Despite a few outlets jumping the gun a bit — not that the outcome was unreasonable — this time it’s real:

Davin Joseph and the Bucs have agreed on a new contract.

Per Joe’s good friend, “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig’s Twitter timeline, Joseph and the Bucs have a handshake deal that Joseph will sign Friday.

And what is the widely popular WDAE-AM 620 personality’s source you ask? Why Joseph himself.

The agreed upon deal, per Duemig (via Joseph) is seven years for a cool $53 million.

So much for the haters who claim Dominik blew off all winter in not preparing his team of accountants to meet a salary floor.

Com’on, people.

UPDATE: How quick was Duemig’s reporting? He made it public before Joseph himself had a chance to Twitter it.

UPDATE II: Jeremy Trueblood agreed to a two-year deal.

Joe’s done his share of freelance work for the Newark Star-Ledger. The pay’s always top notch.

The point is Joe knows they’re a legitimate outfit with high standards. So Joe will consider their latest, that the Bucs are knee deep in the Nnamdi Asomugha sweepstakes, as a very solid rumor. Here it is:

The Jets initially contacted Asomugha Tuesday. The 49ers and the Texans were also in hot pursuit, but now the Joseph deal presumably eliminates Houston from the race. But Tampa Bay — which has been relatively quiet in free agency thus far — has also been in the mix, per a person with knowledge of the teams competing for Asomugha’s services.

What’s next? Early this evening, the Jets were asking Asomugha for a decision, per a person informed of the communication between the sides.

Exciting? Yes.

A good idea? Sorry. Joe’s confident the Bucs don’t need a cornerback. Aqib Talib’s coming back. Ronde Barber is still here and strong. The Bucs drafted Myron Lewis in the third round and like him. E.J. Biggers is solid.

Nnamdi ain’t worth it. Not in this defense.

But, of course, Joe would cheer for him like hell.

Update 10:27 p.m.: Unintentionally urinating the face of the legions of Nnamdi lovers, Warren Sapp just Twittered the following:

@QBKILLA Tampa Bay Is Not In Nnamdi Asomugha Sweepstakes!!!

In recent days, Joe has been totally bombed with questions about Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik spending money.

Why?

People are totally obsessed with this topic and Joe is at a loss to figure out why.

As Joe has often answered, Joe does not care about the salary cap. Joe thinks about the salary cap about as much as he thinks about a nude Rosie O’Donnell, which is to say unless someone asks Joe about the salary cap, it never crosses Joe’s mind.

Joe is not an accountant. He’s a football guy, not a numbers guy. Dollars do not equate to wins in the NFL. They just don’t. If anything, fans would want Dominik to pay less. The Bucs got 10 wins and lost a playoff tiebreaker and had one of the lower payrolls in the NFL.

If Joe was so worried about dollars, he’d watch Jim Cramer.

Apparently Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620 is getting hounded by people who can’t sleep wondering if Dominik will make it rain. Pawlowski lashed out at Dominik’s critics on his Twitter account.

@Commish620wdae Does everyone think that Mark Dominik is dumb and won’t spend enough to get to the floor which would end with fines and loss of draft picks? … Hmmm, would a team and GM that prides itself in building through the draft risk losing draft picks? I think not. … Everyone bitched about Bruce allen lying, but when Mark Dominik tells truth that #Bucs are building through the draft, people get mad too. … There’s much more to building a team than “just spend the money” … I think the #Bucs already have the big names people want to see, but they won’t become big names until we get into this season!

Joe couldn’t have written it better himself. Sans possibly having a rookie linebacker playing out of position calling defensive plays, has Dominik done anything the past 18 months that would suggest he doesn’t know what he is doing?

If fans are bent because Dominik isn’t playing fantasy football, may Joe suggest following the Redskins or perhaps the Cowboys? Danny Snyder and Jerry Jones never met a big-name splash they didn’t like. How’s that worked out for them the past 15 years or so?

And no, once again, Joe doesn’t care about the salary cap. Joe’s the last guy to ask about it because he doesn’t give a damn.

Those that thought that a high salary floor meant Dominik would run wild in free agency clearly haven’t been following the man in recent months. Dominik doesn’t roll like that.

During the 2010 offseason, Drew Brees spent time tutoring Josh Freeman as a favor to his old college coach: Greg Olson.

Joe respected Brees for that, but it sure seemed bizarre for a competitive guy to invest serious time propping up a division opponent’s quarterback.

But this year Brees took it all to a new level. The guy mentored Gerald McCoy.

