The man who stymied Ndamukong Suh as a rookie and helped lead the 2010 Bucs’ offensive line to a stunning showing in the second half of that season is back with the Bucs.

Guard Derek Hardman, who was cut before the opener against the Panthers was re-signed today. DE/DT Wallace Gilberry was released to make room.

One could speculate that this move surely means Jeremy Trueblood won’t play Sunday against the fearsome Giants defensive line. Though Hardman’s signing simply could be to add depth just in case.

E.J. Biggers first touched on this topic in June, when he referenced how much more he’s learning about where to be on the field under the New Schiano Order.

Biggers said he appreciated being schooled more about his defensive teammates’ responsibilities and how that affects his job.

Interestingly, half-man-half-dog Adrian Clayborn took that a step further on his radio show Wednesday on WDAE-AM 620. Clayborn, a rookie under Raheem Morris last season, said the New Schiano Order demands increased study of opposing offenses. And it’s working, Clayborn said.

“When you start in on [studying] film, obviously you got to study your guy [you’ll be going up against], but the thing I like about this coaching staff is that they make us kind of study the whole offense,” Clayborn said. “And you get to see even more stuff. That’s allowing us to play faster and see everything.”

Yet another example of how the Bucs were victimized by an overmatched, unprepared coaching staff in 2011, rather than the team’s talent, or lack thereoff, leading them to the worst defense in Bucs history. 

Clayborn went on to call Gerald McCoy “a great leader.” And Clayborn also revealed he was at One Buc Palace at 7 a.m. Tuesday, the players’ day off, watching film with Michael Bennett.

Probably still reeling from the Bucs hurdling his Giants at the end of the first round of the 2012 draft to snag Doug Martin, Giants general manager Jerry Reese hinted back then that the Giants really wanted Martin instead of crying running back David Wilson.

But then Reese ran to the WFAN-AM airwaves on May 1 to backpedal.

“There’s been some conjecture that Tampa had moved up in front of us and took Martin,” Reese said. “That’s not true … Martin would not have been our pick.”

Well, now there’s even more evidence that Reese was caught with his pants down and Bucs rockstar general manager Mark Dominik outfoxed the Giants by moving up out of the second round to snag the No. 30 pick and Martin.

Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride all but told NJ.com yesterday that Martin was a better player coming out of college compared to weepy David Wilson.

Kevin Gilbride gave a frank appraisal when asked to compare Doug Martin, the rookie running back drafted 31st overall by the Buccaneers, and David Wilson, the rookie running back drafted 32nd overall by the Giants.

“Different styles. I think David has great explosion and great speed,” the Giants offensive coordinator said today. “I think Doug Martin looked more — what’s the word I want to say? — versatile. Ready to do all aspects: pass protection, pass catching as well as running. What they did offensively and what Virginia Tech asked of David are two completely different things. In some respects, (Martin) is a little further along in those aspects at playing the position.”

Martin and Wilson were the second and third running backs drafted, respectively, after Alabama’s Trent Richardson. The Buccaneers traded up to get Martin, a Boise State product, leaving some wondering if the Giants would have selected him instead of Wilson at No. 32 if he were available.

Gilbride’s answer about Martin being further along than Wilson raised that question, but he deferred to the front office when asked.

“Oh, I’ve got no say,” Gilbride said. “You have to talk to the general manager about that one. I have zero say.”

Yes, Joe realizes Reese has Super Bowl rings on his fingers, but he was humiliated by Dominik in April, a move that could lead to a Bucs win Sunday.

Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles often ends his radio show on WDAE-AM 620 with a message to listeners to stay out of trouble.

Well, it seems Beckles didn’t follow his own advice last night.

Beckles, who is quoted a few times a month here on the pages of JoeBucsFan.com, was arrested for disorderly intoxication at 11 p.m. by St. Pete Police, per Pinellas County court records. He was released on $100 bond from Pinellas County Jail after 3 a.m.

