Rich Bisaccia’s not a guy who did many local interviews in his time, so Joe found it significant today when the dean of Tampa Bay sports radio, Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620, talked a bit about his longtime friendship with Bisaccia today and of a recent conversation they had.

Duemig said Bisaccia had a great offer from another organization — not the Chargers — and that San Diego’s money offer must have really knocked his socks off.

Duemig assured listeners that Bisaccia received an offer from the Bucs and the loss of the special teams coach had nothing to do with “cheapness by the Glazers” and there was no bad blood behind the scenes.

Gregg Rosenthal, of ProFootballTalk.com, implied in a post yesterday that the loss of Bisaccia was a belt-tightening move.

The guy with all the answers is Bisaccia, of course. Maybe he’ll talk one day. Maybe not.

Joe’s much more interested in how good his replacement will be. Yes, Bisaccia was known for his leadership, but the Bucs seem to have that aspect of the team sewn up pretty well at this point.

Even Ronde Barber says it’s all about No. 5.

Pending free agent Barber spoke in depth about how Josh Freeman is the main man on the Bucs last week during an interview with J.P. Peterson on 1010 AM last week.

Barber even went so far to say that Freeman will determine the fate of the Bucs.

“The sky’s the limit for him. It’s the silliest cliche ever, but he is so talented now. I’ve been around 14 quarterbacks in my career, and not one of them can come close to touching what he can do physically. As he continues to grow, gets above the neck and starts really understanding every intricate part of every football game, I can only imagine how good he can be. Obviously, it helps that he had a great supporting cast this year, Mike Williams stepping up, Arrelious Benn stepping up, LeGarrette stepping up.

“But when it came down it, at to the end of the game, whether it was close or we were behind or we had a lead, I don’t think I ever felt like he was going to make a mistake to lose it for us. That’s asking a lot out of a 22-year-old, second-year quarterback. We put a lot on his shoulders and he just picked it up and carried it like it was a Wiffle Ball.

“The guy has got a lot of confidence in himself. And, you know, because of that I think everbody on the team had a lot of  confidence in him. We rode with him This team going forward will be as good as Josh Freeman wants it to be, if you ask me.”

Barber went on to talk about Freeman’s consistent calm and how players feed off his strength and command. Barber said Freeman is not much of a vocal leader but his presence throughout the year — offseason, practice and regular season — set Freeman apart as a leader.

Joe wonders how many steps up the ladder Freeman can take this offseason.

Joe imagines he’ll be back working with Alex Van Pelt in the bowels of One Buc Palace in a matter of days.

Good guy Stephen Holder discusses what the Bucs will do in the coming weeks now that rock star general manager Mark Dominik and head coach Raheem Morris have had their contracts extended in this St. Petersburg Times video.

Joe’s read the happy-to-be-here quotes from former Bucs special teams coch Rich Bisaccia as he joined the Chargers’ coaching staff yesterday.

And yes, Joe did a quick double take on this one found at FanHouse.com and other outlets:

“This is a tremendous opportunity for me to be part of a winning organization and work with Norv Turner. There’s a real opportunity here to win it all,” Bisaccia said.

So is Bisaccia backhandedly saying the Bucs are NOT a winning organization, Raheem Morris is no Norv Turner, and there’s no shot to win a Super Bowl in Tampa?

Joe doesn’t buy any of that. Joe reads this as Bisaccia, who rarely dishes out quotes, simply hyped up and pouring out love for his new gig. Just giving the positives of his job, not taking a crack at the Bucs.

Now Joe could be wrong, but all indications are Bisaccia’s just a guy happy to get a huge raise and a team desperate for his services.

Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik and coach Raheem Morris wasted little time in filling the void of special teams coach Rich Bisaccia by swiftly naming Dwayne Stukes as the new Bucs special teams coach, so reports Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

Stukes is no stranger to the Bucs. He has been with the Bucs organization for the past five years, and has served as Morris’ assistant secondary coach since Morris took over the reigns as Bucs head coach.

