While Raheem the Dream denied he and troubled cornerback Aqib Talib got into an F-bomb war of words in a London hotel lobby at 2 a.m., Raheem the Dream must have channeled his youth (possibly watching Soul Train as he did some dancing) when pinned down about the specifics of catching Talib and unnamed other Bucs blowing curfew.

Raheem the Dream claims the vernacular he and Talib may have used in the wee hours, was, well, normal for football men, as reported by eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.

Morris didn’t say profanities weren’t uttered during the Oct. 25 incident with Talib, who was not made available for comment Tuesday.

“We’ve used swear words to each other every day,” Morris said. “I wouldn’t necessarily call it disrespect. That’s talk on the football field. It’s a form of communication. He (Talib) has always been as respectful as can be to a coach. Has he had some issues? Yes, there’s no doubt about it. We’ve got to control that. We have to help him get better.”

Joe’s trying to figure this out: So Raheem the Dream is the type of fellow to commonly use “football language” with his players in a swank if not posh London hotel lobby at 2 a.m.?

Also, as Kaufman pointed out, Talib was not made available by the Bucs media relations staff yesterday. If nothing truly happened, why is now Talib in hiding?

Or did he have to rush to a meeting with his legal counsel?

The Brutal Bucs are so miserable, they have grabbed the attention of virtually all the NFL, sort of like a twisted version of the New Orleans Saints.

The Bucs winless record at the bye was not lost on Steve Silverman of NBCSports.com. In handing out midseason grades, not surprisingly, he flunked the Bucs.

What they’ve done well: Zilch. There is little receiving talent and poor blocking for new quarterback Josh Freeman. The Bucs have played hard on defense, and they are just average, allowing 214.0 yards per game, 15th in the league.

Needs improvement: The Bucs struggle to block whether it’s for the running game or the passing game. That’s a tough way to try to win football games. Tampa Bay is averaging 272.3 yards per game, (28th overall) and just 4.6 yards per play.

This is one of the more disturbing things about the Bucs. The offensive line was the most impressive element of the team last year and seemed it was on the cusp of greatness.

Then the Bucs decided to flip to a zone blocking technique. Right now, the cliche, “Don’t fix something that’s not broken” springs to mind for Joe.

To read Joey Johnston of the Tampa Tribune, former Bucs great Lee Roy Selmon was little more than a gentle giant.

That is, besides his massive football skills.

Johnston got a hold of a few of Selmon’s former teammates to talk about Selmon, the lone Bucs player to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the first to have his jersey retired. The teammates all talked about how they never saw Selmon get mad.

“He’d knock a guy down, then pick him right up,” said former Bucs linebacker David Lewis, now defensive coordinator at Tampa Catholic High School. “Me and (fellow linebacker) Cecil Johnson would look at him like he was crazy. ‘Lee Roy! Why are you picking him up? Leave him down there!’ He’d just smile.

“If we weren’t playing well defensively, he would just say, kind of softly, ‘Come on, guys.’ Cecil would roll his eyes and glare at him. ‘Lee Roy! Is that all you got to say!’ Lee Roy would scrunch up his face and say, ‘Oh, Cecil.’ We’d bust up laughing. We’d be laughing so hard, we couldn’t even remember what defense we were supposed to be in.”

Even when Selmon was rarely moved to anger, it was an unusual sight.

Once at Dallas, Selmon was grabbed by the legs and literally tackled by his blocker. The official did nothing.

Selmon popped up and vented his rage: “Heck! Heck! Dang! Dang!”

Maybe Aqib Talib could use a one-on-one session with Mr. Selmon?

And it’s more than fitting that a guy like Selmon will be the first memorialized in the Bucs’ new Ring of Honor.

A lot of fans are geeked at the prospect of the Bucs breaking out the creamsicle uniforms this Sunday when the Bucs face the Packers.

Some fans are a bit more cynical, thinking it’s prophetic that the Bucs would be wearing the creamsicles as they face a winless season square in the face.

But Bucs center Jeff Faine simply doesn’t like the creamsicles because, well, they are not fashionable, readers are informed by Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

“I think there’s a reason they changed the color scheme,” Faine said of the Bucs’ switch from their old orange and white uniforms.