“Disorderly intoxication” is one of the lowest form of crime:

856.011 Disorderly intoxication. – (1)No person in the state shall be intoxicated and endanger the safety of another person or property, and no person in the state shall be intoxicated or drink any alcoholic beverage in a public place or in or upon any public conveyance and cause a public disturbance.

Beckles’ radio show starts at 9 a.m. today on WDAE-AM. If he’s on the air, he might have a darn interesting story to tell. Perhaps a relative of Barrett Ruud got in Beckles’ face and a ruckus began? Joe can only speculate.

Giants icon Phil Simms and Bill Cowher are convinced “Tampa Bay does not throw the ball well.” Both give their takes on the Bucs-Giants game Sunday in this Showtime Inside the NFL video.

Giants offensive lineman David Diehl claims that Big Blue’s first round draft pick, running back crying David Wilson, is now out of headmaster Tom Coughlin’s doghouse and will get plenty of touches against the Bucs as explained in this SNY video.

Earlier this week, Joe brought an excerpt of Bucs coach Greg Schiano’s appearance on “The Blitz,” with co-hosts Adam Schein and Rich Gannon, heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio. Well, today, Joe has the rest of the interview, word-for-word.

Adam Schein: Rich, right now live on the line, as promised, the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, friend of the radio program, Greg Schiano. Coach, Adam Schein and Rich Gannon. Congratulations on your first win in the National Football League.

Greg Schiano: Thanks fellas I appreciate that.

Rich Gannon: Well coach, you gather all of your information through the offseason program and the preseason, but you never know just quite how a team is going to respond until you get them out there Week 1. My guess is you are pretty pleased what you saw from your football team on Sunday.

Schiano: Well it was, you are exactly right; you are going through those things and even in preseason and going into that first game you are not sure what you are going to see. I was happy we got the win and more importantly, we made a ton of mistakes but we were able to teach from the win column. That is always good.

Schein: Greg, take us through that if you can in terms of the mistakes. As a coach, I don’t want to say that makes you smile because you want to come as close to pitching a perfect game as possible. But if you make mistakes [and] you still win the game, you can’t get too high on the team, [they are] coachable moments as a staff. Take us through what you want to clean up from Week 1 to Week 2.

Schiano: Well Adam, we really, everywhere I have coached, you enjoy the win because they are pretty darned hard to come by. And then when you get in the next day, OK, you put the reality cap back on and it is never as good as you felt when you win and it’s never as bad as you felt when you lost. We had a lot of communication things and, just first-game mistakes. The one positive though is that we were pretty good in the first half and played penalty-free football, held onto the football. I think those two things give you a chance in any game.

Gannon: You think of shutting out a team like Carolina in the first half. Coach, they had 49 offensive plays. The thing that was so surprising to me was I know the game, how it unfolded, I know you are not involved with calling plays from their side, but did you get the sense they didn’t try to push the envelope running the football? You guys had trouble with the run game a year ago but you look at this game, you just dominated, you never let them get going rushing the football. They had 10 yards rushing all day. I guess that is something you prided yourself in throughout the preseason.

Schiano: Well it is, but not just me it’s the players. They prided themselves in that. They believed that if you can do that, you have a chance. Stopping the run makes a team one-dimensional and when that happens, like I said, it gives you a chance and it gives you a chance to get some interceptions.

Schein: I told you before that I was really impressed with Doug Martin; I told you that after the draft. Thought he was perfect for you guys. You know, I don’t even care about his stats and the stats were fine. I was impressed with the hard-earned yards, the tough yards, the yards at the end of the game to control it, to ice it. Tell me what stood out in terms of Doug Martin over the weekend.

Schiano: I think you described it. There were no easy yards with that linebacker corps. I mean he was getting hit and was blowing some people forward. Every yard counts. When you get hit for three but you pull them for four and then it ends up a second-and-six instead of a second-and-seven. And the thing that Doug has done a good job with is when someone makes a mistake and someone does flash in the backfield, Doug can get 12 or 13 when it is second-and-nine. Those are huge differences when you are calling a game on offense.

