When the Bucs hired Greg Schiano to replaced jettisoned Raheem Morris, a lot was made about Schiano’s relationship with Bill Belicheat. In fact, word was that Belicheat strongly lobbied Team Glazer and Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to hire Schiano.

How close are the two? It seems that at the NFL owners meetings last week in Palm Beach, Schiano was spotted often with Belicheat as Schiano is trying to pick up any nugget of information he can from the three-time Super Bowl coach, so reports popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, beer-chugging Peter King, the NBC Sports guru and Sports Illustrated scribe.

To start each work week, Joe inhales King’s must-read Monday Morning Quarterback column. Today, King puts forth the belief that Schiano is so close to Belicheat, that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Schiano could someday replace Belicheat as the Patriots coach when Belicheat decides to retire.

Mentor and mentee were together a lot in Palm Beach. “He knows every player in the National Football League,” said Schiano, the new Tampa Bay coach. “When you’re a young coach you go to clinics with a pad full of notes. As you get on in coaching, you know who you are and what you believe in, so maybe you’ll go someplace and come away with a note or two. He’s the one guy still when I sit with him, I still have two pages of notes. That shows you how bright he is. He’s treated me very well.”

I wondered the other day, when Belichick retires, is Schiano the kind of guy he’d recommend to be his successor as Patriots coach. You never know what the future could bring.

Well, for now, Schiano is the Bucs coach. And today, he actually for the first time gets to coach and meet all his players. Schiano will be in meetings this morning with Buccaneers and on the practice fields of One Buc Palace.

Over the years, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik always talked about getting “toys” for quarterback Josh Freeman.

A big, shiny toy was delivered last month when Dominik shelled out a lot of cash to grab a legitimate No. 1 receiver in Vincent Jackson.

This transaction has moved many Bucs fans to wonder aloud if the Bucs offense now becomes lethal. That question was posed to ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas in a recent NFC South chat on the four-letter’s site.

Matthew (Tampa)
With Vincent Jackson, how much does Freeman improve?

Pat Yasinskas
A lot. He’s got a WR that can get open downfield. Should make the entire offense better.

Freeman may have summed up an opposing defensive coordinator’s predicament in planning for the Bucs when Freeman said to Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan of “Movin’ the Chains,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio, “With Mike [Williams], defenses always rolled coverages to him. With [Jackson] lining up for us, now what do they do?”

The key to Freeman’s success is simple: cut down on the picks. Having a target like Jackson should allow more receivers to get open, thus, Freeman shouldn’t be forcing passes into traffic like he did last season.

Joe’s written many times that Greg Schiano’s barely dry five-year contract is no indicator of the pressure, or lack thereof, on the head coach to win.

It’s there. The days of a coaches getting long leashes are long gone.

So Joe enjoyed reading today in the Tampa Bay Times that Schiano knows he must produce quickly.

“I … know it’s a win-now league. Believe me, I got that memo,” Schiano said. “I think it trickled down to college as well. You had a head coach get fired in college after two years. That’s unheard of. But we also know what coaches are getting paid, too. That’s changed, too. With everything, as the stakes rise, I got that part, too.

“There’s such a fine line in this league between winning and losing. Now it is in college, too, but it’s much finer here. I think the talent level is much closer, too. So we added some talent. We’ll add some more in the draft, try to coach them the best we can. We talked about implementing some new systems, and obviously, we won’t be as far along as the teams that we play. Try to win every game, more important, try to go out and play the best we can.”

Joe suggests you click on through above and read the whole piece.

Joe’s not demanding Schiano go out and make the playoffs in Year 1, though that would be damn nice. But once the culture change comes and Schiano can mold his team — coaches and players — the wins will have to come fast. 

Once upon a time not too long ago Larry Johnson was a manbeast of an All-Everything Penn State running back drafted by the Chiefs in the first round.

Kansas City used him sparingly before he tore up the NFL in his third and fourth seasons. Johnson carred the ball a whopping 752 times for a stunning 3,539 yards and 38 touchdowns in 2005 and 2006. Then Johnson was paid a king’s ransom, hurt his foot and never was close to the same.

