Saturday Joe wrote a piece about how Josh Freeman was working out with other skill positions players but was keeping the details on the down low as to not attract crowds.

Joe received a few questions from commenters asking why there haven’t been — to anyone’s knowledge — defensive players working out as this insipid lockout continues.

It’s a good question that Joe did not have an answer for. Until now.

Seems as if Gerald McCoy will be hosting Adrian Clayborn in California in two weeks for an OTA of sorts. That’s the word straight from Clayborn’s own fingers via Twitter.

Headed to San Diego in two weeks to train with Gk_McCoy looking forward to learning and getting it in!

Can’t hurt. GMC is in close contact with former Bucs great Warren Sapp who works out of SoCal when on the clock for the NFL Network. It wouldn’t surprise Joe whatsoever if Sapp joins GMC and Clayborn.

Sapp would be about as close to a Bucs coach as these guys are going to get so long as NFL owners keep the players from working.

It seems many are already jumping on the Allen Bradford bandwagon and to Joe’s knowledge, the man has yet to visit the Tampa Bay area since being drafted by the Bucs in the sixth round of last weekend’s draft.

Add Troy Ballard to the list who writes for something called NationalFootballAuthority.com. Ballard seems to believe the Bucs will become a bruising, smashmouth running team with Bradford on the roster.

With Tampa Bay drafting Bradford, that gives them two running backs that are over 235 pounds. The combo of Blount and Bradford has the potential to simply abuse defenses, as they both create size mismatches on nearly every run play.

Combine the weight and size advantage of Blount and Bradford and throw in the speed of Williams, coming off of the bench, and it is going to be a tough rushing attack to slow down. Morris has created a perfect monster in the backfield of size and speed.

Well, that sounds nice but it’s off the mark. Joe loves LaGarrette Blount but he’s not a power runner despite his size. If Blount was a power runner, the Bucs would have beaten the Dixie Chicks in Atlanta this past season.

Ballard may be on to something with Cadillac Williams coming off the bench. Williams seemed to be his best when he had spot running chances as teams were keying on Blount and Cadillac was able to exploit that.

Joe likes what Ballard is suggesting, even though it is not accurate. Just because a dude is huge like Blount doesn’t mean he will be the next coming of Mike Alstott.

The Bucs’ long road back to national respect takes another step tonight as the man channel, NFL Network, rolls out players Nos. 81 through 90 in their series The Top 100 Players of 2011, as voted by a panel of 400 current players.

The show runs for 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., with a show featuring fan and player reaction analysis from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Williams is ranked No. 83. No Buccaneers were in the 90s.

Recently, promotional announcements for the series have included LeGarrette Blount highlights. Joe has no clue whether that’s a precursor to Blount getting love, or just a decoy.

Joe’s not confident any other Bucs will make the list other than Donald Penn and Josh Freeman. It will be very interesting to see what Aqib Talib’s peers think of him. Voting for the series was done before Talib’s Texas troubles.

Now Joe just isn’t a beer-soaked, NFL Network-addicted Bucs fan, no sir. Joe is a well-rounded individual.

There are other things Joe enjoys, such as the Rays and the Lightning. Joe is confident you read his musings after each game on JoeRaysFan.com.

Wednesday night, Joe swilled adult beverages while entertaining business clients and local media bigshots at the Ice Palace and thoroughly enjoyed the Bolts sweeping the Crapitals from the NHL postseason.

While Joe is also a baseball and hockey kinda guy, Joe’s a football man first and foremost.

So is the Tampa Bay area. Now Joe has in the recent past received missives from fans about why he isn’t writing about Josh Freeman and other Bucs working out. Simply put, Freeman doesn’t want people to know where and when they are working out, so Joe is not privy to when and where the workouts will be held beforehand.

This same question also got to Pasco County resident and NFC South blogger Pat Yasinskas typing for Disney’s hammer-and-sickle outfit in Conneticut.

Matt in Camden, N.J., wrote to ask why we’ve made such a big deal about Drew Brees organizing workouts with the Saints while there has been only casual mention about Josh Freeman and some of the Buccaneers working out together in Tampa.

