What’s the length of Josh McCown’s leash if he and the Bucs struggle out of the gate?

Broiling Bucs training camp starts in less than two months at One Buc Palace. Yes, football season will be here before you know it.

Despite what Bucs fans want to believe, Joe is suspicious of Jeff Tedford’s offense. Why should Joe be confident? No one has seen the full monty, much less anything in a game situation.

Sure, it appears the Bucs have pieces for a decent offense, so long as you ignore the offensive line. But the quarterbacks? Well, Joe will be polite and say they are a work in progress. (more…)

Joe’s been around these parts long enough to remember how the massive “Packer Backers” fan club used to pack the now defunct Turtle Club in Clearwater (what a fun place that was) wearing goofy gear to cheer their favorite team and share memories of all the beautiful women they knew on cheese farms outside of Green Bay. (more…)

Bucs general manager Jason Licht remarked recently how Mike Glennon has displayed a “cannon” of an arm.

New starting center Evan Dietrich-Smith said the same thing — “a freaking cannon” — to a national radio audience this week, and Josh McCown has talked about Glennon’s velocity, saying “he can really spin it.” (more…)

The days of having a vicious blocker like Lorenzo Neal on the roster are a thing of the past.

It wasn’t that long ago the fullback position was almost as important to an offense as a quarterback. The fullback was the lead blocker, and in some cases, the battering ram in short yardage situations.

Of course, Mike Alstott sort of blew apart the concept of fullback. As he grew older, he improved as a blocker, but make no mistake, he was a runner first, a pass-catcher second. And damn, when he got rolling it was beautiful football. (more…)

Bucs fans always want to know who calls the shots at One Buc Palace. Was it ex-commander Greg Schiano? Was it former Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik? Was it Team Glazer? Is it Jason Licht? Is it Lovie?

To listen to the words of the “Custodian of Canton,” the wizard of words, eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune, let there be no mistaking who runs the show at One Buc Palace these days. (more…)

Josh Freeman’s freefall has another notch on its belt.

This afternoon, the Bucs’ former franchise quarterback was cut by the New York Giants. (more…)

Joe knows this angers fans, but one reason Joe is very suspicious of the Bucs’ front line is because right tackle Demar Dotson has holes in his game.

He’s not bad, not bad at all, and the Bucs’ new braintrust of general manager Jason Licht and coach Lovie Smith seem to have seen enough to keep Dotson as a starter. (more…)

Lovie Smith hardly has a coaching staff full of throwback Buccaneers like himself, but there are plenty of connections.

As hardcore Bucs fans know, defensive line coach and equal-opportunity screamer Joe Cullen is a disciple of former Bucs defensive line coach and assistant head coach Rod Marinelli, who was Lovie’s defensive right hand in Chicago after he ousted Ron Rivera. (more…)

Former Bucs QB Shaun King offers a take on the where the Bucs stand at the quarterback position and under what scenario Mike Glennon could start

What stands out most in underwear football, aka spring NFL practices without pads, is body type, mechanics, technique and execution.

It looks especially good when you’re a 6-7, smooth-footed quarterback. (more…)

Joe had some rapid-fire fun this morning with Bucs beat reporter Tom Krasniqi of WDAE-AM 620 and former Bucs guard Ian Beckles.

All kinds of topics were on the table. (more…)

Blade-in-the-back rookie Chaz Sutton

It’s getting extra sweaty and claustrophobic for Da’Quan Bowers and Adrian Clayborn these days.

With height, length, speed and explosion, defensive end Steven Means earned the “prototype” label from Lovie Smith. Now there’s another young guy in the mix with nearly the exact same measurables as Means. (more…)

Bucs C Evan Dietrich-Smith loves the big gun that backup QB Mike Glennon possesses.

Earlier this week, Bucs center Evan Dietrich-Smith dropped in to discuss all things Bucs with Vic Carucci during a segment of “Movin’ the Chains,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM NFL Radio.

