Michael Bennett has a high opinion of the defensive line talent on the Bucs.

Bucs fans are banned from various watering holes because of their anger over how pathetic the defensive line has been over the past several years. While Gerald McCoy is among the NFL’s elite at defensive tackle, last season he got little help from his teammates.

Granted, when the Bucs had their defensive linemen basically doing the “Curly Shuffle” on just about every snap, often taking linemen out of position (to Joe, the signature Bill Sheridan stunt was when the Bucs defensive coordinator had Adrian Clayborn covering speed demon Saints running back Darren Sproles in pass coverage), it sure didn’t help get heat on quarterbacks. [read more]

Dario Melendez and Lester Munson discuss the legal hassle Bucs wide receiver Mike Williams finds himself tangled with in this BSPN video.

When Gil Brandt talks, Joe listens. The former Cowboys vice president of personnel for some 30 years was kind enough to chat with Joe about the Bucs at Super Bowl Media Day.

Brandt is very high on Johnny Football — ranked him the overall No. 1 college prospect — and believes the Bucs braintrust would not be making a mistake at all in grabbing the former Heisman-Trophy-winning quarterback. In fact, Brandt compared Johnny Football to a Hall of Fame quarterback he helped lure to Dallas. Some guy named Roger Staubach. [read more]

LeSean McCoy loves Darrelle Revis.

There used to be a war of words between stud cornerbacks Darrelle Revis of the Bucs and Richard Sherman of the Seahawks.

Well, the war of words was sort of one-sided, as Sherman likes to hear himself talk. Revis is more of an understated fellow. But it is still a cool debate. Which corner would you rather have? [read more]

Gabe Carimi was one of four Bucs released today.

Last year Joe thought it was a good gamble to trade a late-round pick for bust offensive lineman Gabe Carimi. The former Outland Trophy winner was a total and complete washout with the Bears, but with his former college offensive line coach, Bob Bostad, working for the Bucs, Joe thought if anyone could get the former first-round pick on the right track, it might be Bostad.

Alas, Bostad was jettisoned along with all of former Bucs commander Greg Schiano’s staff in January, thus the only reason to keep Carimi was no longer around. [read more]

Bucs new QB Mike Kafka.

Well, the Bucs did indeed sign a free agent quarterback from the Eagles. But it wasn’t that one.

Amid rumors that the Bucs are hot on the trail of Michael Vick, his former backup, Mike Kafka, was signed today by the Bucs, so says NFL insider Adam Schefter of BSPN. [read more]

Legendary NFL personnel guru Gil Brandt spoke to Joe about Mike Glennon.

When Joe was at Super Bowl Media Day in Antarctic-like Newark, one of the many NFL insiders Joe got a chance to chat with was the legendary Gil Brandt. For those unaware, Brandt was the Cowboys player personnel director for nearly 30 years and was one of the architects of a true NFL dynasty.

Brandt had an uncanny ability to find diamonds in the rough, both in the draft and in free agency. A couple of players who many thought were washed up Brandt thought still had game, including Jackie Smith and Mike Ditka. Brandt also found undrafted players like Drew Pearson, Cliff Harris, and Everson Walls, men who had significant NFL careers. [read more]

Joe, or anyone else, can’t objectively judge the value of adding Michael Vick to the Buccaneers without knowing how much money it will take to land Vick.

Vick sounds darn good at $3 million a season plus incentives (that’s about what Josh Freeman got from Minnesota) but not so great at $6 million or $7 million a year. [read more]

Bucs stud Gerald McCoy started off his career slowly, largely due to two consecutive season-ending injuries. As a result, GMC had few friends locally. Fans were down on him and loud radio voices raked him over the coals.

But GMC shut up the haters. With back-to-back trips to the Pro Bowl, GMC has been one of the very few bright spots on a Bucs team seeking its first playoff win since the Super Bowl of February 2003.

In fact, the spreadsheeters over at ProFootballFocus.com have even gone so far as to rate GMC as the best at putting heat on quarterbacks.

@PFF: Tampa Bay’s Gerald McCoy lead all DTs in 2013 with a Pass Rushing Productivity Rating of 11.1 (80 total pressures on 561 pass rush snaps)

Joe remembers this past fall when he asked Warren Sapp what he thought of GMC and Sapp looked directly in Joe’s eyes and said that in some ways, he thinks GMC is a better player than he was. And this is coming from a Hall of Famer!

Yet there are still folks working behind a mic and some fans who to this day refuse to give GMC credit. What crosses Joe’s mind is these people ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Of course, Joe turned to Tampa criminal defense attorney and Bucs fan Brett Metcalf to learn about the trespassing and criminal mischief charges facing wide receiver Mike Williams. Where else would Joe go to be educated on the rights of the accused?

Metcalf advised Joe that the State Attorney’s Office filed a “Direct Information” against Williams. [read more]

A huge Bucs X-factor this winter is how Lovie Smith and friends evaluate unrestricted free agent Dekoda Watson.

Why? Because Watson has shown an ability to rush the passer. [read more]

The Bucs could snatch the gut of the Saints offense

If Lovie Smith has his way, then next year at this time the Bucs will be in a similar place as the New Orleans Saints are now. And that would be battling salary cap complications.

Joe found this NOLA.com story rather interesting reading. [read more]

Please draft Johnny

Joe isn’t sure if people read what they want to read, or if people have mangled the King’s English so that their vocabulary is skewered by too many evenings with narcotics.

Simply put, Joe doesn’t “hate” Mike Glennon. He has a lot of attributes Joe finds admirable. By all accounts he is a workaholic. His teammates like him, and in the handful of encounters Joe has had with Glennon, he couldn’t be a nicer guy.

But nice-guy status doesn’t make a guy a successful NFL quarterback. [read more]

Greg Robinson?

Last year was a nightmare for the Bucs offensive line. It started when turf-toe-sidelined guard Carl Nicks got hit with the MRSA and lost his season. At times, Demar Dotson struggled at right tackle, especially against bull-rushes; David Joseph was not his pre-surgery self, and Jeremy Zuttah sure seems to be a better left guard than center.

A one-dimensional offense didn’t help, either. Teams simply weren’t scared of Sybil-like Rip Van Freeman, Mike Glennon or receivers not named Vincent Jackson. Essentially, defenses knew if they stopped the run, then the Bucs turned impotent. [read more]

Let it be recorded that the second Bucs player to (allegedly) run afoul of the law after the jettisoning of the New Schiano Order is Mike Williams.

It seems the Bucs wide receiver finds himself in a legal hassle, notes Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times, due to a yet-to-be determined incident that left him charged with criminal mischief and trespassing. Williams, per Auman, has an arraignment date in Hillsborough County later this month.

[read more]

Father Dungy explains

Father Dungy, the man who brought Lovie Smith to the NFL, says Lovieball is going to look awfully familiar.

Asked about the Lovie regime on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Father Dungy seemed to brush off the importance of offensive football. [read more]