Pat Yasinskas: Excellent question, so let me explain the difference. Brees assembled roughly 40 Saints at Tulane University and opened the first day to the media. It was a large-scale event, magnified by the fact that the Saints truly are the only thing that matters in New Orleans. (I know the Hornets are there, but they exist in the hefty shadow of the Saints.) Freeman’s been doing things a little more quietly and not on nearly as large a scale, and I salute him for going about his business quietly. Freeman’s gone out to the University of South Florida and worked out with some receivers and a few running backs. He’s also gone down to a private training facility with some teammates near Bradenton. The Tampa Bay media’s been kind of tied up with NHL’s Lightning and MLB’s Rays, so Freeman’s workouts haven’t been a huge local story. Some members of the Panthers and Falcons also are working out in smaller groups. But like the Bucs, they’re not getting as much attention because they didn’t bring in most of the roster and open up a whole session to the media.

Let’s not get carried away. It’s not like if Freeman decided — like Brees did in New Orleans — to issue a public proclamation that he would hold an open workout that the local pen and mic club would be so devoid of resources thanks to the Bolts postseason run and the Rays winning ways that no TV, radio or 19th century news delivery service could cover it. That’s just nonsense and Pat should know better than that since he once was a Bucs beat reporter for the Tampa Tribune.

Would Freeman’s workout be top priority compared to a Rays game or a Bolts postseason story? Of course not, but it wouldn’t be ignored.

Freeman is as big of a sports celebrity in this town as Dirtbag Longoria, Marty St. Louis and Vinny Lecavalier. With all the people  packing the Ice Palace for Bolts games and as many people in this area that watch Rays games (on TV), football in general and the Bucs in particular still rule this town.

To suggest Freeman holding a public workout with teammates during the lockout would not get coverage due to the Bolts playoff run and the Rays success is short-sighted at best.

Joe puts on his businessman jersey every week and scours the local and national business publications. Hey, Joe needs to know what’s going on out there.

Joe sees economic data improving, but also sees the Tampa Bay area lagging behind. However, Orlando appears to be kicking Tampa Bay’s ass when it comes to growth, so reported Robert Trigeaux, the St. Pete Times business columnist.

… Orlando is cultivating businesses faster and smarter than Florida’s other metro areas. Consider this recent Reuters story:

“Orlando is leading Florida out of recession and expanding so briskly the city best known for theme parks is poised to push aside Miami as the state’s fastest growing metropolis for at least a generation.”

Orlando alone generated 23,000 jobs in the year ending in February of the 50,000 jobs created in Florida.

That story and others cite a ranking of the nation’s major metro areas based on “economic strength.” The 2010 rankings were produced by William Fruth of the Policom Corp. research firm in Palm City. His numbers show Orlando ranked No. 1 in Florida and 27th among 366 metro areas nationwide.

By contrast, Tampa Bay ranked behind not only Orlando, but also Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville in this state.

That all stinks, but what stinks even more for the Bucs is awareness of the team falling off the map in Orlando.

The Orlando Sentinel eliminated much of its Bucs coverage over the past two years. The newspaper and its website no longer have a Bucs beat writer despite being a mere 90 minutes from Tampa. Good luck even finding a Bucs link on the Sports page of their site.  And their columnists all but ignored the Bucs last year. Orlando’s heinous local sports radio is disinterested in the Bucs, as well.

It’s surely comes from a combination of the Bucs pulling out of Disney for training camp in 2009, newspaper budget slashing, and the lingering stain of the 3-13 season.

Throw in Bucs home games getting blacked out in Orlando, and the Bucs are barely registering a blip on the radar in a growing market where they should be selling loads of tickets and growing lifelong customers.

Joe has no idea how Team Glazer might be addressing this issue, but Joe thinks it’s imperative. Joe would be pleased to meet with Team Glazer to offer real-world solutions to the Orlando market.

Joe’s sure many of his readers watch NFL Network daily. Why Joe can’t imagine why one might choose not to have the real man channel in his home. Surely no football fan could deny himself such pleasure.

Last night on Total Access, in addition to watching footage from various player-organized practices, analysts Warren Sapp and Willie McGinest were posed with the question of whether the NFC South was the best division in football.

Both said, “No.” And Sapp revived the soft schedule/signature win debate that drove many Bucs fans nuts last season.

“[The NFC South] played the NFC West, so I can’t go there,” Sapp said. 

