The countdown to the start of Bucs training camp continues. Saturday is scheduled to be the first day. 

But looking across the NFL landscape, few first round draft picks have signed. Yet.

It’s a leverage tug-of-war between agents and owners. Agents are trying to get long-term deals for their clients. Cash-starved owners are trying to sign first round picks to shorter contracts.

This has not escaped the keen eyes of the TBO.com gang, specifically Anwar Richardson and Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune. In the latest TBO Bucs vlog, the duo discuss McCoy’s contract negotiations.

Just don’t expect him in camp for a few days.

First, Joe has to caution you: the audio in the vlog is not of a high quality so don’t go beating up your computer thinking it’s on the fritz. Second, is that some sort of Chad Pennington Jets shirt Richardson is wearing?

There’s going to be gobs and gobs of Donald Penn chatter in the coming days. Joe just hopes it’s not as ridiculous as the stuff St. Pete Times’ beat writer Rick Stroud, aka The Mad Twitter, is trying to sell today.

Fresh off an extended vacation, The Mad Twitterer tries to tell fans that left tackles won’t be in demand in 2011, in part because teams are pretty well set at that position.

But like any NFL team, the Bucs place a higher value on the left tackle position, especially after investing so much in Freeman.

The 2011 draft class is believed to be rich in left tackles and there could be more than 300 unrestricted free agents next year if a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. Only a handful of teams are expected to be in desperate need of a left tackle next year.

Joe suspects that rather than Stroud doing exemplary research on the subject of 2011 left tackles, he got this line of hooey from Bucs executives who are trying to scare Penn.

No reasonable football observer would dare publish leaguewide need at the left tackle position a year in advance, when guys routinely go down with injuries, lose their effectiveness and insist on getting paid more than their team will pay.

Of course, one year ago, no football expert would have predicted the Bucs would be concerned about their left tackle position because the team had a young, effective player at that spot.  

That would be Donald Penn.

Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson

By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback.

With no more World Cup futbol/soccer and only baseball highlights to choose from, ESPN recently ran a three-day special on Jon Gruden’s days as the assistant offensive line coach at Carrollwood Day School.

It was much needed feel-good programming at a time when there isn’t much fooball news — unless it’s bad news.

ESPN went back to the gold mine that they got pre-draft, when their Monday Night Football star brought us four days of QB meetings he had with the top prospects in the draft. I anticipated that show greatly, as coaching the quarterback position is my passion as well, but nowhere near the same planet of passion as Gruden. Nobody can match that.  I enjoyed the peek inside the QB meeting room with these soon-to-be millionaires and was entertained, as well, but probably not for the same reasons as most.

Gruden became infamous because of his “Chucky” faces and profane sideline language, and now he is working with 14-18 year old young men.

There are sure to be a lot more “Jiminy Christmases” in his vocabulary now than his other well-known catchphrases on his pro practice fields and game sidelines. The “Jovial Jon” was certainly on display during the camera’s visit to the North Tampa campus and seemed to be on his best behavior, likely since it is the offseason and the game intensity isn’t turned up during these “mic’d up” sessions. 

If you ever wondered why some players might have grown weary of Gruden and turned their ears off over time, just listen to the total number of words that are said and the percentage that actually have something to do with the play or concept. 

Young guys can really be dazzled by the volume of words, but the older you get the more you look for substance over quantity. And all those words just become “blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada”.

After doing the QB segment before the draft, I bet Colt McCoy and his agent weren’t too happy about Gruden talking about him being extremely small or how hard his southern accent that is to understand. Neither of those things is football-related, as he lead Texas the national title game calling plays and he is just as tall as the current Super Bowl MVP.

Players can only handle so much between their ears. Too too much extraneous nonsense starts getting tuned out or taken offensively.

Two things stood out to me in the first installment of Gruden with the high schoolers. The first is just how much fluff is thrown out there (e.g. patting the blocking sled, telling it how well it did stopping two players from pushing it down the field). There is a fine line between coaching and demeaning players.

I have always said I liked John Robinson as a head coach because he could “call you out” for not getting your job done and pat you on the back when you corrected your mistake without ridiculing the player(s). Constant jawing, if it doesn’t help the player improve technique, can really wear players out. Old married guys can relate to this as their wives just keep talking and talking, even though they got the point long beforehand and turned the volume switch off long ago.

The second thing is Gruden’s offense, which the Bucs may be much closer to running these days than they were a year ago at this point.

