The noise buzz around training camp from the various media types Joe mingles with was that quarterback Jevan Snead will be cut to make room for Gerald McCoy on the Bucs roster.

Yes, McCoy, or any player, is not officially rostered until he has a contract.

Why anyone was even talking about Snead was because he was nowhere to be seen on the practice field. Only Josh Freeman, Josh Johnson and Rudy Carpenter were wearing the orange “quarterback jersey.”

Snead, an undrafted rookie free agent, was a ridiculous longshot to make the team, especially after Raheem The Dream expressed his deep affection for Carpenter back in June.

Blocking icon Michael Clayton was doing his typical training camp best this morning.

He was looking fit. He was running hard. And he was catching the ball.

Why the blocking icon even had the crowd roaring when he made a great adjustment in the air to catch a Josh Johnson bomb with cornerback Brandon Anderson all over him (not exactly Talib, but still a great play).

Unbelievable! The blocking icon came to play. He was working on some special teams drills, as well, which caught Joe’s eye.

Joe got at good laugh when a Bucs fan standing next to Joe was visibly offended by the sight of Clayton on the field, “Clayton. Clayton would drop his pads, if he had to carry them.”

Joe’s back from the absolutely packed house training camp where the Bucs cheerleaders were exceptionally active, frisky, bubbly, bouncy, extraordinarily sweaty and working the crowd in a huge way.

Pictures are forthcoming.

Of course, it also was great to see the Bucs make the Donald Penn and Gerald McCoy signings official, so reported the St. Pete Times, home of The Mad Twitterer.

Sleepless general manager Mark Dominik announced that the Bucs have signed left tackle Donald Penn and reached an agreement with first-round pick Gerald McCoy.

Penn, who arrived in Tampa on the red-eye from Los Angeles Saturday morning, signed a 6-year deal believed to be worth $48-million and includes nearly $20-million guaranteed. He joined his teammates at practice Saturday 15 minutes after the announcement.

Penn was at camp and spent a lot of time working away from his teammates one-on-one with the Bucs conditioning coach. Penn looked quite fit in a now-I’m-only-a-chubby-325-pounds kind of way. Penn was with his teammates later in practice but did not appear to participate in any contact work.

Speaking on 620 WDAE-AM after practice, Raheem The Dream said he was eager to find out how soon he could get McCoy on the field.

Clearly, Raheem The Dream was a bit obsessed with Brian Price today, getting in his face a couple of times for good and bad. And Price drew Raheem The Dream to a near chest bump when Price got great penetration and busted up a run play quickly in the backfield.

“Nice job, B.P.” was screamed by the head coach at full volume.

Price looks very quick, through Joe’s eyes, and Price also seemed to be feeling the heat (as in weather) more than most.

Ahhh, the joys of training camp presented with eye candy, courtesy of the local folks at ABC.

One of Joe’s longtime commenters, a fellow who goes by the moniker of “Mr. Lucky,” has to be a happy man today.

Because football is here.

Mr. Lucky, roughly two weeks ago, began posting a comment that was nothing more than a countdown to the start of training camp. Mr. Lucky is not a Rays fan nor does he monitor baseball in general. Mr. Lucky would rail on other sports and demand Joe and others talk football.

Mr. Lucky is one of the reasons Joe exists: to satisfy the hardcore, pewter-and-red bleeding Bucs fans who need — no, demand! — Bucs news daily /365.

While Joe has never been a training camp freak (reminds him too much of two-a-days in high school amid the southern Illinois cornfields in weather hotter and equally humid as Florida, being so sore and beat up he could barely walk), Joe will be out at One Buc Palace. Expect some photos and other goodies later.

But Joe rejoices today. To wit, respected, intelligent sports radio hosts will no longer:

* Prattle about this LUH-bron James character. Joe just wants to take a crowbar to people trying to cram down the non-basketball association down Joe’s throat in the middle of baseball season!

* International kickball.

Finally, Joe’s senses will no longer be assaulted when trying to listen to sports radio when Sirius NFL Radio is in commercial.

We have been liberated today, folks.

It’s football, glorious football, until February!

Enjoy.

With Donald Penn apparently returning to the Bucs with a new contract much sooner than anyone expected, The Mad Twitterer and good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times discuss the political and social ramifications of Penn inking a new deal.

Yeah, Joe has mentioned this already, but he wasn’t totally forthcoming.

Of course, Joe will be at One Buc Palace today (and Sunday) for the start of Bucs training camp. If  you can’t make it out there, you will want to be at your computer.

Armed with his blackberry, Joe will be Twittering like a madman.

Later Saturday, Joe will bring you loads of pictures and posts about what he witnessed at training camp. So stick with Joe. He’s doing the dirty work for you!

