Finally some fresh news on Bucs third-year guard Arron Sears.

He’s the guy who seemed to be on a Pro Bowl path but then walked away from the Bucs for undisclosed personal reasons before the season. In July, a St. Pete Times report revealed Sears was in seclusion back is his small Alabama hometown.

Speaking on 1010 AM Friday night, Bucs center Jeff Faine shed the first real public light on Sears since the many secretive “private matter” quotes from Raheem The Dream and Mark Dominik this summer.

Jeff Faine on Arron Sears: “He’s been kind of doing his own thing. From what I understand he’s back in tampa. It’s definitely a good thing. He really can’t be around the facility right now [because of] these funny, fishy rules in the NFL. What it is if he comes to the facility his time starts because you know he has a time where he’s physically unable to play. You have a grace period where you’ve got to IR him. So once he comes to the facility his time starts. There’s a bunch of crazy rules in the NFL that really don’t make any sense. Let’s let the guy in here. Help him get back on track and help him get back into things. But that’s just not the case. It’s something we can’t do.”

Sears is now listed on the Bucs roster as reserve/did not report. Joe believes this means the Bucs aren’t paying Sears and are not punishing him either. He’s just in limbo.

But it sounds to Joe, based on Faine’s comments, that Sears is going to be back on the Bucs’ roster. It’s unknown what kind of shape he’s in, but perhaps he joins the team and begins to learn the new offense during the bye week later this month.

It is Joe’s understanding that Sears must be activated 30 days prior to the Bucs’ final game in order to play this season. Joe assumes members of the MSM or the great Mike Florio, curator and guru of ProFootBallTalk.com, will clarify after reading this post.

The Bucs’ stellar left tackle, Donald Penn, signed a one-year restricted free agent tender offer in the spring for about $2.8 million.

Surely, the Bucs could have locked up the undrafted 26-year-old to a long term deal, but opted to make him prove it on the field for one more season.

As Penn continues to perform at a high level, it seems Mark Dominik, the man credited for snatching Penn when he was released from the Vikings’ practice squad, may have lost the financial gamble on the big left tackle.

Speaking on 1010 AM, Bucs center Jeff Faine said Penn is on track to command an absolute fortune this offseason.

“He’s playing lights out. He’s been playing for a contract for two years now. …We’ve got some cap room. Don’t we? …There’s nothing cheap. There’s nothing cheap for what he’s doing,” Faine said of Penn. “When we first got here we were sliding to him quite a bit. We put him on the island all the time now. We lock him down against the best defensive rush out there on the field week in and week out. It doesn’t change. …He locks it down every single week. …It’s amazing what this guy’s doing. He’s still flying under the radar, as sad as it is to say.”

Joe just hopes Penn stays healthy, keeps up the consistent peformances against the NFL’s best ends, and the Bucs don’t make the mistake of letting him walk.

Pay the man.

A lot of Bucs fans shook their heads when Clifton Smith fumbled to end the Bucs loss to the Redskins (well, actually, they threw their beer bottles).

Bad enough that Smith fumbled but what irritated Bucs fans the most was why bring in Smith cold off the bench when Cadillac Williams was running so well?

It was all planned, so claims Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune. In a question-and-answer session with Richardson, he states Raheem the Dream’s scripted two-minute offense includes Smith.

Q: Why was Clifton Smith in the game carrying the football (In the last few minutes) when Caddy was rolling all game long? Smith has a habit of fumbling the ball, as he did once again yesterday. I was at the game and the Bucs played well majority of the game, faltering late. Plus, why doesn’t Gaines Adams play with this kind of fire more often?

Greg Williams, Bryans Road, Md.
A: Great questions. Coach Morris said he likes to use Smith in two-minute drill situations, but considering the running back only had one carry prior to his fumble, that probably was a bad decision. As far as Adams goes, his coaches asked the same question. Nobody knows what it will take to get Adams to play more consistently, which is unfortunate considering he’s actually a really good guy.
— Anwar Richardson

Joe had been calling for Smith to be used earlier in the game because, in the second and third quarters, Cadillac had been stopped. But he seemed to have worn down the Redskins late in the game so at that point, here was no need to bring in Smith.

