A funny thing happened along the way to the 2012 season. Suddenly, players drafted by Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik began playing like studs.

Why, it was just a few months ago that some Bucs fans wanted to hang Dominik — not just in effigy. Gerald McCoy, the unruly crowd claimed, was a bust. So too was Mason Foster. Roy Miller was a nothing more than a backup. And Josh Freeman was a bust, too. And Mike Williams. The list goes on.

Almost overnight (and not coincidentally with a new, well-respected coaching staff), GMC became the stud player everyone expected, Foster is making a serious bid to have pineapple in his belly in February, Freeman suddenly throwing like an elite quarterback, Williams doing his best Lynn Swann impersonations. Miller has become a rock on the defensive line.

That’s not to mention that three rookies (the Muscle Hamster himself, Doug Martin, Mark Barron and Lavonte David) look to be the cornerstones of the franchise for perhaps the next decade.

Now the naysayers don’t know what to say. It sure looks like Dominik had a clue to what he was doing, no?

Peter King agrees. The cricket-watching, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, craft beer-chugging, Marriott-sleeping, scone-loathing NFL columnist for Sports Illustrated suggests Dominik may very well be the NFL executive of the year.

@SI_PeterKing: So many good candidates for exec of year: Schneider, Grigson, Rick Smith, Dimitroff, Emery.

@SameOleZ: Mark Dominik also?

@SI_PeterKing: Definitely. Should have included him. Done a great job crafting 53-man roster, as has Grigson.

Peter King and friend.

See what happens when good players meet good coaching? Freeman now has legitimate quarterback coaching. GMC and Foster, among others, are playing up to their abilities?

People mocked Joe for his defense of Dominik over the past couple of years. Again, when talent meets intelligent coaching, the results are something to behold.

For Joe, a giant surprise this season has been Bucs offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan. The guy is a first-time coordinator and new to calling plays, yet he’s already led the crafting of a powerful offense from scratch and successfully made significant adjustments to his game-planning since opening day.

Sullivan also has to get some credit for Josh Freeman’s renaissance, and his unit’s stats speak for themselves.

Throw in the fact Sullivan is a West Point grad and Army veteran, and has worked for two of the most militant head coaches in the NFL, Greg Schiano and Tom Coughlin, and Joe’s pretty confident Sullivan is going to be a somewhat hot head coaching candidate this offseason if the Bucs offense doesn’t nosedive over the next eight weeks.

Add to that the reality that most teams seeking a head coach also need to develop a quarterback, and Joe suspects Sullivan, from his time with Freeman and Eli Manning, can talk that talk very well in an interview.

Yeah, there’s half a season to play, plenty of time for Sullivan to channel Greg Olson, but the potential loss of Sullivan is real and something Joe’s going monitor. It would be a dreadful loss, assuming the Bucs offense keeps performing. But Joe’s just not seeing how Sullivan won’t land on teams’ radars.

You really don’t want to miss this. Joe had so much fun with the Kilt girls during Thursday Night Football, it was remarkable.

The way the Bucs ended last season and hiring a new, untested coach from the college ranks, Joe wasn’t so sure Ronde Barber wouldn’tblow the whistle on an incredible career.

But with a little cajoling over dinner with Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and new Bucs coach Greg Schiano, Barber not only decided to return, but to move to safety, which seems to be a common move for aging cornerbacks starting with Ronnie Lott and continuing with Rod Woodson and Charles Woodson.

The move, and playing with young studs like Mark Barron, Mason Foster and Lavonte David, seems to have reborn Barber.

The numbers geeks at ProFootballFocus have noticed this too and are exalting in their reviews of Old Man Ronde.

Reports of his demise…

Last season Ronde Barber looked for all the world like a player that needed to retire. He was missing tackles for fun, and looking badly out of his depth at corner against the league’s best receivers. This season the move to safety seems to have revived him, and his +3.2 grade represents a season best. Barber was thrown at four times [against Oakland], broke up two passes and allowed just 19 yards on three catches.

Now Joe has gone on record disputing ProFootballFocus’s statistics on missed tackles. Joe sure as hell didn’t see so many from Barber.