Previously, Stukes was actually Bisaccia’s assistant special teams coach.

Said Dominik of Stukes, “He’s ready for this opportunity.”

Stukes’ ties with the Bucs actually began before he worked for the Bucs. Stukes was a teammate of current Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber when the two played at the University of Virginia.

The Bucs’ whole next-man-up philosophy will now get a big test in the coaching ranks.

Outside of Raheem Morris, the last big gun from Chucky’s coaching staff has left the building. Rich Bisaccia is the new special teams coach of the San Diego Chargers, reported Steve Duemig today on WDAE-AM 620 during his top-rated afternoon show.

Duemig said the Bucs made a play to retain Bisaccia in recent days but his contract was up and he has moved on.

Presumably, San Diego offered Bisaccia a sick pile of money to make the big move. The Chargers’ special teams rivaled the worst in NFL history this season, and they missed the playoffs with the No. 1 ranked offense and defense in the NFL.

Per the San Diego Union-Tribune, Bisaccia’s special teams units with the Bucs had just two punts blocked. In 2009, the Bucs blocked two punts, two field goals and two extra points.

Joe knows this is a huge loss for the Bucs. Bisaccia often addressed the team and clearly the guy commanded respect through the locker room. Joe can only hope/assume that Mark Dominik and Raheem had been planning for this possibility and already are pursuing their next man up.

One of the best Bisaccia stories Joe ever heard came from Micheal Spurlock, who was recruited to Ole Miss by Bisaccia in 2001.

While on the Bucs, Spurlock said Bisaccia once called him out of the blue on a Monday night to ask him whether he just saw a poor decision made by a punt returner on Monday Night Football. Spurlock said he was watching, and Bisaccia responded by going on a tirade about how Spurlock better not ever pull a bonehead move like that playing for him.

Spurlock went on to explain that Bisaccia was a guy who could somehow use nothing but profanity in a sentence and still have it make sense. Off the field or out of football mode, Spurlock said, Bisaccia was the most caring guy in the world.

Every time Joe turns around he keeps getting hit repeatedly with the question, “What will the Bucs do in the draft?” 

Joe wishes nubile young women would approach him with such vigor.

Right now, Joe answers that question with a question: ‘What free agents have Bucs retained and/or signed?’  With a possible lockout starting in March, every NFL club could enter draft day with a pile of their own free agents unsigned and, subsequently, a lot of uncertainty. That shapes the draft game in a big way.

Then there’s the issue of the possible rookie salary cap. Might one be in place before the draft?

And if not, are owners expecting to have a rookie cap whenever the labor agreement is settled?

Joe thinks that’s a huge issue. If the Bucs don’t have to pay $40 million guaranteed for the No. 3 pick in the draft, like they did with Gerald McCoy, then Joe suspects the team would be very eager to trade up and snag the top defensive end on their draft board. 

Mark Dominik has said getting heat on opposing quarterbacks is his No. 3 priority behind having a franchise quarterback and keeping him upright — and those first two our covered well.

With the 20th overall pick, a pile of young talent and likely no desire have an overabundance of rookies again, Joe would think the Bucs would have a lot to offer someone up the draft board.

Joe suggests you check out Honey’s in Carrollwood on North Dale Mabry for the best wings in Hillsborough County and a menu filled with homemade awesomeness. Don’t forget to print out the pizza coupon on this page. This pie is a huge!

Whoa! Team Glazer just gave a lengthy Bucs interview in January.

How bout those Glazers! Joe loves reading about the owners’ excitement for the their beloved Bucs. 

Bryan Glazer shared some one-on-one time with eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune. Their chat hit TBO.com today.

Glazer thinks the Bucs might score some sellouts next year and subsequently have the Coach of the Year and his young squad on local television.

