Photo by Michael Hamm

Even if fans were subjected to hearing Chucky rave about Jimmy Wilkerson and Todd Wash of the Seahawks last night, it was great to have real football back on the tube.

Glorious!

And tonight’s when the real fun starts with the Bucs kicking off in Kansas City just after 8 p.m. In no particular order, here’s some things Joe wants to see:

1. Dominance along the offensive line: The entire line is back, it’s likely the highest paid O-line in the league, and they’ve got no excuses. Joe wants to see dominance from Day 1.  If Josh Freeman is going to be the player the Bucs need him to be to win a playoff game, then the line is going to have to finally fulfill its potential.

2. Michael Koenan: The Bucs dared to dabble on the dark side, aka free agency, to grab and overpay the top punter and kickoff specialist on the market. For those who want to see the Bucs buy players next year, you better hope this guy is a superstar.

3. Da’Quan Bowers: In a preseason that’s already considered soft with no two-a-day practices, the Bucs are babying Da’Quan Bowers and his knee, which Bowers claims is fine after a surgery that he says wasn’t a big deal. Keith Millard spoke of the team working to get Bowers healthy. Color Joe very skeptical of Bowers’ health. Let’s see the guy play 10 snaps and look like a live, dangerous body.

4. LeGarrette Blount in short yardage: On WDAE-AM 620 the other day, Mike Alstott talked about how he looks forward to seeing Blount becoming a three-down, all-around back. Raheem Morris has said he’s been very encouraged by Blount’s development. Joe wants to see Blount hit a hole hard and move the chains on 3rd-and-short.

5. Stop the damn run: Joe doesn’t care how the Bucs do it. Just do it. If Thomas Jones’ first five carries are something like six yards, seven yards, 11 yards, four yards, and eight yards, Joe’s going to need Valium.

6. Mason Foster: Good luck, young man.

It seems Derek “Old School” Fournier of WhatTheBuc.net is geeked for the start of preseason. Joe wishes he could be as well, but Joe can’t fully get past that these are glorified practices. “Old School” explains to Bucs fans what to look for and expect tonight.

On any normal NFL season, Mason Foster would have gone through multiple OTA sessions, a rookie minicamp, and hung out at One Buc Palace not just working out but poring over film for months before training camp even began.

But the rookie middle linebacker, who has been handed a starting job virtually from the moment he put pen to paper on his contract, before he could memorize the names of his teammates no less, didn’t have that luxury this year thanks to the asinine lockout.

Now, with the Bucs first preseason game just hours away, Foster will start his first game. He knows he has had to cram a lot into his cranium in just a scant amount of days and he’s happy there’s a game to prepare for, so writes Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

“It’s been tough not having the offseason work with the coaches and the time with the playbook that you would normally have, but at the same time, there’s a game plan now and that makes it easier,’’ Foster said. “Once you get a game plan you can lock into certain things and certain play calls, because in certain situations you know exactly what you’re going to be calling. So, that makes it a lot easier. So, I’m ready to go.’’

Well, there’s already been a hiccup on Foster’s all too steep learning curve. Raheem Morris said earlier this week that Foster will not be playing on pass plays, which sort of reinforces to Joe his heightened fears that no matter how much the haters shrieked over the alleged worthless departed Barrett Ruud and his annual 100+ tackles, that a third round pick from the PAC-10 who played outside linebacker was not going to fully be prepared to play middle linebacker in the NFL and call defense plays with only five weeks to absorb everything.

Joe, of course, hopes he is wrong. But to ask all of the above from Foster is putting a helluva lot of pressure on a young man that nobody knows what to expect.

This will be one of Joe’s focal points in watching the game tonight: How will Foster play? And will he be in the game longer that usual as the Bucs have put Foster on a fast track to starting?

A chill of fear ran through Joe while checking out a story on Josh Freeman in the Kansas City Star today. Just reading about Freeman’s boyhood dream of playing for the Chiefs was enough have Joe running to Mugs Grill & Bar for a few cold ones.

The Star talked to Freeman yesterday about visiting Arrowhead Stadium for the first time as a professional.

“It should be a lot of fun,” Freeman said. “Growing up a huge Chiefs fan, I went to a lot of games there through the years.”

As a wide-eyed youngster, he was captivated by the Chiefs’ quarterbacks starting with Joe Montana and continuing to Steve Bono, Elvis Grbac, Rich Gannon and Trent Green before Freeman took his game to Kansas State.