Given his habit of laying the ball on the ground, Smith should not have been used at that point in the game. Joe hopes Raheem the Dream has learned.

Last year Joe, along with many Bucs fans, snickered if not laughed out loud at the toothless Lions running the table without a win becoming the first team to lose all 16 regular season games and breaking the Bucs record of going 0-14.

Brad Biggs, of the NationalFootballPost.com, hints Bucs fans should be concerned the Bucs may match the Lions for futility. While he doesn’t expect the Bucs to actually post a 0-16 mark, Biggs wrote the Bucs are still dangerously close to equaling the Lions.

Tampa tried to sign defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth in free agency and was close to engineering a trade for quarterback Jay Cutler. But it’s been the moves they’ve made that they might regret. The Bucs made tight end Kellen Winslow the highest paid at his position in the league and are getting little in return. Antonio Bryant was franchise tagged because they didn’t have anyone else at the position. Give them credit here, at least they didn’t sign him up long term. Add in some failed high draft picks in recent years, and you have a recipe for a meltdown.

Simply put, if the Bucs cannot take care of the Panthers a week from Sunday at the CITS, let’s just say the race for the overall top pick in next spring’s draft is on.

“The Professor,” John Clayton of BSPN, takes a look at the NFC South and he thinks there’s an outside chance Bucs rookie quarterback Josh Freeman plays against the Panthers in two weeks.

Someone at the four-letter network, BSPN, actually got their heads out of the asses of the Red Sox, Yankees, Cowboys, Patriots, LUH-bron and ko-BEE to actually come up with something useful and insight.

It broke down the players with the most penalties and it shows that no player in the NFL has more false starts than Bucs right tackle Jeremy Trueblood.

Two NFC South right tackles are among the league leaders in false starts. Tampa Bay’s Jeremy Trueblood is tied for the league lead with four…

The player Youngblood is tied with is Cornell Green of the Raiders. Remember him?

For Joe, this is just about inexcusable. One of the first things that Joe learned in grade school football was you don’t jump before the snap count — grade school! Joe even sees good high school teams that won’t even jump before the snap for multiple games.

For a professional to get flagged for a false start a game is unbelievable to Joe. Simply put, it’s not having your head in the game.

Joe thought Boston College was a solid higher institute of learning? So what’s Youngblood’s problem?

As for BSPN, this is solid research and Joe thanks them for it. Imagine what that outfit could do if it stuck to straight sports news as opposed to hype, jocksniffing, slurping and endlessly pimping itself to grotesque levels?

Joe loves soaking up football knowledge from his friends who really know the game at the NFL level. Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson, linebacker legend Scot Brantley and Jaquez Green come to mind.

Now Joe is pleased to add former Bucs defensive end Steve White to those taking Joe’s football and Bucs knowledge to a higher plane. White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era with the Bucs.

White is a tremendous Xs and Os analyst and an excellent writer. He lets it all hang out on his blog with breakdowns of every Bucs game. And he has authored a youth football coaching book, Passing On The Game, and will be doing some analyst work here at JoeBucsFan.com.

For now, Joe’s going to give you an excerpt of what White offered on his blog about Gaines Adams’ play against Washington.

[Gaines Adams] also made some really nice plays in the run game, in particular a tackle for a loss he had on Clinton Portis after he beat the tight end blocking with with a quick hands move inside. Having said all that I still wish they would keep the guy on the right side. On a day when he actually had his pass rush working he never got to face the guy he got a sack on, Chris Samuels, on any third and long. That to me is just nonesensical and hopefully at some point the Bucs figure that out. I would say why not put Greg White inside like he was as a pass rusher his first year with the Bucs when he first made a splash. Then you allow Jimmy Wilkerson to keep working his guy on the outside as well.

Joe also liked this shot White took at a Jim Bates move that he wrote was more ego that substance.

