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As hard as it may be to believe, there actually have been a couple of bright spots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season.

Those are rookie defensive end Adrian Clayborn and rookie middle linebacker Mason Foster. Clayborn was a first-round pick and Foster was a third-round choice.

Let’s start with Clayborn. He leads the team with 7.5 sacks. That’s the second-most ever by a rookie in franchise history. The record (10 sacks) was set by Santana Dotson in 1992. Clayborn already has 2.5 more sacks than Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon had in his rookie season, 1976.

Clayborn is tied for the league lead in sacks by rookie defensive linemen. Cleveland’s Jabaal Sheard also has 7.5. Vonn Miller (11.5) and Aldon Smith (10.5) have more sacks, but they are linebackers.

Clayborn also leads the Bucs with 25 quarterback pressures. Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy, who suffered a season-ending injury, is second on the team with 13 pressures.

Foster has been starting at middle linebacker since opening day. He leads the team with 114 tackles, according to statistics kept by the team. The franchise rookie record for tackles is 151 by Hugh Green in 1981. Tackles aren’t an official statistic. But, if you go by NFL.com’s numbers, Foster leads all rookies with 71 tackles.

Foster also is the only rookie in the league to record at least one tackle, sack, forced fumble, fumble recovery and interception this season. Foster also is one of only two Buccaneers to record at least one tackle, tackle for loss, sack, interception, pass defensed, forced fumble and fumble recovery this season. The other is veteran cornerback Ronde Barber.

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Five nuggets of knowledge about Week 13:

Creamsicle time: The Buccaneers will be wearing their throwback uniforms against Carolina. Yeah, the orange and white uniforms are back. Might not be a bad thing, because at least in the days of Lee Roy Selmon and John McKay the Bucs actually were capable of playing very good defense. Tampa Bay has a (slightly) better record than Carolina, and the Bucs are playing at home. But I have a tough time seeing a Tampa Bay win, unless the defense suddenly starts making some tackles. Since Week 5, the Bucs have allowed an average of 30.6 points per game. Only the Colts (31.3) have allowed more. The Bucs also are allowing a league-worst 6.5 yards per play in that span.

Breaking in the rookie: After losing Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart to injuries, the Texans are expected to start rookie quarterback T.J. Yates against the Falcons. Good luck with that. Since 2002, the Falcons are 11-1 when facing a rookie quarterback. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the only team with a better record against rookie quarterbacks in that span is the Steelers (14-1).

Happy (almost) anniversary: Atlanta’s defense is coming up on what would be a very big milestone. The Falcons have not allowed an individual running back to rush for 100 yards in 14 straight games. The last time it happened was when Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart went over 100 yards on Dec. 12, 2010.

A tip for the Detroit defense: Hey, any defense going up against the Saints can use all the help it can get. If it’s third down, you might want to put some tight coverage on New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham. He’s caught 13 passes on third downs this season. All 13 have been turned into first downs.

Shades of 2009: I’ve said several times that the Saints of this season are starting to remind me of the Saints of 2009, who went on to win the Super Bowl. Here’s the latest example. A victory against the Lions would put the Saints at 6-0 in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for only the second time in franchise history. The only other time that happened was 2009.

CHICAGO -- As the Falcons, Panthers and Buccaneers get ready for Sunday's season openers, let's take a look at the top headlines from around the NFC South.

The Carolina Panthers continue to take care of their own. Safety Charles Godfrey reportedly has agreed to a contract extension.

Although a lot of wide receivers are individualists, Atlanta rookie Julio Jones is a team player, according to quarterback Matt Ryan.

Atlanta running back Michael Turner grew up in the Chicago area and has been in the league for eight years. But he’ll play at Soldier Field for the first time Sunday.

Atlanta owner Arthur Blank said he would like to see his team go deep into the playoffs. The team’s yet to win a playoff game under coach Mike Smith and, after offseason moves to get Jones and defensive end Ray Edwards, the pressure is on.

Marques Colston’s broken collarbone leaves the Saints without their top receiver for at least four weeks. The Saints were without Lance Moore (groin) for the opener and it’s unknown if Moore will be able to play next week against the Bears. If Moore is out again, the Saints suddenly would be very thin at receiver. They’d have Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem. But, after that, they’d have only Courtney Roby and Adrian Arrington. Roby primarily is a return man and Arrington is very inexperienced.