So who cares, Joe?

Well, noted NFL Draft guru Wes Bunting, of NationalFootballPost.com, compared Johnson and Trent Richardson this week during an interview with Tom Krasniqi of WHBO-AM 1040. Bunting said the two had similar strengths, and speed.

“The biggest misconception with running backs that people think, and the average fan thinks, is that big plays and long runs are predicated off straight-line speed, which couldn’t be further from the truth.” Bunting said. “It’s a running back’s ability to make a man miss at the first level and/or break a tackle, which Trent Richardson does very well. I remember when Larry Johnson led the NFL in long runs, 20+ yard runs, when he was in his heyday with the Chiefs. The guy couldn’t break 4.6 [in the 40-yard dash], but he had good short-area quickness and was physical at the first level, broke a ton of tackles and accelerated quickly. I think Trent Richardson does that as well as anyone.”

Hearing this, of course, reinforced the fragility of running backs to Joe, as any memory of Larry Johnson would.  

As loyal JoeBucsFan readers know too well, Joe wouldn’t touch a running back with the Bucs’ No. 5 overall pick for three reasons: the Bucs already have a talented beast of a running back, the Bucs can grab a stout complementary running back in the second or third rounds and a solid backup in free agency, plus the Bucs have built such a monstrous offensive line that the new stable of backs should have no trouble moving the chains.

What the Bucs can’t grab in later rounds is cornerback Morris Claiborne.

As for Bunting, after raving about Richardson left and right, he played Bucs general manager and said the Bucs should draft Claiborne because the position “is a higher priority” in today’s NFL and because Claiborne and Richardson scored the same grades on his draft board.

Much was made about Greg Schiano’s comments about ball security during a discussion of LeGarrette Blount and Trent Richardson at the NFL owners meetings last week. It was widely interpreted as a shot at Blount, though Joe saw it more as a gentle poke.

In this WDAE-AM 620 audio below, TampaBay.com Bucs beat writer Rick Stroud joined Todd Wright and gave his impressions of the Schiano chat about Blount. “He didn’t throw many bouquets at LeGarrette,” Stroud said.

There’s much more to the audio, including Stroud’s take on a topic Joe found boring: why Team Glazer abstained from voting in the case of the Cowboys-Redskins league sanctions.

Since his trial on gun-related assault charges has been delayed (again) in Texas, this time pushing the trial past the NFL draft, there have been cries from seemingly all corners for the Bucs to cut ties with troubled cornerback Aqib Talib.

The loudest of the shouts has come largely from Tim Ryan of SiriusXM NFL Radio, who earlier this week all but assured listeners if the Bucs (rightly) drafted LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne, it would be just a matter of hours before Talib became an ex-Buccaneer.

This, so Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune suggests, is premature speculation as Cummings explained in a TBO Bucs Q&A.

Q: I saw the article about drafting Claiborne and dumping Talib. I believe it would be best to have all three with Talib at No. 1, Claiborne No. 2 and Wright in the slot. Talib has shut down star receivers and in 2010 he proved he was a shutdown cornerback, when healthy. Last year he played on a bad hamstring.

Andrew Athans, Arnold, MD

A: I don’t think the Bucs have any plans to dump Talib. They’ve dealt with him and his problems for this long; it wouldn’t make much sense to dump him now or even after the draft. Not with only a year left on his contract. And for a player of his abilities, he comes rather cheap this year. Talib is due $1.85 million, which is a bargain for a top-level cornerback. I believe the Bucs’ plan is to see how Talib responds to the more disciplined approach of new coach Greg Schiano and take it from there. This is obviously a big year for Talib. If he can stay out of trouble and clean up his act he could earn himself a new contact here. If not, the Bucs will probably move on with someone else.

— Woody Cummings

Now that’s an angle Joe didn’t think of: Talib’s inexpensive salary this season allows Bucs decision makers more leeway into tolerating the drama that seemingly always follows Talib.

Now to expect Talib to somehow stay out of the off-field headlines, fairly or unfairly, may be a stretch. Roughly every six months something seems to pop up about Talib, and it wasn’t like when Talib played for Chucky that a tight ship kept the drama away.