(Part of that dirty work will be ogling Bucs cheerleaders up close such as the example to your right.)

Joe believes it’s safe to write that Bucs general manager Mark Dominik was not at the Rays stirring win over the Yankmees tonight. Dude has been a busy guy.

First, the Donald Penn nightmare is over. And if NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora is to be believed, Bucs first round pick Gerald McCoy will be on the practice fields of One Buc Palace Saturday.

In a live interview late Friday night on NFL Network with the fetching Michelle Beisner, La Canfora talked about Sam Bradford’s crazy contract when Beisner asked La Canfora for an update on second overall pick Ndamukong Suh and third overall pick GMC.

Referring to GMC, La Canfora said, “I’d be shocked if McCoy is not [at Bucs training camp] Saturday.”

GMC has always said that he wanted to wait for his Oklahoma teammate Bradford to sign first before he inked a deal with the Bucs. Now that Bradford is signed, sealed and delivered, lets see how quick Dominik can get GMC to One Buc Palace.

The Glazers are spending money. The Glazers are spending money. The Glazers are spending money.

Joe’s doing his Paul Revere act here to announce that the Bucs will be signing Donald Penn to a long term deal. Krispy Kremes, orange soda and trans-fat laden food for everyone.

And Joe is smiling inside and laughing at all those Bucs fans and observers who thought Penn had no leverage. Hahahaha. 

Penn had plenty of leverage, it seems. Jason LaCanfora, of NFL.com, is reporting the Bucs and Penn will sign a deal on Saturday.

The sides have come to terms on the major issues of a deal, but they’re still working out some language, according to the source. Both Penn and his agent, Rocky Arcineaux, were en route to Tampa on Friday night, and they will meet with Bucs officials Saturday, when the lineman is scheduled to sign the deal.

How bout that Team Glazer! Way to go. Way to do the right thing. No wonder Raheem The Dream isn’t nervous.

Kidding aside, Penn earned this money. He’s an excellent football player. Hopefully, he can become truly great in a Bucs uniform.

Man, Joe is fired up for training camp.

And Joe is fired up to have Raheem The Dream back in front of the microphone. What a treasure he is, so darn entertaining. (Joe will have more gems from Raheem The Dream’s afternoon news conference later.)

First off, Raheem The Dream took a question from a reporter who asked about the prospect of Demar Dotson or James Lee as his starting left tackle, “Are you nervous at all?”

Here’s Raheem The Dream’s unedited response:

“Nervous is not a word that I would normally use to describe anything that I do. But, you know, you look at that side, no matter what, no matter who’s over there, that’s the hot corner, that’s third base, that’s a great place to look if you’re a defensive coach looking at your offense. Your quarterback’s blind side. How well he’s protected. You know, how great those cutoff blocks are. How big that man is out there. He’s probably the premier rusher on that football team. That’s always a nice place to start to see the initial get off. That’s always a nice place to start when you’re reporting a story. That’s always a nice place to start usually when you’re trying to figure out how well the offense is going to do that day. So I’ll be watching that side. Just like normal. I’ll have my eye over there. We have got a brand new player there that played there for the whole OTA days. The beauty of it is he got all the reps. The beauty of it it won’t be a lack of knowledge. It won’t be a lack of experience in practice. And we look forward to watching him grow and do all that stuff.”

For those who need a translation (or a bottle of aspirin), the head coach said left tackle is extraordinarily critical and he’s extremely well aware that Dotson and Lee have no experience.

The call-it-as-he-sees-it Bucs beat writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Tom Balog, notes that the flurry of first-round pick signings today doesn’t mean Gerald McCoy will be wearing his big boy pads this weekend at Bucs training camp.

McCoy, the third overall pick, is not signed. His money people are apparently squabbling over contract length, per Balog.

Berry, the No.5 overall pick taken two spots below McCoy, signed with the Chiefs for $34 million guaranteed, as part of a five-year deal that makes him the highest paid safety in league history.

 Knowing how the Glazers do business, and how McCoy’s agents expect to push the envelope beyond the guaranteed amount that Berry will be get, it could be days or weeks, before McCoy is in the fold. McCoy’s agents and Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik are fighting over how many years the contract should be, with Dominik wanting to lock up McCoy for six years, while the agents try to limit the deal to five years.

Balog goes to talk tough when it comes to Team Glazer willingness to spend money on Donald Penn. It’s an interesting read.

Joe sincerely hopes McCoy is ready to go by Monday at the latest.

Helmet-wielding, cabbie-pouncing Aqib Talib is a man the Bucs hope and pray is on the right path, so writes Tampa Tribune uber columnist Martin Fennelly.