Glazer described the 2009 rebuilding plan as “painful” at the start and said the organization is optimistic blackouts won’t be routine at Raymond James Stadium next season. The Bucs were the only team to have all eight regular-season home games blacked out in 2010.

“We had a process we wanted to take for this community and sometimes that process is a little painful along the way,” Glazer said. “I sense a lot of excitement in the community right now. We know the local economy is very difficult and people are making tough choices. We want our fans to come back and we’ve lowered some prices for next year.

“Winning helps, and we have a very attractive home schedule next year, with the expectation of some prime-time games.”

Wow! Maybe ticket sales have picked up? Getting a few home games on TV would be such a blessing for so many Bucs fans.

And did Glazer say “prime-time games?” Hmmm, BSPN blogger Pat Yasinskas just claimed the Bucs wouldn’t get any night home games next season. …Joe’s going to bank on Glazer’s take.

A manbeast of a free agent defensive end coming to the Bucs next season would pump some serious juice into the Bucs defense and a team of defensive ends that had just 10 1/2 sacks for the 2010 season.

Will it happen? Ronde Barber doesn’t think so.

Speaking on 1010 AM to J.P. Peterson last week, Barber gave his take on the Bucs’ philosophy in free agency after watching Tampa Bay operate the past 14 years.

“Just based on how we’ve always built teams, I think they like young guys, guys they can mold into who they want them to be,” Barber said. “People want to say Simeon [Rice] was a free agent. Simeon came here for $1 million and went out and proved it and earned his contract that next year. That’s kind of how we’ve approached free agency over the years. And I think that’s how they’ll always approach it.”

“Our owners, our management have always done a good job not doing the right thing all the time but doing the smart thing. Doing the smart thing for the team that’s going to help us sustain over a period of time. …They’re not going to go overspend for a dominant pass rusher, especially a guy that’s hitting the market and his team doesn’t want him back. I don’t think that’s what we do.

“I would imagine we’ll continue to build through the draft. We’ll find the guys that we need through the bottom of the roster and guys that come to us via college this next season.” 

Joe suspects Barber is on the money. But count Joe among those who believe free agency is about picking the right guy — whether he’s making $13 million a season or $1.3 million.

This is the same organization that pursued Brett Favre and Albert Haynesworth in consecutive offseasons, so it’s not like Team Glazer is averse to taking a shot.

OK, the Super Bowl is still a few weeks away and Bucs fans are already getting heated up for the draft. Some are salivating over free agents. Joe has read the comments.

Video star Anwar Richardson — again, wearing his Budweiser Select shirt — and Woody Cummings, both of the Tampa Tribune, discuss what rock star general manager Mark Dominik will do this offseason to bolster the Bucs roster in this TBO Bucs vlog.

Joe cannot believe Team Glazer is going to endorse Dominik going on a spending spree. Please monitor this video and let Joe know what you think of Richardson’s and Cummings’ premises.

There is no question that the position on the Bucs that played poorly if not underperformed was the defensive front.

More often than not on a Sunday, Joe had more bagels in a sack than the Bucs had a sack. The Bucs’ rush defense was poor, but Raheem Morris worked miracles it seemed to squeeze whatever juice was left in this lemon.

Well, per Judd Zulgad of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Vikings defensive line coach Karl Dunbar has been offered a gig by the Bucs.

The Buccaneers are believed to have made an offer to defensive line coach Karl Dunbar to coach the same unit in Tampa Bay and there is little the Vikings could do if Dunbar decides to accept. Unlike many of the Vikings assistants, his contract is expiring and he will become a free agent. If nothing else, this will create some nice negotiating leverage for Dunbar.

Dunbar has been the Vikings defensive line coach since 2006, when Brad Childress hired him to be a part of his first staff.

Wash was scrutinized heavily when Gerald McCoy got off to a slow start and admitted he was pretty clueless through the first four games. Wash also felt heat when the Bucs’ rush defense was gashed repeatedly and the team’s sack total was flirting with a dubious league record this season.