Gannon: What about Ronde Barber coach. What an incredible game. He gets a sack and gets an interception in his 200th start. Just talk about the transition that he has made going from corner to safety alongside your rookie Mark Barron.

Schiano: I am thrilled for Ronde and thrilled for our team. I am glad he came back. When we first arrived, we wondered if he was going to continue playing. Then he was great when I approached him with a position change. At that point in your career do you really want to be doing that? He has been awesome. He is really good on the field, both in practices and in games, really good in the meeting rooms, teaching our players what it means to be a true professional and he has a flair for the dramatic, right? In his 200th straight game he starts, he makes those kinds of plays and really played well.

Schein: Such a great player, such a great leader for you guys. How about Josh Freeman. How did he play Coach and how did he grade out when you watched the film?

Schiano: I think Josh did exactly what we needed for him to do for us to win. He took care of the football, he managed the clock well. He did all the things in the run game that we needed him to do. Those are the things that the fans generally don’t understand is, he will get you in and out of the correct run play or you know, using the cadence the right way. I was pleased that Josh had a complete performance. You look at the stat line and go, ‘Well, that’s OK.’ He really played winning football and for me, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.

Gannon: Coach, for me, the big challenge for coaches like yourself with young players and a young football team, is their ability to handle success and turn the page and change the focus onto the next opponent which you know will be a heck of a challenge for your football team going up to New York to face the Giants. Any sense as to how the team, as you watched them on Monday come in on Tuesday, is this a team that is mature enough to handle some success and get right back on the gridiron and on the practice field and do the type of work that it will take to repeat this week?

Schiano: Well I think so, but we will find out in [three] days or so. I think they approach things the right way. They know how we are. Just as I said earlier, [a win] is enjoyed for a few hours and then the reality strikes when you throw that tape up. We are very honest with our guys; I told them from the beginning that we are not going to sugarcoat it. We will let you know where we are and where I think our coaches do a real good job of is, giving them what we believe to be the formula of winning success that week. I think it changes each week. I think your opponent’s strengths and weakness as compared to yours, will adjust and hopefully after a good day of game-planning we will have a clearer picture. But you hit it on the head; this is a great challenge going up to New York to play the defending super bowl champs. I think that will get everyone’s attention.

Gannon: Coach, difficult to lose good players, you lost Davin Joseph to an ugly injury. How did Ted Larsen fare at the right guard position on Sunday?

Schiano: I thought Ted really battled. I thought he did some good things. Everybody makes mistakes, you know that. But you hit it on the head. Losing Davin Joseph was a huge loss to our football team. Not only on the field but in the locker room and from a leadership standpoint. I am anxious, he has had his surgery and is in the early stages of rehab, but pretty soon here, I think he will be able to be around the building a lot more and be around the line a lot more because he has vowed to do everything he can in the role he is in now to help us win.

Schein: Mike Williams is an interesting guy for you guys Coach. I think the presence of Vincent Jackson will help him. You know, Mike has been through a lot on the collegiate level and on the professional level. Flashing brilliance at times, other times his work ethic on the field or his off-field issues have been questioned, you know, clean slate I am sure with you. What have you seen in terms of offseason practice, preseason and then in-game over the weekend over Mike Williams?

Schiano: I have seen a guy who is committed to being the best he can be, I really have. He has bought in hook, line and sinker and has worked his tail off. His receivers coach, PJ Fleck, said he busts his hump every day in practice. I am excited. With Vincent on the other side and when we get Arrelious Benn back healthy again and we have Preston parker, we have some guys that will allow mike — last year he was having the coverage rolled to him and he was getting doubled. Now he was getting some one-on-one coverage which is great.

Gannon: Greg always a challenge coming out of the preseason, players coming together to play special teams not having played together and rookies out there. Tell me about how your special teams performed.