“When you’re a little kid, that’s what you dream about … the Chiefs were the team I always dreamt of playing for,” he said.

Freeman grew up in Missouri and to Joe’s knowledge his parents still live there. Freeman has even called himself “a momma’s boy” and said he chose Kansas State to be close to home, despite offers from “every conference.”

Might No. 5 ever think of jumping ship when his five-year $36 million Bucs contract ends after the 2013 season? Scary thought.

Joe can only imagine the massive contract coming Freeman’s way.

Arguably the great Bucs defensive player of all time, Warren Sapp, dropped so many quality nuggets during his visit to One Buc Palace yesterday, Joe still has more to share.

This time it’s Sapp glowing about the Josh Freeman, his “MVP candidate,” and offering an education to Bucs fans who yearn for the days of Sapp and his teammates.

“I’m going dispel the rumor. Defense does not ‌win championships,” Sapp said via video on Buccaneers.com. “Defense gives you a chance, and the offense will win it for you. And the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a franchise quarterback in Josh Freeman.”

“Boy, you give me Josh Freeman, and we might have about four of these things, [championships] around here,” Sapp said, referring to the Bucs teams of his era.

Sapp also was clear about what he expects from the Bucs in 2010. “I don’t care what anybody says. This is a playoff team.”

Joe’s pleased that Sapp has high expectations. Joe also agrees that there’s no reason for the Bucs to take a step backwards in 2011.

"Get the dreads out of your ears and listen to me, son."

The fancy headset that’ll be in Mason Foster’s helmet tomorrow night will come off the field with him when he departs on most third downs.

Per Stephen Holder of the St. Pete Times, that means Quincy Black will get the defensive calls via sideline signals on passing downs. Or there always could be a guy sent in with the play. Joe really doesn’t find this to be a big deal, since the players learn the signals anyway in case of emergency, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

That will leave the Bucs in a situation where they’ll have to go old school on third downs, signaling defensive calls in to Black, who will relay them to teammates in the huddle. The transmitter makes life simpler and reduces the likelihood of miscommunications. Without one, and without a true middle linebacker in the game to make the calls, are the Bucs more susceptible to miscues? That remains to be seen.

As for preseason games, Joe’s not sure whether the rules allow multiple guys to use a communication helmet since nobody plays the entire game anyway. But in the regular season, only one player gets the honors.

Joe realizes that a significant percentage of Bucs fans will simply be ecstatic if they see Foster play physical football and shed blocks, even if he misses some calls.

 So it goes in the post-Ruud era.

What if Josh Freeman walked into a veteran ballclub back in 2009? Bucs icon Mike Alstott says if that happened Freeman wouldn’t be the leader he is today.

“Because there’s already control,” the A-Train told Steve Duemig on WDAE-AM 620 this week.

Alstott said Freeman has really set the leadership bar for the Bucs. The environment on the roster was ideal for a young quarterback, Alstott said, but ultimately Freeman took over the team the old fashioned way.

“He got a lot of respect from the get-go because he got thrown in there and he earned the respect from the players. So everybody’s eyes are open looking at Josh saying, ‘What do we do now?'” Alstott said. “And he’s already commanded that and he’s leading the team very well.”

Thinking back on the purge of veterans by the Bucs in 2009, Joe can’t recall anyone saying that clearing Derrick Brooks and others might be essential for a young franchise quarterback to evolve faster and set his own bar.

Interesting perspective from Alstott.

In this St. Petersburg Times video, former Bucs great Warren Sapp, who hung out at One Buc Palace yesterday, talks about the Bucs defense, specifically Gerald McCoy and Adrian Clayborn.

This Stroudnostication is from Sunday but still interesting regardless.

Esteemed St. Pete Times beat writer Rick Stroud believes Jeremy Trueblood is the anointed starter at right tackle because of his new contract — $10 million over two years.

Other predictions: Jeremy Trueblood will be the starting right tackle over James Lee. You don’t re-sign someone for $10 million over two years to be a backup.

And rookies Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers will be the starting defensive ends.

Joe’s not buying into Strouds’ logic.

First, it’s unknown how much of Trueblood’s deal is guaranteed money, which is the only number that’s relevant. What is known is that James Lee signed a tender worth about $2 million for 2010.

