Popular sports TV and radio personality Adam Schein and NFL insider Jason La Canfora discuss the circling of sharks around One Buc Palace in this CBS Sports video.

The alleged angst in the Bucs’ locker room between Bucs commander Greg Schiano and various Bucs players is all the rage among national media types.

Enter BSPN. You know the subject is blowing up if it reaches the lips from the mouths of Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of”Mike and Mike” fame. The duo queried NFL insider Adam Schefter to find out what exactly is going on at One Buc Palace.

Mike Greenberg: There are increasing signals of friction with players. We know he doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Josh Freeman. What is going on under the surface there with Greg Schiano and just how bad is it?

Adam Schefter: No. 1, you have a guy coming into a situation where the reason they made a coaching change in Tampa was because it was very loose before. So they wanted a very stricter, more disciplined approached. And they hired a guy who had brought that to Tampa. It takes a while to adjust to that. It takes a while to implement that. Bill Belichick did something similar in New England. Tom Coughlin did something very similar in New York. You heard various points early in their coaching careers how unpopular they were at those times and what happens is, they won and those criticisms and questions went away. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year are 10 seconds away — 10 seconds! — from being 2-0. And they are not. They are 0-2. OK? And because they are 0-2, and because they lost those games in 10 seconds, everybody now is out to get Greg Schiano. That’s what is going on because that type of approach needs winning to make it more palatable.

Bingo! If the Bucs had been 2-0, if Lavonte David hadn’t pulled a stupid stunt on Jets quarterback Geno Hayes Smith, if the Bucs had made a field goal late against the Saints, nobody would be talking about Schiano and his relationship with players.

Winning cures all ills. Sadly, with the 0-2 start, this is not likely to die down soon as the playoffs now appear to be a pipe dream.

And Joe is sick about it.

Patriots beat writer Doug Kyed brings fresh news from practice today, talking about progress (or lack thereof) made by tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Danny Amendola, the Patriots’ wounded stars. Kyed explains that Amendola can barely run but Gronkowski is much improved yet still doubtful for Sunday. He hits on other points of interest, as well, in this NESN.com video.

The great Mike Florio, the creator, curator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com, discusses the rumor of friction between Darrelle Revis and Bucs coach Greg Schiano in this NBC Sports video.

With the sharks circling around the Bucs as the team’s chase for a playoff berth has virtually blown up just eight days into the season, with the anti-Bucs management cabal doing its best to muddy the waters, one large NFL establishment type has come out swinging in Schiano’s defense.

And that man is none other than Bill Belicheat himself.

The Patriots strongman spoke to the Tampa Bay pen and mic club this morning and strongly defended the Bucs’ embattled commander.

The Bucs “are a couple of plays away from being 2-0,” Belicheat said. Schiano “is an outstanding coach. Does a great job with his team and his players. He understands the game and is very thoughtful, creative and is always looking for a better way to do things, always looking to improve and find a better way to coach, prepare or motivate. Personally, he is very well respected among his players.

“The Eric LeGrand situation, the way he has handled that has been unbelievable and a great look into the personal connection and devotion he has to his players and loyal to people in his program.”

Those are strong words coming from one of the better coaches to have ever stalked the sidelines in the NFL and, frankly, holds just a bit more weight to Joe than people from the anti-Bucs management cabal hiding in the shadows as unnamed sources with national media types.

In this CBS Sports video, popular sports TV and radio personality Adam Schein, along with Shannon Sharpe, Bart Scott, former Raiders executive Amy Trask and CBS Sports Radio host Brandon Tierney, discuss the rumor that Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman wanted a trade. Sharpe claims Freeman has to look no further than his mirror for the source of his problems.

Bucs safety Dashon Goldson will not be suspended for the Bucs game with New England for headhunting, but he will be $100,000 lighter in the wallet.

Kevin Patra of NFL.com has the details.

Bucs safety Dashon Goldson had his one-game suspension overturned, NFL Media insider Ian Rapoport reported Wednesday, according to a league source.