Former Bucs defensive end Steve White also fired some piercing shots at Wash on his blog.

Dunbar, 43, played defensive lineman in the NFL and coached under Lovie Smith in Chicago and joined the Vikings staff in 2006.

Joe’s all for a change. This guy Dunbar has had some great success. The Bucs also have enjoyed great success with former players as position coaches in Alex Van Pelt and Eric Yarber. That experience has to be a big positive for young players.

The interesting element to this is that both Dunbar’s contract with the Vikings, and Wash’s contract with the Bucs, is up.

Look, rock star general manager Mark Dominik has invested a boatload of Team Glazer’s cash the past two seasons on the defensive line. Of course there is GMC but also Roy Miller and Kyle Moore, all drafted the past two seasons.

Throw in Brian Price, who was hurt, Dominik simply cannot be pleased with the progress, or lack thereof, of the defensive line. They simply have not developed. Miller horribly regressed this year. Stylez White took a step back. Moore is more a rumor than a player. GMC was publicly frustrated with Wash.

The new face and new ideas cannot be a bad thing here. If Joe were Wash, he’d be updating his resume.

"I'm sorry to be repetitive Mr. Glazer, but there's just no way I would have wasted your money by burning second round picks on Dexter Jackson and Sabby."

Joe has seen this in the comments in recent days and wondered aloud himself:

How on earth, after the job he has done, did rock star general manager Mark Dominik only get a one-year contract extension?

And it did seem surprising that Raheem Morris’ contract is longer now than Dominik’s?

Good guy Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times tried to explain the rationale and, in short, pointed the finger at Bruce Almighty and Chucky.

First, let’s be clear about some things. Based on everything we’ve been told, neither of these were contract extensions. The Glazer family simply picked up options written into the existing contracts signed by Morris and Dominik when they were hired in January 2009. But what’s become clear now, two years later, is that while Morris and Dominik were sort of a package deal back then, their content of their contracts were quite different.

This is obviously a departure from the past. When coach and general manager Jon Gruden and Bruce Allen were given their respective contract extensions after the 2007 season, the Bucs gave them both extensions through 2011. You know the rest of that story, as they were fired a year later and the Bucs are still on the hook for Gruden’s salary.

In this case, the Glazer family seemed to have learned from that fiasco, taking a more conservative approach to its handling of the current regime.

Joe can totally understand this as Chucky is still getting paid to fish and play golf and tutor Chip Kelly to be stubborn as an ox while getting paid a cool $5 million by Team Glazer.

Joe can understand how Team Glazer can be a bit gun shy in rewarding Dominik and Morris as a result. Throw in the fact there still is no CBA, it’s reckless to sign anyone to a long term deal not knowing how much money teams will have to play with.

But it is interesting that Team Glazer, in a nutshell, has told Dominik and Morris if they think long-term, so will they, yet both Dominik and Morris’ contracts are somewhat short-term.

Watching the Saints-Seahawks game nearly made Joe want to cry.

If you were like Joe you watched the wild card playoffs this weekend. If you were like Joe you were ill.

Of course, gawking at/visiting with Courtney the Bartender Saturday helped Joe as did the Vicodin Joe is currently prescribed. In fairness, Joe needed to chug Pepto Bismol.

The Saints-Seahawks made Joe want to vomit. Not because it was wasn’t a good game. It was a helluva good game. But the Bucs should have been in it.

Peter King understands Bucs fans queezy feeling this weekend, writing in his must-read Monday Morning Quarterback.

Bucs had to be sick watching that game Saturday in Seattle. In the last two weeks of the season, they beat the Seahawks by 23 and the Saints by 10.

Exactly! The Bucs, had they played their cards right, should have been in that game and easily could have won. The Bucs would still be alive in the playoffs.

Good thing for Joe that Coutney the Bartender is just a short walk from Joe’s abode, and Joe still has Vicodin left on his prescription.

