There is a segment of Bucs fans who wish Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik would cut ties with starting quarterback Josh Freeman before the sun sets today (you mean there is a sun behind these clouds?).

Tired of his inconsistency, one-hop passes to running backs and streaks of ghastly interceptions, some Bucs fans want the team to simply turn the page on Freeman. And if that means starting a rookie third round pick, so be it, so Freeman’s critics say.

Aside from the glaring obvious, that’s not likely to happen, notes noted NFL analyst Evan Silva from, among other places, RotoWorld.com, so Silva Twittered Tuesday.

@dustinbuescher: What are the chances Mike Glennon is the Bucs starting QB by season’s end?

‏@evansilva: I’ll say 5-10 percent.

And in Joe’s eyes, that’s only if Freeman is hurt.

Look, is Joe sold that Freeman is the answer as the Bucs franchise quarterback for the next decade? No. Way too many people are hanging their hats on Freeman’s 10-win season in 2010. That’s ancient history in the NFL. His 6-15 mark against teams with a winning record scares the hell of out Joe.

But this doesn’t mean Joe has lost his mind.

Freeman is now entering the second year under a new, complex offense. Wide receivers (Mike Williams), linebackers (Mason Foster), defensive linemen (Gerald McCoy), safeties (Mark Barron), just to name a few positions, note how much smoother things are for them in the second year under the New Schiano Order. They feel they are well-advanced because they already know the system and it should translate into better play.

Joe agrees with them. So why should we agree with them but in the snap of the fingers, dismiss the take for Freeman and not give him the same latitude while playing at the most complex position on a football team?

Could Glennon do better than Freeman? Well, anything is possible, but for every Russell Wilson (third-round pick) Joe can come up with three Colt McCoys (third-round pick) who flamed out in the NFL.

Joe is not a gambling man and doesn’t like those odds.

Look, if Freeman stinks up the joint this year, he won’t get re-upped (or franchised). If he plays well and/or the Bucs make the playoffs, he’ll return.

And as it currently stands, Freeman is the best chance for the Bucs to win in 2013.

There’s no controversy.

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Back when Raheem Morris was guiding a super-young band of Bucs to a 10-6 record, the team was told to live by the motto “Stats are for losers,” along with other one-liners to motivate and focus the “yungry.”

But now there’s been an about face. Greg Schiano is a stats guy.

Months ago, Schiano said he pegged Da’Quan Bowers as a double-digit sackmaster for 2013. And it seems Bowers has swallowed up the message. Bowers told Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly yesterday that he will deserve an “F” grade with anything less.

“I’m looking to be dominant,” Bowers said. “I take the responsibility for that. Anything less than double-digit sacks is a failure for the season. … I think the way Coach Schiano has the scheme set up, and my capabilities, and having Gerald draw all the attention, it could be a whole lot easier to get double-digits sacks. You just have to work as a unit and not have individual rush planes, just work as a combined unit.”

Twenty NFL players had 10 or more sacks last season; 13 of them were defensive ends.

Bowers is truly looking to step into elite company after notching three sacks in part-time action last season.

Joe’s concerned that Bowers might get too caught up in the numbers. Yeah, Bowers is going to need to at least match Michael Bennett’s production (9 sacks) to make this a successful season, but winning is still all that matters.

Last year, one reason Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik signed wide receiver Vincent Jackson was for his leadership skills. Dominik guessed, rightly, that his young receivers needed to learn from a solid vet how to be pros.

And that’s exactly what happened. Jackson took fellow wide receiver Mike Williams under his wing, showed him how to put in the work off the field, if not on the field, that it takes to be a top tier NFL player.

This offseason, Dominik also applied the same philosophy to what was one of the most woeful secondaries ever to take an NFL field. It seems to be paying off already, and it is only early June.

Well after yesterday’s Bucs OTA practice was over, a good 20 minutes, perhaps a half-hour, there was Darrelle Revis and Dashon Goldson working on tip drills and ballhandling drills with safety Mark Barron and cornerbacks Leonard Johnson and Danny Gorrer.

None of those guys needed to be out there. Surely Revis, rehabbing his surgically reconstructed ACL, and Goldson didn’t need to be there. Johnson and Gorrer didn’t have to be there.

But there they were, led of course by the new alpha males of the Bucs secondary, Revis and Goldson.