Everything Joe has heard is that Talib really is a good teammate. There were times Joe himself saw Talib take a young defender aside to help him on the practice field. When cornered, Bucs officials will state the same thing.

Talib’s work on the field and in the locker room is not the issue with his job security. It’s all the drama off the field. If Talib is able to stay out of the headlines under Schiano’s first year, is that just a temporary reprieve or a complete turnaround?

That, Dominik will have to weigh after Talib’s contract ends following the 2012 season.

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One of the more interesting quotes in recent Bucs history came from Team Glazer back in 2010.

Per the then St. Pete Times, Team Glazer issued an edict to Mark Dominik and Raheem Morris as to how, in part, they would be evaluated on building and growing the Bucs.

“We’ve had long talks about this. And really, the general message is: You think long-term, we  think long-term. It’s plain and simple. You start thinking short-term, we start thinking short term,” Glazer said.

“Everyone buys into this plan. I always ask, “Does everyone have the stomach for this because there’s a lot you’ve got to endure early on.”

While Joe has not talked to Joel Glazer over a pastrami sandwich about the deepest meanings of this quote, Joe’s always enjoyed envisioning the message being delivered to young Raheem and young Dominik in a Vito Corleone-like manner.

So this brings Joe to 2012. Are the Bucs — Glazer and/or Dominik — now “thinking short-term” after huge free agent signings, having a quarterback entering his fourth season with a lot to prove, plus many talented young players entering what should be defining seasons in their careers?

It’s impossible to get a read on the Bucs’ plan without seeing what the Bucs do with the rest of their offseason. Clearly, drafting Morris Claiborne is the safer pick (long-term), versus drafting Trent Richardson (short-term). The shelf lives of top cornerbacks might be double that of top running backs. The Bucs have long-term vs. short-term options in the second-round, as well. And more free agents (London Fletcher?) will have to be signed.

Despite Greg Schiano’s shiny new five-year contract, surely the Bucs are at a bit of a crossroads, and Schiano’s window to win is much smaller than the length of his contract.

Aqib Talib is a better cornerback than Eric Wright. Ronde Barber is an icon and future Hall of Famer coming off a solid season. But Wright’s the guy who got a monster contract while Barber took a pay cut and will earn more than Talib.

Yeah, Joe understands the business of the NFL, but it’s still a wacky league.

Per ESPN’s Pat Yasinskas, Barber signed for 25 percent less than he earned in 2012.

This contract is very simple. Barber is scheduled to earn $3 million in base salary. He didn’t get any signing bonus and there are no other frills in the contract. He’ll count $3 million against this year’s salary cap. 

Joe wonders whether Barber’s kicking himself for not demanding a two-year deal before 2011.

Yasinskas notes that after re-signing Demar Dotson the Bucs have about $15 million in salary cap room remaining.

Hopefully that’s enough to sign their draft picks, plus buy a safety, running back depth, a veteran linebacker that can lead, and a versatile veteran defensive tackle.

The draft talk really got ramped up this past week when Bucs brass openly waxed poetic over Alabama running back Trent Richardson.

Then, the ultimate draft guru, Mike Mayock of the NFL Network, came out and claimed he made a mistake in grading Richardson and that he is a top-ten if not a top-five pick.

Many Bucs fans, turning a blind eye to the gaping holes in the Bucs secondary, that awful track record of first round running backs and the gnawing truth that the Bucs already have a solid running back, are doing cartwheels in their backyards as if they were just violated by a former Bucs cheerleader with the notion that the Bucs may draft Richardson.

This subject came up yesterday during a segment of “Movin’ the Chains,” co-hosted by Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

A Bucs fan called in and was adamant Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik will draft Richardson. Kirwan and Ryan are not on the Richardson-to-Bucs bandwagon and are of the mindset that the Bucs need to address a critical need at cornerback with a stud like Morris Claiborne of LSU.

(The conversation began interestingly with Ryan gleefully saying if the Bucs draft Claiborne, troubled Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib will be cut soon after the draft.)

Caller: I think we take the running back because I think he’d fit our offense better.