EDS is excited about the upcoming season and thinks the Bucs have a good shot of winning the division. But he got very excited when the subject of backup quarterback Mike Glennon came up. EDS could barely contain himself. (more…)

Joe gets a lot of emails, Twitter messages and just plain ol’ comments on this here corner of the Interwebs asking about “How is [insert name] doing?” It is really hard to tell.

The Bucs, and all NFL teams, are in the underwear football season. Outside of seeing quarterbacks throwing to receivers, there is not much you can glean from underwear football.

There is no hitting, only a modicum of blocking, and zero tackling. (more…)

For reasons unlclear, some Bucs fans just have never warmed to Mason Foster as an inside linebacker.

Now as a rookie, Foster, who was an outside linebacker in college, was part of the worst linebacker unit in the NFL, flanked by then under-performing Quincy Black and erratic Geno Hayes. Starting as a rookie and getting zero help on either side of him, not to mention the big guys up front, Brian Price and Gerald McCoy, were hurt, Foster was simply lost. Overwhelmed.

(more…)

“Don’t you dare talk to me about hope.”

One of Joe’s all-time favorite sports personalities is none other than “The General,” Robert Montgomery Knight. Bob Knight, the greatest basketball coach Joe has seen.

When he was coaching at Indiana, when Joe was growing up in the Midwest, Joe never, ever missed a game. Appointment television. At his height, Knight’s teams were what Joe called perfect basketball, not this schlap pro ball that BSPN assaults people with and uses to brainwash and indoctrinate innocent viewers’ senses. It was beautiful basketball.

(more…)

Shaun King was a teammate of Josh McCown

The man who led the Bucs to the NFC Championship game after the 1999 season, former Tampa Bay QB Shaun King, also spent a season alongside Josh McCown in Arizona.

McCown was “the guy” for the Cardinals back in 2004, and it didn’t go too well for him. (more…)

Gerald McCoy is the unquestioned vocal leader of the Bucs defense, but it seems his likely 2014 backup won’t take after No. 93.

Joe talked to McCoy this week about undrafted rookie Euclid Cummings, the likely Bucs undertackle of the future. (more…)

The late Malcolm Glazer made plenty of relentless power plays as the Buccaneers’ owner.

Joe surely remembers all the drama of the sealed bids to purchase Tampa Bay from the Culverhouse estate. (more…)

Bucs coach Lovie Smith still won’t give many hints about his offense.

While a prominent member of the Tampa Bay pen and mic club, Chapter 813, is on record saying the current weight of the Bucs franchise is on the shoulders of offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford, no one short of someone already on the payroll of the Bucs knows what exactly will the Bucs offense be like?

Could it be a punishing run game? Could it be the “Dunkaneers?” Could it be a combination of the three? Bucs fans want to know. (more…)

The Custodian of Canton is suspicious of the knighting of Mike Glennon “quarterback of the future.”

Though many Bucs fans don’t want to read it, the words from Bucs coach Lovie Smith over some two weeks ago that backup Mike Glennon is the “quarterback of the future” still has the walls One Buc Palace rattling.

What does all of this mean? It is a thick smokescreen? Did Lovie really mean Glennon is the starting quarterback in the future? Did it mean the competition for starting quarterback this fall is open? When is “the future?” (more…)

Some great memories here of Malcolm Glazer, whose death was announced by the Buccaneers today.

Via this link, NFL and NFL Films remember Glazer, including classic footage.

Also, Derrick Brooks shared his thoughts on NFL Network, starting off by saying how “extremely sad” he is today.

Malcolm Glazer, the man who saved the Bucs from bolting Tampa Bay, who fought to have a state-of-the-art stadium for fans to enjoy, and who guided the team to its only Super Bowl championship, passed away today.

Mr. Glazer, who had been in bad health for some years, was 85.

More on Mr. Glazer’s life can be found at Buccaneers.com.

Mike James says he understands the writing on the wall

The Bucs are loaded at running back, and second-year RB Mike James knows he’s gone from shining Schiano Man to a guy fighting hard for a job.

James is battling for a role complementing Doug Martin, and Charles Sims, Bobby Rainey and Jeff Demps want the same thing. (more…)