Schiano: You know, we were boom or bust. Had a great blocked punt which was a huge momentum regainer so to speak. Things weren’t going as well as it had gone in the first half and we were able to block a punt and then score which made it a two-possession game. I thought that was great. We could have done better in some other areas, so that has been a real focus. Special teams are getting a lot of attention down here. Especially from the head coach. A little disappointed but we will improve. I think what we need to do is get some guys healthy and get them plugged into their normal positions and let them build some cumulative repetitions.

Schein: Anything special for you going back to Jersey Sunday after spending so many years with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights?

Schiano: Well, it is home and I grew up in the shadow of that place. Certainly I will have a lot of familiarity. But as you know when you go home you have to get a lot of tickets ready.

Schein: Coach as always, great stuff. Congratulations on that good looking win against the Panthers and best of luck against the Giants; we will talk to you again real soon.

Not a bad vertical leap for the biggest man on the field[/caption]

Those who watched the Bucs-Panthers broadcast heard FOX analyst Mike Martz and his play-bay-play cohort say that the human armoire, Bucs guard Carl Nicks, weighs 380 pounds — 380 pounds!

This seemed like a bloated figure to Joe, even if Nicks is a manbeast and clearly exceeds the 349 pounds he’s listed as on the Bucs roster.

Wednesday, Nicks hopped on the digital scale in the middle of the Bucs locker room, stepped off and did a Popeye-like flex of his biceps before letting out a manly yell at Joe standing nearby.

Joe asked Nicks, “what’s the number?” and Nicks said, “I’ll never tell.”

So Joe proceeded to tell Nicks what the FOX team said about his weight. Nicks seemed a bit annoyed by the commentary and asked who the announcers were. Joe filled him in, and Nicks seemed eager for a second to tell Joe his real weight, and then Nicks told Joe he didn’t believe the announcers really said that. Joe told Nicks to watch the tape, and Nicks laughed.

So how much does Nicks weigh? It remains a mystery. Joe just hopes it’s too much, combined with too much strength, for the Giants defensive line to handle.

Jill Arrington — remember her? — and good guy Peter Schrager discuss why the Bucs may have a tiny edge over the Giants this week in this FoxSports.com video.

New York-New Jersey scribes detail how Schiano hasn’t changed

One cool thing Joe enjoys is reading the papers that cover the next Bucs’ opponent each week. Given the fact the Bucs are facing a team from the largest media center in the western hemisphere, there is no shortage of Bucs-Giants related content.

Since Bucs coach Greg Schiano coached, basically, the college football program that represents the greater New York metropolitan area, as the sport is down the totem pole of sports attention there, guys who knew Schiano or covered Schiano are here in the Tampa Bay area now to write stories on the former Rutgers leader.

So it’s an interesting perspective Joe is getting from the likes of Steve Politi of the Newark Star-Ledger, the favorite newspaper of Tony Soprano (played by Rutgers alum James Gandolfini) who explains that Schiano didn’t leave for the NFL, but Rutgers joined the NFL.

Was this really an NFL training complex in South Florida? Or was this another football practice in Piscataway?

Greg Schiano, it turns out, didn’t leave Rutgers. He brought it with him, and the similarities are so overpowering you don’t know where to begin. The same chant — “one-two-three family!” — to break the huddle before practice. The same locker room clock counting down the seconds to the next game. The same manic attention to detail, including setting the temperatures in the meeting rooms to 68.5 degrees. Some of the same people, even — 11 of them, to be exact, from the players to the trainers to the assistant coaches to the front-office staff.

Even the same corny catch phrases. Ronde Barber, an NFL veteran of 16 seasons, went on his radio show and preached about how each game was its own season and that this week was the Giants season, sounding so much like his new coach it was like he was reading a script.

This just speaks to Joe about the man that Schiano is. He learned from coaches like Joe Paterno and Bill Belicheat, among others, what it takes to win, and he isn’t deviating from what has worked for him in the past.