Pat Kirwan: He’s a terrific player. But again, a Gil Brandt-ism: Look at the next round and where you might find a player. I believe there will be better running backs in the second round than cornerbacks.

Tim Ryan: Go get Doug Martin out of Boise State in round two. You will kill two birds with one stone. You’re going to get a guy who can run and a guy that has the ability to protect in third down and catch the rock out of the backfield.

Now this is an interesting theory Joe never thought of, but explains why Gil Brandt was a legendary general manager.

Let’s say the Bucs are torn between Claiborne and Richardson. If one area (between running backs/cornerbacks) is stronger in the second round, it tips your hand what to draft in the first round.

Martin is an interesting subject. He played in a pass-happy offense so he had to know how to block, and catch, out of the backfield. Oh yeah, and he can run too.

You better have the right mindset if you want to remain a Buccaneer. That’s the message Greg Schiano seems to be sending these days.

Like football and come to work hard each day? That might not keep you on the roster. You better love the damn game.

Schiano talked to the Detroit Free Press about Eric Wright’s versatility and makeup, and unveiled a deeper layer of his philosophy.

“He can do the things that we’re going to ask him to do in man coverage,” Schiano said. “A lot of guys can play zone coverage; it changes your skill set when you need to play man coverage, and I think he runs very well. And he’s a football guy.

“One of the biggest things that will be evident pretty quickly is that guys who love the game will be on our team. Liking it’s not going to be enough at our place. There’s nothing wrong with people who like it. There’s guys who like it, and there’s other guys who love it. The love it guys lose track of time when they’re doing it, and that’s the kind of guys we want.”

Joe wonders what will happen to the Bucs that don’t love football. Surely, the roster has some of those guys, so one would have to assume there will be some unexpected cuts.

Raheem Morris preached “mentality before reality.” Schiano seems to saying “mentality or find a new team.”

Joe knows all about being sloppy. You should see him after a few beers on a steamy Friday night, gawking at Courtney the Bartender.

But it’s one thing to get sloppy at one of the great establishments of the Original Hooters chain, it’s quite another to be sloppy on a football field.

This seems to grate at new Bucs coach Greg Schiano who, while speaking with eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach this week, all but hinted at a housecleaning because of the lack of discipline with the Bucs.

“We’re one of the sloppier teams with the football that I’ve ever seen, so we have to get that remedied from Day 1,” Greg Schiano said Wednesday at a media breakfast with NFC coaches. “That’ll take a lot because it’s a bad habit.”

The Bucs led the NFL with 40 giveaways last season, finishing last with a minus-16 turnover differential in the final year of the Raheem Morris regime.

It was almost as if Schiano is bracing Bucs fans for a honeymoon of sorts, not to expect too much too soon as he stated it takes a while to work the bad habits out of one’s system.

Hopefully with an extra OTA and a full offseason this spring and summer, Schiano will get a head start in exorcising these demons.

If the Bucs expect Mason Foster to develop to his fullest, the second-year linebacker simply needs help.

Joe remembers as a kid a relative, who fought in the infantry in the South Pacific during World War II, explained to Joe what a Bonzai Charge was.

Thankfully, Joe will never experience such a thing but while watching the Bucs defense play last year, when opponents ran the ball past the line of scrimmage, the sight reminded Joe of what his relative told him about a Bonzai Charge.

The Bucs linebackers simply couldn’t stop the rush. It was as if they waved white flags once they saw a ball carrier.

Now Joe’s not going to pick on Mason Foster, who played middle linebacker last year and was likely out of position. The rookie was in a no-win situation because he got zero help on either side of him and after Gerald McCoy went down with an injury, got little help in front of him as well.

This has led to former Bucs defensive end Steve White to beg Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik to acquire a linebacker through free agency.

Speaking with Tom Krasniqi on WHBO-AM 1040 Wednesday, White explained how dire it is for Dominik to bring in a veteran linebacker.

Talk about keeping Mason Foster in the middle which I think is just posturing. … At the same time we have to sign somebody, I don’t care if it is an inside linebacker or an outside linebacker. There’s not a whole lot of outside linebackers left out there.