In fact, McCoy credited Brees for being his No. 2 offseason advisor behind Pro Bowl defensive tackle and Pro Bowler Tommie Harris, during an interview this morning on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620.

“Suprisingly enough, who’s going to kind of make people say, ‘What?’ A person I talked to this offseason that helped me with my recovery and how I can make a comeback is Drew Brees,” McCoy said. “We trained at the same gym. … I just had a chance to sit down and talk to him. And it wasn’t about football. It was just like, ‘Mentally, how do you come back from an injury?  What did you do?’ Thinks like that. ‘How do you lead the way you do? What makes you who you are?’ And he gave me some great advice.”

Does Brees realize McCoy’s mission is to break him in half? Brees either has to be a top shelf Mr. Nice Guy, harbors a death wish, or he thinks McCoy isn’t good enough to threaten him. Interesting, regardless.

One thing McCoy said in the interview that alarmed Joe was that he felt his healing triceps had recovered about 85 percent of the strength it had last year. Considering a guy as young as McCoy should be getting stronger in the offseason, that was somewhat troubling.

Hopefuly, McCoy can pull that up to 100 percent by opening day. 

Now in the near-three years Joe has been banging out Bucs copy and content since launching this site — not one day missed; not one! — Joe has made it abundantly clear how he feels about the satanic cable syndicate known as Out House Networks.

Let Joe be even more clear: it is the suits that Joe hates there, not the people. Some of the folks who work for Out House Networks are some of the coolest in the business, whether it be Rock Riley or Victoria Lim or J.B. Long, to name a few. Nicer people one would be hard pressed to find.

This beef is not about the people that work there, but the corporate suits. It is the suits who brazenly have decided to deny innocent area citizens the want, desire and the need to enjoy the NFL Network, yet it is these same scoundrels who have decided to ram every friggin’ vapid shopping channel in the free world down the throats of the littles along with other schlap, including a “news” channel that features such internationally-compelling stories such as a new swing set in the Brandon city park, a new culvert being installed along Starkey Road in Largo and the temperature every 10 minutes just in case you forgot how hot it was 10 minutes ago.

It is simply an outrageous practice and some right-thinking politician would be warranted to launching a congressional investigation into this shady if not elicit unethical practice.

Tomorrow, Joe will feature some of the best Twitterers to follow for Bucs news and there are few local guys better at bringing you tidbits of sports information than Long. Today, he had an interesting nuggett as the Bucs reported for training camp.

It seems the absense of starting middle linebacker Barrett Ruud has created a degree of unrest among his former (?) teammates and in fact soft-spoken tight end Kellen Winslow spoke up in defense of Ruud.

@JB_Long: Bucs Winslow says it would be very disappointing to see Ruud leave. Team leader. Guys in locker room want him back.

Look, Joe thinks the world of rock star general manager Mark Dominik. But starting a third round college outside linebacker in the middle and calling defensive plays, a young man who has had a grand total of zero reps with the Bucs defense and the opening regular season game a scant five weeks away, well, this shakes Joe to his very core with fright and dread.

Joe has learned to trust Dominik. But this move is really testing Joe’s allegiance.

Josh Freeman towers over a rabid gum chewer and the rest of the Bucs beat throng in this YouTube.com video from One Buc Palace today. Freeman fields questions, including one from a special guest.

Woe is Stylez White. The Bucs’ sack leader over the past four seasons now has a rookie wearing his number. There’s a bad sign, or a good sign, depending on your perspective.

The guy now with No. 91 is manbeast-in-waiting Da’Quan Bowers, who passed his physical days ago, in case you were wondering.

Joe’s not bashing Stylez here. The guy was a top-flight backup with a great personal story. He just didn’t deliver like he needed to in 2010.

Amazing when you think about the razor thin success-failure game in the NFL. Stylez had 4 1/2 sacks last year. If luck/fate breaks a little more his way and he had, say, seven sacks, he likely would be entertaining plenty of offers right now. But it seems the opposite is true, so Joe documented earlier today.

Regardless, there’s a new No. 91 to cheer, and he’s probably the biggest X factor in the Bucs’ lineup.

Joe’s been whacked with the question in the headline so many times and so many ways the past few days. It’s getting annoying.

First, Joe doesn’t necessarily trust the varying figures reported as to how much the Bucs have to spend to get this new real-cash floor. Are the intracacies of every existing contract out there for all to see? Absolutely not. Sure, the Bucs will have to spend a lot more than they have in past years, but exactly how much is a mystery.

