The agony of the Bucs ending up on the wrong end when the Lions broke their 26-game road losing streak in December still keeps Joe up at night.

The stain of that game is lingering far longer than skid mark that was the Jim Bates experiment. 

NFL history literally would have changed if the Bucs beat Drew Stanton and the road-awful Lions at the C.I.T.S. Green Bay would have missed the playoffs and the Bucs would have been in.

Weeks ago, Joe brought you a take from Adam Hayward that stunned Joe. Hayward said the Bucs looked past the Lions.

“We weren’t playing like ourselves. We went in there kind a flat. We were thinking, ‘Oh this is Detroit,”” Hayward said on Tampa Bay Sports Central. “That’s how you get your butt wupped.”

Joe almost chalked that comment up to Hayward being too hard on the team, rather than the young Bucs actually taking a critical December game lightly. But now it’s official in Joe’s mind that the Bucs dropped the ball when they should have been focused like never before.

Speaking on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Davin Joseph shared a take on the Detroit game similar to Hayward’s after being asked directly about the game.

“We feel like we took it for granted,” Joseph said, lamenting the Bucs’ effort against the Lions.

Joe is shaken to his core again and wants to punch the nearest wall. How could that happen? How? How? Yeah, Joe gets that stuff happens to teams in all sports at every level, but that game? In December? For the Coach of the Year?

Interesting that the Bucs responded to the Lions loss by punching the Seahawks in the mouth and taking out the Saints in New Orleans.

Joe sincerely hopes the Bucs learned their lesson.

The Barrett Ruud saga will not die.

Loved by nearly all NFLers both old and new but loathed by fans and someone with a powerful bullhorn, Ruud has become without question a lightning rod that stirs emotions — anger and praise — from the masses.

No one since Chucky, and perhaps no one since Father Dungy, has so divided the Bucs’ fan base, and emotionally so.

The rancor has become so pervasive, Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times believes Ruud is simply worn out from the vitriol and just wants to start anew and escape the haters.

That leads Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com to begin nosing around for Ruud’s replacement. He correctly suggests that having a rookie linebacker play out of position to replace Ruud and to call defenses and stunts is “dangerous.”

Joe would go a step further and call it “reckless.” And Joe doesn’t believe Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is a reckless man; far from it.

So Yasinskas did some snooping and learned that the Packers may be shopping linebacker Nick Barnett. As a result, Yasinskas believes it’s not wholly impossible to see Barnett wearing pewter and red.

He’s currently property of the Packers, but there’s league-wide speculation that Barnett could be released or traded as soon as the lockout ends. He’s coming off a season in which he suffered a wrist injury and played in only four games. He’s expendable in Green Bay, but he could be valuable in Tampa Bay.

Barnett is 30, which falls somewhere between old and young. The Bucs are in a youth movement and throwing Foster into the mix wouldn’t be totally out of character. But making a third-round pick the quarterback of your defense without an offseason to prepare could be a little dangerous. The Bucs are very young on the defensive line and could have some other changes at linebacker.

That’s why it could make some sense to bring in Barnett or a guy like him. Barnett was a second-team All-Pro selection in 2007 and had some very good seasons with the Packers. He could provide some instant stability and leadership for a Tampa Bay defense that’s still looking to catch up to its offense.

Well, Joe’s reaction to this is, if you are going to land Barnett, what’s to stop Dominik from grabbing Paul Posluszny should The Poz bolt Buffalo? He’s younger than Barnett, though Barnett does have experience in a 43 defense prior to the past two seasons. The Poz hasn’t played in a 43 defense since his junior season at Penn State when he won the Chuck Bednarik Award for being the college football defensive player of the year.

The longer this asinine lockout stretches, the more imperative it is for Dominik to re-sign Ruud.

If Foster, a man with a lot of upside that has yet to play one snap of NFL football — look, Joe has absolutely nothing at all against Foster — is going to replace Ruud with virtually no offseason, no OTAs, no rookie minicamp and jump right in once a shortened (?) training camp gets underway, people will be pining for Ruud’s alleged ability to only tackle seven yards downfield.