Geno Hayes is exploring other options, visiting with the Broncos. Quincy Black was terrible last year. Whether you put Mason Foster on the outside or the inside, I don’t care. You are going to have to get that guy some help in here. What I don’t think you want to do is go completely young with the linebackers and the young line up front. We need some veterans in there somewhere.

White is right on the mark. If there was a team with worse play from its linebacker corps out there last year, Joe wants to know. And without beefing up the linebackers, why exactly should anyone believe the Bucs will be much better stopping the run this season?

Simply put, Foster needs help. Otherwise, he’s going to be shell-shocked like an infantry grunt.

Trent Richardson ran around in shorts at his Pro Day today in Alabama and had plenty to say for the BSPN cameras afterwards. Check out the video below.

Of note, Merril Hoge and Richardson talk about new Bucs running backs coach Earnest Byner giving Richardson a rigorous workout. Plus Richardson talks about the joy he’d get from getting a draft-day call from one of his “hometowns,” fellow Pensacolan Derrick Brooks. Joe would much prefer Morris Claiborne get a call from Ronde Barber, but that’s a rant for another day.

Joe is jacked up to soon roll out all the details of his blowout NFL Draft parties at Pete & Shorty’s in Pinellas Park, just one mile west of I-275.

The action will kick off at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 26.

This is going to be intense. Not only will Joe be there with jersey giveaways and screaming for the Bucs to draft Morris Claiborne, but Joe will be joined by a high-profile media partner that will turn the first night of the draft into an intense draft lovers paradise. Plus, Joe expects to be flanked by former Buccaneers and maybe even some current Bucs.

There will be beer girls, glorious girls, and a lot more. Beer specials, food specials, indoor and outdoor seating. Joe can’t wait.

And then Joe gets to do it all over again on Saturday afternoon, April 28, for Rounds 4-7 of the draft.

Save the dates! All the exciting details should be here next week.

Bucs fans remember that Raheem Morris came from the Joe Maddon/Mike Tomlin school of team slogans.  These great coaches (the last two) — Raheem’s close mentors — like rallying cries and fancy lingo.

So it was back in the 2010 preseason that Raheem rolled out his “Race to 10” to inspire his seemingly ugly Bucs roster to be the first team in the NFC to get 10 wins. Many players and fans also interpreted that to mean the Bucs were fighting to get to 10 wins as a season goal.

The Bucs won those 10 games, but Lions head coach Jim Schwartz thinks Raheem was talking foolish babble and told Bucs beat writer eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune that a “Race to 10” mindset is downright stupid.

“I don’t know if anybody here would say we just need nine,” Schwartz said. “I don’t know if anybody else plays that card game. I take that back. I have heard people talk about the ‘Race to 10’ and different foolishness. I think that’s foolish. The whole idea is to win every game you play and try to get in (the playoffs).

“Once you’re in, have some firepower that you can get through.”

Unfortunately, it has not been revealed what Schwartz thought about Raheem calling the Bucs the best team in the NFC when they were 4-2 that season.

Joe really can’t believe Schwartz is such a moron to call out a fellow coach, one he didn’t try to attack physically, for inspiring his team to a 10-6 season, one in which Schwartz’s team wasn’t very good.

Joe must come to Raheem’s defense. Schwartz definitely crossed a line. And hopefully some reporter will seek out Raheem for a response. Joe would pay to hear it.

When notorious whip-cracker and two-time Super Bowl winner Tom Coughlin calls you a “tough guy,” that means something.

And that’s what the Giants coach told Tampa Tribune scribe eye-RAH! Kaufman about Greg Schiano this week at the NFL owners meetings.

“I think Greg’s a solid football coach,” Coughlin said. “I interviewed him when he was very young and he was impressive. He’s a tough guy with good organizational skills. He certainly has the outstanding work ethic, he’s smart and he’s a man of principles.”

Damn, Joe can’t wait for Schiano to start giving some tough-guy leadership and direction to the young Bucs when they report back to the team on Monday. Schiano, as Raheem Morris would say, no doubt will be “ready to deal.”