Last Minute Won’t Work For Bucs
March 7th, 2022
We are now exactly seven days (and zero seconds) until the Bucs can head outside their organization to put contracts in front of free agents — if they can’t retain their own.
The Bucs cannot play games waiting on their in-house guys. Those decisions must come by first thing next Monday morning.
The absolute worst case scenario would be the Bucs waiting around on Ryan Jensen, Chris Godwin, Will Gholston, Leonard Fournette, Rob Gronkowski, Alex Cappa, Jordan Whitehead and others while the rest of the league is making its chess moves when the free agency tampering/negotiating window opens at noon on March 14.
Deals in principle for free agents moving to new teams will be announced by Adam Schefter, Jay Glazer and other NFL insiders by next Monday afternoon. Those deals can be made official on Wednesday, March 16.
It’s rare for an in-house free agency deal to come down to the very last second. That happened with the Bucs and Doug Martin back in 2016, but that’s the exception to the rule.
First, the franchise tag deadline is tomorrow at 4 p.m. Joe expects the Bucs to use it on Chris Godwin unless both parties already are on the same page regarding a long-term contract. For everyone else, the Bucs need to nail guys down in less than seven days.
There are too many variables, too many key starters, for general manager Jason Licht to have a bunch of question marks floating in the wind. It’s not like the Bucs have one big free agent. It’s far more complex than that.
Joe actually expects some Bucs re-signings to be announced in the next 72 hours.
March 7th, 2022 at 12:02 pm
And others pudding contract in front of our free agents as well
March 7th, 2022 at 12:09 pm
Chris is not worth the franchise tag, so please get a deal done with him Licht. Otherwise, adios mf, we have too many needs to be fooling around with an injury prone receiver.
March 7th, 2022 at 12:11 pm
Gronk as a better chance of playing with the Tampa Bay Bandits than he does with the Bucs this season…Gronk loves the spotlight and with Brady gone, Tampa is back to being a regional team.
March 7th, 2022 at 12:12 pm
^ dumb
March 7th, 2022 at 12:14 pm
I really like chris godwin but 19.1 mil for a player just coming off of acl injury is just a tat too much. And you can t spread the money out.
March 7th, 2022 at 12:18 pm
I just read that we are working on a deal to keep Chris Godwin.
March 7th, 2022 at 12:28 pm
UNDERSTAND YOUR BRAND
We’ve learned over the past two years it takes 52 to win. Complimentary football is the Buc’s brand.
Tagging Godwin, when it requires you to lose so many others, is a surefire way to build a perennial loser.
March 7th, 2022 at 12:45 pm
So the Bucs are going to franchise tag a player who won’t be able to play until week 6?
Sure – why not?
Don’t get me wrong – I am very happy if Godwin stays in Tampa. I just really hoped they would be able to work out a long term contract rather than use the franchise tag and spend most of our salary cap on one player when we have 24 free agents to sign…
March 7th, 2022 at 12:53 pm
If they tag CG, would that give them additional time to work out long term deal and it if is made, the franchise tag goes away and the contract in place?
March 7th, 2022 at 12:57 pm
Boy there are some silly people with silly ideas commenting today.
March 7th, 2022 at 1:27 pm
SlyPirate … ‘Tagging Godwin, when it requires you to lose so many others, is a surefire way to build a perennial loser.’
Agree 100% SlyPirate. JL & his band of merry men get paid handsomely to ‘negotiate’ deals with players. Just do your job JL & stop screwing around with franchise tags.
Marine Buc … I remember reading that Godwin is at 45% right now (scary low to me), but I hadn’t seen anything on when they anticipate him back. Missing the first 6 games, then probably taking a couple of games to get back into the swing (with a new QB to boot) makes it sound like paying him $19-$20 mil for 2022 is awfully risky.
BTW, also wondering about Wirfs. Just read something saying that he had pulled a tendon or something clear off, but that he didn’t have surgery. Haven’t heard a single word about how his recovery is coming along.
March 7th, 2022 at 1:41 pm
now that wirfs has suffered his first sorta serious nfl injury, mark my words, you will not be seeing him jump out of pools or carrying giant tree logs on videos any time soon…in fact ever again
#TimeToPreserveThatBodyForTheNflField
March 7th, 2022 at 3:05 pm
Tampa Bay Desperados