will be free. Free Joe tells you!

To whet one’s appetite for Joe’s draft coverage, Justin has offered some tidbits on what Bucs fans should monitor during Saturday’s telecast of the Senior Bowl, broadcast live on the NFL Network with Mike Mayock as analyst. It can be seen on all cable carriers known to be found in real men’s living rooms.

Here is one player Justin suggests Bucs fans should pay particular attention to tomorrow: Jeremy Beal, a defensive end from Oklahoma.

Beal is slightly undersized and can get engulfed by bigger and more physical offensive linemen. One thing the Bucs will like from Beal is his work ethic, leadership, and competition level. Beal might be a nice grab for the Bucs in the 2nd round.

Sound familiar? Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is very big on character. Sounds like a Dominik-kinda guy to Joe. Think him and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy could work together?

Joe also believes that with the draft stocked with defensive ends, the Bucs will go after a linebacker in the first round because the Bucs can get better value there, and then draft a pair of defensive ends in the later rounds.

So the NFL’s youngest roster will be locked out of One Buc Palace and the structure of a team offseason program in March, if the NFL owners can’t get a new labor deal done with players in about six weeks.

One would think young, relatively immature professionals might struggle to stay dedicated to their bodies and craft without team oversight, versus a more veteran group of players. But Mark Dominik doesn’t buy that, so reports Woody Cummings, of The Tampa Tribune.

“The fact that we have so many young players here who stay in great shape and stay healthy is a plus for us,” he said. “All of those things I think work in our favor.”

Young players do need guidance, however, and Dominik said the Bucs have prepared for the possibility that those players may have to work out for weeks or even months without supervision.

“We’ve got our own plan mapped out,” he said without getting into the specifics of that plan. “I’m sure every club does but I’m also sure that every club doesn’t want to tell each other how they plan to do it.”

Joe disagrees with Dominik’s notion that the lockout scenario combined with the Bucs’ youth works in the team’s favor somehow. Please. Joe was once 24 with a pile of hard-earned money and understands what comes with freedom from authority.

Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 weeks ago, Bucs icon Derrick Brooks spoke at length about how the inability for players to train at One Buc Palace and stay connected to staff will be a major obstacle to every NFL club, especially a young one like Tampa Bay. And Joe’s heard Raheem Morris and Dominik speak at length about how many valuable teachings and lessons were delivered during the 2010 offseason program. (And they weren’t referring to Ronde Barber and other veterans.)

While Joe’s confident the Bucs have a great secret plan to foster team unity and focus without the leadership of coaches and official rules, Joe believes a lockout will hurt the Bucs more than most teams.

That said, Joe sincerely hopes Josh Freeman and the other captains find a way to get these informal workouts available to the public. A heck of a lot of money could be raised for charity through modest admission fees.

Joe suspected former Bucs guard Ian Beckles would hit the ceiling after reading the comments of Mark Dominik penned by Roy Cummings of The Tampa Tribune.

As Joe documented yesterday, Dominik praised Barrett Ruud’s splash plays and improvement, and the GM said he wanted Ruud to return, among other comments.

Beckles routinely hammers Ruud for being a soft player and, during his daily Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, multiple times Beckles has challenged anyone to break down film of Ruud and prove to Beckles that he’s a solid middle linebacker.

Today, Beckles said Dominik’s take on Ruud is tainted by lies.

“It’s a respect thing. He can’t believe it,” Beckles said of Dominik’s comments about Ruud.

Beckles scoffed at the suggestion that Ruud makes splash plays anywhere near the amount necessary for a good middle linebacker. And Beckles points to Ruud’s role in the Bucs’ porous run defense over the last 2 1/4 seasons.

Needless to say, Beckles says he’s certain Ruud won’t be back this season.

Yes, Joe’s a Rays nut, too. A real hardcore fan.

And that’s why you need to visit the can’t-miss JoeRaysFan.com on a daily basis. There’s a great breakdown there now of Rays payroll for 2011.  Put it in your favorites: JoeRaysFan.com.

You can talk Mel Kiper, Jr. all day long if you wish. You can babble about Todd McShay if the mood so strikes.

You can have them.

Though Joe truly enjoys listening to Kiper on sports radio, in Joe’s mind, there is no one that comes as close to the late, great Joel Buchsbaum as does NFL Network’s Mike Mayock.

Joe was listening to Mayock yesterday afternoon with Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan as the trio could be heard live from the Senior Bowl practices in Mobile, Ala., on “Movin’ the Chains,” heard exclusively on Sirius NFL Radio.

That 15-minute segment was worth Joe’s subscription for the month of January. It was simply outstanding and enlightening.

In short, Joe learned that Texas A&M linebacker Von Miller is simply blowing up everyone and everything, Florida State offensive lineman Rodney Hudson can play either guard or center at a high level and that Boise State wide receiver Titus Young is the second coming of DeSean Jackson both on and off the field, which is both good and bad, among many other tidbits.

