The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have done a great job navigating free agency this offseason. Obviously quarterback Tom Brady deciding to return for his 23rd season is a huge start. That announcement started a cascade of contract restructures and player signings, even a trade. The power of Brady if you will.
Under normal circumstances this sounds like a successful start to the team’s offseason, but there’s more work to do. One of the key players the Buccaneers have yet to bring back is defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. The consensus is that Suh will return to the Bucs, but GM Jason Licht expressed there may be inherent dominoes to fall before re-signing Suh.
Licht responded to the question about communications with Suh and his team, “Still in touch, still talk. Got a lot of balls in the air, a lot of decisions we have to make moving forward, for different reasons. But we’ll leave everything. It’s an open door for a lot of different things that could come up. But we’ll see what happens. But there’s a time element on several other positions as well.”
This sounds to me like the Buccaneers have an eye on either a different free agent defensive tackle or are looking to draft one near the top of the draft. Let’s face it, Suh isn’t looking to break the bank, but I also doubt he’ll play for the league minimum.
Suh has been a stalwart on the Bucs defensive line, helping in part with their dominance against the run and posting six sacks in each of the last two seasons.
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