Bucs co-chairman Bryan Glazer referred to Lee Roy Selmon as a “gentle giant’’ and a "Tampa Bay treasure'' during Friday’s memorial service for the Tampa Bay Hall of Famer.

APPLETON, Wis. -- Before we take a look at some statistics to reflect on the Saints' loss to the Packers on Thursday night, let's take a look at some headlines from around the rest of the division.

Mark Bradley writes that Atlanta’s 0-4 record in the preseason doesn’t matter. He’s right. Despite the winless preseason, I thought Atlanta’s starters looked better than anyone else’s in the NFC South during most of the exhibitions. The backups didn’t look great. That’s why they’re backups.

Keep a close eye on this situation. Carolina linebacker Jon Beason sat out Thursday’s practice because of soreness in his foot. Beason had surgery recently. The Panthers say they still expect Beason to play Sunday, but the soreness is not a good sign. If Beason is out, Carolina is without its defensive leader.

Raheem Morris has made a lot of impressive moves since taking over as coach of the Buccaneers. But this one might be the most impressive. Morris is taking the entire team to Friday’s funeral service for Tampa Bay legend Lee Roy Selmon. A lot of football coaches wouldn’t want to disrupt their schedule. Give Morris credit for realizing the significance of Selmon.

Jags Journal has something unique. It’s an All-Florida team, made up of members of the Bucs, Jaguars and Dolphins. The team is heavy with Buccaneers.

Arizona quarterback Kevin Kolb has a pretty good idea of what he’ll see from Carolina’s defense Sunday. Kolb played in Philadelphia when Carolina defensive coordinator Sean McDermott was there. Kolb said he expects to see plenty of blitzes.

Many of you have been asking for details about services for Pro Football Hall of Fame member Lee Roy Selmon.

Friend and former colleague Joey Johnston of The Tampa Tribune just passed along the word and I wanted to share it with you as soon as possible. Selmon died Sunday night at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. He was 56.

Funeral services will be held Friday at 10 a.m. ET at Idlewild Baptist Church, 18371 N. Dale Mabry Highway in Lutz. A visitation will be held Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Exciting Central Tampa Baptist Church 2923 N. Tampa Street in Tampa.

Final services and interment will be held in Oklahoma City at a later date.

Time for a look at the top headlines from around the NFC South.

Jeff Duncan has a good column about how Thursday night’s game between the Packers and Saints will be a chess match. Some of the best minds in the game will be squaring off when New Orleans coach Sean Payton and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams go up against Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy and defensive coordinator Dom Capers. With a bunch of cerebral players on both sides, I think this game has the potential to, at least temporarily, silence the talk about how the lockout will impact the quality of play.

We’ve heard a lot about how the Falcons plan to throw the ball downfield more this season. Quarterback Matt Ryan talks a lot about that and says he needs to be more accurate in those situations.

Anwar S. Richardson writes about how Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris is riding a wave of popularity. Kind of ironic because Morris was not a very popular choice when he was hired to replace Jon Gruden in 2009.

The Saints don’t have to issue an injury report until later Monday, but defensive tackle Aubrayo Franklin (knee) and defensive end Cameron Jordan (knee) were talking like they’ll be ready for Thursday.

Looks like the Panthers have found the veteran help they were looking for at right guard after losing Geoff Schwartz and Garry Williams to injuries. They’ve signed former Philadelphia guard Max Jean-Gilles. They released Sean Considine to clear the roster spot.

Gary Shelton writes a fine tribute on Lee Roy Selmon. In it, he has a message for Josh Freeman, Gerald McCoy and all the other young stars in pro sports in Tampa Bay. He says it would be wise for them to act like Selmon. That also would help fill the void that now exists in Tampa Bay.

TAMPA, Fla. -- I remember precisely where I was the moment Lee Roy Selmon was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I was standing outside a hotel ballroom in Miami in 1995. It was the day before the Super Bowl. A few minutes after the privileged voters inside the room had voted Selmon in, the door swung open. Out walked Tom McEwen, the legendary former sports editor of The Tampa Tribune.

"He’s in," McEwen said.

For the rest of that afternoon, evening, the media brunch and all during the Super Bowl, I kept seeing writers, league officials, former players and even Ferdie "The Fight Doctor" Pacheco coming up to McEwen and offering congratulations.