There were some coaching decisions that were real head scratchers to me. First on two big third downs in the second half Jim Bates decided to go with a three man defensive line. This after the [four-man] line gave the Redskins fits in the first half and harrassed Jason Campbell into several bad throws. The result was that on a 3rd and 11 Jason Campbell scrambled for a first down. And on the other play Clinton Portis barely fell down a yard short of the first down. This seemed to be an obvious example of “guruism” at its worse. Bates decided that it was important to show that he had more calls in his playbook and he put he defense at a disadvantage. Most of the time its best to go with what got you there and hopefully he realizes that going forward.

Take that, Mr. Bates.

Joe loves Gene Deckerhoff. The Buccaneers radio play-by-play man is a true gem of the franchise. And Joe is proud to have spent some one-on-one time with Deckerhoff.

Today the Bucs have posted a phenomenal “Behind The Flag” video about Deckerhoff on Buccaneers.com.

Joe got chills watching it. Wow! It’s quite a well done historical piece on Deckerhoff with some great calls and video.

Deckerhoff tells the story of how Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden agreed to tape his 1989 coach’s show with Deckerhoff at 4 a.m. on Sundays so Deckerhoff could take the Bucs play-by-play gig and still keep the same job at FSU.

Thanks, Coach Bowden.

 Perhaps the only potential positive about blacked out Bucs games would be new fans discovering Deckerhoff and legions of old fans reconnecting with the legendary broadcaster.

By Harry King

My two cents: Good to see the Bucs back in my old stomping grounds of our nation’s capital. I sure miss talking about the affairs of the day over roast beef with J. Edgar Hoover — a very misunderstood man — at Duke Ziebert’s. What a treasure trove that place was!

The Bucs offense for most of the second half was flatter than Gwyneth Paltrow. … I’m told that Mike Nugent has a habit of soiling his bathroom because he keeps missing the stool. If only Natalie Wood was so fortunate.

The play call by Greg Olson on what Raheem the Dream referred to as a quarterback double-option late in the game on third-and-goal was stranger than Paul Lynde. … Making it through a game without a penalty is as difficult for Jeremy Trueblood as it was for my old pal Dean Martin to make it through a day with only three cocktails. The man truly had a hollow leg.

This Geno Hayes is quicker on the field than Bob Hope was with a one-liner. … Speaking of Bob Hope, my special guest Thursday is Brooke Shields – LIVE! … I bet Doug Williams could still play quarterback for the Bucs and they might need him. He’s like Jackie Mason, he never grows old.

There are smart people, and then there are the guys who do all the college level mathematics on AdvancedNFLStats.com. Geniuses to be sure.

For those who haven’t read their statistical reports, the motto over there is simply, The Numbers Don’t Lie.

Advanced NFL Stats analyzed the numbers on Raheem The Dream’s decision to kick a field goal on 4th-and-goal from the 4 yard line with 4:30 left against Washington.

No surprise. The math gods are frowning on the Bucs head coach.

Kicking the field goal gave the Bucs a 0.19 Win Probability (WP). Attempting the TD would net a 0.29 WP on balance. Morris’ decision basically cut his chances of winning by a third.  Sure, the particular “flow” and match-ups of the game are factors, but those considerations are usually overblown. Besides, if the game is close enough for it to matter, then the two teams are probably fairly equal, at least for that day. 

Joe already hammered The Dream for his decision on Sunday afternoon. So Joe won’t go there again.

The Football Moron of BSPN is back again. See if you can catch his mistake(s).

His shredded tricep healing rapidly, Jeff Faine says he’s ready to return to the practice field to test out his arm.

Here’s Faine’s take on his health, as transcribed from him speaking Friday night on 1010 AM:

“It’s going real good. Rehab’s going real good. We’ve been hitting the weight room pretty hard testing it out. And I’d like to get out there and get on the field … and test it out in some real action,” Faine said. “I think I’m probably right around 70 percent [of full strength]. I’m not planning to come back at 100 percent. …My plan is [to return against Philadelphia]. I don’t know if the training staff of the Tampa Buccaneers what their plan is. …I think it’s going to really rely on how I feel out there during practice when we actually test it in some real football, not necessarily just in the weight room and with strengthening techniques, basically get out there and hit somebody and see how it feels.” 