Entering the 2010 season, it was pretty well understood that the Bucs were counting on huge contributions from four of their top five draft picks, Gerald McCoy, Brian Price, Arrelious Benn and Mike Williams.

Sure, they got good looks at Benn, McCoy and Williams, but what would McCoy have delivered down the stretch? His season was cut off early in Game 13 against Washington. Would Benn have shown up big throughout the Seahawks game and against New Orleans?

Of course, Price was hurt since training camp and barely got through half a season.

Mark Dominik was asked to identify negatives from the season during an interview on The Fabulous Sports Babe Show on 1040AM last week.

Dominik was quick to reply,”our first round pick and our second round picks didn’t play as much as we wanted them to.” He also went to lament Aqib Talib’s “lost season” that he thought would have put Talib in the Pro Bowl.

Joe can only imagine the level of competition along the defensive line entering training camp next season.

Obviously, young Al Woods and Frank Okam believe they belong on the field based on their performances late in the season, and Price, McCoy and Roy Miller are coming back. Plus Kyle Moore returning, who the Bucs liked to rush inside on third down, but Joe hopes that ugly experiment is done.

Along with the upgrades coming at defensive end, Dominik will have rough decisions on the D-line  if everyone is healthy.

You’ve all read THE PESSIMIST, who spews his Bucs-related anger like no other. But Joe also wants you to know THE OPTIMIST. 

THE OPTIMIST is Nick Houllis, a Bucs fan and an accomplished writer whose steadfast allegiance to the team goes back to the 1970s. Houllis is the founder, creator and guru of BucStop.com, a place Joe goes to get lost in time via Houllis’ stunning video collection.

THE OPTIMIST will shine that positive light in your eyes. Some will love it. Some won’t.

I’ve always been amazed by how the first game of the season sets the tempo for what kind of a year it’s going to be. Think about what kind of team we had here in Tampa Bay;

A bunch of young guys that came out and started a little slow, but usually scored before the half. Then the Bucs would come out and play better in the second half and either put points on the board and put a team away in the third quarter, or they would squander some chances but get it all together for a final drive and win the in the last two minutes.

Week 1 saw Ronde Barber step in front of a Jake Delhomme pass and return it to Cleveland 3 yard line. The Bucs scored to come within 14-10 of the Browns. Bucs won the game in the 4th quarter. It was a recipe the Bucs would re-create pretty much all year.

Equally remarkable is how the final game can sometimes be a bookend to the first game. Ronde Barber having key plays in both and in between.

So the question is, where do we go from here? One of my fondest memories of the offseason last year was during on-air draft coverage by Justin Pawlowski of WDAE-AM 620. I was at work listening when he went absolutely nuts announcing the Bucs fourth-round pick Mike Williams. I did not know who Williams was, so I had to look him up, and I joined “The Commish” and his exuberance.

The bookend to that moment was something Pawlowski said after the season ended when talking about the 2011 drafting.

He said judging on the moves the Bucs made in 2010, he had nothing but trust that Mark Dominik and Raheem Morris would make the right picks in the upcoming draft, and that he had complete confidence in their ability to do so.

What a contrast that is from a year ago when perhaps incorrectly we did not trust this organization to draft responsibly after its dismal history over the last decade!

To me that statement meant more than anything I had heard all year; in a season of blackouts and pessimism even after a 2-0 start, someone admitted this was moving in the right direction.

On my blog the day the Bucs beat the Saints, after 4:30 p.mm until midnight, I had three times more hits than any full day since I’ve been in operation. Closer analysis shows that 95 percent of visitors came from Google searches using the following key words;

Can Bucs make playoffs?

Did Bucs make the playoffs?

What do the Bucs need to do to make the playoffs?

It was almost as if all of a sudden, a proverbial light switch came on around Tampa Bay, perhaps once the Bucs finally beat a winning team, or maybe it was just because the win was over the Saints. Either way, it was nice to see the recognition.

