TAMPA, FLa. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as reported Sunday by Charley Casserly on CBS' The NFL Today, will be fined by the NFL for illegal contact with players during the lockout.

Here's the deal: The Bucs told me coach Raheem Morris made seven calls to players, one to Kellen Winslow to congratulate him on the birth of his child.

Are you kidding me?

Do you really think the Bucs were the only team? Think again.

It's like speeding or tampering at the NFL Scouting Combine: Everybody does it.

I remember when Tom Coughlin had his golf tournament in Jacksonville. He talked with his players. Why? It was charitable.

The NFL is off base here.

Tampa Bay is guilty of one thing. They just got caught.

The amount of the fine is to be determined. It shouldn't be much.

My guess is they won't be the only one to get hit with this one.

TAMPA, Fla. -- While Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was earning Pro Bowl honors and leading all tackles in sacks last season, Tampa Bay defensive tackle Gerald McCoy was finishing his rookie season on the injured-reserve list with a torn biceps.

Why is that significant?

Suh was taken second overall in the 2010 draft by the Lions and McCoy went third to Tampa Bay. They will be linked forever because of that, but there were also some scouts who thought McCoy could end up being the better player.

Round one goes to Suh.

I asked McCoy about the comparisons.

"I don't care," McCoy said. "I don't write it. It is what it is. I wish him much success. But I play my game. He plays in Detroit. I worry about Tampa."

McCoy had three sacks last season -- all coming in his last three games -- but was moved all over the line before injuring his arm and missing the three games. He said he never felt comfortable until halfway through the season.

This year, under new defensive line coaches Keith Millard and Grady Stretz, McCoy will play the 3-technique tackle, which means more single blocks and more penetration, which is the style that made Warren Sapp a Hall of Fame player in Tampa.

To help prepare for the new role, McCoy trimmed down. He wants to play 10 pounds lighter than last season at about 295 to 300 pounds. He cut his body fat by 5-percent down to 11-percent.

"I feel a lot faster, a lot quicker, a little more explosive," McCoy said.

With the change in scheme, his role is simpler.

"If I'm on the right side, anything that comes that way just mess it up," McCoy said. "Tear something up. Instead of just making plays, it was reading, gap integrity, don't let it get outside of you."

He should look more like Sapp. So I asked him of the comparisons to the former Bucs star were nice.

"Not really," he said. "Me and Sapp are two different players. He's who he is. And I'm who I am. The same thing happened at Oklahoma with Tommie Harris. Yes, I have taken some of the things I do from them, but I can only do what Gerald can do. I play my own style, play my own game."

McCoy sat out the first preseason game, but he will play the second one against New England on Thursday.

Here's a guess you'll see an entirely different player from the one we saw in 2010 as a rookie. The fun thing is the Bucs open with the Lions and Suh. Should be fun to compare the two second-year tackles during that game and the week leading up to it.

----When the Dallas Cowboys won three Super Bowls in the 1990s, they were powered by what many called "The Triplets." That was quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and receiver Michael Irvin. The Bucs have their own version in three young players. They are quarterback Josh Freeman, running back LaGarrette Blount and receiver Mike Williams. Freeman is in his third season, while the other two are in their second. "I've heard about that," Blount said. "Those are some big shoes to fill with all the Super Bowls they won. We've discovered our own identity. We have our unique playing style with me, Mike and Freeman."  Blount is another Bucs player who has leaned up, even though he still weighs 252 pounds. The big thing for him is the playbook. Last year, he couldn't stay on the field in some situations because he never learned the playbook after being claimed off waivers. "

---If you're looking for a fantasy sleeper off the Bucs roster, take a look at receiver Dezmon Briscoe. The Bucs signed him after the Cincinnati Bengals released him with the idea of bringing him back to their practice squad. angering coach Marvin Lewis for doing so. Briscoe caught six passes in the final two games and has impressed enough in camp that he might end up being the starter opposite Williams.  He will certainly be in the three-receiver sets if Arrellius Benn is the No. 2 receiver. Benn is battling back from an ACL injury suffered last season, but he is working in practice and is running well. The team is easing him back in for game action. Freeman has some impressive young targets with all three being in their second seasons.

---Looking for an area of concern with the Bucs? Take a look at safety. Sean Jones has been very good at free safety in camp, but Cody Grimm could be a problem in coverage He doesn't run that well and the Bucs will have to find ways to protect him. There was some thought that Tanard Jackson, who was suspended by the league last year for violating the league's substance-abuse policy, might be back, but the team seems to have moved on without him. There is no word as to whether Jackson has even applied for re-instatement after his one-year suspension, which came two weeks into the 2010 season. 

---Corner Aqib Talib could still face legal and league sanctions depending on the outcome of his arrest in Texas when he was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a March 21 incident in which Talib is accused of firing a gun as his sister's boyfriend. For now, the Bucs are moving forward with the idea that Talib, their best cover player, will be on the field. Without him, nickel corner E.J. Biggers would move up to starter. The Bucs have confidence in Biggers if he is asked to start, which he did last year for six games. The Bucs signed Ashton Youboty Monday because Talib is bothered by a hamstring injury.

---The Bucs are having a tough time selling tickets in Tampa, a market that was hit as hard as any NFL market. The unemployment rate for the Tampa area was second to Detroit last season. That led to all 10 homes games being blacked out. The team is bracing for more blackouts, but ticket sales have improved some from last season, but they are still a long way away from the glory days when Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik has taken a lot of heat the past two years for the way he's building his football team.

Some said he wasn't spending enough money. Some said he was too focused on the draft.

Guess what? He was right.

Dominik gets it. You build football teams through the draft, not by frivolously spending money on over-the-hill free agents.

Dominik has proven to be an ample talent evaluator in his two seasons calling the shots. The Bucs did the right thing Monday by giving him four-year contract extension.

You ask any personnel man in the league to name two or three teams with young talent that they'd love to have, and the Bucs always get mentioned.

Dominik knows the draft is the key. Like Ted Thompson in Green Bay, Dominik took heat for that approach.

Like Thompson, he just might get a Super Bowl ring because of it.

Teams usually don't fire coordinators until after a few weeks -- if at all.

But this week we've had two teams -- the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- fire their offensive coordiantors only days before the open of the regular season.

The Chiefs replaced Chan Gailey earlier this week and then the Bucs dismissed Jeff Jagodzinski Thursday.
Bizarre.

Chiefs coach Todd Haley, who has an offensive background, kept Gailey on his staff from the previous Chiefs staff so his firing makes some sense, even if the timing does not. After all, you want your own guys.

But Jagodzinski is a shock.

Quarterbacks coach Greg Olson takes over as coordinator for first-year coach Raheem Morris. This is the same Olson who took a shot at newly named starter Byron Leftwich this spring. But don't buy much into that. Word is, Olson is a big Leftwich supporter.

And that's where the rub might come. There is some talk that Jagodzinski, whose offense features a lot of rollout stuff, wasn't enamored with Leftwich as the quarterback choice. Luke McCown, who Leftwich beat out, is the more mobile of the two quarterbacks.

At any rate, two first-time head coaches face staff changes 10 days before they play a game for real.

That's never a good thing.