Remember, in July and August of last year, Jeff Jagodzinski and Raheem Morris had decided to be a hard running and down-field passing play-action team. It wasn’t until September that the offense went into Greg Olson’s hands.

I’m not sure what the offensive verbiage was during last season, but they couldn’t haven changed all the language and lingo back just a couple days before the season.  Olson may now have a split between his Rams days in “The Greatest Show On Turf,” under Mike Martz’s timing offense, and his more recent time with Gruden’s version of the “West Coast Offense.”

Hearing Gruden try to get an offensive lineman to understand the concept of “razor and lazer” line calls was interesting, as you hear how closely the two sound and how they could be misheard with a little crowd noise. I’m sure the Bucs used “Razor” and “Lazer” calls on their way to the Lombardi Trophy, so missing those calls probably hasn’t been a big issue and everyone on the defensive line of the opposing team knows what those calls mean anyway, but rhyming words aren’t a great habit to make in calls at the line or in the huddle.

Not everyone can see the QB’s mouth in the huddle and could miss that first sound of the word. Other common calls are “Roger/Louie, Rip/Liz, Ricky/Lucky”.  Each of these calls tells a player to block left or right based on the first letter in the word.  As you see in the other examples, each word starts with an “L” or “R” for right or left, but ends with a different sound.  It only takes one person to hear “razor” when it was a “lazer” call to have bad things happen.

Anyway, the videos are great entertainment for guys that love the HBO “Hardknocks” series or anything football in July when programming is minimal. And checking in on the most famous high school assistant offensive line coach in the world every once in a while is pretty good stuff, too.

It’s Tuesday morning. In four days the Bucs will be sweating in the heat of a Florida summer sun at One Buc Palace and football season in the Tampa Bay area will unofficially be underway.

And Donald Penn will not be there.

The Bucs stud offensive left tackle, embroiled in a contract dispute with the Bucs, sat out all offseson workouts and the man who arguably was the Bucs best player last season may not show up for some time.

That’s the word from eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune as he Twittered a cautionary tale on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed that Penn won’t be around for some weeks.

Four days until players report and the Bucs have to be resigned to the likelihood that Donald Penn won’t be showing up for duty.

Frankly, Joe doesn’t expect Penn to show up either. Oh, he will return to the Bucs in time to play the opening game. Penn just won’t show up for two-a-days.

Joe can’t really say he blames Penn.

This is not a joke. And Joe thinks this is pretty cool.

A swanky Hollywood outfit is coming to town soon to shoot a new football tailgate chef reality TV show, and it needs people in the “audience” to act like crazy Bucs fans and gorge on barbecue.

Tough job, huh? Read below to get in the audience.

Just FOUR more days til the pads come on at training camp!

That makes Joe wonder, are the Bucs going to “sell out” the first practice or what? Jimminy Christmas! Where are all the football-starved fans? How are free tickets still available?

Now if you’re fired up for training camp like Joe, and you’re seeking a fun, in-depth (and free) look at the Bucs offense, look no further than former Bucs defensive end Steve White’s blog.

White, also a treasured JoeBucsFan.com analyst, calls it as he sees it, and he’s got some real interesting takes on Earnest Graham, the Bucs receiving corps and much more.

Here’s some of his tight ends breakdown:

The last few years Jerramy Stevens has been a fixture on offense. Last year however he might as well have been a hood ornament. On the one hand I lay blame at the feet of offensive coordinator Greg Olson who rarely used Stevens as a pass catching option, even in obvious situations near the goal line where he could have used his size and athleticism to out jump the defender. But on the other hand his blocking was piss poor. I mean it was frustrating to watch him get dominated game after game by defensive ends who weren’t much bigger than he was. I said it last year and I stand by it, the biggest problem with our running game wasn’t our offensive line, but instead it was our tight ends. Unfortunately Winslow is who he is, he ain’t gonna turn into a road grater over night. That means whomever backs him up is going to have to assume that role.

Maybe Stevens will come out with a better attitude this year and commit to being a dominant blocker. If he does that’s great. If not then its time to move on and let the next guy get a shot. I like John Gilmore but his technique was all screwed up last year. He obviously had the will to block but not the way. I think Ryan Purvis also has some potential as an inline blocker. I don’t really care who wins the job but SOMEBODY is going to have to be willing to put their face on people if we intend on running the ball this year.  Last year we kept three and I personally would rather the two after Winslow be big time blockers and good special teams guys.

