Joe’s intrigued by what’s developing in the Bucs’ backfield.

Erik Lorig has talked about his growing versatility. Joe also believes the Bucs are going to use Doug Martin more on third down this season. (And why wouldn’t they?) And now Joe’s caught buzz about Greg Schiano’s hand-picked addition to the backfield, free agent Brian Leonard, 29, the former Rutgers great who joined the Bucs after the last four seasons with the playoff-bound Bengals.

“Brian, obviously, has some real good pass-catching ability, has real natural hands, has a good feel for the run game. Brian’s also been playing a little fullback, too,” said running backs coach Earnest Byner. “So he’s actually kind of, you know, you say a tweener type of guy, a tweener type of back who can help us in all three phases.”

Schiano said yesterday that Martin will see very limited action in preseason, so there will be loads of carries to go around in August. Joe’s eager to see if Leonard gets his share as the feature back, along with Mike James and Michael Smith.

As Joe typed this, Leonard was working with the first-team offense at minicamp practice today at One Buc Palace, catching an eight-yard checkdown of a Josh Freeman pass. Yes, that’s worthy of a smile, as the secondary had Mike Williams and Vincent Jackson well covered.