Second, how the Bucs might be able to renegotiate existing deals and configure new contracts — essentially the fine print of the cap in this new labor agreement — isn’t common knowledge.

Maybe there’s more room than in past years to frontload contracts and not have a “cap hit” spread out across years. Joe has no clue. For example, Quincy Black’s sweetheart deal might count $8 million against the 2011 cap. Again, nobody knows.

Lastly, Joe hasn’t busted out a spreadsheet, but guys like Connor Barth and James Lee catching roughly $1.5 million raises, plus other guys who re-sign (Tim Crowder, Cadillac Williams & Adam Hayward anyone?) will quietly help the Bucs climb the cash ladder.

Will the Bucs get to where they have to be moneywise without spending on a splash free agent from outside the organization? Probably. Mark Dominik left that inference out there in his news conference Tuesday.

Then there’s also that possibility of the Bucs holding back cap cash to renegotiate/extend Josh Freeman’s deal later this season with a pile of frontloaded money into 2011. Again, without knowing the legalese of the cap, there’s no way to answer the question. But that’s not a bad option, since it would provide more spending flexibility in 2012 and beyond.

A guy like Josh Johnson also is an interesting option for the Bucs to extend midseason before he becomes a free agent. Actually having a “career backup,” as Raheem Morris called Johnson, might be wise, versus just talking about it.

All Bucs fans have is Dominik’s word that he plans to build through the draft, re-sign “homegrown” free agents (minus a certain linebacker, it seems) and mimic what the Steelers and Packers do.

Thankfully, real answers are coming.

Joe reads the comments. He sees his Twitter messages.

Many Bucs fans are slamming their pints of beer on the bar in frustration because Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik (seemingly) is watching the boats float down the river as other NFL teams gobble up free agents or make trades to better themselves and, thus far, Dominik has stood pat.

Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com has noticed this as well and had something to Twitter about it. In short, he’s in Dominik’s corner.

@PriscoCBS: Bucs do it right. Ton of money, but not being crazy with it.

Joe had tried to calm his readers on Twitter earlier this week. Joe was bombed with “who are the Bucs going after in free agency” type questions on Twitter, and Joe would always respond that Dominik would likely take care of his own first and maybe dabble in second-tier free agents.

Dominik learned a lesson with the near-miss of Facestomper Haynesworth and the mess that Kardashian-chasing Derrick Ward turned out to be. Since, Dominik has treated big-named free agents as if they have cholera.

As Joe has stated many times before, dollars do not equate wins. They just don’t. And really, who can soberly argue against what Dominik has pulled off the past 18 months?

The asinine lockout has had many repercussions, among them, a wild, wild west like flurry of activity to get a 90-man roster in such a short window of time.

As a result, teams’ front offices are crammed for time, working round the clock.

This may partially explain why free agent defensive end Stylez White has not had a call from the Bucs. With the angst of not knowing where he may be playing this season, if he is playing this season, White’s patience reached its limit last night as he snapped at fans on Facebook.

SO WE KNOW, I AM A FREE AGENT. AS SOON I KNOW YOU WILL KNOW. I PROMISE… OK? SO STOP ASKING.. THANKS 🙂

Currently, Stylez is at his home in Ohio and lamented on Twitter about how there wasn’t a Popeye’s Fried Chicken within an easy driving distance.

So Stylez sits at home, waiting for the phone to ring, hoping he is still a Bucs defensive end much less an NFL defensive end.

Correction: It was Geno Hayes Twittering about a Popeye’s craving, not Stylez, who responded to Hayes and soon after Twittered he was feasting at Red Robin. … Joe now has cravings for both.

Seems Bucs free agents Davin Joseph and Jeremy Trueblood were having a power dinner last tonight, as the duo were scheduled to dine with Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and coach Raheem Morris.

No word on where they broke bread but Joe is guessing it wasn’t the La Teresita cafeteria or the Taco Bus (though a solid choice for grub, both).

Joe also wonders how long it took for the quartet to dispel of the niceties and get down to the real talk of dollars and cents and more importantly, putting pen to paper tomorrow?

Joe’s also guessing Raheem was trying out wine suggestions he got from his pal Merlot Joe Maddon.

This meeting between the four tells Joe it’s a good bet that Joseph and Trueblood will return to the Bucs, but Joe is guessing Trueblood might have to take a discount.

What do you think the tip was at this table?

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Joe cannot ever remember putting up a live post after midnight.

