One local Tampa Bay scribe predicts Alex Smith will be wearing the red jersey of the Bucs next season, not the 49ers.

With the risk of reading like a paid advertisement, there is only one Sunday night sports wrap-up show worth staying up late to watch, and it can be found on WFLA-TV, Channel 8.

It’s not because the show has a lot of highlights. Joe’s not staying up until midnight on a Sunday night to watch only a handful of highlights when he can get significantly more highlights far earlier in the evening on various channels on his DirecTV, much less on the internet shortly following a game.

What makes the Channel 8 show worthwhile is the significant amount of analysis from various Tampa Tribune team beat reporters. Again, this is not to pimp WFLA (though Media General is welcome to advertise with Joe). Joe would say the same thing if other reporters from other papers, including the Tribune’s, would pop up on other late Sunday night shows. That doesn’t happen, aside from Pewter Report writers on WFTS.

At any rate, on Sunday eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune discussed the many holes the Bucs need to plug and the various moves Bruce Almighty and Chucky may make between now and the start of training camp in July.

Joe had to catch his breath when Kaufman suggested the next Chucky quarterback experiment would be Alex Smith. When Joe finally picked himself off the floor and dusted himself off, he realized Kaufman was making sense.

Kaufman did not try to make a case for Smith being a good quarterback. He isn’t. In fact, the top overall pick in the 2005 draft by the 49ers has been nothing short of horrid. But Kaufman laid out the reasons he thinks Smith will be wearing Pewter and Red next year:

* Smith will come cheap. Adding the soon-to-be free agent (who was set to make nearly $10 million next year) will hardly spark a bidding war. So the Bucs could get a bargain basement deal.

* Apparently per Kaufman, Chucky was smitten with Smith when the quarterback was coming out of Utah, after leading the Utes to an undefeated season and a win over Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.

* Chucky, per Kaufman, loves reclamation projects and isn’t scared to take a chance on a player, especially if said player comes cheap.

* Stating the obvious, Kaufman noted how Chucky loves to collect quarterbacks like Hugh Heffner collects blondes. (Actually, that’s Joe’s line.)

Joe is certain there will be a shakeup among Bucs quarterbacks for the 2009 season. Though Kaufman makes a lot of sense, the thought of Alex Smith potentially being the Bucs starting quarterback sends cold shivers up Joe’s spine.

It’s almost enough for Joe to swallow hard and accept Son of Bob as the starting quarterback.

Well, on second thought…