McGinest and Sapp agreed the NFC South was the best division in the NFC entering 2011, but not the NFL.

Joe hopes the Bucs can at least climb into second place in the division. With two of their first eight games against the Saints, that could be decided early.  

In light of a recent commenter expressing his desire to belt commenter Thomas 2.2, and then another commenter egging on the violence, Joe has resurrected his JoeBucsFan.com guide to commenting that addresses this and other issues.

Rather than type boring rules for commenting, Joe decided to let it all hang out on video. (some profanity). Let’s learn to comment in peace.

Wise late-round draft picks usually talk about how they want to contribute and say they’re eager to play special teams.

But it seems Bucs sixth-round manbeast Allen Bradford really loves special teams.

Bradford was recruited to Southern Cal as a safety, then turned into a fullback/running back. Speaking to Shaun King and Toby David on The King David Show this week, on WQYK-AM 1010, Bradford didn’t give the stock answers to playing special teams.

Bradford almost seemed annoyed that he didn’t see the turf during field goals. He said he played on other special teams units, often was a gunner, and he took pride in making “21 tackles.” Though Bradford didn’t specify when, or from what position, he made those tackles.

“I like to hit people,” Bradford said.

During a different interview on 1040 AM, Raheem Morris said Bradford has a lot of “Insurance Graham” in him with his versatility and special teams play.

If the Bucs found another Earnest Graham, who was undrafted out of Florida, the Bucs did darn good in the sixth round.

After interviewing Bucs coach Raheem Morris earlier this week, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, co-hosts of “The Blitz,” popular sports radio host Adam Schein and former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon, were still buzzing.

The duo, who just a few short months ago were harsh critics of the Bucs, have been won over and are now singing the praises of Morris.

In fact, Gannon predicted the addition of first and second round draft choices, defensive ends Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers, will make others on the defensive side of the ball for the Bucs that much better.

Adam Schein: Rich, when you hear Raheem Morris talk, you can’t help but get excited, you can’t help but get fired up. You want to play football.

Rich Gannon: There’s no doubt about it and I like what the Bucs did in the draft. They got no production from their defensive ends last year. Stylez White had four sacks and led the team. By adding Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers, Stylez White and Kyle Moore will have no choice but to step up their game. Because if they don’t they will be out of a job. And if they respond like they should, that will make that defensive line all the more better when you factor in Gerald McCoy and Brian Price are coming off of injuries. That could be a very impressive defensive front.

Now we all know that Stylez White is not a practice kind of guy, which irks Morris. This got to Morris so much last year that he mocked White by referring to him as Allen Iverson.

The gauntlet has been thrown down by Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik: Either White and Moore have to prove their worth — and quickly — or they may be walking the streets asking Jerry Glanville for a gig.

For you NFL Draft junkies that can’t ever get enough draft chatter, Joe has a new nugget for you.

Mark Dominik served up a glimpse at his pre-draft assessments during a recent national interview with former Hubert Mizell radio sidekick turned BSPN Radio host Colin Cowherd. Joe winced when he heard Dominik’s praise of newest Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones.

Colin Cowherd: Who was the best player in the draft? Who had your highest grade?

Mark Dominik: That’s a tough one. … We were big fans obviously of Von Miller and his pash rush ability. Certainly a huge fan of Patrick Peterson and his playmaking and his cover skills, and then the receivers. The nice thing about those four players, with Julio [Jones] and A.J. [Green] , is all those were quality kids off the field, too. You know, all four of those guys, you just felt like you could just take and put them in your locker room and you’re really proud of them.

Joe sincerely hopes Jones doesn’t have a rookie season like Mike Williams did.

Joe doesn’t have to go anywhere else to find that Bucs fans were not rejoicing in unison over rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s first two picks in last weekend’s draft.

Long before the draft, a number of Bucs fans screamed about Adrian Clayborn’s messed up right arm. A number of Bucs fans are eating their fingernails worried about Da’Quan Bowers’ knee.

But Gary Shelton believes those two defensive ends, unproven in the NFL, are still better off than what the Bucs had for defensive ends last season, so the veteran St. Petersburg Times sports columnist opined in an online chat on his paper’s site yesterday.

Comment From Gary F.
What are your impressions of the Buc’s draft picks and their new defensive line??