Schiano is a man of character and it’s cool that he hasn’t changed his ways just because he’s in the big leagues now.

The Bucs offensive line is thin, thanks to the season-ending injury to Pro Bowl right guard Davin Joseph suffered in the preseason.

But word comes out of One Buc Palace that his linemate on the right side, tackle Jeremy Trueblood, is not practicing, per WDAE-AM 620 Bucs beat reporter Tom Krasniqi.

@TKras: #Bucs RT Jeremy Trueblood riding the bike today and not taking part in team drills…His left leg was wrapped

This is not good news in the least. Is Trueblood the best right tackle in the league? No. But there is a reason he is starting.

Now, it’s very possible that the Bucs could be facing the most fierce defensive front line with backups starting at both right guard and right tackle.

This is not something the Bucs want nor need.

UPDATE: Rick Brown of the Lakeland Ledger reports that not only does Trueblood have a sleeve on his leg, he was limping.

One of the cool things — and there were many for Joe — about the Bucs’ win against Carolina last week was how rookie running back Doug Martin, in his first NFL game, ran for 95 yards on 24 carries, nearly four yards a carry, against perhaps the best linebacker unit in the NFL.

These were not easy yards, these were rugged yards, bruising yards, yards that Martin felt for a couple of days after the win.

Consider popular sports personality Adam Schein impressed. Schein, in addition to his duties at SiriusXM NFL Radio, CBS Sports Network and SNY, also finds the time to type a weekly column for NFL.com and believes Muscle Hamster will give the Super Bowl champs fits Sunday.

Buc the trend

Coach Greg Schiano has changed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers culture less than a season after the team quit on Raheem Morris. A key part of Tampa’s future, and the win over the Carolina Panthers, was the hard running style of Doug Martin. Appearing on SiriusXM Blitz, Schiano gushed that Martin “pulls people forward. If we have (to go 3 yards), he pulls for 4. If there’s a breakdown up front, he gets to the line of scrimmage.” The Giants couldn’t stop the Cowboys’ DeMarco Murray in Week 1. Martin will be a handful for them on Sunday.

This will be the key element in game. The Giants have no running game to speak of. If the Bucs defense can stop the Carolina rushing game (10 yards — 10!), the Bucs should be able to contain the Giants’ running backs.

If Martin can get going against a beastly Giants defensive front, this will keep the ball out of the hands of two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning.

It’s classic keepaway football and right up Greg Schiano’s alley: take care of the ball and eat up the clock.

Have an issue with this? Call Schein and discuss the subject with him on the air at 1-877-NFL-KICK.

Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan says Eli Manning is so good reading defenses before the snap it will neutralize the Bucs’ knowledge of the Giants offense.

There’s all kinds of chatter — and more is coming — about how the Bucs’ defense will have some sort of edge after learning the ins and outs of Eli Manning and the Giants offense from offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan, who spent last season as Manning’s QB coach.

Bucs defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan, however, thinks Eli Manning will overcome any edge pre-snap.

“I know there might be some perception that there’s a distinct advantage from a knowledge standpoint that we might have because Mike’s here, and just coming from that offense, but they do such an outstanding job, or Eli does in particular, of checking plays at the line of scrimmage. So unless you’re able to really confuse them with different looks, you know, he’s going to get them out of bad plays and put them into good plays,” Sheridan said. “So, yeah, there’s some familiarity with what they do, again, we base our plans off the film anyway, but Eli’s probably as good as anybody in the NFL as far as getting the clock down and really making you show what you’re going to do and then [him calling] the best play.”

Sheridan is likely 100 percent on the money. However, Joe and Bucs fans can remember back to how the Bucs’ secondary was seemingly two steps ahead of the Raiders and Jerry Rice in the Super Bowl, and how so much of that was related to Chucky’s intimate knowledge of the Raiders’ offense and Rich Gannon.

This is Sullivan’s week to show he can do the same.

