Bryant Will Stay With Bucs
February 18th, 2009
Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times reports free agent wide receiver Antonio Bryant will remain with the Bucs.
Bucs free agent wide receiver Antonio Bryant wants to stay with the Bucs. Rick Stroud of the St. Petersburg Times writes that Bryant will be granted his wish.
Stroud reports that, provided the Bucs don’t sign Bryant, they will tag him.
The Bucs will make receiver Antonio Bryant their franchise player if they’re unable to reach a deal by Thursday’s deadline to apply the designation.
That means if Bryant subsequently signs the offer, the Bucs would be obligated to pay him $9.884-million for 2009. That’s the average of the league’s top five highest-paid receivers.
This would be the first smart move by Dominik. The next smart move would be to rid the team of the odor of Son of Bob. This would make Joe a happy man.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I would prefer the transition label vs. franchise tag because it would save the Bucs 1.2 million. Personally I feel that Bryant is worthy of a 4 year $25 million deal. Going straight to $9 million is a little extreme but the Bucs NEED Bryant.
Let’s assume they franchise Bryant then the possibility exists of working a trade with the Giants and getting more picks opening up the possibility of landing a Percy Harvin, Hakeem Nicks, Darrius Heyward-Bees, Robiski &/or Murphy.
However, losing Bryant for 2009 would confirm that the Bucs consider this a rebuilding year and are planning more for the future.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Well it happened, the Bucs tagged Bryant.
“Placing the tag on Bryant requires the Bucs to pay him a guaranteed $9.8 million this season.”
This fan is excited and it disproves all those naysayers who said the Glazers hired their current coach to “save money” and that the Glazers were “cheap”.
Now just re-sign Penn and Philip Buchannon.
Then see if Eddgerin James will come to the Bucs for a 2-year 10 million deal.
PS Can I recommend signing TJ Houshmandzadeh too?