Mayock, per TBO.com, has broken out his top players at each position and interestingly, Mayock has Iowa’s Adrian Clayborn rated higher at defensive end than Purdue’s Ryan Kerrigan and has Georgia linebacker Justin Houston rated as the No. 3 linebacker.

Houston is a player Joe has tried to monitor as Joe believes he may be a target for Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik at No. 20.

Browse through Mayock’s rankings and give Joe your feedback. As Ryan is wont to say on his Sirius NFL Radio show, “Talk about it.”

Bucs fans cringe when reminded of the lack of pressure Bucs defensive ends put on opposing quarterbacks last season.

Save for a game against the 49ers when the Bucs suddenly thought they were the old New York Sack Exchange, most quarterbacks could surf adult websites they had so much time in the pocket.

Expect Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to change that. First, defensive line coach Todd Wash was shipped Seattle. Second, while speaking to good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times at Senior Bowl practices this week in Mobile, Dominik all but told Holder the Bucs would draft a defensive end this April.

And the defensive building effort continues. The Bucs are confident the pass rushers in this draft offer an opportunity to address a key need. And they’re giving serious consideration to a number of ends. They anticipated the depth at end in this draft and waited to address that position.

“Before we go into any draft, we always talk to our scouts and say, ‘Okay, what’s 2012 going to look like?’ ” Dominik said. “It’s a heck of a group (in this year’s draft at defensive end). I don’t know how many are going to go in the first round, but it’s going to be a good number.”

Dominik could go several ways here. If there are several defensive ends that are good, don’t be surprised if Dominik loads up, like he did last spring on defensive tackles and wide receivers.

Also, if the defensive end pool is deep, Dominik may go after a linebacker in the first round if he believes he can get better quality defensive ends later in the draft than he could linebacker.

All in all, it sure looks like Dominik will load up on defensive ends and perhaps linebacker.

Per The Tampa Tribune, Mark Dominik doesn't want a new starting middle linebacker in 2011.

Pouring over game tape incessantly, as he is known to do, Bucs general manager Mark Dominik has reached a conclusion that he wants Barrett Ruud in the middle of his 2011 Bucs defense.

This news, sure to drive some Bucs fans to near insanity, comes courtesy of Tampa Tribune Bucs beat writer Woody Cummings, who chatted with the rock star general manager at the Senior Bowl festivities today.

“Barrett had another good season for us,” Dominik said. “He led our team in tackles again and he had more splash plays for us this year than he did the year before, which was good. Now we just have to sit down with his agent.

“And as these things always go, there’s always two sides to it. Just because you say you want to sign him and because they say they want to be back, that doesn’t mean that’s how it’s going to work out.”

As Joe wrote on New Year’s Day, Raheem Morris likely doesn’t want to part with his stated “quarterback of the defense,” even if he’s not on his way to a Pro Bowl anytime soon.

If there’s really an open checkbook from Team Glazer and a real drive to go for a Super Bowl now, then maybe Raheem wants the comfort level of Ruud in the middle and would rather invest in the positions around him.

Of course, there’s no guarantee Ruud and the Bucs will find common ground on cash.

Considering the possibility of a lost offseason program due to a lockout, Joe imagines that bringing in a rookie or outsider into the center of the defense would present a challenging task to get the guy up to speed in limited time.  

Should be a fascinating series of negotiations. Joe just can’t believe the two sides will be close together.

Over at TBO.com, NFL writer eye-RAH! Kaufman penned a story to remind everyone that today marks an important anniversary. A day that should send chills through every reader of these here pages.

On January 26, 2003, the Chucky-led Bucs won the Super Bowl by making the Raiders look like the 2010 Lions. … (Joe wonders whether Raheem Morris and Mark Dominik ever play with their Super Bowl rings in some sort of bizarre Wonder Twins–like ritual.)

The folks at Hulu.com, in conjunction with the NFL, offer up a glorious video reminder. “Feel the electricity,” says Gene Deckerhoff. Enjoy!

It seems Gerald McCoy hasn’t taken off to San Diego yet for the final phase of his rehabilitation. The guy the Bucs hope will anchor the defensive line for the next 10 years was in Manatee County yesterday talking to young kids about healthy lifestyles.

The Bradenton Herald followed him there and delivered a write-up of his “Play 60” appearance, part of the NFL’s effort to make you watch the same damn Falcons-on the school bus commercial get kids exercising.

McCoy said he became involved as soon as he was drafted.

“I have a passion for kids, so anything to do to help,” he said. “Kids are our future, and the kids I just spoke to will be us in a few years. … If I would have known this type of thing when I was younger, I probably would have been healthier a lot sooner.”

Last year on The Gerald McCoy Show on WDAE-AM 620, McCoy shared a story of how he was an extremely overweight kid whose father helped him focus on dedicating himself to becoming an elite athlete.

Joe wonders if any of the kids asked him what he thinks the Bucs will do about only having 10.5 sacks from all their defensive ends last season.