Davin Joseph has lobbied publicly for his good pal Jeremy Trueblood to return to the Bucs.

So has Jeff Faine.

Speaking to 1010 AM personality JP Peterson, as archived on TampaBaySportsCentral.com, Faine explained that Trueblood is not only a strong veteran but a new approach with Bucs new offensive line coach Pat Morris will do Trueblood a world of good. Faine made it clear things weren’t rosy for Trueblood in the past.

“With a fresh new outlook with the new offensive line coach, I think that he too will definitely improve under this new system. It’s just one of those things I think, you know, in the NFL sometimes the situation needs to right for you to really excel. And I think that is probably similar to this case with Jeremy Trueblood.”

Faine didn’t specify whether Trueblood was having an off-field conflict with former O-line coach Pete Mangurian or simply was not a fit for the zone blocking scheme the Bucs ran often in 2009 and less so in 2010. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Faine said free agents Trueblood and Joseph should stay together along with the rest of the tight-knit line that can communicate on the field without speaking. Around the locker room, Faine said, Trueblood and Joseph are known as “brothers from a different mother.”

Faine’s take from the Bucs’ minicamp in late June? He said he enjoyed the cameraderie and was “most impressed with condition level … especially the younger guys…impressed and satisfied with the condition level and the way guys have worked this offseason by themselves and not needing a program.”

Joe’s glad the captain found it valuable to work out with his teammates.

Could Jason Snelling help the Bucs with running back depth?

While NFL fans are gritting their teeth that this asinine lockout was even started much less that it continues to drag on worse than an in-grown toenail, fans are in no short supply of opinions on what the Bucs should do.

Just throw the name “Barrett Ruud” or “Aqib Talib” out there and it’s like an internet version of Shark Week.

Not to be outdone, NFL analyst Pat Kirwan has a few ideas what the Bucs should do. Naturally, he invokes the expected names: Davin Joseph, Quincy Black, Ruud, Talib and Cadillac Williams.

Oh, and a new name Joe hasn’t heard prior to yesterday: Jason Snelling.

Kirwan is of the mind the Bucs need yet another third down back and he believes Snelling may fit the Bucs needs.

Sign another running back: The Buccaneers hit it big when they signed running back LeGarrette Blount last year. He is a young, inexpensive player who should be a 1,000-yard runner for the foreseeable future. Still, a solid third-down back — especially if Cadillac Williams isn’t coming back — would be a priority. The Buccaneers have said they are not interested in Tiki Barber, but I wonder if they would like to add Jason Snelling or even Reggie Bush, if the Saints can’t redo his deal.

Now unless the Bucs got Bush on a rock-bottom discount deal, Joe would be stunned if Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik would sign him. First, he’s oft-injured. Though supremely talented, Joe’s just as good of a running back if Bush is standing on the sidelines in street clothes pining for a Kardashian.

In today’s press conference introducing former Bucs tight end Jimmie Giles as the honoree in this year’s Ring of Honor ceremony, the Bucs announced that the Dec. 4 game against Carolina will be the annual throwback game.

At halftime of that contest, Giles will be inducted into the Bucs Ring of Honor.

So there you go Bucs fans. You have nearly five months to go buy your throwback creamsicle gear to honor Giles and the old school Bucs.

So far the Bucs have played nail-biters in both throwback games: a win over the Packers and a stomach-turning collapse against the Dixie Chicks last season.

Joe hopes this year’s throwback game will be over by the time Giles sees his number unveiled at The CITS.

Davin Joseph says the absence of team responsibilities has let him focus more on personal, physical improvement.

Joe’s intrigued to learn how the Bucs and the rest of the NFL might learn from the physical successes and failures that emerge after the lockout. Joe touched on this Monday.

No doubt some guys will be in better shape because they didn’t spend time with OTAs and the organization in the offseason and used the time more hyperfocused on improving their own bodies and weaknesses.