But Joe does agree it seems like Barber is totally energized. That’s a good thing. And yes, Barber someday deserves to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Greg Schiano spoke of Lequan Lewis’ elite athleticism

In the case of cornerback LeQuan Lewis, it seems the Bucs have taken a flier on a flier.

A little research on Lewis reveals he clocked a 4.29 40-yard-dash time during his college days, and put up sub 4.4 times before going undrafted out of Arizona State in 2011.

Lewis replaced veteran, Schiano-praised cornerback Brandon McDonald on the roster yesterday.

And today the leader of the New Schiano Order made it clear that Lewis, who sniffed a few game paychecks with the Cowboys last season, is all about potential.

“He’s got some skills that if he can peform with those skills within our scheme, he can be a good player,” Greg Schiano said of Lewis. “You don’t know until you do it. You know, so it’s going to be, there’s going to be a little bit of, you know we’ll give him some and see how he does, and if he does well you give him some more. But he can, you talk about being able to run, jump, hit — he can do that stuff as well as anybody. We just got to bring him along and teach him our scheme. Hopefully he’ll do it well in games.”

Joe sees the dump of McDonald and flier on Lewis as the Bucs recognizing that they had no cornerbacks with elite athletic ability. You can’t teach speed and leaping ability, and apparently it’s worth a shot to see if Lewis can run with Julio Jones perform.

This will be an interesting experiment, likely/hopefully no more dangerous than a Myron Lewis sighting.

A great military appreciation promotion from HootersCalendar.com and Hooters. Check out the video. (Very safe for work).

In his post-practice briefing with the Tampa Bay pen and mic club this afternoon from One Buc Palace, the leader of the New Schiano Order, Bucs coach Greg Schiano, admitted he is “frustrated” with a recent string of Bucs players dealing with banned substances but flatly stated Ahmad Black will play Sunday despite his recent brush with the law.

“First I always deal with the individual involved and I have had candid conversations with Ahmad,” Schiano said. “Then I discussed it with the whole team. I get it, I am frustrated. At the same time you need to handle every situation independently. I talked to our team about it and I really believe they understand, yet we had another mistake. We have to get it remedied. I have taken internal action, which will stay internal.

“Now the league has to decide what they will do and the courts will have to decide. That’s where we are at.

“He will play Sunday.”

Frankly, as Joe pointed out earlier today, what Black did was simply stupid. Yeah, young guys smoke pot. That doesn’t mean their employers should look the other way on an illegal substance (in 48 states).

Sure, alcohol is legal, but try bringing a bottle of beer to work and see what happens. Yeah, one is allowed to own a firearm in America. Imagine the reaction of your employer if you carried heat into work one morning.

Joe can understand Schiano’s frustration. This Black incident came on the heels of Aqib Talib and Eric Wright being popped for popping Adderall, a banned substance, and illegal if one does not have a prescription.

Not to mention Black witnessed one of his ex-teammates, Tanard Jackson, smoke himself out of the league.

Joe just found this amusing as hell.

Apparently, NFL players polled by The Sporting News have two-year old mentalities not unlike disc-spinning, unemployed Kellen Winslow, Jr., or bongman Tanard Jackson.

In a poll (aren’t we sick of that word about now?) of NFL players, the Sporting News compiled who NFL players would least like to play for.

Despite only being in the NFL a half-season, Bucs coach Greg Schiano is atop the list.

Yeah, I guess players would like to be coddled by the likes of Raheem Morris. Who cares about wins when we can party with coach and the checks clear, right?

What really made Joe guffaw was the No. 2 coach on the list, Bill Belicheat. Not too far behind Belicheat is Tom Coughlin.

This is simply laughable to Joe.

Yes, Joe believes in the proverbial “rookie wall,” the fatigue that hits many rookies playing full-time in the NFL. However, as Doug Martin is now on pace for 300+ carries and 40+ receptions, Joe is wondering how changes in the NFL might be affecting the reality of the “wall.”

The NFL is softer than ever thanks to new labor rules. The Bucs only practice once a week in pads (and that’s more than a lot of teams.) Training camp is softer and much more pad-free — two-a-days and three-a-days are ancient history. League rules have taken away a lot of late hits and piling on of running backs that were once commonplace.