Gary Shelton
I like the Bucs’ draft from the No. 20 position. It’s a lot harder to impress there than, say, in the top five. But they have two players who should start. Do you worry about Clayborn’s sack total as a senior (3 1/2). Sure. Do you worry about Bowers’ knee? Sure. But what would have worried me was staying pat with the defensive ends that had. That’s scary.

Joe will have something more about the defensive ends later today. But Shelton is right on. Of course Clayborn and Bowers are risks, what draft pick isn’t? The gamble here is the Bucs improve their production from the defensive end position.

Not drafting any defensive ends would ensure limited to no production just like last year. The Bucs can’t go anywhere but up even with question marks all over their duo of rookie bookmarks.

Hurry up! Turn on WDAE-AM 620! Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski, unmatched local draft guru, is making a rare Saturday morning appearance and will broadcasting his sometime Saturday show, “The Blitz,” until noon today.

As one can imagine, Justin will be talking Bucs. He’ll be talking Bulls. He’ll be talking Beear and he just might put a bow on last night’s high school games.

In short, if you are not planning to listen to Justin today, Joe has one question: What’s the matter with you? At least you can listen to the live audio stream from the station’s website.

For those wondering why Team Glazer owns the club that has spent at or near rock bottom for the past seven seasons, St. Pete Times columnist Gary Shelton perhaps served up a little clarification yesterday during a live chat on TampaBay.com.

Shelton explained that Team Glazer will open the vault when the Bucs are ready to compete for a Super Bowl.

Comment From TimTim: The Glazers are not cheap. They just spend all the money they have paying $50 million transfer fees plus the players salary so Man U can have a new scorer. Man U is a dominant team with the worlds most expensive players. Why is their philosophy completely opposite with the Bucs? 

Gary Shelton: According to the Glazers, and I spent a half hour with Joel in New Orleans in late March, it’s a matter of cycles. They swear they will spend the money when the Bucs are ready to compete for the big game.

Much of it might be the differences in the sports. To compete with Man U, ownership has to pay international transfer fees. In the NFL, there is a salary cap. Also, when is the last great NFL team to buy itself a title? You win in the NFL by developing your own players. Ask Indy, New England, Pittsburgh.

That said, I think this is the year to augment with a player or two. 

Coming off a 10-6 season with stud talent on the roster, including the addition of Rambo and the next Ray Lewis, surely this is the season Team Glazer will deem the Bucs a Super Bowl contender.

If Shelton is to be believed, then one could conclude the Bucs don’t see themselves as contenders if they don’t dabble in what will be the biggest free agent class in history. That would be very sad.

Joe has growing warmth in his heart for Bucs rockstar general manager Mark Dominik. Speaking Wednesday on The Jim Rome Show, Dominik referred to himself in the third person, just like Joe does!!

Rome asked Dominik a question about his “pods” drafting philosophy, (a story delivered to the masses by Joe and Justin Pawlowski), and the GM praised Rome for “doing research on Dominik.”

Nice.

During that interview, Dominik referenced how he spent loads of time interviewing former college left tackles and offensive linemen all over the place asking them who their toughest defensive-end matchup was in the college game. Dominik said Adrian Clayborn’s name was given repeatedly as the nastiest load on the block.

Hearing that reminded Joe of Dominik drilling Brandon Carter about Gerald McCoy and Ndamukong Suh last year.

Seems like a simple, wise method by Dominik. Hopefully, the college O-linemen weren’t blowing a bunch of smoke.

Last month St. Petersburg Times Bucs beat reporter Rick Stroud rocked NFL circles with a stunning report that the Bucs were going to cut troubled cornerback Aqib Talib over his various dalliances with the law, despite not quoting any sources.

The only reason this hasn’t happened yet, Stroud noted, was that with a lockout in place, teams cannot make any player transactions. The instant a CBA is in place or the courts ordered the NFL to reopen its doors for normal business, Talib will walk the streets amid the hundreds of thousands of the nation’s unemployed, Stroud claimed.

In various interviews since, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik has dodged any questions related to Talib and Bucs coach Raheem Morris has sort of danced around the issue.

No more.