Goldson was suspended by the NFL for an illegal hit on New Orleans Saints running back Darren Sproles in Week 2.

Rapoport reported that Goldson will be fined $100,000 for the hit, equaling the record price tag Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was hit with for being a habitual violator of the NFL’s safety rules.

Obviously Joe is happy about this. The Bucs secondary needs all hands on deck when facing Tom Brady, Bill Belicheat and the Patriots this Sunday.

Playing without Goldson would have been a major blow.

Greg Schiano is on high alert

Former Buccaneers Aqib Talib and LeGarrette Blount may not be the smartest guys to roam the earth, but they do have plenty of intelligence when it comes to the New Schiano Order, a regime that is no fan of leaked secrets.

Talib and Blount are now thriving under Bill Belicheat in New England, where the Bucs head Sunday.

Greg Schiano was clear, speaking on WDAE-AM 620 Monday, that he is on high alert to negate the knowledge Talib and Blount have no doubt passed on to their coaches and teammates.

“The thing that comes into play is that [Talib and Blount] do know and have an intimate knowledge of a lot of the things that we do,” Schiano said. “So we have to make sure that if there’s anything we feel that we can be compromised, you know, from an intelligence standpoint we have to make sure to change it up. That’s part of the game as well, knowing what they know and trying to adjust it.”

This sharing of knowledge is especially important this week, Joe believes, especially considering Talib and Blount represent both sides of the ball. And, if the Bucs, as Schiano says, “change it up,” then that could lead to more communication issues for a team that’s struggled with that. Lastly, Joe suspects Blount and Talib are extremely motivated to focus on every detail that could lead to a victory against Schiano.

It seems Greg Schiano and Josh Freeman are on the same no-worries page — for the same reason.

Yesterday morning, Joe brought you word from Schiano saying how he expects Freeman to “get a little mojo going” very soon, in part, because the Bucs offense and Freeman started slowly last season and needed to find a “rhythm” before humming inOctober.

Last night, Freeman got on his WDAE-AM 620 radio show and sang a similar tune. Freeman reminded listeners that the offense was slow out of the gate in 2012 and “we came on midway through the season”

“This offense has a lot of moving parts,” Freeman said, “getting in that rhythm is a big part of it.”

While this gives Joe hope, it is very troubling.

If Schiano is so cool and unfazed by a slow-starting offense, then he should have done more — or something different — in preseason or training camp, or with playcalling the past two weeks, to ensure the offense would come out humming versus what happened in 2012. All those “moving parts” clearly needed more work. Freeman is all but saying it outright.

When it comes to discussing the quarterback position of the Bucs, the discussion is split in two. There are the Freemanites who believe nothing is ever the fault of Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman.

Then there is the notorious Mike Glennon Mob, whose members want Freeman gone right now and for Bucs commander Greg Schiano to insert their savior as the starting signal-caller.

(No, Joe can only remember hearing/reading one or two examples of someone with the stones to suggest Schiano should turn to Dan Orlovsky, who frankly should only see the light of day in a dire emergency. These people are nocturnal creatures. You know they are out there somewhere, but you rarely see or hear them.)

Though it is unclear if olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball box score-reading Peter King of theMMQB.com and SI.com is a card-carrying member of the Mike Glennon Mob, he surely is not a Freemanite. King took a side Tuesday while appearing with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on “Mad Dog Unleashed,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.

Chris “Mad Dog” Russo: Tampa is 0-2. Schiano — a lot of grumbling going on down there. They are going to New England. Freeman hasn’t been great. What’s the status of the Bucs right now? What can you tell me?