Joe’s not sure what it all will mean for Martin, but Joe knows that the “rookie wall” isn’t what it once was, and it’s not the same thing many former-player analysts keep talking about.

Throw in that physical training and therapy methods are better than ever, plus the increasing pressure to win, and Joe’s not sure Greg Schiano really has plans to limit Martin’s carries in any significant manner. Joe envisions more of a common baseball pitcher’s scenario, where Martin keeps rolling until the Bucs either are forced to preserve him a little for the playoffs, or just shut him down completely if they fall out of contention in December.

Schiano lives by the one-game season mantra, and it’s clear that winning on the back of Martin and building the confidence blocks of the new regime is more important than preserving the stud rookie.

Joe has no problem with it, and it’s an interesting debate.

Among other revelations, Mike Williams said he audibly calls out “showtime” every time he catches the ball.

Even a casual football fan can see how incredibly explosive the Bucs offense has been the past four games.

So what changed?

Mike Williams answered that question on the Buccaneers Radio Network on WDAE-AM 620 Monday night. And there was no magic involved. Williams said time in the new system has caused the transformation.

“We started slow because we had to get the offense. There are a lot of adjustments in this offense,” Williams said. “We gotta read off zone coverages, man-to-man coverages, and we have different routes depending on what the coverage is. And I think we was like kinda not on the same page. We were seeing different things, but I think now we’re all starting to see the same things. Everything looking the same to us, the offense starting to get a lot familiar. We all can play any position now as a receivers corps, so it’s starting to be like something good to see.”

Williams went on to go deeper into how versatile the Bucs’ receivers are and how the system demands it.

Also, Williams admitted that he always calls out “showtime,” whenever he catches a ball. Sort of call to himself to take it to the house every time.

Of course, those who know Mike Williams know he’s a basketball junkie and a former hoops walk-on Syracuse University. So in that spirit, Joe presents some old school “showtime.” (If you’re short on time, pick up the video at 2:30)

Joe loves the edgy nature of the Behind the Bench segments on Buccaneers.com. You just can’t beat these NFL Films sights and sounds of gameday.

The most recent edition (click here) is particularly intense. Gerald McCoy talks to his defensive linemates about how the Raiders delivered “blatant disrespect” to the Bucs in the pregame for walking in front of Josh Freeman. From the audio, it seems the leader of the New Schiano Order stoked this fire.

Also, Donald Penn is seen dishing out some inspirational words, and the endzone looks at Josh Freeman’s touchdown throws are also can’t-miss stuff.

UPDATE: There is disagreement as to what Donald Penn said in this video. So Joe has deleted a previous comment on these pages about Penn’s harmless comment in the video.

When safety Ahmad Black was coming out of the University of Florida, he thought he had the talent to be a first-day draft pick. He was not. Black slipped to the Bucs in the fifth round, largely because many teams believed he was a step too slow and perhaps not big enough to succeed in the NFL.

Black still harbors bitterness about this. Just days ago, Black took to Twitter to mock those who didn’t draft him earlier.

@ahmadblack35: Too small and too slow to play in the NFL right? Lol yea ok

Not to sound arrogant — and Black is not, he’s a good guy who Joe has gotten to know since he was drafted — Black also posted the following on Twitter.

‏@ahmadblack35: Blessed and thankful for everything….never forget to thank the man above for all your blessings!!

Interestingly, per a police report obtained by Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times, the aforementioned Twitter postings by Black occurred after Black was pulled over for weaving in the small hours of the morning of Oct. 30 and confessed to police he had been smoking pot.

Now Black seems to be a smart guy from his dealings with Joe and, as Black likes to point out, sometimes a football player’s best assets cannot be determined at a glorified indoor track practice in Indianapolis in the dead of winter. There is a thing called “football smarts,” which often mean the difference between making an NFL team and bartending.

But given the date Black was pulled over and allegedly confessed to police he smoked pot, Black had to know about recent Bucs history concerning controlled substances from Tanard Jackson (who threw away millions of dollars if not a career because he couldn’t put the bong down) to  the Adderall troubles of Aqib Talib and Eric Wright.

Black also had to know his team is woefully thin at cornerback, so thin that it’s a potential option that Black himself could start at safety if Ronde Barber is moved back to corner.