The Bucs, of course, will be shedding the pewter and red this weekend for the Creamsicle look they bore in 1976. While most players seem excited about the change, Faine is not.

“It’s an opportunity to go out there and hopefully sell a couple more jerseys for the Glazers,” Faine said, referring to the Bucs owners. ” But I’m not a huge, huge fan of it.

“It’s part of the legacy of the Buccaneers and it’s a throwback game and we’re honoring Lee Roy Selmon, so it’s a good opportunity to wear them.”

Joe was geeked to learn the creamsicles were coming back. He still remembers Doug Williams falling down, sitting on his rear end, and hitting a wide open tight end Jimmie Giles in the end zone for a touchdown, all wearing the creamsicles.

Now that the Bucs are on a horrid losing streak, Joe doesn’t like the idea of wearing the creamsicles. It’s like a bad omen or something.

A lot of eyebrows, Joe’s among them, were raised when Raheem the Dream gave his winless team so much time off on the bye week.

Hardasses, like Joe can be at times, believe a winless team should not be rewarded in any such way. If anything the whip needed to be cracked.

Throw in the fact that a rookie quarterback will be making his first start against a defense prone to release numerous complex zone blitzes not likely seen in the Big XII, Joe was perplexed.

But, as documented by the Mad Twitterer, Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times, the Bucs couldn’t practice because so many players got the flu on the return trip from London.

“We definitely felt better going to London, being over there, going how our owners recommended,” Morris said during his weekly radio show on 620-WDAE Monday. “Coming back it hits you when you wake up in the middle oif the night,. It was tougher to adjust coming back, especially fighting the bug that hit our plane. We had 15 or so guys that were unable to practice because of the bug that hit our plane.

“We were in a tube for eight hours with the ability to get sick.”

While Joe can understand that, Joe wonders why the rest of the squad couldn’t hang back and hit the film room, work out, whatever, do anything to improve? Was Freeman so ill he couldn’t throw passes to Sammie Stroughter or an otherwise healthy receiver at One Buc Palace?

Again, Joe has to qualify this as Joe is not privy to the NFLPA contract which may require X-amount of time off during a bye week.

Writing on TampaBay.com, The Mad Twitterer, Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times, reports that the Bucs deny Aqib Talib dropped a wave of F-bombs on Raheem the Dream when confronted in a London hotel lobby after missing curfew.

But Stroud writes that it’s not unreasonable to believe Talib did drop F-bombs.

Yes, he was met in the lobby at the team hotel by coach Raheem Moirris.

No, Bucs officials say, he did not curse out Morris, as reported by 620-WDAE.

If you know Talib, profanity is part of the way he speaks. It’s unfortunate, but true. Let’s say he disagreed with the notion that a grown man requires a curfew on what would normally be his free time.

Stroud also documents Raheem the Dream, on his radio show yesterday on WDAE-AM 620, stated Talib is no different than Warren Sapp was at the same age.

Joe didn’t know Raheem the Dream was working for the Bucs when the team drafted Sapp?

One of Joe’s favorite Bucs beat writers, eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune, had an interesting “Twit” yesterday on the TBO Bucs Twitter page.

Last week Joe wrote extensively how WDAE-AM 620 morning host Dan Sileo, who has a track record of playing with the truth, was suspended for spouting misinformation about the Glazer family’s finances and the prospects of selling the team.

Kaufman hints there will be collateral damage on local sports radio.

Joel Glazer’s blistering response to Dan Sileo’s report on the family’s finances could have a chilling effect on local sports radio.

As an avid sports radioaholic, Joe wishes eye-RAH! would have been more detailed. Joe doesn’t see Joel Glazer’s response as being “chilling” at all.

From Joe’s understanding of some of the details about the Bucs agreement with WDAE, let’s just say from a journalist’s standpoint, the Bucs requirements for WDAE, the team’s flagship station, are fair.

What Sileo did last week on the air not only wasn’t fair, it was beyond the pale. As Glazer himself wrote in a statement released last week, it bordered on “slanderous.”