It was impressive for Joe to see. And Joe suspects this isn’t the first time that has happened. These big brother-little-brother moments will pay off come September for the Bucs defensive backs.

There’s only one reason legions of Bucs fans are fantasizing about a Super Bowl run this season; his name is Darrelle Revis.

Without a healthy Revis, well, the Bucs secondary might look much like it did last season, more painful than watching Sabby The Goat take an angle on a ball carrier. So Revis’ health is critical.

Is he healthy? Revis isn’t cleared to play football, but he’s feeling ready, so Revis told media at One Buc Palace yesterday. Electronic media czar J.P. Peterson of TampaBaySportsCentral.com followed Revis around practice yesterday and documented his every move. You can catch the video here.

“I’m going full tilt and I’m cuttin’ because I feel good. So I’m cuttin’ and runnin’ and doing what I have to do,” Revis said. “But I still have to listen to [Bucs trainer] Todd [Toriscelli] and go through the process for them to clear me to get back on the field.”

Opening kickoff is in 93 days.

Ric Flair’s biggest fan in the Bucs’ locker room, Bucs middle linebacker Mason Foster, chatted with reporters after practice yesterday and a top subject was another Bucs linebacker, Lavonte David.

Foster, who was David’s roommate last year as the two developed a strong bond, sang the praises of his comrade and how that extra year being around each other may make it painful for opposing running backs.

“You feel more familiar with the players around you and the calls,” Foster said of being with David and the second year under the New Schiano Order. That offseason leading into the second year is when “you get to polish things up.”

Then, Foster, who Joe thought was on the cusp of eating pineapple early last season, had good news for Bucs fans and a warning for opponents: David is even better than last year, if one can imagine.

David having a year of experience means “everything, man,” Foster said. “We are close as friends, close as teammates. We kind of feed off of each other after spending a year with each other. I think we understand when he’s going to take his shot and when I’m going to take my shot. It helps us make us make more plays.

“[David]” is a lot strong in the weight room, he’s talking a lot more, he is Lavonte 2.0. He is bigger and better.”

The photo above captured one of the great bang-your-freakin’-head-against-the-wall moments of last season. Dekoda Watson came in clean on a punt block but completely forgot his technique.

Watson missed the sure block against Dallas and was tagged with roughing the kicker. To make matters worse, bad experiment Jordan Shipley fumbled away the punt, and the Cowboys recovered and got the extra 15 yards from the penalty. It was an absolute killer in the Bucs’ six-point loss. Greg Schiano even called the play a 10-point swing.

But the Bucs rebounded to lead the NFL in blocked punts with three, a huge total by NFL standards. Two were by Watson, and one was from Aqib Talib, plus Ronde Barber had a deflected punt that didn’t count in the stats.

Joe brings this up because the New Schiano Order was on its punt-block details again today at practice. Beat man Tom Krasniqi, of WDAE-AM 620, had was observing the process.

New Bucs special teams coach Dave Wannstedt is the most vocal assistant coach out there.  At one point during practice, he was teaching the players on the proper technique of blocking a punt. Schiano also supervised the drill.  The Bucs are really placing an emphasis on good special teams play for 2013.

It’ll be interesting to see whether Schiano and his punt-blocking obsession can stay ahead of the rest of the NFL. The Bucs didn’t block a punt in their last seven games of 2012.

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Of course, like in most of the NFL world, talk at One Buc Palace today was largely dominated by the passing of a true NFL icon, the great Deacon Jones.

The Bucs have invested several draft picks on defensive linemen over the past few years. One seems on the cusp of something huge (Gerald McCoy), and another has shown flashes of doing something when not hurt (Da’Quan Bowers). To them, Jones was sort of a pied piper of defensive linemen.

Though neither met Jones, they both were well aware of what he meant to the NFL.

“I didn’t know him,” Bowers said. “Of course, I knew of him. You have to know your history. I never had the opportunity to meet him. It would have been an honor. He’s the reason we do what we do. Obviously, we all grew up watching him on NFL Films and I wanted to be just like him. Guys like that come around just once in a lifetime.”

“He was so aggressive. Here was a guy who invented the sack. What more can you say about that? About the time he invented the word ‘sack,’ he had about 160. That says enough. A player of that caliber? A legend. Truly, a legend.”

Yes, Jones invented the term “sack,” by which all defensive linemen are judged. But that’s not enough for the Bucs, Bowers explained. The team wants, and may need, more than just simply sacks.