In a few months, if CBA’s and other offseason distractions go the right way, the Bucs will be practicing with a host of players who did not get to finish off their 2010 seasons. Players like Aqib Talib, Cody Grimm, Brian Price, Gerald McCoy, Arrelious Benn, and Davin Joseph to name a few will be adding serious depth to a Bucs roster that never really had that before, at least not to this extent. The schedule won’t be overly daunting with games against the NFC North and AFC South and a couple of equal third-place finishers in the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.

The biggest difference will be what the players read — if they do pay attention — to what we all say about them. There won’t be any more Peter Kings talking about two wins, in fact there will be some who talk about 12 victories, and playoff appearances instead.

How they handle that attention, how they deal with that pressure, will be equally important as how they dealt with the adversities of 2010, and will end up being directly responsible for the library of work they put up between next year’s bookends — games we will scrutinize that much closer.

The rock star general manager’s tour has at least one more year to go in Tampa.

Roy Cummings, of The Tampa Tribune, has made the call on TBO.com that Team Glazer has picked up a one-year option on Mark Dominik’s contract.

No stunning news there, but perhaps it’s suprsing Dominik did not get an extention.

Joe will have more on this through the day.

He was anointed “quarterback of the defense” by the head coach and led the Bucs with 100+ tackles again, but Barrett Ruud drives many fans to fits of internal rage rivaling the Michael Clayton era.

Barrett Ruud is a lightning rod. Is he softer than Joe’s gut? Or is he a sound, smart player paying a price for playing among second-rate talent the past two seasons?

Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles, a longtime critic of Ruud and co-host of The Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620, pressed Mark Dominik hard on the air last week about the middle linebacker. Below is the exchange.

It came on the heels of Dominik not answering a direct question from co-host Ron Diaz to give his take on the Bucs linebackers and Ruud specifically.

Ian Beckles: Do you listen to sports radio at all?

Mark Dominik: I do, sometimes.

Beckles: There are certain people that get abused more than others.  And I’m probably one of the culrprits doing the abusing. Regardless what you say, my opinion is going to stay the same. As far as our linebacking play goes, would you agree that it needs to be a little bit more physical?

Dominik: I’d say this. I think that Raheem does different things with each one of the linebackers. I think you saw that this year. You saw a lot of what we call the Redskin package, where either Dakoda Watson or Quincy Black, when he knocked out Matt Moore in Carolina on a stunt. I think you see that a lot from those players where we try to utilize each player to what they can bring to the program. And I think Coach Morris does a great job with Geno Hayes shooting gaps and trying to get in the backfield for tackles for losses. I think you see that throughout everything. But it’s important, again, I’m a big believer in attacking the quarterback and finding ways to utilize our players’ strengths, or certainly giving the coaches players they can put in position to make it hard on Matt Ryan or make it hard on Drew Brees, or make it hard on whoever is quarterbacking Carolina because we have to win in our division first.

Beckles: I was bringing up Barrett Ruud’s name. And if you don’t want to answer this you don’t have to. Systems are great. But once you get to the line of scrimmage and you get into the line of scrimmage, isn’t football about being physical?

Dominik: Absolutely true. There’s no debate about that. (cut off by Beckles)

Beckles: Now has any coach ever told him he should be more physical?

Dominik: Oh, I’m sure. I think every coach talks about being physical, tackling, wrapping up. I think that’s consistent throughout the National Football League.  You know the thing that Barrett brings that is also an important element of his game is his mental aspect. It’s a very important part of his game in terms of getting us checked into or checked out of defenses or fronts or coverages that may not be as effective as what the offense is showing us. But I understand what you’re asking.

It was an interesting exchange with a bit of tension, not the typical Mark Dominik interview around these parts, for sure.

As Joe has written before, it’s doubtful Raheem and Dominik would have a rookie replace Ruud. And they both seem averse to a big name free agent. So what does that leave? Quite possibly Ruud’s return.