Compared with the contract Clear Channel had with that monster Vince Naimoli, the former managing partner of the (nee Devil) Rays, and his brownshirt, brutish if not outright despicable tactics towards the fourth estate, the Bucs contract with WDAE is downright libertarian.

How exactly was — or will — Glazer’s missive “chilling” to stations not associated with the Bucs? Would this statement by Glazer somehow silence J.P. Peterson? Would this statement somehow force Nancy Donnellan to be a cheerleader?

Of course not.

In fact, Joe fully endorses if not encourages any Glazer statement that would torment the douchebag in the afternoon that can’t pull a 0.1 rating.

All the Bucs ask for is for people to be fair in reporting, which, at worst, is reasonable.

You have to see this to believe it: The Football Moron of BSPN.com thinks the best chance the Packers have of beating the Bucs is to throw at Aqib Talib.

Seriously, Joe cannot make this stuff up.

As good as Matt Ryan is, he wasn't the best quarterback on the field for last night's Falcons-Saints game. And still Ryan is light years better than anything the Bucs have.

Watching the Falcons-Saints game last night, Joe realized the Bucs are about as close to competing with those two NFC South division rivals as Joe is being able to lure Rachel Watson into his lair.

This wasn’t lost on BSPN’s Adam Schefter as he twittered last night.

Watching Matt Ryan and Drew Brees has to be completely sobering and nearly outright depressing for the Bucs and Panthers.

“Depressing” is the right word. With the exception of a handful of positions, few in the Bucs starting lineup would start for either the Falcons or Saints.

Though the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, first reported last week that helmet-wielding, (alleged) cabbie-puncher Aqib Talib blew curfew and confronted Raheem the Dream with F-bombs in a London hotel lobby, the Tampa Bay area MSM is finally picking up on it.

Or have they?

The Mad Twitterer himself, Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times, twittered Monday night that indeed Talib blew curfew. However, he did not mention any confrontation Talib had with Raheem the Dream.

Bucs CB Aqib Talib among several players breaking curfew following the Bucs 35-7 loss to Pats in London Oct. 25.

Granted, Stroud was using a new media format to break the news. Or was he breaking news? Joe gets confused with how Stroud dictates what format is a vehicle for news and what isn’t. So Joe isn’t sure if Stroud is actually rumormongering or not.

Former Bucs DE Steve White

By STEVE WHITE
JoeBucsFan.com analyst

Steve White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era playing defensive end for the Bucs. He’s spent countless hours in the film room with the likes of Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli and more. Joe is humbled to now have White, also a published author and blogger, as part of the JoeBucsFan.com team. Below is White’s weekly Bull Rush column that breaks down all things defensive line. It’s simply a can’t-miss read for the hardcore Bucs fan.

One thing I prided myself on as both a player and later a coach was film study. Watching opponents on tape can reveal all kinds of tendencies, as well as strengths and weaknesses.

Since the Bucs did not play this weekend I decided to check out the Vikings-Packers game yesterday to study the Packers’ offense in action and give a sort of mini scouting report, so fans can see the kinds of things players and coaches look for.

Here are a few things I picked up on:

As a unit the Packers’ offensive line plays well. They don’t really have a bell cow, meaning one guy that really stood out in the game. But they do seem to be a well-coached group, and I didn’t see very many busts in their blocking schemes.

In the running game they aren’t really a come-off-and-knock-you-off-the-ball kind of offense. Rather, they run quite a bit of zone scheme, and with formations they try to spread the defense out and then run the ball between the tackles.

If there is one guy who looks weak to me on the offensive line it’s the center, Scott Wells. Admittedly, you won’t see a lot of centers perform well against the Vikings’ Pat Williams, but still Wells seems like more of a finesse guy who tries to either position-block a guy or tries to release quickly up to the linebackers.

If there was ever a game for us to put our weakside tackle back over the center it would be this one against Green Bay on Sunday. The Packers pride themselves on getting up on the linebackers of the other team either with the center or the guards. So much so that even though Wells isn’t that great, generally the guards don’t give him much help on run blocking when he has a shaded nose tackle.