Peter King: The guy who is going to walk the plank at the end of the year is Josh Freeman. I would doubt sincerely if Greg Schiano is going to join him. They have invested too much in Schiano. There is not enough evidence, yet, to me, that his players aren’t going to play for him. Yeah, are there brush fires out there with some guys saying they don’t like Schiano? Yes. But in my opinion when the quarterback plays well, when they can get a quarterback who can play well, to me, I think they are going to be OK. The one thing about Schiano is — again, remember a couple of things: When Bill Belichick was in Cleveland — and I think both Belichick and Schiano have a lot in common; Belichick has a very, very, very high regard for Schiano — but when Bill Belichick was in Cleveland everybody hated him. Everybody really hated him whether it was the media or some guys on the team. It is very, very hard to give a guy two years to turn things around on any program if you don’t have a quarterback. Belichick had all that time in Cleveland. And after Kosar he didn’t have a quarterback either. I would not put Schiano in the endangered species category after he coached 18 NFL games.

Here’s the thing about both Freeman and Schiano. First is, Freeman is not playing as badly as the Mike Glennon Mob would have you believe. As Joe pointed out yesterday, just don’t look at his stats. Against the Saints, Freeman got absolutely no help from his receivers due to dropped passes and not getting their feet down in bounds.

But Schiano isn’t doing a bad job, either. Sure, it could be much better. But let’s think about this.

Schiano came in to turn around a team that had an absolute garbage defense riddled with malcontents and scumbags. He turned the worst rush defense into the best. This year, who the hell would have guessed that the Bucs would be leading the NFC in sacks? The Bucs were terrible at rushing the passer last year and Schiano appears to have fixed that, like he fixed the rush defense the previous season.

The Bucs are currently 18th in pass defense (better than the Giants, Dolphins, Cardinals, Vikings, Crows, Broncos, Dixie Chicks and Packers) up from near-NFL historic worst last season.

In Joe’s eyes, it’s clear Schiano has made significant headway into two of the worst elements of the team; complete turnarounds in fact, and has done a credible job in a third area.

Joe will even say that Schiano in the past 18 games has done more than any Bucs head coach since Chucky took the Bucs to the promised land. After winning the Super Bowl, did Chucky do a complete makeover of a unit to make it among the best in the NFL? Did Raheem Morris?

Unless the Bucs implode the rest of the way, Joe thinks Schiano will be back in 2014.

Freeman? That’s a little more complex.

In the midst of the Darrelle Revis documentary, part of the NFL Network’s “A Football Life” series, NFL Network reporter Andrea Kremer, who has been following Revis for months in putting together the documentary, had a news update during a commercial break to address national rumors that Revis is unhappy with Bucs commander Greg Schiano, specifically that he is playing too much zone defense.

Here is word-for-word Kremer’s report.

“Today he was in the facility [One Buc Palace] for his normal treatment. Sought out head coach Greg Schiano. They met for about 15 minutes this afternoon. Revis said he wanted to see him face-to-face to let him know ‘I don’t have any issues with you as a head coach. I am going to do everything I can to help this team win.’

“As for any rumors about the way he is used, too much zone defense, he denied that. Look guys, they are 0-2. There is a lot of frustration generally, and I think this is a reflection of that.”

Joe doesn’t know what he can add to this. In addition to Revis’ words on Twitter today, at best, it seems whatever plant there was concerning Revis, Schiano and the Bucs, either was misinterpreted or simply misinformation supplied to said reporter.

Joe’s starting to get angry with his brethren in the fourth estate for being so sloppy if not reckless. There have been so many prominent members of both print/internet and broadcast mediums that have gone on various forms of media recently dropping all sorts of inaccurate information about Bucs players and coaches.

First, it was the nonsense peddled last winter that the combine was rife with stories about how Bucs commander Greg Schiano and franchise quarterback Josh Freeman loathed each other like cats and dogs.

Mind you, Joe was at the combine, too, spoke with many people, coaches, reporters, etc., and never once heard such a story. The main peddler of this information claimed he had several “sources” feeding him this information. Yet, ironically, said writer has yet, to date, been able to get one of these sources on the record.

Joe would have been thrown out of journalism school for that.

Now we have another unnamed source claiming — after two whole games — that Bucs cornerback Darrelle Revis wants out because he doesn’t like Schiano, allegedly.