The response was the same every time.

"Why are you congratulating me?" McEwen said. "Lee Roy’s the one who got into the Hall of Fame. He’s the one who played the game."

That’s the first story I thought of when I heard Selmon had been hospitalized Friday after suffering a stroke. It kind of sums up the story of the first Buccaneer elected to the Hall of Fame and the first member of the team’s Ring of Honor.

He died Sunday at the age of 56.

A humble, exceedingly gracious man, Selmon never was one of those people who would go around seeking attention or adoration. He simply earned it by his play on the field and the way he carried himself off it -- during and long after his career ended in 1984.

McEwen, a powerful man, might have twisted some arms to get the votes. But Selmon was the one who did the grunt work. He was the one who beat double-teams and chased down quarterbacks every Sunday. He was the one who endured the 0-26 run the Bucs went on as a 1976 expansion team.

He was the one who made the Bucs seem like miracle workers (long before the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars entered the league under a different set of rules in 1995) when they reached the NFC Championship Game in the 1979 season.

Yeah, the 1979 team had some guys like Doug Williams and Jimmie Giles who made some big plays on offense. But John McKay’s first winning team won with defense and Selmon was the center of that.

Selmon still was the center of the team in subsequent years when Williams left and things went bad. He left the game after the 1984 season because of a bad back, but he remained the icon of all icons in Tampa Bay.

The Bucs were bad for the next decade, but fans and the team could always point to Selmon as a point of pride. He stuck around town and stayed active in the community. He eventually joined the staff at the University of South Florida and helped the college start its football program.

Selmon remained an ambassador for the Bucs as the late 1990s arrived and things got better. Even if you weren’t in Tampa Bay for Selmon’s playing days, you knew who he was. There’s a Tampa expressway named after him and I have to drive by one of the restaurants that bears his name to get just about anywhere.

I’ll think of him every time I go by that restaurant and I’ll have one lasting memory of the man. Last November, Selmon was a guest speaker at a luncheon to honor McEwen at Saint Leo University.

At one point, Selmon said he wouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame if it hadn’t been for McEwen. No doubt, McEwen played a role. But, like McEwen said, Lee Roy was the one who got into the Hall of Fame and he was the one to play the game.

He played it with uncommon grace and dignity and he lived his life that same way. That’s why the legend of Lee Roy Selmon is going to keep lingering in Tampa Bay.

The Glazer family, which owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, just issued a statement on Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon.

Here’s the statement:

“From the very start, Lee Roy Selmon has been there for his team and community. Now, he and the whole Selmon family should know that our family and the entire Buccaneer organization is thinking of and praying for him.’’

Selmon was hospitalized Friday and remained in critical condition as of Saturday afternoon.

A quick update on Hall of Famer Lee Roy Selmon.

The Tampa Tribune’s Joey Johnston reports Selmon’s brother said the first player ever drafted by the Bucs is showing signs of improvement after being hospitalized Friday.

"He's stable and we all have great hope,'' Dewey Selmon said. "He's a fighter. Keep the prayers going.''

A hospital official said Selmon was in critical condition Saturday afternoon.

Much like you, I’ve spent the past couple hours following the rumors and reports about Lee Roy Selmon.

Our news desk has certain standards about confirming things and we’re abiding by them. All that’s certain at this point is that Selmon, Tampa Bay’s first Hall of Famer, has been hospitalized. If there are more developments, they will appear under the headlines section on our main NFL page.

Meantime, just hope or pray the best for Selmon and his family.

The NFC South mailbag got pretty full while I took my last bit of time off before training camps open, so let’s go ahead and get to some of your questions.

Jordan in New Orleans wrote to ask if Reggie Bush could be primed for a big season if he stays in New Orleans.

Pat Yasinskas: We’ll go on the assumption that Bush and the Saints work out a way to handle his contract and answer your question. Part of the reason that Bush has never put up the kind of numbers so many people expected is because he has dealt with a variety of injuries during his career. I think he’s a guy who possibly could benefit from the lockout. He’s had an entire offseason to let his body recover and get fully healthy. Let’s say he stays that way. Bush has only played a full 16-game season once in his career. That was 2006, his rookie season. Combine his rushing and receiving numbers from that season and you come up with more than 1,300 yards and eight touchdowns. I expect Mark Ingram to sort of fill the old Deuce McAllister role. In 2006, McAllister and Bush made a nice tandem. Plus, I think Sean Payton has had an entire offseason to come up with different ways to utilize Bush’s talents. I think it’s possible he could put up numbers similar to what he did as a rookie, if he can stay healthy all year.