On the other hand, when Wells isn’t covered he gets up on the middle linebacker quickly and he is athletic enough to either block him high or cut him low. I don’t think that’s what Barrett Ruud would like to see. I think any of our three defensive tackles could dominate that guy and make a lot of plays in the backfield if given the chance.

Nobody on the Packers’ offensive line is particularly physically imposing, so I don’t see a match up where we should get blocked in the run game consistently. The tight ends aren’t all that great at run blocking either.

If I had to pick the best guy, I would have to say it’s No. 86, Donald Lee. But even he doesn’t look strong on film and is mostly just an effort guy. If our ends get their hands on him, they should really be able to take advantage of that match up.

Now the one thing about the Packers offense is that they do a lot of misdirection plays and bootlegs so this will be a game in which the entire Bucs defense must read their keys and not get caught guessing.

As for the Packers’ pass blocking, I think we have some good matchups there as well.

One of the things I noticed right away is that the guards both want to quick set their guys on the line while the offensive tackles both want to get depth and make the defensive ends run a wide route around the outside. That creates two different blocking levels for their offensive line. What this means is that both sides are very suceptible to EX games (End penetrates, tackle loops for contain) in the passing game.

I think their right tackle and right guard are especially vulnerable to all kinds of pass rush games. If the defensive end gets up the field three steps and then chops his feet causing the right tackle to get his normal depth, the “TEX” game (tackle penetrates, defensive end loops inside to A-gap) will be WIDE open.

If it were me, I would tell the left ends and left defensive tackles that they would be wasting a rush if they didn’t run some kind of pass rush game on third downs.

As for the Packers’ left tackle, he is a guy I think we can really get after on passing downs. He is athletic but relatively weak and his set opens him up to inside moves. He punches his hands a lot, which means a guy like Greg (Stylez) White can really work him if he knocks his hands down.

The one thing I think you wouldn’t want to do is just run around the guy because all he will do is wait for you to get deep and then ride you past the quarterback. If one of our right ends wants to make a speed rush, I would suggest that they get into a bull rush first and then rip off outside. I wouldn’t run any TEX games on the left guard and left tackle because they keep a better relationship in their pass sets than the guys on the right side do.

Now as a reminder this is just from watching one game so its all subject to change.

For one thing the Packers have a few guys out with injuries, like starting left tackle Chad Clifton, who might return on Sunday. And normally I would be watching all of the games this year to get a good idea of what I would be facing. Still, I think that all things being equal this scouting report will hold up on Sunday. If not I invite everyone to come back and tell me how wrong I was.
 
Here is hoping we get off the snide this week and kick the Packers while they are down.

Insider Adam Schefter says Raheem needs a W to avoid the chopping block

Raheem The Dream needs a win.

Sure, the Bucs need several victories. But it seems Raheem The Dream needs at least one victory this season to comfortably avoid the Grim Reaper.

Is  that too much to ask?

Today, former NFL.com in-house scribe turned BSPN talking head Adam Schefter said it’s only fair to consider firing Raheem The Dream if the Bucs finish 0-16.

“They’re going to be underdogs in each of those [remaining] games. …That’s not pretty,” Shefter said on 1040 AM. “I know there’s been a lot of speculation about the future of the coach. But the word on him [before the season] was it was going to take him a year or two to adjust.  …It’s fair to wonder at 0-16, and only 0-16, if he’ll get another year.”

Schefter said he’s confident the big name coaches on the market are interested in coaching the Bucs.”[Tampa Bay] is a great place to live. If offered enough money, sure,” Schefter said. “But [the Glazers] do not want to make a change down there. Not with Gruden and Allen on the books.”

Joe believes Raheem The Dream needs more than one win to feel comfortable when the final whistle blows in Week 17.

Back in January, he and Czar Dominik had enough time and resources to hire quality coaches and cobble together a roster and a plan to win a few games. Even the Glazers know that.

If the Bucs win just one (big if), Raheem The Dream’s going to need to have Josh Freeman at least show flashes of greatness and improvement to sleep well at night in January.

Joe is thoroughly disgusted by these thoughts. How far the Bucs have fallen.

