Close friend speaks.

Former Belicheats receiver Julian Edelman is tight with Tom Brady. They are bros (along with foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski). [read more]

Real recognizes real.

Micah Parsons was doing Micah Parsons things against the Bucs on Monday night. [read more]

Relays Bucs players’ moods.

Bucs fans aren’t the only ones outraged at how the season ended. It seems so too are Bucs players. [read more]

“Hey, Rondé, would you mind keeping your mouth shut until April?”

Joe pays close attention when Rondé Barber talks Bucs because he’s a man with ownership access at One Buc Palace and is tight with general manager Jason Licht, and he works for the club calling preseason games and is part of its in-house media team year-round. [read more]

Disconnect?

Now that the season is over, Joe can offer a fair assessment of the Bucs offense based on 17 games and a playoff game: [read more]

Tampa Bay had 47 sacks last season and 45 this season. Those are strong season totals by NFL standards.

However, the pass rush looked a lot different. Even novice fans without a data-nerd subscription could see a change. [read more]

Age and hits adding up?

Very interesting numbers suggest Tom Brady was dragged down more by his teammates missing games than failed Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich’s incompetence. [read more]

Appalled by Bucs’ play.

Joe believes Todd Bowles did a good job with the Bucs defense this season. [read more]

Flash poll posted at 6:31 a.m. Poll closed at 9:19 a.m. Last week’s results linked here.

Bucs coach Todd Bowles.

Former Dallas scouting director Gil Brandt is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame for a reason. He was a key cog in helping build two dynasties: The Cowboys of the 1960s and 1970s, and the Cowboys of the 1990s. [read more]

With the great Tom Brady on the team, a coaching staff with a Super Bowl pedigree and many players with Pro Bowl on their résumés, Joe is stunned that head coach Todd Bowles is talking about making a specific major change. [read more]

Roster turnover coming.

Joe spoke to, texted and communicated on social media with several people yesterday who all seemed to ask the same question. [read more]

So how involved was Todd Bowles in the offense this season? [read more]

Byron Leftwich

The door was flung wide open for head coach Todd Bowles at his year-ender news conference this afternoon. [read more]

Chris Godwin

The Bucs didn’t look ready for prime time or even 1 o’clock against the Cowboys in last night’s playoff opener/closer. [read more]

Russell Gage.

UPDATED 4:15 p.m. — It was an ugly scene to an ugly ending of an ugly game for the Bucs last night. [read more]