Look, Ahmad, you have the rest of your life to ingest whatever you want with no ramifications other than those in your personal life. However, you have a whole locker room of teammates that need you right now, need you dependable and on the field of play.

Black has now landed in the crosshairs of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell who may or may not fine or suspend him. In football vernacular, Black is now a target.

Joe thinks it is great that Black is using his bitterness over not behind drafted higher to motivate himself to be a productive NFL player. Sadly, he can’t be counted on if he is going to be getting smoked up enough to be a road hazard and get pulled over by the long arm of the law.

In Joe’s eyes, Black just has to be smarter than this. Look, Joe doesn’t care what one does on his or her own time so long as it does not encroach on Joe’s liberties or finances. More importantly, when a player does something off the field that could jeopardize his team’s on-field play, that’s when Joe gets angry.

This just depresses Joe. Black is smarter than this. Or so Joe thought.

Your 2012 opening day nickel cornerback, veteran Brandon McDonald, who did some good things with the Bucs and drew love from Greg Schiano a few weeks ago, is now a former Buccaneer.

This is how Schiano described McDonald only a few weeks ago: “I’m impressed,” Schiano said. “His work ethic, his attention to detail. This guy’s a pro.”

Well, now McDonald will have to be a “pro” somewhere else.

The Bucs have promoted second-year cornerback LeQuan Lewis from the practice squad. Lewis has played in four games as a reserve over the past two seasons since joining the Titans as an undrafted rookie in 2011.

He has one career tackle.

This move sure is curious given the thin Bucs secondary and possible looming suspension of Eric Wright. Hopefully, the Bucs see something special in Lewis. Remeber, that’s LeQuan Lewis, not Myron Lewis.

No, Myron Lewis avoided the Grim Reaper today. Again.

If it is Tuesday, that means there are potential roster changes for the Bucs and one that Joe had anticipated came about today.

The Bucs cut a cornerback.

However, it’s not the cornerback Joe believed would be filing for unemployment today.

The football gods continue to smile on Myron Lewis as he once again, continues to be gainfully employed by an NFL team despite looking as comfortable in an NFL defensive backfield as a Manhattanite suddenly dropped in the middle of an Illinois cornfield. (“Where can I get a pastrami around here, huh?”)

Rather than cutting ties with Lewis, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik released cornerback Brandon McDonald, promoting cornerback LeQuan Lewis from the practice squad.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this transaction, and how Myron Lewis has more NFL lives than a cat.

It is easy to see why members of the Bucs organization rubbed their eyes in fret when Pro Bowl right guard Davin Joseph went down with a season-ending knee injury in August. And Joe totally understands how the front office and coaching staff  wanted to reach for a bottle when Pro Bowl left guard Carl Nicks could no longer play on his big nasty toe injury.

Shoot, Joe wanted to empty a bottle as well.

But the way the Bucs (don’t forget, incumbent starting right tackle Jeremy Trueblood was injured and Wally Pipp’ed, and reserve right guard Ted Larsen returned to the bench) have overcome injuries and obstacles, and still played at a high level against a solid front seven of the Raiders, Joe was terribly impressed.

By Joe’s reasoning, most of the credit goes to offensive line coach Bob Bostad.

To hear what center/left guard Jeremy Zuttah and right tackle Demar Dotson told Joe yesterday about Bostad, well, Joe’s initial observations were right on.

“Coach Bostad is a great coach,” Zuttah said. “He’s aggressive and assertive and stresses little things. He will keep on us, he doesn’t ever ease up. He is always on us and I think that is good because it pushes us to a new level.”

Zuttah cited hand placement and footwork as two of Bostad’s key points that he stresses, among others.

“Everything. He won’t let you go with anything,” Zuttah said. “If your technique is a little bit off, he will be on you. “

Dotson also credited the little things Bostad focuses on that have made him a better lineman.

“He is an awesome guy, an awesome coach,” Dotson said of Bostad. “Everywhere he has been he has been successful. He is the reason why we are coming along the way we are. I mean, we have two Pro Bowlers that are not here. Yet we are still getting the job done. That’s what kind of coach he is.

“He teaches physical and teaches technique. He is big on being physical and big on technique, knowing your plays, knowing your assignment. If you do what he says, you are going to be successful.