To protect the fragile, Joe is not showing photographs of Michael Clayton's hands.

Michael Clayton hasn’t moaned in a while. He also hasn’t caught many balls either, 11 catches and no touchdowns, to be exact.

What would happen if Clayton was on the Tampa Bay Lightning? Joe can answer that for you. Clayton would be in the minors.

Lightning superstar Vinny Lecavalier, with $80 million+ guaranteed in his new deal, has had a bad start through about 15 percent of the new season. And now he’s being punished. 

Joe’s got all the details on JoeBoltsFan.com. The site’s a must read for Lightning fans every day.

Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports suggests if a player had cursed out Mike Tomlin in a hotel lobby, that player would be wearing an imprint of Tomlin's shoe on his backside to this day.

Raheem the Dream may not be as influenced by his mentor Mike Tomlin as Raheem the Dream may want people to believe.

Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports details the spiraling downward circle the Bucs are involved in, courtesy of his weekly “Morning Rush” column.

In short, Silver writes about the tumultuous bye week for the Bucs with the Dan Sileo misinformation about the Glazer Family’s finances and the story, broken by the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, that after breaking curfew in London, Aqib Talib cursed out Raheem the Dream in a London hotel lobby at 2 a.m.

Silver writes that if a Steelers player would have ever cursed out Tomlin, a former Bucs defensive backs coach, in public, that player would have had a severe penalty to pay.

Brrrrrrrr … It just got awfully cold in Tampa, where the Bucs (0-7) emerge from their bye week as the NFL’s lone remaining winless team. And that’s a fairly dubious distinction in a season in which seven other franchises (Browns, Chiefs, Lions, Raiders, Rams, Redskins, Titans) can make a case for being abominable. For now, the Bucs stand alone after a week in which one of its owners, Joel Glazer, forcefully denied a report by Dan Sileo of Tampa radio station WDAE-AM that he and family members had lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of the Bernard Madoff investment scam and that, consequently, the team might be for sale. Former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo, who lives in Tampa, told the Los Angeles Times’ Sam Farmer that he “would be a moron not to at least look into” a possible purchase of the franchise; and, most disturbingly, it was reported by WDAE’s Steve Duemig that second-year cornerback Aqib Talib screamed profanities at rookie coach Raheem Morris after he and other players showed up at the team’s London hotel significantly past curfew following the Bucs’ defeat to the Patriots in Week 7. Assuming that last report is true, I’m sort of speechless. This happened in front of numerous witnesses? Can you imagine if one of the Steelers’ players had tested Mike Tomlin that way during the ’07 season? I have a sneaking suspicion that if a Pittsburgh player had been stupid enough to do so, he’d have spent the flight home in the baggage area with a giant shoeprint on the back of his pants.

In a perverse way, this zoo the Bucs organization has morphed into is entertaining Joe. The rocky, winless season by the Brutal Bucs has given Joe ample subjects to write about.

Thanks for the link, Mike!

Readers have brought to Joe’s attention Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620’s post about Barrett Ruud.

Pawlowski is no fan of Ruud. Joe isn’t as harsh but there are some valid points Pawlowski brings up. Among them is the number of tackles for loss Ruud has this season.

That would be none.

The first half of last season Ruud appeared to be Pro Bowl bound, the next Bucs stud linebacker. A one-handed interception he had against the Bears was one of the best plays Joe has ever seen a linebacker make.

In the past calendar year, Ruud has been far more dud than stud.

Now part of the problem isn’t exactly Ruud’s. He generally has offensive linemen crawling all over him at the snap of the ball. Think it has anything to do with that vaunted Jim Bates’ two-gap system?

People with a helluva lot more football street cred than Joe — Warren Sapp and Pat Kirwan to name two — spoke out from day one that unless the Bucs got different personnel upfront, that a two-gap system would not work.

Have the Bucs proved Sapp and Kirwan wrong in any way?

Recently on Sirius NFL Radio, Derrick Brooks was asked why the Bucs gave up so quick on defensive end Gaines Adams. Brooks tried to be polite and politically correct but it was difficult to do. Brooks said Adams didn’t fit Bates’ system.