But if Trueblood is earning $3 million more than Lee this year, is that really enough for the Bucs to put their egos first and potentially play a guy charged with protecting Josh Freeman simply because he makes more money?

Golly, it was Joel Glazer himself who said “Money will never be an issue” when building the Bucs. Does Stroud think the owner is a liar?

Lee, however, might fall into Jeremy Zuttah territory, meaning the Bucs see his greatest value as a backup. Lee has played left tackle and probably is the guy the Bucs throw in the fire if Donald Penn went down.

Regardless, Joe hopes there’s a fair battle at right tackle. 

Since he finished his college days at Oklahoma, Gerald McCoy and former Bucs great Warren Sapp have been tight.

It’s not just because the two are (or in Sapp’s case, was) defensive tackles. It’s not just because both were first round draft picks of the Bucs. But it’s because GMC idolized Sapp as a youngster, even told Larry Coker he would play for the Canes if Sapp would call him.

Coker never followed up on the request and GMC went to Norman instead.

Because of GMC’s respect, Sapp took GMC under his wing and has personally worked out with GMC. Now, with Sapp’s hand-picked defensive tackles coach Keith Millard working with the Bucs, Sapp is even closer to the team.

Yesterday Sapp sat in on a defensive line meeting and spoke with the defensive lineman. GMC made sure he paid homage to Sapp on Twitter.

@Geraldini93: Good work with @QBKILLA today. Schooled us in the meeting room and on life. “Worst 3 Words you can say is “I Got It” you never have it.” … Keep working. Witnessed greatness. @QBKILLA true professional. True legend!! Future HOF. Much love for the knowledge. Buying into all of it!

Joe has written this before that he believes Millard will make great strides with GMC. Per GMC, he already has.

With Sapp also counseling GMC, how exactly can GMC go wrong?

Raheem Morris has shared a lot of love for his fourth-year linebacker out of Florida State over the past few days. That would be the birthday boy, 24-year-old Geno Hayes.

Asked Monday what he expects from Hayes this season, Raheem was quick to answer, “Dominance. Absolute dominance.”

Joe’s fired up to see Hayes have that kind of season. Perhaps the only player to shine during the heinous Jim Bates Experience, Hayes has mad speed, plus a growing knack for making plays, unlike Quincy Black. It’s also a contract year for Hayes, which always makes things interesting.

What especially struck Joe was Raheem expressing deep respect for Hayes at a later news conference. Raheem gushes over all his players these days — hey, why not? — but there was something special in his tone when he reveled Hayes wasn’t healthy for much of last season.

“You know I hate to even say his reason because he didn’t even tell us and he didn’t tell you guys, but he was suffering through a couple of little injuries last year. You know, he fought through them. He’s a tough kid. And he would never ever say it. He wouldn’t even say it to me. I just kinda know because I know Geno. But he felt great some weeks and he didn’t feel grat some other weeks. And it affected his play. you could see it somewhat.” Raheem said. 

“But he is certainly one of the toughest guys I’ve been around when it comes to injury. He’s Ronde Barberesque when it comes to injury and talking about not talking about it. Not complaining or missing a practice or sitting down. He sneaks in the training room and gets treatment and he sneaks out. He doesn’t want to be on that list. He just doesn’t want to be one of those guys.”

Joe’s glad to hear Hayes is healthy, but that also means he’s been injury prone over his three seasons, plus the multiple alarm clock issues, a scissors-happy girlfriend and taking a cops taser to his chest.

Given his smaller size, Joe suspects Hayes will need the kind of dominating season Raheem mentioned in order to remain a Buccaneer.

Nobody in the world should be surprised that young guys Mason Foster and Tyrone McKenzie have a learning curve at middle linebacker when compared to Barrett Ruud.

It’s a given that rockstar general manager new that was coming but felt it was worth sending Ruud packing. 

However, it’s still unsettling to hear Ronde Barber talking about growing pains in the middle, as he did yesterday on WDAE-AM 620. The station documented his chilling words on its website.

Barber expressed concerns about the Bucs’ young linebackers like Mason Foster and Tyrone McKenzie in their ability to pick up schemes as quickly as the veteran Ruud, who signed with the Titans.

“And we’re seeing it now. Things he did seamlessly, mindlessly that made him a really really good mike linebacker…. we’ve had some incidents in practice so far in camp where our mike linebacker’s missing stuff (Ruud) just did. Barrett will be missed. It’s hard to replace that guy.”