The St. Pete Times reported Monday that Faine would sit out against the Eagles and likely return against Carolina on Oct. 18. But Joe wouldn’t be surprised to see Faine on the practice field on Wednesday and possibly pressuring the Bucs to let him play in Philadelphia.

In this video, for which FoxSports.com provided embed codes (!), Sam Rosen and Tim Ryan take a closer look at the Bucs loss to the Redskins.

About one-third or more of Mike Holmgren’s 2010 head coach/GM salary was flushed down the Bucs company toilet yesterday when the team cut kicker Mike Nugent, who never looked great in Tampa Bay from the day he arrived.

Mark Dominik is growing into a poor vault watcher for the cash-conscious Glazers. And that’s not a good way for young Dominik and Raheem The Dream to keep their jobs past this season. 

Joe imagines the Glazers were just getting over having flushed $2.5 million on Luke McCown’s signing bonus and $2 million on quarterback turned cheerleader Byron Leftwich, both of whom cost their well paid rookie quarterback Josh Freeman valuable preseason reps.

At times Joe tries to think like a Glazer, and Joe has to believe that if Chucky comes off the Bucs payroll next season, Team Glazer might highly covet a big name coach/GM to jumpstart the franchise.

Brian Mitchell, Barry Svrluga and John Feinstein discuss how the Redskins beat the Bucs in this Washington Post video. Feinstein wastes no time in unloading on the Bucs.

“I’m not sure the Buccaneers could beat Navy or Air Force. They are horrible… HORRIBLE!”

One would think a wide receiver who has a nasty habit of dropping balls might just be a bit humbled, a bit ashamed, motivated to let his catches, not drops, do the talking.

Nope. Not with Michael Clayton. In an apparent ode to Meshawn Johnson when he played for the New Jersey Kotites, Clayton yesterday said, in so many words, “Give me the damned ball,” so wrote Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

Apparently, Clayton failed to mention how he plans to stop laying the ball on the ground.

“I’ve got to get more opportunities,” Bucs wide receiver Michael Clayton said. “I’m a guy that can help this team win. We’ve got to get our players the ball. Everybody needs more opportunities.

“(Tight end) Jerramy Stevens needs more opportunities. (Antonio Bryant) needs more. You’re gonna drop some balls, but you also need an opportunity to make up and redeem yourself. We haven’t quite been able to get to that step.”

Yeah, some balls.

To be fair, Clayton has a nugget of truth to what he says. But this is like which came first, the chicken or the egg? Confidence works both ways. Why should Greg Olson or any of the Bucs quarterbacks get you the ball when, more often than not in the past, you have pulled a Roberto Duran?

Look, Clayton’s play against Dallass was spectacular. What Bucs coaches and quarterbacks need to see is Clayton doing that more often. You know, like maybe twice every four games?

And while Joe recognizes that Clayton is a dominant blocker, he is a wide receiver whose primary responsibility is to catch the damned ball. Blocking, no matter how coveted, is a secondary responsibility for a receiver.

Does anyone think Himes Ward would have started so many years for the Steelers if he couldn’t catch, no matter how crushing of a blocker he is? Of course not.

Oh, and good luck getting more “opportunities” with Johnson as the quarterback, who doesn’t have much more of a stronger arm than Joe with only slightly more NFL experience.

So the Bucs signed someone named Shane Andrus to replace Mike Nugent who was largely responsible for the Bucs loss to the Redskins. Word is he went home to take a shower, fell in the bathtub but remainded dry as toast.

So this Andrus has an interesting resume. For the past three years he’s been trying to latch on with the Indianapolis Colts. Some guy by the name of Adam Vinatieri always seemed to get in Andrus’ way.

Why he never hooked up with another team the past there years is beyond Joe. Andrus got all of a one-day tryout with the Bucs which is just a shade less than Nugent and his $2 million salary were afforded.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune documents that Andrus led the Colts in scoring this preseason and is coveted as a kickoff specialist.

Andrus entered the league as a free agent with the Indianapolis Colts in 2006. He played in one game for the Colts in 2009, handling kickoff duties in their season opener against Jacksonville.

