TAMPA - We’re hearing that Bucs officials have already told University of South Florida officials that, if available, cornerback Mike Jenkins will be the Bucs pick when their turn comes up in the first round.

The news doesn’t come as any great surprise. A lot of mock drafts have had Jenkins going to the Bucs at No. 20 overall. That said, we’re not sure this isn’t a bunch of blustering on the part of the Bucs part.

Part of what teams do as the draft approaches is put up smoke screens. The idea is to make everyone else believe you have your eyes set on someone, so that other teams will try to make a move to get him. Often times the team putting up the smoke screen really wants someone else, so this could mean the Bucs really have no interest whatsoever in Jenkins. Time will tell.

Oh, and speaking of time, we’ve calculated that the Bucs pick should come shortly after 6 p.m. at the latest. Now, that’s a sportswriter calculating, so you must keep in mind the reason I became a sportswriter in the first place - because I can’t do math.