In speaking with Shaun King and Toby David while appearing on the all-too Jewish-sounding “King David Show” on WQYK-AM 1010 this afternoon , Morris strongly shot down any suggestion that Talib has already been sentenced by the Bucs.

Shaun King: On the Aqib Talib issue, have you heard from Roger Goodell about this?

Raheem Morris: No. We have our own discipline policy for our players and we do extra things in addition to what the NFL may do, and it’s all within the CBA. We sometimes fine people or have them sit out games or not participate in certain things. Right now the guy [Talib] has not been judged. Once he is judged, I am sure the NFL will step into play. The reports that we have already determined Talib’s future are completely false.

Whoa. No question who and what Morris was referring to there. That, my friends, is what Joe calls a shot across the bow.

Now mind you Morris didn’t say the Bucs would not cut Talib, but they haven’t decided yet, waiting until the Texas judicial system has run its course.

While Morris may have made a not-so veiled remark at Stroud and his Talib story, Talib is far from out of the woods with the Bucs.

Yet.

Raheem Morris went on a radio media tour this week, appearing on mulitiple stations. And of course, rockstar Mark Dominik wasn’t denied, checking in with the national Jim Rome Show on WDAE-AM 620 Wednesday.

Both were asked about second-round pick Da’Quan Bowers, and part of their responses included comments about the Bucs’ experience with knee injuries. Essentially, Dominik told Jim Rome that his staff knows bad knees, like those of Kellen Winslow and Cadillac Williams, and isn’t daunted by managing Bowers’ condition. Raheem offered a similar talking point take on 1040 AM.

Joe doesn’t quite know what to make about the mystery surrounding Bowers’ knee. Joe gets the whole theory of Bowers’ perceived value and risk/reward in the second round, but for a team that insists on building through the draft, Bowers’ represents one hell of a gamble. It’s not like the Bucs are going to go out and sign a beast of a free agent pass rusher in case Bowers’ can’t get healthy.

Joe also wants to add one famous Buccaneer knee that Dominik didn’t take credit for managing correctly– that would be the one belonging to Antonio Bryant. It turned out to be the right move to not give Bryant a long term deal and to not re-sign him. Clearly the Bengals’ weren’t as wise.

Warren Sapp was one of the greatest defensive tackles in NFL history much less Bucs franchise history. He still tries to help out the Bucs as he hand-picked Keith Millard as one of two new defensive line coaches and likes to brag on NFL Network about Bucs coach Raheem Morris, “We raised him.”

A Bucs fan asked Woody Cummings recently on the Bucs TBO Q & A feature what else Sapp is doing with the Bucs.

Q: Hey guys! Hate this no football thing! I have wondered if Warren Sapp has been working with Gerald McCoy at all since he has come into the NFL. I know he was more excited with him than Ndamukong Suh over in Detroit. Has he done anything with him and what do you expect from McCoy this year?

Josh Beason, Florida

A: Sapp worked with McCoy a little bit on the field before the season started last year and the two have remained in close contact since. Not sure if they’ve worked much this offseason, but my guess is they have. McCoy says he’s back to full strength following his biceps injury, so I would expect him to pick up where he left off last year when he got hurt. He was just starting to pick things up and make an impact on a regular basis and I would expect that to continue from the start, whenever that start may come.

— Woody Cummings

This may very well continue this summer. Sapp has already reached out to Bucs second-round pick Da’Quan Bowers presumably he is also going to do the same with first-round pick Adrian Clayborn.

Joe thinks it’s cool that the old guard of the Bucs is still doing its part to help the new Bucs succeed, sort of like passing the torch.

Yes, Raheem Morris went there.

On Wednesday, during an interview on 1040AM, Raheem told host Tom Krasniqi that he didn’t want to hang extraordinary expectations on his third-round draft pick, Mason Foster, but Raheem seemingly couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for Mason.

Krasniqi asked Raheem what linebacker past or present in the NFL he likens Foster to. And Raheem went right for the top of the mountain under Lawrence Taylor. He picked Ray Lewis. 

Raheem said Foster’s movement, practice devotion, desire, hand usage and splash-play ability, among other traits, are all in the Ray Lewis mold.

Raheem also went on to detail how hard Foster practiced at the Senior Bowl explaining that Foster put his face on everyone.

Joe can’t wait to see what this kid’s got.