Strong safety Mark Barron (no, his number is still “23”), looks to have more freedom to make plays in Lovie Smith’s defense.

Joe knows true Bucs fans, and NFL fans in general, monitor NFL Network daily, and not just to gawk at Molly Qerim’s overall goodness and/or Amber Theoharis’ legs. Any time there is football talk it is a good thing.

Sunday, Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp hosted live coverage of Bucs training camp on NFL Network. There (as well as on Saturday when Sapp regaled a handful of Tampa Bay pen and mic club members) he talked about how he thought the Bucs safeties would blow up in Lovie Smith’s defense.

In fact, in person, Sapp was so excited when talking about the Bucs defense under Lovie, he literally could not stay in his seat he got so excited.

Yesterday, Bucs safety Mark Barron discussed that safety play.

“It’s just set up for us to make plays and to cause turnovers,” Barron said. “So yes, I most definitely agree with that. We do a little bit of everything. It’s not like we’re limited to doing certain things – we do everything. We’re just out here to make plays. Like I said, they’ve got the defense set up where it’s made for us to make plays.”

Joe couldn’t help but get fired up when Sapp was talking about how the safeties for the Bucs were going to blow up. Sapp said the safeties in this defense were going to be free to make plays and drill folks.

To date, though he has been a decent player, Barron hasn’t played on the level as one might expect from a seventh overall pick in the draft. If you are drafted as a top-10 player, you should be a difference maker.

To date, again, Barron has been a decent player but nowhere near special. Perhaps, that may change under Lovie.

To hear more from Barron, click on the red button below. Audio courtesy of Joe’s friends at WDAE-AM 620.