“It is some simply things like putting your hat across the guy’s shoulders on a run block, he is big on that. You may get it right, you may get it wrong but he harps on that because he wants everybody to do it right.”

Joe simply cannot remember, sans perhaps Pittsburgh, in recent years, an offensive line being down three starters, two of which are Pro Bowl players, and still getting the job done up front.

If Team Glazer doesn’t have Bostad locked in for a few years at a competitive salary, perhaps now is the time to rectify that matter?

Though it likely belonged to a friend (doesn’t it always?), marijuana allegedly under the care of Ahmad Black led the Bucs safety to get a misdemeanor cannibus possession citation in Hillsborough County last week, so reports Stephen Holder of the Tampa Bay Times.

Per Holder, Black’s citation to appear in court next month was issued Oct. 30.

If convicted, Black’s punishment for possessing less than 20 grams is a maximum fine of $1,000 and a year in jail, per Florida statutes. However, Black likely is eligible for a diversion program, which would keep the conviction off his record and force him to be on probation for a year, pay a bunch of cash, and take regular drug tests during that time. Aqib Talib entered a diversion program after clobbering the St. Pete cabbie a couple of years ago. Talib was ordered to go through anger counseling and be on probation.

Joe will keep an eyeball on this case.

Joe suspects Black reported the situation to the Bucs immediately and the team will follow its typical protocol of letting the legal system run its course before reacting.

The fact that Da’Quan Bowers has been able to come back from his Achilles injury this spring to make his first appearance not quite midway through the season is exceptional.

As a result, Bucs coaches have sort of been treating Bowers with kid gloves, slowly working him into the lineup more and more. Part of this is to get Bowers into football shape since he missed all of training camp and preseason.

The kid gloves started to come off a little last Sunday. Already down a defensive end with Adrian Clayborn out for the season, Michael Bennett was dinged up in the win over the Raiders and suddenly, Bowers was logging a lot more playing time than he or his coaches planned.

Bowers told Joe that his conditioning was far from his train of thought when Bennett went down.

“You never think about anything like that until you are put in the moment,” Bowers said. “My well-being definitely wasn’t my first thought. My first thought was: ‘Michael is down. I have to help the team.’

“That was my first initial thought. Once I got into it, I wasn’t paying attention to how many plays I got.

“My Achilles isn’t the issue now, it’s my conditioning. But as you can tell, going 9 to 10 plays in a row, my conditioning isn’t much of an issue any more.”

This is good news to Joe, and should be to all Bucs fans. The more Bowers can play — and apparently, he can play more — the less wear and tear on Bennett.

The more Bennett and Bowers can rotate the fresher those guys will be down the road. Bennett hasn’t rotated out much this season so giving him a few breathers will be welcome for the soon-to-be-free agent.

As much as Greg Schiano talked all offseason about how he wanted to run the football, it surprised Joe a bit that the Bucs seemed content to hand the starting fullback gig to Erik Lorig, a converted defensive end with limited experience in the backfield.

Then as it became clear that the Bucs’ new offense would actually use the fullback more than most, Joe had his fingers and toes crossed that Lorig could deliver.

To date, Joe thinks Lorig has been better than expected. His blocking appears to have improved — he threw key blocks on three of four Doug Martin touchdown runs Sunday — and Lorig has been sure-handed and quick out of the backfield all season.

Last night, the leader of the New Schiano Order took to the WDAE-AM 620 airwaves and enthusiastically heaped hefty praise on his fullback.

“Erik Lorig has done a great job. I mean, being a lead fullback, catching the ball when we throw it to him,” Schiano said.

Joe’s got a lot of faith in Lorig’s ability to improve. Former Bucs defensive end Steve White documented one of Lorig’s blocking shortcomings weeks ago, which Joe has kept an eye on since. Joe has seen improvement. Plus, Joe got to chat with former Bucs FB/RB Earnest Graham about Lorig, and Graham asssured Joe that Lorig is an extraordinary athlete and has the work ethic to develop into a top fullback.

If Lorig keeps catching balls and lead-blocking Martin to a great season, he could end up being the first Mark Dominik draft pick to start a Pro Bowl, aka eat pineapple.