If you missed it earlier, you can read Warren Sapp’s comments today about the importance of experience at mike linebacker in the Bucs’ system.

Joe’s hardly surprised to hear about Foster and McKenzie learning on the job and, as Joe will have more later, it seems that for now Foster will play on first and second down and Quincy Black will stay on the field as the “mike” linebacker in coverage during obvious passing downs, as Raheem Morris told the media.

The Bucs clearly are looking for Foster to be a major upgrade from Ruud against the run. It’ll be hard not to be.

Joe and other educated observers of Bucs attendance figures over the years pegged the team’s season ticket base at around 40,000 in 2010, down from the massive waiting list of years past.

A new and improved projection will be coming soon. Whatever the announced crowd is at the C.I.T.S for the preseason home opener against New England on Aug. 18 will go a long way toward revealing the current season ticket base, since there aren’t many folks that purchase preseason tickets individually.

The preseason seats sold are nearly all to season ticket holders that have to buy the exhibition games as part of the NFL screw job their package.

Will the Bucs add 15 percent to their base and take it up to about 46,000? Twenty percent, up to 48,000, would seemingly be damn good.

But maybe not, since the Tampa Bay Lightning have announced that its full season ticket base — more expensive per year than a Bucs ticket — has doubled to about 10,000, as reported in the St. Pete Times.

Joe realizes that Tod Leiweke, the Bolts boss, is one of the sports world’s grand masters when it comes to ticket sales, but Joe’s going to vomit if the Lightning increase is equal to or greater than the Bucs’.

That would be a horrible commentary on the Bay area as a football team. And it would be a lousy second place finish for the Bucs ticket sales staff.

Wow!

Hallelujah!

Joe’s back after losing JoeBucsFan.com this afternoon because of a technical situation beyond Joe’s control. Many thousands of websites across the country were affected, and Joe was among those that encountered bad luck.

Joe’s sorry to have forced his readers to sniff around the rest of the world for Bucs news for part of today. Joe hopes his absence made hearts grow fonder of Joe’s brand of Bucs coverage.

Joe can only imagine how many local employers saw a renewed focus from some staff today. Glad to be back, and Joe’s got some catching up to do through the night.

So where does Bucs icon and NFL Network analyst Warren Sapp stand on the Bucs’ plan to start Mason Foster at middle linebacker?

Sapp wants answers, and he plans to get them today during his visit to One Buc Palace.

Sapp explained this morning on The Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620. 

Co-host Ron Diaz: How much will the Bucs miss Barrett Ruud?

Warrent Sapp: That’s what I’m going to ask Raheem today because it’s always been a complex defense with the middle backer, the way he had to do the checks and get everbody lined up and be on the pace. He had to be so smart and so cerebral about the game. I want to know if the young fella is going to be able to handle it.

I’m sure they’re not going to put too much on his plate or anything.  But when you’re talking about the quarterback of a defense, that middle backer? I mean, it’s a calming effect on the front. Whenever you got your guy and you look back and you’ve got that star look on his face [and he’s barking] ‘Close left. Close right. This what we need here. Let’s play.’  It’s a very calming effect and it allows the boys up front to just go and just eat up whatever is in front of them. And whatever’s left he should be able to clean up. He has the speed.

Joe wonders how Raheem will answer Sapp in the private bowels of One Buc Palace.

Joe was always a fan of The Great Pumpkin as a kid. And The Great Gretzky was damn entertaining to watch back in the day.

Now young Bucs fans can be mesmerized by “The Great Deodorant.”

Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud, of the St. Pete Times, coined the moniker for Josh Freeman this morning with Dan Sileo on WDAE-AM 620.

“He is kind of the great deodorant. You, know, he can cover up a lot of the odor on the other side of the ball,” Stroud said of Freeman.

Stoud offered up his brand of extra dry humor when talking about how good Freeman looks in training camp and how Freeman could have won the Bucs-Lions game last December if given more opportunity.

Joe wrote the other day about how great Freeman looks. But for Joe, while things smell better since the departure of Jim Bates, there’s nothing that covers up the stench of the Bucs’ rather heinous run defense over the last 36 games.

"You wouldn't make this team, little man."