Joe couldn’t agree more regarding Stevens. Aside from Joe hoping he never lives near one of his female relatives, Joe is doubtful that Stevens makes the team if Winslow proves to be as healthy as he was last year.

Olson doesn’t know how to use the King of Turds, and he is an absolute waste product on special teams and in the run game.

It seems Mark Dominik is about to ink yet another drafted player. Joe’s good friend Jason La Canfora, of NFL.com, is reporting via his Twitter feed that a deal with wide receiver Arrelious Benn is about to happen.

@JasonLaCanfora: Bucs making good progress with 2nd round pick Arrelious Benn. Deal could be done today. WR could start right away.

This is very good news in Joe’s eyes. Joe believes that Benn is a sleeper and it seems others do too. The sooner Benn can be signed, the better.

When Team Glazer decided the Bucs needed a youth movement and said goodbye to Bruce Almighty and Chucky, Mark Dominik was handed the franchise.

Like many men responsible for rebuilding the team, he decided to go the smart route and build through the draft.

This philosophy seems to get the nod of approval from one of Raheem the Dream’s predecessors, former Bucs secondary coach and NFL head coach Herm Edwards. Twittering Tuesday morning as he is wont to do, Herm wrote about the best way to build a team.

@greiner3:  what’s their best way to do it the draft or free agency?

@HermEdwardsESPN:  Build your foundation threw the draft& use FA as a filler.

That’s exactly what Dominik has preached for the past year but few are listening. Dominik wants to build the Bucs like Rich McKay did: good drafts and when the Bucs get over the hump, go out and get free agents to fill holes to have a team that competes for a Super Bowl year after year.

Two things Joe enjoys about sports are strategy and athletic ability. Also, the fact sports by and large is devoid of algebraic formulas also helps.

That’s what has saddened Joe about baseball, which Joe is also fond of. In the past decade or so, the calculator crowd has tried to take over the game. Why, if you don’t subscribe to their convoluted, made up stats like OBGYN or some such tripe, you are some ignorant neanderthal.

Yet, if the spreadsheeters actually knew as much about baseball as they would have people believe/conned, they’d all be drunk on their private beach in the Caymans with a harem of babes after having rendered Vegas bankrupt and broken.

In short, these guys suck the life out of baseball.

That’s why Joe is leery at times of the good guys at FootballOutsiders.com. They do some good stuff but tend to lean too heavily on made up stats.

Football, like baseball, is played on the field, not on Excel software. So Joe was dubious when he read a piece from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune citing FootballOutsiders.com’s 2010 almanac, in which they claim the Bucs will finish with a .500 record.

The folks who put together Football Outsiders Almanac, a highly-detailed and well-researched volume that some NFL teams refer to regularly, have the unheralded Bucs winning eight games this year.

They base their conclusion on a number of factors, including a relatively soft schedule, the development of players and up down the roster and the belief that quarterback Josh Freeman will throw fewer interceptions.

This is where Joe has to do a Mike North and yell, “Time out… time out… time… !”

Exactly how is Josh Freeman supposed to make leaps and bounds when he has no running game to speak of and limited targets? Those targets will become thinner if Kellen Winslow’s knee can’t hold up for the full season, not an unlikely proposition.

At least last year Freeman had Antonio Bryant to throw to.

Softer schedule? OK, Joe buys that. And Joe also agrees the rest of the young Bucs will develop, but not in the 2010 season; not yet.

Bucs fans often debate what the team must accomplish to have a “successful” season in 2010.

Of course, coming off a 3-13 season and lacking proven talent and experience means expectations are low.

For many, ultimately, every season is all about the wins and losses. But improvement — or failure — won’t be that simple to measure, explains former Bucs defensive end Steve White, a JoeBucsFan.com analyst.

On his Passing On The Game blog, White touches on evaluting the Bucs’ improvement. He  explains that losing by single digits, as well as winning, will be important. Joe recommends you read his piece.

13, 13, 24, 19, 28, 31, 23,

No those aren’t the lottery numbers from last night.  Those are some of the margins of defeat from last year.  In 5 games we were outscored by 19 points or more. Twice that number was 28 or higher.

Joe agrees with White’s take.

And Joe might also express it this way: that for Raheem The Dream to keep his job the Bucs need to lose games because they are short on talent, not short on coaching, desire and preparation, which was far too often the case last year.