Naturally, said source is not identified. Notice all of these reports are coming from people who may visit One Buc Palace twice a year, but the guys (and ladies) who are at One Buc Palace almost on a daily basis don’t have this information? Can you say “plant?” Hhhmmm?

Joe has interviewed Revis a few times, BS’ed with him a couple of times talking about his Alma mater, Pitt, and college football in general, and never had any inkling Revis was remotely unhappy… about anything, short of not being able to rehab quicker.

Well, Revis got word of this rumor that he is upset with Schiano and took to Twitter with a personal message to Bucs fans: He’s a Buccaneer Man and loves the area.

@Revis24: What’s going on Buc fans. Just to clear the smoke. I’m happy to be a Buccaneer & I’m happy to be a resident of Tampa. … I’m excited for this year & I’m excited about this team as we move forward to prepare each week to get a W!!!

Is that good enough for you?

Joe is going to let his readers onto something: There is a cabal out there that either wants Schiano gone or wants Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik gone, or both. The more chaos that is created, some of the cabal members reason, the quicker that Schiano is gone and that in turn may also lead to Dominik being ousted. In other words, if that’s what it takes, if the team (and fans) must suffer to attain this goal(s), so be it.

Joe won’t name the Bucs beat writer he spoke to this afternoon, because Joe is sure that said reporter wasn’t expecting his conversation to be made public, but this reporter told Joe he’s of the belief that, with so many sharks circling the Bucs after starting the season 0-2, that division foes see this and are planting wild stories in an effort to see the Bucs blown up, thereby Tampa Bay not being a factor in the NFC South race for a couple of years (think the upheaval of 2009).

Go ahead and chew on that for a while next time a reporter from outside the Tampa Bay area has a claim that sheds a bad light on the Bucs without sourcing his information.

Even a casual football fan could see that in preseason and against the Jets, the New Schiano Order’s experiment of tight ends playing fullback was ugly and ineffective.

But back came starting fullback Erik Lorig on Sunday to blow open holes for Doug Martin. And his impact was felt.

“It makes a whole lot of difference,” Martin said of Lorig’s return during The Doug Martin Show on WDAE-AM 620 last night. “Erik Lorig, he’s a big back. He’s is a smart guy. He came from Stanford. He’s determined. He tries to be perfect in everything that he does and his work ethic on the field is just amazing. Before every practice he does a [head-to-toe] yoga routine just to get warm for the practice.”

It was obvious Lorig made a difference for Martin. Hopefully, Lorig’s calf injury is behind him.

Interestingly, Lorig, 26, will be an unrestricted free agent after this season. He’s got chemistry with Martin, and Joe hopes the Bucs don’t let Lorig walk.

Regardless of who the head coach is next season, Martin will be here and he’s going to need a solid fullback he trusts.

Joe loves that Greg Schiano goes toe to toe with fans on his Monday radio show on WDAE-AM 620. Kudos to the head coach.

Of course, a fan called Schiano to complain about his conservative playcalling at the close of the Bucs collapse against the Saints. Schiano was deatailed with his response.

“Let me talk to you about the third- and fourth-down plays,” Schiano said. “I had confidence in Rian [Lindell] making the kick and that’s what we were going on. You know I wanted [Brees] to have to score a touchdown, go 80 yards. Here’s my thinking, is that we have confidence in Rian making the kick and we have confidence in Mike Koenen kicking [the kickoff] it out of bounds, out the back of the end zone. And now they have to go 80 yards and score a touchdown with no timeouts.

“Some would say, ‘Yeah, well, it’s Drew Brees.’ Well, you know, Drew Brees up until that point had thrown two interceptions and had been sacked four times and our guys were playing him very, very well. So I felt very good about the way we were playing defense. Certainly it didn’t end up the way that, you know, the vision of what was going to happen. Did I consider doing a lot of things? Did I consider throwing it on third? Absolutely. Did I consider going for it on fourth? Absolutely. But the one thing I learned a long time ago, being a head coach for a while now, is you know what, you make the decisions that you think are best at the time. Then you only look back to evaluate the decision. You don’t second guess yourself. Because at that time you believed that was the best decision.”

