OK, Joe is going to share a neat little story with a cool twist. But you have to follow along. It gets better as you read.

Now there has been a lot of talk that barbecue pitmaster, Bucs left guard Logan Mankins, is rejuvenated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, after the way he and his offensive line mates played, Joe is more than a little dubious about Mankins – or any other holdover from last year’s debacle of a line – and a rekindled love for the game.

Last week, Joe had a sit down with a trusted Bucs source who repeated the narrative about Mankins being reborn, and offered details.

Essentially, not only is Mankins in some of the best shape of his life, he has grabbed the leadership reins of the offensive line and exercised authority, something he didn’t do last year.

Whether Mankins finally snapped out his mental funk that began when he was blindsided by Bill Belicheat and shipped to Tampa Bay, or he sees the end of his career coming if things don’t change, Mankins is not sitting passively by. He is aggressively ensuring that no corners are cut, both inside meetings and on the practice field.

Mankins, fed up with mental mistakes, began running gassers every time the offensive line goofs up in practice during OTAs.

Naturally, the young offensive linemen – the two rookies and the “Milk Cartons” — followed Mankins’ lead and began running gassers with him. Offsides, holding, illegal procedure, missing assignments, whatever, Mankins and the youngsters start sprinting. Soon, the veterans on the line joined in.

It doesn’t stop there. At one point recently, somebody on the offensive line screwed up and Mankins, upset, bellowed in so many words, “Damn it, let’s go,” and Mankins began running and his fellow offensive linemen were in lockstep.

Then suddenly, Mankins heard strange footsteps as he and the rest of the offensive linemen began stomping away.

And then Mankins heard a voice from the footsteps, “No, we’re a team!” the voice said, as the non-offensive lineman began hoofing it with the linemen running the gassers.

Who was it? None other than “America’s Quarterback,” Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston. Since then, every time the offensive line ran gassers for mistakes, Jameis ran right alongside.

Folks, if that doesn’t get you fired up, then Joe doesn’t know what will. Just 15 more Sundays until the regular season kicks off.