Stalinist BSPN and many other national media types are making a bid deal about Cowboys rookie wide reciever Dez Bryant refusing to abide by the rookie tradition of carrying fellow receiver Roy Williams’ sweaty pads after practice last night.

Joe couldn’t care less.

But Joe did see some commentary on the situation, and about rookie receivers in general, from Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw. He managed to dampen hopes of Bucs fans for Arrelious Benn and Michael Williams, and insult Michael Clayton in one paragraph.

Rookie wide receivers are mostly irrelevant figures in today’s NFL. Unless you have the unmatched skills of Randy Moss, unless you can pull off the total surprise of Tampa Bay’s Mark Clayton (never to be repeated), first-round picks just do not produce 1,000-yard totals in their rookie season.

Clayton’s been reduced to a trivia question and a guy who’s first name gets botched. These are humiliating times for the blocking icon.

As for Williams and Benn, as Joe has written before, if these guys grab 30+ balls each, show decent hands and make their share of big plays, Bucs fans should be quite happy. Don’t expect miracles from rookies.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also wants you to get to know THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

Now writing on a variety of websites, I find a common comment I get to my articles a little annoying. No matter what it is I’m saying about the Bucs, there will always be someone somewhere who feels the need to remind me that last year the Bucs won only three games.

“Anyway you look at it, this is a 3-13 team,” or something like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all against taking splits and counting them as is. I would never call the 2008 team an 0-4 team, nor would I call it a 9-3 team. They were 9-7; Jeff Garcia pretty much started each game, and you can’t really feel the team played that much different when Brian Griese started in his place.

Even though Luke McCown started a few games in 2007, it wasn’t that different of a team from Garcia’s to change the record of the ’07 Bucs; they were 9-7, too.

Well, let me tell you something, last year’s Bucs team had two different records because it was two different teams.

And NO, I don’t mean the team’s were split by their starting quarterbacks. You have the First team, which  was Byron Leftwich/Josh Johnson/Josh Freeman playing with Jim Bates’ defense, and then the Second team with Freeman and Raheem Morris as defensive coordinator.

You cannot even think about the 2010 Bucs’ chances against the Cleveland Browns and start thinking about the Josh Johnson-led Buccaneers playing against the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s just not the same team folks, and that is something a lot of people are going to have a hard time understanding; the difference.

The 1986 Bucs were a 2-14 team; they played the same way in the beginning and end of the season, and there was no mistaking the way they approached the game.

Last year, the Bucs teams that played the Saints and Seahawks would have easily handled the Redskins, Cowboys, and Panthers (at home), and probably would have fared a lot better against Buffalo, too.

Of course, you just can’t do that, this is the National Football League, and what you see is what you get.

There is going to be a Morris-led, Tampa-2 style defense taking the field in September that won’t be wondering ‘how do we play this new system?’ Instead, it will approach the gameplan like a defense that has been to war together before, and it should be better prepared than a 2009 Jim Bates defense to take over a Browns team that will look more similar to the ‘09 Bucs than anything else — a little green and a little like a team that only won a few games last year.

Joe took pause this weekend after reading the Tampa Tribune’s in-depth look at the declining health of the Buccaneers who played on the 1979 team that lost in the NFC Championship.

It’s sad that the NFL isn’t more aggressively taking care of these players.

How much the league should give and how much these guys’ problems are a result of football is up for debate. But it’s clear the NFL isn’t doing nearly enough.

The entire Broken Bucs feature package from the Tribune and TBO.com is quite good. Here’s just one excerpt that hit Joe in the gut.

A writer once described [Jimmy] Giles as having a Mack truck body and Corvette speed. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds, remarkable for a 245-pound man. Now, 100 pounds heavier, he is unsure about walking to his mailbox.

His bad knees, four degenerative discs in his back and three in his neck are miserable reminders of a glorious but violent career. He finds relief in epidural injections. The Social Security Administration declared him disabled, but NFL doctors have repeatedly denied him disability benefits, saying he was capable of doing sedentary work.

Beyond the physical anguish, Giles forgets things. He abruptly shut down his financial services company in 2007 after becoming disoriented on the job.

“All of the sudden, one day, man, I couldn’t remember where in the heck I was,” said Giles, 55, who filed for bankruptcy in March. “I had to give that business up because it required a lot of thinking. I’m dealing with people … and their lives and fortunes.”