“Around here, we don’t say ‘sack.’ We say ‘sack/fumble,’ Bowers said. “We are trying to invent something else. Sacks aren’t good enough. So we are trying to invent a sack/fumble. Of course, having guys like Dashon [Goldson] and Darrelle [Revis] in your pass secondary gives you so much – an extra millisecond to get to the quarterback means a whole lot.”

It’s a philosophy that has GMC on board. He wants to take what Jones established for defensive linemen, and take it a step further.

“A sack is OK,” GMC said. “But when we get sacks, we want to get sack/fumbles. Coach Schiano doesn’t even like sacks because he thinks all sacks should be sack/fumbles, which I agree with because a sack/fumble gives you not just an opportunity for a takeaway, but to score points. And that is the goal of the defense, to get the ball back.”

Questioned today about the wide receivers depth chart, Greg Schiano tossed an unsolicited curveball out there while praising the versatility of free-agent signing Eric Page, the 21-year-old University of Toledo icon who was with the Broncos last season.

Page caught Joe’s eye two weeks ago, and it seems he might have a leg up for a roster spot.

“Page is returning punts and he’s also playing in the slot,” Schiano said. “[Wide receivers] need to have multiple functions if they’re not that first two” on the depth chart. And at times last year we found ourselves in situations where they couldn’t do that, and that handcuffs you a little bit. And unless you study it, you don’t understand the [negative] trickle down effect it has.”

Hmmm, so Page is playing punt returner, which is significant considering the Bucs don’t have one.
In his final season at Toledo (2011), Page returned 18 punts with one touchdown and an average return of 10.9 yards.

Joe has a small piece of advice for Page: Don’t fumble.

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Guys who make a living burying quarterbacks have a fraternity of sorts, and the only way you can get into the fraternity is by putting signal-callers through hell.

So it’s not surprising that soon-to-be Hall of Famer and Bucs icon Warren Sapp mourns the loss of the man widely regarded as the greatest sack artist of all time, David “Deacon” Jones.

“He was an absolute institution,” Sapp said via NFL Media Relations. “”I patterned my game after him because if you can talk that talk & walk that walk, then you can stand beside Deacon.”

Sapp looked up to Jones and had a kindred friendship, mainly over a few beers and their loathing of quarterbacks, as Sapp described in a Tampa Bay Times article back in 2002p. Back then Sapp, Jones and Bruce Smith had a pouring session over pummeling quarterbacks.

“It was one of those nights, then one of those mornings,” Sapp said. “It was just us and the bartender, and he was on point. You had to be there, just to hear their passion for the game.

“I wanted to travel with them. Put me in the car too. You know? I got in the car and traveled the ’70s with Deacon, then I traveled the ’80s and ’90s with Bruce. I came along with him through Bruce Armstrong and all the great ones he played, Richmond Webb, and all the great ones he had to rush. They’re all about a nasty, tenacious rush and inflicting as much pain on the quarterback as possible. I mean, Bruce was talking about hunting Dan Marino as if Dan Marino had just slapped his mama.”

Joe’s football memories go back to the late 1960s. Joe can remember Joe Namath, barely Bart Starr, barely Dick Butkus, Johnny Unitas as a Chargers quarterback, but doesn’t quite remember Deacon Jones.

What Joe does remember are all those wonderful NFL Films pieces of Jones where he prided himself on wanting to send quarterbacks to the hospital “with no remorse in my heart.” It was because of Jones’ bigger than life personality, highlighted by so many NFL Films interviews, that Jones became one of Joe’s favorites.

Feel free to click on this link and fast-forward to the 39:00-mark to get to know Jones, a true character of the NFL that is lost now. When Joe last night heard of Jones’ passing, Joe could remember as a kid watching NFL Films on gray, cold fall Saturday afternoons.

For reasons unknown, former Bucs sack artist Simeon Rice always reminded Joe of Deacon Jones, the personality if not the sacks.

Here are some things Joe saw — and heard — at Bucs OTA practice held under overcast skies this morning.

* Bucs coach Greg Schiano jogging between stations.

* An errant Josh Freeman throw to the left sideline is nearly hauled in by Kevin Ogletree as he leaped high and got a hand on the ball. It seemed as if Freeman was trying to get the ball over Danny Gorrer, who had good coverage on Ogletree.

* Early, Freeman seemed to be off on short passes. On a short crossing pattern from the left side for Mike Williams, Freeman’s pass was too low for Williams to handle.