Fennelly talked to Talib, Ronde Barber and Mark Dominik, and penned a column that left readers with the feeling that nobody is quite certain Talib can avoid another outburst that could derail his promising career.

But Talib says he now understands that to be the man, you need to act like one. He has visited with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Talib had to pay out after the incident with the cabbie. Maybe it helped.

“Sometimes you got to get your head beat against a wall, take money out of your pocket, go see the NFL boss,” Talib said. “That’ll make you wonder ‘What the hell am I doing?’ My father and brother keep telling me ‘Don’t (mess) this up,’ you got what you wanted since you were 5 years old.”

Now Joe knows journalists pick and choose what angles and quotes they want to use in a story, but Joe found it interesting that Fennelly didn’t quote Talib being remorseful or even imply as such. Odd.

Talib is a true Pro Bowl talent, who’s barely a half-notch below the upper echelon in the NFL. The guy’s ready to be a stud.

Joe sincerely hopes Talib never forgets that he could land in jail if he screws up before his court-ordered anger management classes are completed. 

Stay cool, Talib.   

Longtime player personnel executive and now superanalyst for NFL.com and NFL Network Mike Lombardi has identified three should-happen trades that would benefit all NFL teams involved.

No. 3 on his list is the Bucs moving Donald Penn to Dallas for the Cowboys’ 2011 first round pick and their new starting left tackle, Doug Free, who is slated to take over for Flozell Adams this season.

The Cowboys have an outstanding team — a Super Bowl-caliber team — with some slight concerns at left tackle. Penn would solve those problems by giving Dallas a blue-chipper at one of the game’s most important positions. Penn could be the missing piece for the Cowboys to reach the Super Bowl in 2011. They can easily extend his contract by giving him a deal in line with D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s recent extension with the Jets.

The Bucs would gain a first-round pick next year and would still have a potential solid starter to help them protect Freeman’s blind side this season. They can sell this trade to their fan base by saying this was a concept deal. Trade a proven asset that was not going to re-sign to a proven contending team and invest in the future.

The Bucs save money, build for the future with a draft asset, and Dallas get its missing piece. For the Cowboys, trading for Penn is a luxury they can afford.

There’s quite a bit more to Lombardi’s story, in which he questions Mark Dominik’s power and ability. Ouch!

Interestingly, Joe proposed a Penn-to-Dallas trade before the NFL Draft – one of very few hypothetical trades Joe publishes – and many commenters in that thread called Joe a circus buffoon for even thinking of such a thing. …Hmmm.

If you read Lombardi’s full take, which is that the Bucs don’t want to pay Penn so they might as well get good value for him, it’s hard to argue with his reasoning.

While it's great that Raheem the Dream has affection of his players, at the end of the day, it's really a non-factor. It's about wins and losses.

Joe was in a conversation this morning with a highly respected Bucs beat writer discussing why some Bucs fans have the torches lit for Raheem the Dream.

Said reporter Joe spoke with claimed that the Raheem the Dream haters are wrong on many levels and one aspect they overlook is how the players love Raheem the Dream.

Joe replied that, in Joe’s eyes, this should be a non-factor and Joe puts zero weight in such a crutch/excuse.

Case in point: Joe isn’t sure he has to remind fans the Bucs lost 13 games last year. If, as this reporter suggests, the team quit on Raheem the Dream or there was a mutiny, what would be the result, the Bucs would have lost 14 games instead?

Now in a perfect world, it’s fantastic the players have so much respect for Raheem the Dream. Joe’s not saying this is a negative in any way. Of course it’s a positive, noble if not coveted trait. But what matters most are results.

Joe doesn’t notice many warm and fuzzies from players who toiled for Tuna Parcells or Bill Belicheat. Joe noticed on the NFL Network’s broadcasts of America’s Game series that to this day Larry Csonka talks about what an ass Don Shula was to play for.

Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll were so at odds that Bradshaw nearly wilted under Noll’s boot.

From what Joe can tell, players despised George Halas; Mike Ditka rarely says anything kind about his former coach. It’s well known that Vince Lombardi treated players like dogs.

That’s not to say players must loathe their coaches in order to win. While Bill Walsh was a taskmaster and accepted no mistakes, he treated his players with a great deal of respect and it seems the players respected Walsh just as much.

Joe knows of no insubordination with Joe Gibbs, though Joe Theismann and Gibbs were, for a period, at odds before kissing and making up and thus, winning a Super Bowl together. Kenny Stabler and Phil Villipiano would throw themselves under a moving truck for John Madden the way they speak of their old coach.

For every example of a team liking its coach and winning, Joe can also find an example of a team winning despite possessing a vile hatred of the coach.