Count Davin Joseph in the group of guys who has used the lockout to his advantage, so he explained on WDAE-AM 620 today during the Ron and Ian Show. Joseph went so far as to call the lockout “a blessing.” 

“It’s common along a lot of the guys in the league is feeling like they really have time to recover and they’ve taken this time to improve themselves in areas that they know they need improvement. You know, it’s hard during OTA’s and things of that sort to go to a team workout, where it’s just a general workout, and then having the energy to go and do something else to improve yourself,” Joseph said.

“So just having your own control of the offseason has helped a lot of guys. It’s going to hurt some guys. But I think a majority of the guys are really taking the time to improve themselves.

“[The lockout] definitely was a blessing. I’m not going to go around that and say I miss OTAs. I miss the locker room more than anything. That’s one thing I do miss. But just having the time to work on the small things, the lockout’s been a blessing.”

As Joe wrote earlier, Joseph said he’s religiously training with Jeremy Trueblood and they’ve incorporated yoga into their routines.

Joe wonders whether it’s primarily true veterans like Joseph — of the which the Bucs don’t have many — that have the maturity and savvy to maximize the lockout time to their physical advantage.

Joe will have much more through the day on Davin Joseph’s exclusive interview with the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, (it’s still in progress) but some exciting news has emerged.

Joseph says the birdie chirping in his ear has good news.

“From everything I’ve been hearing, most likely I’ll be back in Tampa,” Joseph said today.

Of course, Joseph tempered that with all the it’s-a-business cliches. But it was pretty obvious his agent is giving him good signs.

The lockout doesn’t mean teams can’t talk to agents, as Mark Dominik did preparing for the draft, though Joe has no handbook of lockout rules and regulations.

Every Bucs fan should want Joseph back. No, the Bucs wouldn’t collapse without him, but quality depth on the O-line is critical.

So how’s Joseph feeling? He explained that his new yoga regimen has led to a thorough recovery of his broken foot as well as more strength in the knee he had arthroscopic surgery on last year. Joseph described rigorous workouts he’s been engaged in regularly since February with Jeremy Trueblood.

"In Free We Trust"

Drinking a cold beer and watching the Man Channel, when its not reporting on the asinine lockout, is one of the few things that soothes Joe these days.

Thank you, Verizon, DirecTV, Knology and other patriotic companies that refuse to deny customers America’s game on NFL Network.

Last night Warren Sapp aroused Bucs fans when he sparred with Total Access pal Jamie Dukes about the greatness of Josh Freeman. Check out the video here. Sapp declared Freeman will emerge from the 2011 season as an MVP candidate.

Appalled that Dukes would question him, Sapp explained Freeman’s greatness and scoffed at the notion that Freeman was possibly a one-year wonder. “He got a full grasp on the both the handlebars,” Sapp said.

This was enough to get Joe fired up for flimsy chance that training camp could start in two weeks.

Think you’re burned out by the endless legal and labor chatter surrounding the asinine lockout?

Well, Barrett Ruud is getting worn out, too, so says Rick Stroud of the St. Pete Times. But Ruud’s fatigue is over the love-him-or-hang-him attitude buzzing everywhere about his play, Stroud said today.

“I think he’s tired of the debate. … He wants to be wanted,” Stroud said about Ruud during an interview on the Fabulous Sports Babe Show on 1040AM.

Stroud went on to call Ruud underrated and said Ruud is a goner from the Bucs “if he gets $1 more or the same” offer from another team.

If one were to have just heard Stroud’s interview and didn’t know much about Ruud, one might think Ruud was disgruntled, whiney and ready to cry at a moment’s notice, like an unstable 20-year-old hottie getting kicked off a reality show.

While Ruud staged a minicamp holdout a couple of years ago and made it clear he wanted a new contract, Joe doesn’t see Ruud as a guy holding a grudge or wanting to jump ship for an extra cup of coffee. Ruud obviously has the respect of his teammates and coaches, and Joe knows Ruud’s smart enough to realize the peripheral pressure from fans and media would be at least as tough if he went to the Giants, who some speculate are interested in his services.