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Dustin in San Diego asks about the possibility of Tampa Bay pursuing Atlanta free-agent tackle Tyson Clabo.

Pat Yasinskas: Not out of the realm of possibility. Right tackle Jeremy Trueblood is a free agent and he lost his job to James Lee last season. I don’t think the Bucs are going to make a huge effort to re-sign Trueblood. Atlanta may try to keep Clabo, but the Bucs might be wise to make a run at him. Clabo would be an upgrade over Trueblood or Lee.

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Jason in Winston-Salem, N.C., asks if there’s any chance of the Panthers keeping quarterback Matt Moore.

Pat Yasinskas: I just don’t see it. Cam Newton and Jimmy Clausen are guaranteed roster spots, unless they get injured. The Panthers also have Tony Pike and have talked about signing a veteran to mentor the young quarterbacks. Moore has a little experience, but not enough to really be the true mentor type. I still think Moore can be a decent NFL backup. I just think it’s in his best interest to go somewhere else and get a fresh start.

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Jill in Atlanta wanted to know my thoughts on Ricky Bell as a potential member of Tampa Bay’s Ring of Honor.

Pat Yasinskas: I think Bell is someone who should get in to the Ring of Honor in the next couple of years, if the Bucs continue to go in some sort of chronological order. Bell was a little before my time and I was in junior high school in Pennsylvania most of the time he played for the Bucs. But, even from a distance, I remember Bell in the same category as Lee Roy Selmon and Doug Williams, especially in that wondrous 1979 season. That might have been Bell’s finest season and he had several good years. Sadly, his career was cut short by illness and he died in 1984. I’ve talked to several former teammates about Bell and they all say he was a marvelous talent and wonder what he could have done if he had a longer career. I think he did enough to earn a spot in the Ring of Honor.

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Brian in Athens, Ga., inquired about the status of Atlanta defensive tackle Peria Jerry.

Pat Yasinskas: I’ve asked that question of coach Mike Smith and general manager Thomas Dimitroff several times this offseason. Every time, each of them has given the same answer: they’re expecting big things from Jerry, their first-round pick in 2009. He had a major knee injury early in his rookie season. Jerry came back last season, but was only a situational player with rookie Corey Peters playing ahead of him. Smith and Dimitroff have admitted the plan was to go slowly with Jerry last season. They firmly believe this is the season his knee will be totally healthy and they think he can finally be the player they thought they were getting when they drafted him.

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Mike in Chapel Hill, N.C., said he’s read a lot about players working out on their own or in groups during the offseason, but wonders what coaches have been doing during the lockout.

Pat Yasinskas: Excellent question and not much has been written about this. Around the league, coaches were more involved in the draft than in past years. They’ve also spent a lot of time working with personnel staffs to prepare for free agency. I think that’s one bright side of the lockout because coaching staffs and personnel staffs have had more time to get on the same page about who they want in free agency. Beyond that, I’ve heard that coaches have spent a lot of time reviewing the players they already have and thinking about ways to make them better. I’ve also heard coaches have done a lot more advance film work on their opponents for this season.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Of all the hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of moments Jimmie Giles could have picked as his favorite with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, this one’s definitely not the cleanest. It also may surprise you a bit at first.

“Wrestling in the mud with (teammate) David Lewis,’’ Giles said Wednesday as the Bucs announced he will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at a Dec. 4 home game with Carolina.

The wrestling session happened at the end of the 1979 season, a crucial one for the Buccaneers. Needing a win to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, the Bucs beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 3-0, in a torrential downpour.

The team that began as an expansion franchise in 1976 and started 0-26 would go on to stun everyone and reach the NFC Championship Game. It was a high-water mark for a franchise that soon would fall back to its losing ways. Giles was with the Bucs from 1978 until 1986 and, by that point, the Bucs were mired in something well below mediocrity.

They spent the latter half of the 1980s and the early and middle parts of the 1990s as a national joke. Actually, there were all sorts of jokes in those days.

