Father Dungy, longtime mentor and friend of Lovie Smith, already has expressed his faith in Johnny Football.

Now Bucs icon Chucky is taking his Johnny Football love a step further than his usual I-love-everybody rhetoric. Chucky, as chronicled by NFL.com, is all but guaranteeing Johnny Football’s success if he gets strong coaching.

That came on the heels of Chucky drooling over Johnny Football’s risk-taking, as well as Chucky’s glowing impressions when he spent time with Johnny Football for his made-for-TV quarterbacks camp on BSPN.

“If you get him with a quarterback coach or anybody that aspires to be a quarterback coach and spend the time teaching this kid NFL defenses and your system, I can’t imagine Johnny not being successful,” Gruden said.

Those are strong words even for Chucky, who always must be taken with a big grain of salt — or earplugs when he’s doing a live game broadcast.)

If fans want to buy in to Chucky’s mindset, the Bucs are in perfect position to groom Johnny Football, given the presence of quarterbacks guru Jeff Tedford and his trusty sidekick, QB coach Marcus Arroyo. Both of them are former quarterbacks and obsessed with the position.

Joe doubts the Bucs will have a shot to draft Johnny Football, but Joe believes the position still needs to be addressed in a big way. The fantasy of Mike Glennon or Josh McCown hoisting the Lombardi trophy is too great a fantasy for Joe to wrap his head around.