Most intriguing to Joe was Stroud claiming “Raheem doesn’t want to play without him.”

Will the Coach of the Year get his way?

Well, Joe had a whole post scheduled to appear here now handicapping the odds of the 2011 Ring of Honor enshrinee by the Bucs. The team will make the announcement tomorrow.

But now the cat’s out of the bag. Rick Stroud of the St. Pete Times is reporting confirmation from Doug Williams that Jimmie Giles has gotten the nod.

At least Joe was on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 early this morning and named Giles as his No. 2 most likely selection. Joe thought Ricky Bell was the lead candidate to get the nod this year, as he’s a worthy choice and was one of four Bucs already honored by the team in the old Krewe of Honor at The Big Sombrero, along with Lee Roy Selmon, John McKay and Doug Williams.

Williams will get in one day, but Joe never thought Williams would get in this year simply because how could Team Glazer gamble that, if selected, the seemingly still bitter Williams would show up for the honor? Williams went public with his disgust about the team parting ways with him before this season.

Giles was good for four Pro Bowls in his creamsicle uniform (1978-1986). Surely deserving.

Joe’s got to hand it to Team Glazer for staying old school and not going for the money grab — as in ticket sales. Enshrining a modern era guy like Warren Sapp, Tony Dungy or Derrick Brooks likely would have meant huge cash and hype for a 2011 game. Sorry, but Giles won’t mean more than a teeny blip at the box office and little to the media.

Nice to see Team Glazer honoring men (perhaps forgotten by some) from a team it didn’t own. The owners seem commited to building a
meaningful Ring of Honor. They didn’t take the easy way out.

The Bucs have rolled out another phase of their excellent Xs and Os series on the team website. This time it’s secondary coach Jimmy Lake showcasing Cody Grimm’s sure tackling and instinctive play, and Lake breaks down every phase of Grimm’s interception against the Bengals.

The way Lake raves about Grimm — “Cody’s a tough hombre,” among other superlatives — one might think the 2010 seventh round pick is a new cornerstone of the Bucs defense.

Joe hopes so. This kid almost single-handedly brought the Bucs run defense from putrid to almost average for a stretch of the season before he broke his leg.

One has to wonder whether Grimm’s small frame can handle his level of violence long term. Joe has a good feeling.

The Bucs came “this close” to the playoffs last season, losing in a playoff tiebreaker to the eventual Super Bowl champion Packers, a fact not lost on Josh Freeman.

Some pundits believe the Bucs have a shot not to just make the playoffs, but to make a run in the playoffs if only the defense can improve. eye-RAH! Kaufman isn’t convinced that improvement will happen overnight.

The longtime NFL columnist for the Tampa Tribune spoke on WHBO-AM 1040 Monday afternoon with “Prime Time’ co-hosts Ronnie Lane and Tom Krasniqi, explaining the many areas on the Bucs defense that he finds lacking.

“When was the last time we had more confidence in the Bucs offense than the defense?” Kaufman asked. “There are a lot of questions on this defense. They can’t stop the run. There’s no pass rush. Now you are asking two rookies with health issues to make an impact? That’s asking a lot.

“Gerald McCoy is fine. Brian Price is not looking good for this season. Roy Miller has something to prove. For every disruptive play Geno Hayes makes, he takes a bad angle. There are are real questions about this defense.

“I believe Talib will face some kind of punishment, even with his trial postponed to next year. Let’s face facts: The Bucs have not been able to stop the run with Raheem in
charge of the defense the past two years and with Barrett Ruud as the middle linebacker.

“At some point, you run out of things to say.”

All are valid points from Kaufman. But call Joe naive but he believes the defensive front will be much improved, if for no other reason they will have decent coaching with Keith Millard, something GMC and Miller haven’t had since both became Bucs. That very well could be a domino effect: Better play up front means better linebacker play, etc.