“The sign on the ticket window was “Sorry, we’re open,’’ cracked long-time Tampa Bay radio personality Jack Harris, who was one of the guest speakers before Giles took the microphone.

But one of the best things the Bucs have done since starting the Ring of Honor two years ago is that they’ve embraced their past. It would be easy to try to forget it all and skip the whole era before coach Tony Dungy came along and changed the climate and the uniforms switched from orange and white to pewter and red.

That also would be a mistake because there were some good times and good players from those early years. Co-chairman Bryan Glazer made it a point to say the team’s present and future wouldn’t be possible without its past. He’s right.

Lee Roy Selmon and John McKay, the first two inductees, created some magical moments for a young franchise. So did Giles, who played tight end and went to four Pro Bowls while with the Bucs.

“It was Jimmie Giles and some others who helped turn this team around,’’ Harris said. “It was a great era.’’

But a short era. Sooner or later, the Bucs will open the floodgates for their Ring of Honor. That will start when Derrick Brooks goes in, which will clear the way for guys like Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Mike Alstott, Ronde Barber, Dungy and Jon Gruden.

It’s not quite time for that yet. Although there was a long dry spell between the 1979 team and the teams of the late 1990s, there are some other guys from those eras who deserve the honor. Guys like Ricky Bell, James Wilder, Paul Gruber and Hardy Nickerson should go in before the Bucs get to their more-recent past.

Then, there’s Doug Williams. He was the quarterback of the 1979 team and, by all rights, he should be going into the Ring of Honor before or with Giles. He’s not. That’s mostly Williams’ fault. He did some great things as a player and left Tampa Bay in a bitter salary dispute with former owner Hugh Culverhouse. Williams carried a grudge before finally returning to work in the team’s personnel department.

Things were good for a few years, but Williams left after the 2010 draft. Williams and general manager Mark Dominik weren’t getting along. Since his departure, Williams has taken some public shots at the Bucs. He’s not going to get into the Ring of Honor as long as that’s going on.

As Giles talked, I think there might have been a subtle message to Williams. Giles was talking about how the Bucs of long ago went through some tough times and weren’t beloved. Giles said that things change with time and that no one should succumb to bitterness.

That’s an excellent point. The Bucs are going out of their way to reach out to their former players. Let the water flow under the bridge.

The Bucs and their former players need to stay above the bridge -- above the pettiness.

TAMPA, Fla. -- I’m getting ready to head out to One Buccaneer Place for the news conference to formally announce Jimmie Giles into the team’s Ring of Honor.

The Bucs did a first-class job of making the announcement of John McKay last year and Lee Roy Selmon the year before that. I’m sure they’ll do right by Giles, but I’m more curious to see this announcement than I was the first two.

That’s largely because I knew just about everything about Selmon and McKay. Selmon was Tampa Bay’s first draft pick, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a staple in the community and I sometimes eat at his restaurants. McKay was Tampa Bay’s colorful first coach and was famous before that as an outstanding college coach at Southern California. He stayed in Tampa Bay after he was done coaching and sometimes stopped by to watch practice back in the mid-1990s when his son, Rich, was general manager and I was covering the Bucs on a daily basis.

But Giles is a little different. I don’t know nearly as much about him. I remember him a little as a player, but I arrived in the Tampa Bay area for college just as Giles was wrapping up his time with the Bucs. Growing up in Pennsylvania, not many Tampa Bay games were televised locally unless the Bucs happened to be playing the Giants, Eagles or Jets.

Giles also spent time with the Oilers, Lions and Eagles, but the best part of his career came with Tampa Bay. He was with the Bucs from 1978 until 1986 and made four Pro Bowls during that time. He was part of the 1979 team that made an unlikely run to the NFC Championship Game.

In 13 NFL seasons, Giles had 350 catches for 5,084 yards and 41 touchdowns. Those aren’t huge numbers for a tight end. But you have to remember Giles was playing in an era when tight ends primarily were used as blockers. Giles did have some big moments as a receiver and none was bigger than Oct. 20, 1985, against the Miami Dolphins. In that game, Giles caught four touchdown passes.

Buccaneers teammate Gerald Carter once was quoted as saying that Giles could have been "one of the best all-time tight ends, if they'd used him more".

But the Bucs used Giles enough that he was one of their best players from an early history that wasn’t always pretty. He did enough to earn a spot in the Ring of Honor and a lasting legacy.