It seems Bates has done a decent job in turning around the Bucs secondary. It’s not nearly as bad as it was. The defensive front?  Ha!

Yeah, Joe knows Bates did a fine job in Miami. He was last there in 2004, five seasons ago. That’s damned near ancient history in the NFL. Herm Edwards also had the Jets in the playoffs when Bates last coached the Dolphins. What’s Herm up to lately? Last time Joe checked this is 2009 and the Bucs are not in Miami. Oh, and the Bucs are winless too, largely thanks to the (lack of) defense.

A pet peeve of Joe’s is when a coach, any coach no matter the sport, tries to force a player to play a specific system or scheme. A good coach adjusts and crafts a scheme to best utilize the talents of his players (example: Bill Parcells and Drew Bledsoe in a pass-happy Patriots offense in the mid-1990s).

Shoot, Monte Kiffin even had Adams drop back and play pass defense in the flat at times, and Adams did a decent job of that. At least Kiffin tried to come up with different looks, schemes, stunts and ideas to get the best out of Adams.

Unless the Bucs get massive new personnel up front on defense, or unless Bates (finally) figures out there are other ways to use defensive tackles, there’s no sense in throwing a lot of money at Ruud next year. 

That is, if Bates returns. Not too many defensive coordinators survive a winless season, which the Bucs are barreling down the track towards.

With 0-16 staring the Bucs in the face, this video seems like something from the History Channel.

Yes, you probably know by now the Bucs are the lone winless team. Even before yesterday’s games, few people could see where the Bucs might win a game.

Include Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. He notes how the Bucs have a pretty brutal schedule the rest of the season. In fact, even the bad team left on the Bucs schedule isn’t so bad.

And the immediate future doesn’t look too bright for the Bucs, who will return from their week off Sunday with first-round pick Josh Freeman making his first start at quarterback.

Of Tampa Bay’s next four opponents, only 3-4 Miami has a losing record, and the Dolphins — who will play host to the Buccaneers on Nov. 15 — have won three of their last four.

Last year when Joe cheered the fact the toothless Lions lost all of their 16 games did Joe even fathom the Bucs might replecate that feat this season.

Joe would love to see Cadillac Williams return next season but just how long will his surgically repaired knees hold up?

Joe has decided to take a look at a handful of Bucs players who, per Rotoworld.com, are in the last year of their current contract with the Bucs. Joe wonders who should the Bucs keep and who they should let walk.

Antonio Bryant: Gifted receiver but there are two problems. One is his health. He had limited play in training camp due to a bum knee. That missed time has shown as has his bum knee. Plus, he will be expensive to sign. Additionally, why would Bryant want to stay with the Bucs?

Donald Penn: One can argue he is the best Bucs player. But the Bucs will have to open the safe to keep him. Imagine what a solid left tackle like Penn can get on the open market and Jerry Jones and Danny Snyder waiting with an open checkbook in hand?

Barrett Ruud: Joe isn’t so sure why people are in love with Ruud? Great guy, nice guy. But has he done anything since, oh, last Thanksgiving that makes anyone stop and think, “Oh, man, the Bucs must have Ruud?”

Jeremy Trueblood: Joe likes him but Mark Dominik should not break the bank on this guy. He’s a walking yellow flag. Sure, he can block OK but what good are his blocks if the gains are called back for his penalties? Keep him, yes, within financial reason of course.

Jimmy Wilkerson: With the exception of Roy Miller and possibly Stylez White, there is no one on this defensive line that really should stay.

Cadillac Williams: This could get dicey. He’s having a great season for a running back with two surgically repaired knees. How long can they hold up? Buyer beware.

Good morning, Bucs fans. Joe just thought he’d inform you, if you have not yet heard, that thanks to the Lambs and the Titans winning yesterday, the Bucs are now the lone winless team in the NFL.

Oh yeah, and the team the Bucs will face this Sunday at the CITS will be the Packers, fresh off getting humiliated at home yesterday. Oh, and the Bucs will be playing a rookie quarterback making his first start.

My, what a wonderful Monday morning. Hope you have a good week, too.