Andrus led Indianapolis with 19 points during the 2009 preseason, connecting on 5-of-6 field goal attempts and all four PATs.

Joe has to calm himself with the fact that kickers are just about a dime a dozen. The Bucs likely could have found some kid on the soccer teams at Jesuit or Palm Harbor high schools to kick just as awfully as Nugent did.

Doesn’t take a whole lot of talent to choke the way Nugent gagged this season.

It was the summer of 2008. Chucky, as usual, was in heat over a quarterback. Chucky never seemed to meet a quarterback he didn’t lust over.

This particular quarterback this particular July was none other than Brett Favre. Soon to be Hall of Famer and recently retired. Chucky went to bed with the blissful dreams of a lover in passion believing he would soon consummate his relationship with his bride: Favre.

But the Packers, who held the rights to Farve, did not hold their piece… eeerr, peace. They broke up the would-be matrimony. Chucky became an unrequited lover.

The only matrimony that would take place would be some months later between Raheem the Dream and Josh Freeman.

The Bucs, who got off to a great start last season, tanked in the end, which was something of a Chucky tradition, sans the year he got the Bucs over the hump with a Super Bowl ring.

One of the criticisms of Bucs quarterback Jeff Garcia (no, Joe could never criticize him for Carmella) was that he never noticed open receivers downfield and as a result, the Bucs missed countless opportunities, specifically in the December collapse that eventually sank Chucky’s coaching days with the Bucs.

Had Farve, who apparently has good genes, come to Tampa Bay, the Bucs would likely be a far-different looking team today. Watching last night’s Minnesota win over Green Bay, it’s pretty clear that Favre still has it. And it looks as though he’s going to lead the Vikings deep into January if not a February Super Bowl.

Joe’s going to take a look at how the Bucs would be a far cry from what they are today.

* Chucky would still be here.

* So too would Bruce Almighty.

* Rather than Freeman on the sideline, Favre would be barking signals. Freeman would have been a third round pick elsewhere.

* Raheem the Dream would be the Bucs defensive coordinator; Monte Kiffin still would have gone to Tennessee to be with his son Lane (and daughter-in-law Layla).

* Who knows about Mark Domink? The Bucs general manager was interviewing elsewhere, including Kansas City.

* Derrick Brooks would still be prowling the CITS sidelines wearing his menacing red No. 55.

* Cato June, Warrick Dunn and possibly Kevin Carter, all currently unemployed, would also possibly still be with the Bucs.

* Maybe even Rachel Watson would have stuck around?

One thing is for sure: If Farve was here, the Bucs wouldn’t be 0-4.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Mike Nugent, the former horrendous Bucs kicked, was given the boot tonight by Raheem the Dream and Mark Dominik, so says Joe’s good friend, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig.

Per Mike Florio, the curator, creator and overall guru of ProFootballTalk.com, Nugent gets to keep his base salary of $2 million.

Must be real nice to suck at your job, keep it for, what, three months, and then get to sit on our ass for the next nine months collecting $2 million.

Though the Bucs have not replaced Nugent yet, immortals Brandon Coutu and Shane Andrus were at One Buc Palace today trying out for the opening.

Joe trusts Dominik won’t drop $2 million on either one.

There’s a reason why Raheem the Dream scoffed openly when he was asked about Nugent.

In Raheem the Dream’s weekly Monday afternoon press conference, he let it slip the Bucs are trying out new kickers this afternoon because Mike Nugent is stinking the joint out worse than a portapotty that hasn’t been cleaned in the middle of the Florida summer.

When Raheem the Dream was asked about Mike Nugent he let out a loud, frustrated, disgruntled, “Ha!” He then quicky said not only do the Bucs evaluate players “every day” but that the Bucs had invited kickers in for tryouts today.

Raheem the Dream wouldn’t release any names nor would he deny one of the kickers called in for a tryout was former Bucs kicker Matt Bryant, who was released at the end of training camp. Raheem , however, didn’t say Bryant was called in either.

“The only thing that really matters about kickers is the result,” Raheem the Dream said. “Either you make it or you miss it.

“The operation looked good. The snap looked good. I’m not making any excuses for him.”