Today is a first, and part of the reason is Joe’s traffic is simply blowing up this week. Hell, there are daily newspapers in America that don’t get the daily traffic Joe is getting now, and he humbly thanks all of his readers.

Anyway, Davin Joseph broke bread with Bucs brass last night (more on that later this morning) and apparently Bucs rock star general manger Mark Dominik and coach Raheem Morris brought a special guest: new offensive line coach Pat Morris, per Joesph’s Twitter feed just after midnight.

@DavinJoseph75: Positive vibes!! I love the new Bucs oline coach! … I’m going to bed but no deal yet. I’m ready for a long term deal. … My guy @jeremyTRUEblood is ready to stay. That means I’m ready to stay.

This is very good news. Joseph has made no bones about the fact he wanted to remain in Tampa Bay, told Joe himself down at Josh Freeman’s minicamp in Bradenton earlier this month.

If Joseph wants to play for the Bucs, and is hitting if off with Pat Morris, this tells Joe it is merely a matter of hours before Joseph signs a pact with the Bucs.

The Bucs are gathering tomorrow to check in for training camp. The first practice is Friday. Some are already housed up in a prime downtown Tampa hotel.

But not all Bucs are in town. Defensive end Stylez White, who led the team with 4.5 sacks last season, is not in the Tampa Bay area, nor is he in Florida. Rather, White is in Ohio waiting. The free agent defensive end is waiting. Waiting for his phone to ring. Waiting for an offer.

White continues to wait on someone who wants him. The phone doesn’t ring.

@rwking75: Has the Bucs contacted you yet bout new contract?

@stylezwhite: U will know whn i know. Keep u posted playa

Joe thought, at worst, White would be in camp as a backup plan in case second round pick Da’Quan Bowers isn’t exactly 100 percent, but Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik seems to believe he is.

All the while, Stylez waits by the phone.

No need to rely on Adam Schefter. Joe has all the confirmation he needs and it comes straight from the primary source.

Bucs second round pick Da’Quan Bowers has Twittered that he has signed his first professional NFL contract with the Bucs.

@DaQuanBowers93 Feels good to finally be a buc officially…. Dotted line signed ….

Now comes the interesting part: Bowers has to show up in public. To date, he has been more rumor than fact. He wouldn’t go to the rookie symposium in Bradenton and he wouldn’t show up to Josh Freeman’s minicamp. Joe’s good friend Justin Pawlowski has been the only guy locally to talk to Bowers.

Now, Bowers’ agent can no longer shield him.

Hey, look, Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik came to an agreement — can’t sign until Friday — with one of his own linebackers.

But no. It is not Barrett Ruud, it is Quincy Black.

Per Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune, and his cohort Anwar Richardson, they Twittered Black came to terms with the Bucs today.

Bucs LB Quincy Black is back in the fold in Tampa. Five-year, $29 million deal with $11.5 million guaranteed.

Now in Joe’s eyes, Black has to step it up. Far too often Black was heard of as being in the starting lineup, but not seen (making plays). With a potential rookie middle linebacker starting, it is Black who has to be a leader and starting racking up some big time plays.

Aside from the hole apparently created at middle linebacker, Joe was next most concerned about who would be the Bucs’ go-to guy as a return man.

No more worries. Per Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune, Twittering on the TBO Bucs Twitter feed, it seems arguably the best return man in Bucs history will be waiting for kickoffs and punts to fall in his hands again this fall.

Run Micheal Run Spurlock will return.

WR Micheal Spurlock told me he will sign his tender on Friday. He looks forward to being in Tampa.

As Dominik has stated, he wanted to take care of his own first. And Spurlock is his own.

Joe hopes to hear many spastic Gene Deckerhoff calls of Spurlock’s returns.

Outside of rockstar general manager Mark Dominik’s apparent thumbs-down on Barrett Ruud yesterday before the media, everyone else in the organization seems to be on the Ruud bandwagon.

Including Raheem Morris, Joe can’t recall anyone related to the Bucs not being enthusiastic about Ruud’s return. Plenty of guys have gone public. Ronde Barber is the latest, so he told J.P. Peterson on 1010 AM yesterday.

“I would love to see Barrett back, if I had a vote, which I do not,” Barber said. “He’s the quarterback of our defense. I’d hate to see him go somewhere else and succeed, which he will.”

Barber went on to say that turning over Ruud’s position to a rookie or inexperienced player would be “tremendous pressure.”

The more Joe thinks about the apparent Ruud situation, one thing becomes more and more clear. Dominik is calling all the shots.