Even in a bye week, the Bucs found a way to lose.

Esteemed Broncos beat writer Jeff Legwold checks in with Joe talk about the downfall of Jim Bates as Denver's defensive coordinator

[Editor’s note: Joe has gotten his share of e-mails about Bucs defensive coordinator Jim Bates. Clearly, he’s clearly becoming a polarizing figure among Bucs fans. Some say Bates has so little talent to work with he can’t fairly be judged. Others say it’s too soon to evaluate him. And others say Bates is proving to be incapable of making adjustments and failing miserably at adapting to the talent provided to him. 

Given the scrutiny on the Bucs defense, which has been torched in many ways this season, Joe thought it would be neat to dig up this Q & A from the JoeBucsFan.com archives. It’s a chat with former longtime Broncos beat writer Jeff Legwold, who covered Denver in 2007, when Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan turned over his defense to Bates but yanked it away from him halfway through the season.]

(Q&A initially published Feb. 17, 2009)

Joe sat down today with Broncos beat writer Jeff Legwold of the Rocky Mountain News to talk about the very brief Jim Bates era in Denver.

Bates, the Bucs new defensive coordinator, was hired to take Denver’s average defense to the next level in 2007. By midseason that year, Bates was almost completely phased out by Mike Shanahan. 

Joe wanted to know how an accomplished veteran coordinator like Bates failed so quickly in Denver.

Legwold (who in Joe’s opinion is the king of beat writers in Denver) kindly offered his take.

Joe: Did Mike Shanahan have a relationship with Bates prior to him becoming defensive coordinator?

Legwold: Mike didn’t really have any lineage with Bates like with [2008 Broncos D-Coordinator] Bob Slowik. He knew him from having been at the combine, and Jim’s reputation.

What kind of input and control regarding personnel was given to Bates? Was this his defense?

He had great input. Initally, he was given a lot of freedom. They switched to bigger [interior linemen] guys who could anchor, and supposedly stop the run and open things up for the guys on the edge. They signed and drafted guys they probably wouldn’t have signed otherwise in years past, guys like Sam Adams inside. …They opened the season with the biggest line they had in years.

Simeon Rice signed with Denver early in the 2007 season. Was that Bates’ call?

Simeon Rice was more Mike [Shanahan’s] call. He fit Jim’s scheme, guys up the middle who can anchor, and edge guys who could get upfield.

How did everything crumble for Bates? What went wrong?

Immediately they didn’t stop the run. I think Mike was really upset by that. …They simply couldn’t stop the run. That they were swithing schemes, it’s not surprising to me they weren’t successful quickly. ….. Then midway through the season came this thing where [Bates] and Bob Slowik were a hybrid where they were both calling the shots.

When you struggle early it’s hard for guys to buy into it. This was a team that had some expectations. They thought they would be better probably. The scheme was different from what they played, and I’m not sure the players ever knew what was going on on defense. …There was a lot of turnover that year. They were cutting guys, bringing guys in. …In mid-season, Slowik starting calling the shots. …You could see it on the field. Everything just looked different. …By the the end of the season [Bates] was just a participant. …Even Mike [Shanahan] was in the [defensive] gameplan at times. ….

Bates’ reaction?

Whatever Jim’s mindset was he kept it to himself. He was a professional. Mike had a dominating presence, you didn’t go public. …. After the season, Mike told him he could could coach linebackers, ‘but you’re not going to call plays.’ …That was the end for JIm.

Bates meets with the media tomorrow in Tampa. How do you think he will he describe his time in Denver?

I would be surprised if he says too much. Jim’s been around a long time, been in a lot of places. He might say he was disappointed. … He did not have a lot of time to work with and, like I said halfway through the first season they were changing the plan.

What’s Bates like on the practice field?

He’s an intense guy. He had a tough beginning, working his way up. I’ll say he’s real easy to find out there. … For those who know Rod Marinelli’s [intense] style, like that, although I don’t know if it will be to Marinelli’s level. …Jim spent a lot of time with the linebackers. It’s a position he’s coached a lot over the years and he’s very comfortable there.