It appears that Donald Penn doesn't communicate well with his agent.

Depending on who you believe, Bucs restricted free agent left tackle Donald Penn is either close to a deal, or talks are not going well.

Last week, Stephen Holder of the St Petersburg Times wrote that Penn was near a deal to sign a new contract.

Just talked to Donald Penn and he is ready to strike a deal.

His thoughts in a nutshell: “Film doesn’t lie,” he said. “I think I deserve it. I want to make sure my family is financially secure. . . I’ve been the lowest-paid starting left tackle for two years and you want to be compensated.”

Penn added that the Bucs and his agent were close to a deal during the season, but things never got finalized for some reason.

A day later, Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune spoke with Penn’s agent and got a much darker prediction than Penn gave Holder.

Talks aimed at securing a new deal for Penn have not been going on for days or even weeks. They’ve been going on for months and there hasn’t been all that much progress, according to Penn’s agent.

The agent, in fact, doesn’t seem very confident at this point that a deal will get done. And while some could argue that it’s early in the process, it’s really not.

So who is yanking who? Is Penn really that out of touch to what his agent is doing, or — Joe understands this may be a shocking assertion — could Penn’s agent be using Cummings?

Seems as though the former might be more accurate. Penn told Holder last Wednesday a deal was imminent. Here it is nearing noon Monday and nothing has changed.