Joe still doesn’t like the Schiano’s call on 3rd-and-6, a Doug Martin run that gained three yards before Lindell missed the field goal.

The Bucs were one play from outright victory but Schiano wouldn’t take the shot at a first down with a Josh Freeman throw. That’s a very makeable down-and-distance for an NFL quarterback with premium options like Vincent Jackson, Mike Williams and Martin. Schiano said he had confidence in Martin, Lindell, Koenen and his defense, but No. 5 wasn’t mentioned.

Martin only picked up three yards.

Oh, well. Joe and legions of fans will agonize over this lost shot at the lead in the NFC South.

Joe remembers the Trent Dilfer saga well. Dilfer became a punching bag for fans and media who staunchly believed Dilfer was holding the Bucs back from greatness in the 1990s.

Dilfer was inconsistent. He didn’t have the raw talent of Josh Freeman, but he also didn’t have receivers that compare to Freeman’s.

The Bucs’ organization? Well, they showed their confidence in Dilfer by drafting a quarterback (Shaun King) in the second round when Dilfer was still young and only a season removed from the Pro Bowl. Sound a little familiar?

Former Bucs tight end Dave Moore, a former teammate of Dilfer, hears the fans and media hounds circling Josh Freeman like sharks. And it takes him back to the Tony Dungy era.

“We spent a lot of years with Trent Dilfer in the locker room. They were always trying to bash him about something,” Moore said on WDAE-AM 620 recently. “After every game he played, it was the same conversation [like about Josh Freeman]. ‘We know. We don’t trust Trent Dilfer to win it for us. We’re going to win it on the ground with Mike and Warrick. It was the same conversation. And then he goes to Baltimore and wins a Super Bowl.”

As for Freeman, Moore summed up the QB’s Bucs future well. “His fate is really in his own hands.”

(Listen to the entire Moore interview below. Joe’s already quoted lots of good stuff from it.)

Joe knows Bucs fans have had little sleep after the Bucs let the Saints and Drew Brees off the hook Sunday, falling to 0-2, which recent history shows is a death knell to a season (but a good omen for a decent draft pick the following spring).

All the tranactions made in the offseason, all the drama concerning quarterbacks, tight ends, defensive linemen. All the anticipation and hope built up through the too long offseason and within the first eight days of the season — poof! — it is all gone.

Many Bucs fans have eaten countless Tums in the past two nights angry with Bucs commander Greg Schiano for not letting Bucs franchise quarterback Josh Freeman try to beat the Saints when a first down would have sealed a win late in the fourth quarter.

Instead, Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan called a run play with Doug Martin that got three yards when it needed six.

Bucs fans are still somewhat livid with the call, but X’s and O’s guru Greg Bedard of theMMQB.com explains in great detail that Sullivan called the correct play, and if not for a fantastic play by Saints outside linebacker Junior Galette, the Bucs would have won.

What happened: The Saints had just taken their final timeout, so if the Buccaneers had converted this third down, the game would have been over and Saints quarterback Drew Brees never would have gotten a shot to drive the field for a game-winning field goal. Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan had to strike a balance between making sure the clock would run after the play with staying aggressive enough to get a game-ending first down. The play Sullivan called—a counter toss—was a very good call, and it would have done the job had left outside linebacker Junior Galette (93) followed the flow of the play like a majority of NFL players normally would.

The design was very good, and so was the execution by Tampa Bay. The initial movement of the play was away from Galette: Martin took a step to his left, and the fullback blocked that way and even the right guard pulled to that side. The entire front seven of the Saints flowed to that side, except Galette. He must have read quarterback Josh Freeman coming out from center to the right, or quickly saw Martin come back to the right. Whatever Galette’s key was, he was spot on. He took two steps up the field in perfect position with his shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage. When Freeman pitched the ball to Martin, Galette sprinted outside of Martin to force him back to the inside. The slight adjustment allowed the Saints’ pursuit players to make a tackle three yards short of the first down.