So Joe doesn’t count the Bucs liking Raheem the Dream as a positive or a negative. In fact Joe believes it’s a wash.

No matter how much players like or hate a coach, at the end of the day, it’s if you win or lose.

Joe came across an interesting nugget while surfing the net, rounding up Bucs news last night.

It seems former Bucs receiver the White Tiger, Joey Galloway, is in the news, and for all the right reasons. Per Rick Maese of the Washington Post, who covers the Redskins for a living, Galloway began Redskins training camp as the team’s No. 1 receiver, so Maese twittered Thursday, via TheRedZone.com.

Yes, that Joey Galloway, 39-year-old wide receiver Joey Galloway who failed at his last stop with the Patriots and has caught a total of twenty passes in the last two years.

Yeah, the White Tiger is 39, but he’d still be starting if he was with the Bucs. Joe wonders what that high school offensive line coach would have done with the White Tiger if he was still around?

Former Bucs secondary coach and NFL head coach Herm Edwards was chatty last night about the Bucs as he Twittered the night away.

In fact, Herm was in such a good mood, he believes the Bucs have a shot at a solid defense this season.

@reggiellerbe: coach what you think about my Bucs and their D?

@HermEdwardsESPN: I see a big improvement, especially if the 2 young DT play well.

Joe’s not so sure about that. Doesn’t Herm know that rookie defensive tackles struggle? Joe’s been over this too many times to count.

Keeping on the defensive theme, the subject in particular turned to Aqib Talib, the gifted cornerback many believe is on the verge of stardom. While Talib may have some off-field issues, Herm believes victories will help cure Talib of whatever demons he fights away from One Buc Palace.

@RJBrown129: Bucs CB A Talib make the pro bowl?

@HermEdwardsESPN: He has enough talent, can he Keep his focus. It aiso helps when you win and play good D

This is a puzzling take. Does Herm believe the Bucs’ woeful season last year directly contributed to Talib’s, um, incidents? Or is Herm insinuating that Talib wasn’t playing good defense, and that drove Talib off the edge away from football?

Joe has learned that the Cody Grimm mystery that has gripped Bucs fans has come to an end.

The Bucs seventh round pick has signed less than 24 hours before having to report to camp. This nugget of breaking news comes by way of Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune via the TBO Bucs Twitter feed.

The Bucs have agreed to terms on a deal with LB/SS Cody Grimm, the first of their three seventh-round draft picks.

Now that leaves Gerald McCoy, the third overall pick in the 2010 draft, as the lone unsigned Bucs draftee.

At the risk of Joe potentially ascribing a motive, Joe was beginning to wonder if Grimm either wanted to be a rare seventh-round draft pick hold out, or if he just wanted to watch his dad, Russ Grimm, be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next Saturday.

The way things currently stand, the left side of the Bucs offensive line is a grave concern.

First, Donald Penn is holding out for a better deal from Bucs general manager Mark Dominik, with no end to the standoff in sight.

Then there is Jeremy Zuttah at left guard. As a rookie, he was stellar when filling in for the injured Davin Joseph at right guard. But at left guard filling in for Arron Sears, Zuttah, to be polite, struggled.

That has led Vacation Man of BSPN, an outfit so in bed with jocks that prophylactics are not necessary, to suggest that Zuttah’s starting gig at left guard is hardly secure.

Aphex in New York writes: What are your thoughts on the Buccaneers O line? I think Jeremy Zuttah has a lot to prove… there are rumblings that Zuttah is not physical enough in the power man blocking scheme that the Bucs are getting back to like during the Gruden years.

Vacation Man:  The Bucs weren’t thrilled with Zuttah’s play last year. That’s why they signed Keydrick Vincent, who has a good chance to start. Zuttah could be headed for backup duty.

Whether Vincent is the answer, well, Joe believes time will tell. Joe does believe it’s entirely possible that Zuttah is much better fitted for the right side of the ball. Problem is, there’s a logjam there for Zuttah.

It appears that some people are of the belief that the Bucs are singling out disgruntled Bucs left tackle Donald Penn in a game of chicken between Bucs general manager Mark Dominik and Penn’s legal camp.

Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune writes that premise is utter nonsense, and details why on the TBO.com’s Bucs blog.

Lest you get the idea that disgruntled left tackle Donald Penn is being singled out in some way, the Bucs have made it cleat that they have not entered into long-term contract negotiations with any of their restricted free agents.

Nor, it seems, do they intend to anytime soon.

With training camp reporting day now just a day away, the Bucs appear poised to wait possibly until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached before opening long-term contract talks with their RFAs.

Joe believes Penn is holding out not just for the obvious reasons, but also because, well, training camp sucks. Joe’s guess is Penn shows up sometime after the Jacksonville game (Aug. 28).