And even if Talib is suspended — clearly, not a given — Joe has considerable confidence in E.J. Biggers

Yes, the Bucs do have question marks on defense. But it’s difficult to see the defense regressing.

The Bucs coulda, shoulda been in the playoffs. It’s one of Josh Freeman’s favorite sayings.

But it is because of Freeman that the NFC South may just be the best division in the NFL. That doesn’t come from Joe, that comes from “The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN.

The longtime NFL scribe fielded questions recently and suggests if the NFC South is not the best division in the NFL, it should be shortly.

Q: In the NFC South, the Saints seemed to hit a stumbling block. With Matt Ryan guiding the Falcons to a 13-3 record and only getting better, as well as Josh Freeman being called the most promising QB since, well, Matt Ryan, the Saints aren’t the only good team in the South anymore. The Saints have Drew Brees, but no running game and an inconsistent defense. Are they legitimate this year?

Cal in Los Angeles

A: The NFC South is turning into a marathon, not a sprint. It’s becoming the best division in football because of Brees, Ryan and Freeman. It’s only going to get better once Cam Newton develops. Part of the problem for Brees and the Saints last year was that the Saints played their toughest games on the road while the Falcons’ toughest games were at home. Don’t be surprised if the Saints win the division this year, and Ryan and the Falcons get a wild card. We’ll see where the Bucs finish, but I think you’re going be seeing at least two teams make the playoffs from the NFC South.

If one is to believe the suits Clayton works for, one would be brainwashed into thinking the NFC East is the beast of the NFL. Not only is this unadulterated propaganda, it simply isn’t true. Just off the top of Joe’s head he can think of four divisions better than the NFC East, yet those teams are pounded into innocent viewers’ subconscious as the best division in football, year in and year out by the four-letter outfit.

Yeah, when Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, Jimmy Johnson, Buddy Ryan and Gene Stallings were coaching in the NFC East, it was a beast of a division, but not since.

Joe doesn’t think it’s outrageous at all to suggest the NFC South is the strongest division, though the NFC North is likely the best, but not by much.

Stuck in this seemingly endless asinine lockout, Bucs fans have to come up with other things to chatter about with the absence of transactions.

That would be hypothetical transactions. And few things Bucs fans enjoy talking about more is the value/drag that middle linebacker Barrett Ruud is to the Bucs.

There is no guarantee Ruud will be back. So Bucs fans have had to dream of who may replace him.

Not long ago, Joe threw out the name of underrated linebacker Paul Posluszny who, like Ruud with the Bucs, is in the same boat with the Bills.

The Poz, the personification of a Penn State linebacker in college, spoke with popular sports radio personality Adam Schein and former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon today on “The Blitz,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, and invoked the Bucs as a potential landing spot for him, if everything shakes out properly.

“There are several teams that may have a need [for a linebacker],” Posluszny said. “There are some 43 [defenses] that I can be a good fit in. I hear a lot about the Giants. The Bucs would be a good fit too but it depends on what they do with Barrett Ruud. There are several teams that may have a need or may not, it depends on who they bring back.

“The more you think about this, you drive yourself crazy.”

Joe thinks The Poz would be a good replacement for Ruud, but not perfect by any means, if Ruud were not to return. Poz is very much a student of the game and the guy is not just a ballhawk but a solid tackler and not shabby in pass defense. The guy is also very much a leader with the Bills, just like he was for JoePa, which is no surprise.

Joe would feel a helluva lot more comfortable with The Poz at middle linebacker than rookie Mason Foster, who may not even be a good middle linebacker fit on the NFL level.

But if Joe would have to guess, unless Ruud is totally PO’ed at Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and has already made up his mind he won’t be back, Joe’s of the belief Ruud will be back starting for the Bucs at middle linebacker whenever this asinine lockout ends.

After the interview, Schein went on to say that Posluszny is the No. 2 free agent linebacker on the market, behind only Ruud. And to be honest, Joe thinks the Bucs would be better off with Ruud.