Giles estimates he had about a dozen concussions during his NFL career.

Had he known how his health would deteriorate, Giles, a four-time Pro Bowl player, wouldn’t have chased the NFL dream. “Absolutely would not play,” Giles said with conviction. “Absolutely would not.”

Ugly stuff.

About four years ago, Joe worked in an office with a 40-something former NFL player who played eight seasons and had a very solid career. This guy was in A+ shape, but he had one problem. He walked very gingerly, like a man 35 years older might move. 

One day, Joe asked him if he was OK. He replied, “I’m fine. That’s just playing on turf in the NFL.”

Joe knows there are Bucs fans outside Florida that read him. So Joe has good news, sort of.

Per Michael Hiestand, of USA Today, the NFL is set to announce today that for a nominal fee, all NFL preseason games not broadcast on a national network will be streamed live on NFL.com next month.

The NFL Network and NFL.com, says spokesman Dennis Johnson, will formally announce today that preseason games will air live online for the first time. Through a $40 subscription package, NFL.com will stream 54 games live, not including 11 games on national TV. NFLN airs 10 preseason games live.

Now Joe knows the NFL Network broadcasts all NFL preseason games on a tape-delay basis. Still for reasons Joe cannot comprehend nor fathom, some people actually prefer to have low-rent cable operations that don’t carry the NFL Network. Sad but true.

Joe can understand women not wanting the NFL Network, but if someone born with male genitalia does not have the NFL Network, they truly need to turn in their man card.

Happy Bucs fans and frustrated Bucs fans all have one thing in common: they’d love to be sporting a Gerald McCoy jersey.

So quit procrastinating and order a McCoy jersey today from Buccaneer Heaven. It’ll show up at your door before you know it — just in time to make you forget last season.

Not only is Buccaneer Heaven the official merchandiser of JoeBucsFan.com. It’s a longtime Tampa company completely dedicated and devoted to the fans of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There’s no reason to shop at the mall or at NFL.com when you can give your money to the good guys and big-time Bucs fans at Buccaneer Heaven.

If this is truly the final season for Ronde Barber, Peter King believes he will finish his NFL career without a trip to the playoffs.

Bucs fans, if you have cleared your January weekends in hopes the Bucs make the playoffs, start making other plans.

Why? Because Peter King says so.

The vaunted Sports Illustrated reporter returned over the weekend to type his must-read “Monday Morning Quarterback” column and listed the Bucs as three NFL teams that have no shot at a postseason berth.

Today is time for hope. I tweeted the other day the reason this is such a fun time is because 32 teams think they have a chance to make the playoffs right now, and I think about 28 actually do. (Scratch St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Buffalo and probably Cleveland, though I guess it’s possible Jake Delhomme can be reborn and the Browns could eke out nine wins.) Detroit? Kansas City? Seattle? Not dead at all. They can all throw the ball, and all have made some defensive progress.

While Joe believes the Bucs will be better off down the road, there’s going to be a lot of growing pains for so many rookies the Bucs are banking on to succeed this season.

Yesterday on Tampa Bay Sports Central hosted by local electronic sports media czar J.P. Peterson, seen locally on WTOG-TV Channel 44, virtually the entire episode was devoted to former Bucs quarterback Shaun King.

The former star of Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg lived his dream being able to quarterback the Bucs. King joked about how he used to sneak out of his dad’s church services on SUndays (his father was a Baptist minister) so King could watch Bucs road games on TV (home games were virtually always blacked out in those days).

But amid his dream was a nightmare, Trent Dilfer. King, smartly, didn’t completely go off on Dilfer during the interview but it was clear that the two, despite at one time also being colleagues at BSPN, do not exchange Christmas cards.

“He wasn’t very helpful,” King chuckled about the Bucs former interception machine. In short, Dilfer saw King as a threat to his job and as a result, offered little to no assistance to the rookie, who indeed did unseat Dilfer.

Maybe if Dilfer didn’t create more turnovers than a Publix bakery, he wouldn’t have had to worry about King. Instead of worrying about his own putrid play, Dilfer was apparently worried about King. That may explain some things.

Interestingly, Peterson added that Dilfer was not a pleasant guy to deal with from a media perspective in his final years with the Bucs.

King also noted that Dilfer was so thin-skinned, he would be giddy prior to kickoff of home games when Dilfer would learn the defense, and not the offense, would be announced over the public address system in pregame ceremonies. This way, Dilfer wouldn’t be booed by the fans.