* If there is a free agent who is making a splash this early, it is Arizona wide receiver David Douglas. On what looked to be the exact same route Ogletree ran previously, where Freeman overthrew him, Douglas skied for a pass and hauled it in before hitting the ground.

* A Michael Smith sighting! Last year’s captain of the inactive list took a pass from Freeman in the backfield and darted and weaved his way through and past defenders.

*Not the way to make the team, son; free agent rookies have scant opportunities to prove themselves and Jheranie Boyd botched a perfectly thrown ball to him from Mike Glennon, right in the numbers that bounced off his chest into the air where cornerback Branden Smith, in perfect coverage, picked it easily.

* Glennon with a pump fake and throw to wide receiver Jerry Johnson for a nice gain.

* “Situation: Left hash mark, 16-yard line!” bellows Schiano. Later he could be heard instructing his players “Let’s go, five-on-four in the end zone” for red zone work.

* Keith Tandy thought he had an interception of a Glennon pass along the right sideline but couldn’t hang on. Tandy, with a roundhouse right, punched the air in frustration.

* Mark Barron had solid coverage in red zone drills and nearly had a pick of Freeman, knocking the pass down.

* Tim Wright (of all together now: Rutgers!) hauls in a pass from Freeman on the right sideline.

* Freeman beautifully connects with Williams on a screen to the right side.

* For reasons unknown, the pace of the practice really picks up without any hollering from coaches, largely because it’s two-minute drill practice.

* “Rally, rally, rally!” Freeman yells after each play to get his teammates lined up quickly for the next play.

* Freeman is flushed to his right and the right defensive end (Da’Quan Bowers) is the only defensive lineman to get a hand in the air.

* Despite Johnthan Banks draped all over him, Chris Owusu catches a pinpoint perfect pass from Freeman along the left side. The very next play, Freeman hits Owusu for a bomb and six points down the left sideline.

* Schiano is directly monitoring defensive backs during a loose-ball drill and is wearing a big smile on his face.

* Here comes the piped in crowd noise…

* Ouch! Freeman is flushed out of the pocket to his left and terribly overthrows Williams, who was coming back to the ball along the left sideline. It was Merry Christmas for Tandy as he easily intercepted the errant throw. That simply cannot happen this fall.

* Glennon is chased out of the pocket to his right and tries to connect with Douglas but the pass is broken up by Banks.

* On the next play, Glennon again is flushed out of the pocket to his right. Once again, the culprit is a strong rush from right defensive end Steven Means.

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Greg Schiano and his staff are not shying away from big praise and big expectations for right tackle Demar Dotson

Those holding out hope the Bucs might jump on a veteran right tackle to replace and/or compete with Demar Dotson should probably give it up.

Two weeks ago, offensive line coach Bob Bostad said Dotson had “catapulted” his game after early work this offseason and starting all 16 games last season.

But today at One Buc Palace Greg Schiano took it a step further, saying he expects big improvements from Dotson, who is taking advantage of his late-bloomer opportunity.

“Here’s where he can make a huge jump this year, having that experience in his back pocket,” Schiano said.

Schiano went on to explain that Dotson, a hoops-first guy before taking up football in his senior year in college, didn’t have the benefit of endless live reps in high school and college and is now a blossoming from his 2012 action.

This is very high praise — almost as high as not acquiring competition for Dotson in the offseason. Damn, if Dotson pans out and the rest of the Bucs’ offensive line stays healthy, the Bucs should have the best O-line in the NFL.

Darrelle Revis talked to reporters at One Buc Palace today. Joe will have more on that fun later. However, Greg Schiano acknowledged that his $16 million cornerback is a bit of a wizard off the field when he’s not rehabilitating his surgically-repaired knee.

A reporter relayed to Schiano Revis’ take that he’s got his role in the Bucs defense down pat. And Schiano agreed.

“In the meeting room and in the walkthrough he’s doing very well,” Schiano said. “He understands the concepts.”

Pressed on whether live action was important to getting Revis ready for opening day, Schiano explained that “cuttin’, breakin’ and runnin'” were more important to Revis’ readiness than lining up from a real live receiver in practice or a preseason game.

It’ll be darn interesting to see how much the Bucs protect Revis. The more Joe listens, the more Joe wouldn’t be surprised if Revis first takes the field wearing his Bucs colors at the Meadowlands in September.