What does a mentor do in the National Football League? Joe believes a mentor is a player who dumps his knowledge of the game on a younger player at every opportunity, sets a solid example and is eager to answer said player’s questions.

Per Pat Yasinskas, NFC South blogger for ESPN.com, Byron Leftwich wasn’t a mentor for Josh Freeman. Yasinskas makes this assertion in a post about whether rookie Cam Newton should have a veteran quarterback at his disposal.

Look at how Tampa Bay handled Josh Freeman. They had Byron Leftwich there as a (very short) bridge in Freeman’s rookie year. But Leftwich wasn’t a mentor. Freeman’s development came because he worked hard and because he got some very good coaching from offensive coordinator Greg Olson and Alex Van Pelt joined the Bucs as quarterbacks coach last season. Freeman frequently credits Olson and Van Pelt for his progress. It was kind of the same thing with Matt Ryan in Atlanta. Chris Redman might be an extra set of eyes and ears for Ryan, but offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and former quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave were the ones who developed him.

It seems a bit harsh to say Leftwich wasn’t a mentor to Freeman. Perhaps he wasn’t?

If so, (Joe’s not buying it) then the Bucs really missed the mark in not simply keeping good guy Luke McCown as their 2009 starter.

Whenever the asinine, torurous lockout is over, the Bucs will report to training camp in a relative hurry and re-unite with trainers and coaches after several months away. Some players will come in fitter than ever; Some will be downright soft.

That’s going to be an inevitble byproduct of guys being out of touch: wild ranges in fitness.

In an interesting look at how a team is affected by all things lockout, Houston Texans general manager Rick Smith shares an insider look into various ,as he stepped in for the vacationing Peter King and penned his Monday Morning Quarterback Column for SI.com. One of Smith’s takes was on planning for the fitness gap. Here’s an excerpt:

Though some publications wrote off Aqib Talib from the Bucs before his wrists healed from being pinched, the crowd at The News Center was much more cautious in its assessment of Talib’s job security. Here, Anwar Richardson and Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune discuss Talib and the Bucs in this TBO Bucs video vlog.

Hey, fans are allowed to dream, right? Of course. And that’s the premise Dave Scheiber of FoxSportsFlorida.com took recently.

Scheiber decided to put fingertips to keyboard and pound out six things the Bucs must accomplish for the Pewter Pirates to advance to their second Super Bowl. Of the six is a dominant defensive line.

A disruptive D-line: The Bucs were among the league’s worst in stopping the run last season and finished second-to-last in sacks, but they have the makings of a much-improved defensive line heading into the season. Last year’s No. 1 draft pick, tackle Gerald McCoy out of Oklahoma, suffered an arm injury and didn’t get a chance to develop into the impact player the team expects he’ll be now that he’s healthy. And in the recent draft, general manager Mark Dominik tapped a pair of promising linemen: defensive ends Adrian Clayborn of Iowa in the first round and Da’Quan Bowers out of Clemson in the second. Second-year tackle Brian Price remains a question mark, trying to return from a rare surgery that repaired a torn hamstring and broken pelvis. But the defensive line features a promising blend of youth and experience (such as Roy Miller, Stylez White and Tim Crowder). And the unit, in spite of a poor turnout at Freeman’s minicamp, is positioned to turn up the heat on quarterbacks and rushers in 2011. For the Bucs to go far, it’s a must.

Just a hunch for Joe, but sans Miller, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik is going to go all youth up front when the season begins (if it begins).

But Scheiber is correct: Dominik has spent much cash and collateral on the defensive line and it’s about time it starts to show results. Joe firmly believes Keith Millard will do wonders with Gerald McCoy and he certainly won’t hurt the rest.

It’s not farfetched to think the Bucs could be in a Super Bowl (no, Joe’s not saying the Bucs will be in the Super Bowl). Josh Freeman likes to talk about how the Bucs lost a playoff tiebreaker to the Packers. And it was the cheddar cheese and green that won the Super Bowl.

For the Bucs to accomplish such a feat, the defensive line has to dramatically improve.