Joe finds it galling that Dilfer seemed more concerned about the fans’ reaction to him than, say, that day’s gameplan. How the fans react to you shouldn’t even been on your brain prior to a game!

Later in his Bucs days, King was told that he would no longer be a starter, after he succeeded Dilfer, when the Bucs acquired Brad Johnson.

“I remember that more than I remember the NFC Championship,” King said, referring to the infamous Bert Emmanuel catch/non-catch that may have cost the Bucs a trip to the Super Bowl.

King went on to laud Johnson as being “a great guy” and a solid teammate and King has absolutely no ill feelings toward Johnson.

“I learned a lot from Brad.”

King told Peterson that when he came out of Tulane University, he thought he was going to be drafted by the 49ers in the first round. That didn’t happen and he had a hunch the Bucs might draft him in the second round, which actually came true.

King was so excited when Father Dungy called him on draft day and asked him if he was ready to be a Bucs quarterback, King “threw the phone against the wall” and never was able to answer Father Dungy nor did King hear another word that Father Dungy said.

“I never thought I could be a cheerleader but at that moment, I would have made a major college cheerleading squad,” King said.

Another interesting nugget was that King damned near went to the University of Tennessee. He was about to sign with the Volunteers but balked when he realized Peyton Manning was the quarterback and even at that time, King knew he wouldn’t see the field much with Manning barking signals.

The other day Joe scoffed at those who are so sure Donald Penn will be at training camp this week and ready for opening day.

Now uber columnist Gary Shelton, of the St. Pete Times, has joined the ranks of those who believe Penn’s once inflated now shrunken stomach has enough strength left to skip the preseason.

Shelton opined about Vegas odds and the Bucs today, and he tossed in his own over-under line on Penn arriving at One Buc Palace.

Bodog wouldn’t put a line on it, but I think Donald Penn reports to camp Sept. 3.

Sept. 3 is the day after the Bucs final exhibition game in Houston.

Joe hopes Freeman’s ready to run for his life during the preseason.

Six days from the start of Bucs training camp and Joe can almost smell the sweat. This week, Joe’s going to bring you quite a few previews, both team and position. In this BSPN video, Trey Wingo, Cris Carter and Eric Allen break down the NFC South.

Carter, in short, believes Raheem the Dream has to rely on his coaching roots for the Bucs to be successful.

"Support is not going to come from the average fan," Raheem The Dream told The Tampa Tribune.

Raheem The Dream is back talking to the media again, as the MSM revs up for the start of training camp on Saturday. (Joe, conversely, is revved up 24/7 in a never ending quest to serve JoeBucsFan.com readers.)

Good guy Anwar Richardson, part of the Bucs beat team at The Tampa Tribune, caught up with Raheem The Dream and seemingly asked him a pointed question about fan support for his young squad coming off a putrid season.

Raheem The Dream delivered one of his trademark nearly non-sensical answers.

With only one week of training camp open to the public this year, Morris is not concerned about Bucs fans jumping off the bandwagon. Instead, he plans to use last year’s struggles as motivation for his players and to regain fan support.

“The support is not going to come from the average fan. The support is going to come from the Buccaneer lover,” Morris said. “The 3-13 will help us thrive. The 3-13 is what’s going to make us. The 3-13 is what we’re going to look at, set examples for, and go out and really punish people for it.”

Joe loves Raheemspeak season almost as much as he loves football season.

So what’s the head coach trying to say, that the average Bucs fan won’t get that the Bucs are rebuilding with a bunch of talented, unproven guys and therefore won’t support the team?

Hey, Rah, take Joe’s advice, when you’re inevitably asked about fan support again, try sticking with a response that explains how you know fans will support this team once they see how violent, talented and dynamic it is on both sides of the ball. Or talk about how the support will come quickly because you’re going to win more games and fans will quickly see that this team is way more mature and intense than it was last year, from the head coach to the guys at the end of the bench.

And there’s always the other option, Rah, just stop talking.

Hollywood got on the phone to Joe seeking crazed Bucs tailgate chefs for a new TV show.

So Joe is doing his part to make you famous. Read the details below. This is totally legitimate. There’s an open casting call this Sunday and Monday at Mugs Grill & Bar in Clearwater. …Be there. Joe also recommends you e-mail ahead, BackyardBlitzcasting@gmail.com, to possibly get a leg up on the competition.