The play is predicated on Galette being fooled by the run action and being sucked up inside. If that happened, the play would have gone for a first down because the Bucs had the rest of the play blocked reasonably well. But because Galette stayed home, he blew the play up and gave Brees a chance to put the Saints in scoring position. Even more amazing is that Galette, despite getting a piece of Martin’s leg and being the key to the play, wasn’t even credited with a tackle.

Yeah, Joe knows. If his grandmother had a pair, she’d be a grandfather.

But Joe posts this from Bedard, an objective source who has no vested interest in either the Bucs nor the Saints, to explain that on film, the play was a good call. It just took a fantastic play by one player to blow it up.

Yes, Joe is perturbed at the loss as well. The defense, despite shooting itself in the foot with penalties, played absolutely lights out for 59 minutes. That may have been the best performance Joe has seen a Bucs defense play since the 1999 NFC title game. Just like that fateful day, on Sunday the Bucs faced a lethal offense with one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game and had the Saints in a choke-hold.

It was, and is, criminal such a performance was wasted, and if history is a barometer, so too a season.

Bucs safety Dashon Goldson’s helmet-hitting ways caught up with him this week when NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell’s minions decided to suspend (and fine) Goldson after yet another illegal hit.

With the Bucs traveling to New England to face Tom Brady and Bill Belicheat, this suspension couldn’t have come at a worse time. If the Bucs fall to 0-3, there is no logical reason to believe the Bucs have any prayer of a playoff berth.

But hold up! Goldson is doing a smart thing. He is appealing his suspension, Twittered Woody Cumming of the Tampa Tribune.

@RCummingsTBO: An NFL official confirms Bucs S Dashon Goldson has appealed his one-game suspension.

This is a glimmer of good news in a sea of ugly. By appealing, Goldson could be able to play Sunday at New England.

The Bucs are going to need all the help in the world. Joe could just imagine Brady exposing Ahmad Black all afternoon.

This BSPN video explains that the Bucs and Goldson have requested an expedited appeal so they can make a roster move to replace Goldson on Sunday.

No Dallas Clark and/or no middle-of-the-field receiving threat has downgraded the Bucs’ passing attack significantly.

That was the strong message from former Bucs tight end Dave Moore, who is the color analyst on the Buccaneers Radio Network.

Moore gave a passionate Xs and Os explanation of key passing attack issues during the Ron and Ian show on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday. Moore was adamant that the Bucs are out of balance because they’re lacking a threat from No. 3 receiver and tight end.

“In third down, if you’re going to play cover 2 against the Bucs, you just cheat those safeties real wide to play over the top of Mike Williams and Vincent Jackson because they don’t have that middle threat. Sure, they have Doug Martin to check it down to run screens, but they have to have that third receiver and that tight end. So when you’re evaluating Josh Freeman, he’s throwing into tighter coverage because defenses know,” Moore said.

“We saw Tim Wright go in motion [Sunday] yesterday from the slot, from a two tight end look, and New Orleans never even covered him. Because they’re not worried about him getting the ball. They’re not scared that Tim Wright, the backup tight end No. 81 is going to beat them. So they kept they’re coverage on the guys they thought were getting the ball.

“You have to have some kind of middle. So you can certainly put it on Freeman, but you need somebody to control the middle of the field to force a defense to play honest. And that’s their missing piece right now. …

“You gotta have somebody to at least make the safeties play honest and not cheat.”

It’s easy to say the Bucs don’t emphasize the tight end in their offense. That’s true. But the position can’t be the liability in the passing game that it is now.

Clark was no superstar last season, but the guy caught 47 balls and four touchdowns. Somebody has to make up that production. The same goes for Tiquan Underwood’s 28 catches in 2012.

Through the first two games of this season, the Bucs have three total catches from the tight end position and from receivers not named Jackson or Williams. In Baltimore, Clark has eight catches.

Somehow, the Bucs have to find a way to develop more threats in the passing game. If not, it’ll be a long season for whatever quarterback is under center.