One reason Barrett Ruud and Cadillac Williams aren’t Buccaneers is pretty clear: they weren’t big enough.

Raheem Morris and rockstar general manager Mark Dominik have both spoken about how they’re not big on measurables at the NFL Scouting combine and are far more concerned with interviewing players, studying their film and assessing their character and drive.

But the rockstar likes big bodies.

In fact, Dominik wants the biggest, nastiest, most physical Bucs team in history, so he told Steve Duemig on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday.

“Obviously we’re trying to be homegrown. But another thing we’ve worked hard here is to be a bigger more physical football team than we’ve ever been before. And we continue to try to do that,” Dominik said. “And when you look out there and you see Adrian Clayborn, you see Da’Quan Bowers, you see Mason Foster, you’ll see Luke Stocker soon enough. … You start looking at last year’s draft class with Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams and LeGarrette Blount now, and that was the importance of bringing back a Davin Joseph, Quincy Black, is that’s the football team. We wanted to get to be the biggest and most powerful Buccaneers team you’ve ever seen. And I’m looking forward to seeing that in the preseason.”

Does size matter? Dominik says, Yes.

Joe hopes the Bucs find someone in the backfield big enough to fill Cadillac’s shoes on third down.

Monday evening after practice, Joe had a chance to touch base with Lakeland native and Bucs rookie safety Ahmad Black. Joe discussed a number of things with Black including how training camp has changed and how he is handling his cram session of learning an NFL defense.

JoeBucsFan: Now that you have been in an NFL camp for a little over a week, what is it like for you? Obviously, the wow-factor is past. I’m sure the shock of finally being in an NFL practice has worn off. Do you just treat practices now like you’ve got a regular job and going to work?

Ahmad Black: It’s just play ball now, it’s game week. I treat it like game week. Today was the first week of game week so we are getting the gameplan in and getting ready for Kansas City.

Joe: Since it’s game week, what are you doing different today that you or the team weren’t doing, say, two days ago?

Black: It’s a different attitude towards everything. You could be doing the exact same things but the way you approach things is different.

Joe: The players seem a little more intense than last week, is that one of the things you are saying that is a different approach?

Black: Yeah, this is where you fine tune everything to get ready for Kansas City. It’s game week. That’s what we are all out here to do: play in a game.

Joe: Has anything surprised you thus far in training camp that you didn’t expect?

Black: No, it’s pretty much everything I have expected. This is my job, I come out here to do the best I can.

Joe: Now that you have such a short window to get ready for the regular season as a rookie, there were no OTAs, no minicamps. Joe spoke with some offensive rookies and they told me how much the vets have taken them under their wings and have been really proactive about helping out the rookies to make sure they can help them get over that learning curve and try to make things easier if they can. Is it like that with the defense, are guys coming up to you to help out?

Black: Definitely. That’s exactly what is happening on defense, too. I try to ask the older guys a lot of questions to make sure I have everything down pat. They have been all really helpful.

The Bucs’ grand master plan seems to equate signing high-priced free agents to a shameful admission of failure.

Fans have heard the Bucs brass say numerous times that missing on a player in the draft means you admit defeat and fill the spot in free agency — or draft a replacement, as was the case with Barrett Ruud.

But the Bucs are eager to dabble in free agency when it comes to coaches, so says rockstar general manager Mark Dominik.

Speaking today to Steve Duemig on WDAE-AM 620, the rockstar talked about the exhaustive no-stone-unturned offseason search for the best available defensive line coaches and shared a story of Keith Millard and Grady Stretz bonding instantly.

When it came to new offensive line coach Pat Morris, Dominik said it was an easy call to hire the man that “has got the utmost respect in the National Football League.”.

“I think he was the highest paid offensive line coach in the league last year. And obviously, they made some changes at Minnesota, which made him available. And that was easy. That was a quick phone call,” Dominik said. “Let’s bring him in here because I think he can really help our squad. Those [other coaching searches] were exhaustive, but at the same point, we felt like we could upgrade our football team. It’s not just sometimes talent. It’s coaches, too.”

So it seems the Bucs have the highest paid O-line in the NFL and the highest paid O-line coach.

As for coaches getting paid, Joe can only imagine what Greg Olson will command if the Bucs have a top-10 offense this year. Joe’s pretty certain Olson’s contract is up after the season and the Bucs would be nuts to part with him if he has that kind of success.