I’ll be back later with more on Giles.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have said they’ll make an announcement Wednesday about the next inductee to their Ring of Honor.

They won’t officially say who it is yet, but the St. Petersburg Times is reporting that it’s former tight end Jimmie Giles and they’re citing former quarterback Doug Williams as the source. I’ve got no problem with Giles going in as the third member of the Ring of Honor after Lee Roy Selmon and John McKay. Giles was a very good tight end. The Glazer family, which owns the team, works together to select members of the Ring of Honor and team co-chairman Bryan Glazer serves as the front man for those efforts. The Glazers are making a smart move by going by some degree of chronological order.

If he had skipped ahead to Derrick Brooks, guys like Giles, James Wilder, Paul Gruber and Hardy Nickerson would have to wait for years. Once Brooks goes in, it’s going to open the gates for the rest of the big names from Tampa Bay’s golden age -- Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Mike Alstott, Warrick Dunn, Tony Dungy, Jon Gruden and Ronde Barber. By the time all those guys get in, Josh Freeman, LeGarrette Blount and Mike Williams might be ready to follow.

The Bucs didn’t have a glorious history before Dungy came along, but it’s important to recognize guys like Giles now and Brooks and friends can wait a few years. The guy who may be waiting the longest is Doug Williams. You could make a case Williams should be the next guy going into the Ring of Honor, but that’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

After winning the battle of public opinion in his long-ago feud with former owner Hugh Culverhouse, Williams was back in the good graces of the franchise for a time. He worked in the team’s personnel department and was close with Gruden and former general manager Bruce Allen.

But Williams left due to a strained relationship with Mark Dominik after he became the general manager. Williams might not have the fans on his side this time. He’s taken public shots at the Bucs and Dominik, while the franchise has stayed quiet about Williams. Even while Williams still worked for the team, he created an awkward moment when the Bucs announced Selmon as the first member of the Ring of Honor. Williams spoke at that news conference and it was kind of bizarre. Instead of talking about Selmon, he spent almost all of his time talking about the 1979 team.

The franchise probably is going to stay quiet on Williams for a long time. He was an important part of the franchise’s early years, but he’s burned some bridges. Unless those are repaired, Williams probably won’t be going into the Ring of Honor.

I’m back at it Monday morning after burning some time off, which I figured I’d better take because there won’t be a dull moment for months once the lockout ends.

First off, although things were pretty quiet while I was gone, there are two things I’d like to weigh in on.

Friday’s memorial service for legendary Tampa Tribune sports editor Tom McEwen was every bit as spectacular as you would expect. Steve Spurrier, Lee Roy Selmon and Leonard Levy (a Tampa businessman, community activist and McEwen friend) were outstanding with their eulogies. Spurrier, in particular, had everyone laughing as he delivered an uplifting speech that made us remember Tom’s legacy is staying with us. There was also a moment when McEwen's true power really hit me. As a general rule, a lot of guys don’t sing out loud in public and I’m one of them. At one point, a song was being played and I looked across the church. In my line of vision, I saw football’s Jon Gruden, hockey’s Phil Esposito and baseball’s Tino Martinez all singing. Only McEwen could have created that scene.

On a lighter note, there was a little bit of excitement in Carolina last week when center Ryan Kalil sent out a tweet that suggested the Panthers will be the team featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks’’ this summer. That’s not happening. The Panthers haven’t had any conversations with the people who run the show. There have been a lot of rumors about “Hard Knocks’’ and NFC South teams in the last few months. Let’s just clarify what’s real and what’s not. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers received an offer to be the featured team. They declined. There have been no talks with the Panthers or Falcons. I’m not sure if the Saints were ever approached or not, but they have no interest in being on the show. In other words, even if training camps take place, “Hard Knocks’’ is not coming to the NFC South this year.

Moving forward, I’m responsible for writing our story on the Power Rankings for left tackles that will appear Tuesday afternoon. I can’t reveal results yet, but I can tell you Carolina’s Jordan Gross and Tampa Bay’s Donald Penn were on my ballot. We’ll see if the rest of the voters thought enough of them to put them in the top 10.

We’ll stay on lockout watch, continue to monitor player workouts and be ready to dive into free agency if something breaks. Also, we’ll resume the NFC South chat Friday at 1 p.m. I’ll put up a reminder and a link later in the week.