Bucs great Ronde Barber recently dared to enter “The Jungle,” better known as popular national sports radio host Jim Rome’s lair. Barber talked about his 200th consecutive start and about new Bucs coach Greg Schiano.

There may be few people you know that are bigger college football fans than Joe. Why, it’s not uncommon for Joe to inhale 12 hours of football on a Saturday (and untold beers).

It’s not uncommon for Joe to go to a watering hole with two giant HDTVs in front of him, and Joe’s Google Nexus 7 tablet on the bar streaming a game so Joe can watch three games at once.

Shoot, Joe’s such a college football whackjob, he’s even caught himself watching Hawaii games in the small hours of a Sunday morning.

Often, Joe looks forward to watching college football on Thursday nights, partly because it is a harbinger of a long work week near its end. However, given the choice of a Big Least game and a powerful matchup between two iconic NFL rivals, Chicago at Green Bay, it’s a no-brainer for Joe.

Ice up the beers and watch the battle of the Midwest.

Greg Schiano, however, is not in the same boat. If he does watch any of the Rutgers-South Florida game played at the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway tonight, Schiano boasted he will be cheering for the Scarlet Knights, not hometown South Florida, as noted by Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times.

@gregauman: Amazed folks in Tampa are surprised/offended Greg Schiano is pulling for Rutgers tonight vs. USF. Spent 11 years there. Deep personal ties. To have any expectation for him to actively cheer against Rutgers is to say you have no understanding of who Schiano is.

Exactly! It is not like Schiano is trying to Pearl Harbor Skip Holtz and his program. Schiano has deep, personal relationships with probably every player on the roster for Rutgers.

Schiano isn’t a fraud like Bobby Petrino, he’s a standup guy. Had Team Glazer not come calling, it’s highly probable that Schiano himself would be coaching Rutgers tonight.

To unload on Schiano for sticking up for his former players, players he considers extended family, is highly myopic if not narrow-minded.

Joe finds it comical how some of his media brethren get worked up when Greg Schiano won’t offer every last ounce of detail about a player’s health.

It’s as if these media types can’t imagine a scenario in which a sound diagnosis is not available on demand. Meanwhile, recent Bucs history with post-surgery Chris Simms, pre-surgery Brian Price and Arron Sears are just a few examples of situations that needed extended time to diagnose. 

That brings Joe to LeGarrette Blount, who was tackled on the field Sunday, then got up, and after doing some bizzare leg movements, fell to the turf and clutched his knee while flexing it repeatedly at the same time. Blount didn’t return to the game but literally ran out of the locker room.

Greg Schiano essentially said a few different ways on Sunday and Monday that Blount needed more time to be evaluated and his condition was unclear at that time. Then Stephen Holder, of the Tampa Bay Times, digested that and took to Twitter on Tuesday to take a shot at Schiano and call shenanigans.

@HolderStephen – Schiano won’t like me saying this, but oh well. He’s extremely evasive when talking about neurological issues. Makes one wonder about this

It’s seems Holder just coudn’t fathom the possibility that Blount truly needed more medical testing, and as it turns out the team sent Blount to North Carolina to see a specialist. Gee, whaddya know. Schiano wasn’t being evasive, just honest, and responsible by not speculating about a guy’s health.

A: Well, I think it starts with trusting each other, that everything is on the up and up and there’s no shenanigans. Belief in what we’re doing, I think that’s huge. Holding each other accountable. Those aren’t football X and O things, those are core values that I think as an organization allow you to do all the X and O things and strength and conditioning things, and film study, and community relations; all the things that go into being an NFL football team. Without core values, I don’t know if you can do any of that successfully.

Joe thought the “no shenanigans” line was so appropriate in light of the Blount situation. It would have been shenanigans if Schiano had, in fact, elaborated on Blount’s medical condition without knowing all the facs.

Giants defensive lineman Chris Canty speaks openly about why the Giants stunk against the Cowboys to open the season, how the Giants can right their wrongs and how they are preparing for the Bucs this week in this SNY video.