Beginning Of The End For Donald Penn?
May 14th, 2010
Joe has stated several times before two things:
1) Arguably, Donald Penn was the Bucs best player last season.
2) Until there is a new CBA, anyone expecting Team Glazer to load up on free agents should ask the bartender for another cold adult beverage.
Stuck in the middle of those two premises is Penn himself. He knows he is a stud. The Bucs know he is a stud. But he will not be paid like an NFL stud, at least not for the 2010 season.
As a result, when OTAs commence next week at One Buc Palace, Penn is making noises that he may not show up. That’s the news from Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.
Penn is still bent over the Bucs refusal to give him a long-term contract. He’s no different than middle linebacker Barrett Ruud in that sense, but unlike Ruud, Penn has yet to figure out that skipping workouts won’t change that.
Penn, Ruud and dozens of other worthy players are being forced to wait on the long-term contracts they desire and deserve because the NFL and its player’s union have yet to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement.
That obviously Penn, Ruud and all the others with very uncertain futures, but there’s one thing Penn can be certain of. The Bucs still consider him a big part of their future.
Cummings goes on to type that Penn has an ace in his corner, and that is Bucs general manager Mark Dominik. It was Dominik that thought enough of Penn to pull him off the scrap heap and resuscitate his career.
In a roundabout way, it was Dominik that made Penn a wealthy man who is about to get wealthier.
Look, the Bucs need Penn. Next year is pretty much a wash, let’s be honest. For the Bucs to succeed next year, it means they must get stellar play from four or five rookies. Does anyone realistically expect that to happen? That’s asking a whole lot.
If Penn sits out, he sits out. But the Bucs will need him when play resumes after the 2010 season ends, which may not be until 2012.
May 14th, 2010 at 8:31 am
I’d love to see Penn get signed long term but holding out is not the way to go… I cant stand those players that hold out, get over yourself!!
May 14th, 2010 at 8:53 am
The season is a “wash” because the bucs have made it so. Did not have to be.
May 14th, 2010 at 8:54 am
That’s a fair point Eric.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:04 am
If he skips OTAs again….fu*k him. Wahhhh! I’m only making 3.2 million this year! Give me a fu*king break. Reality check. Your an undrafted free agent that had played pretty good, but not amazing. You have struggled to keep in shape and you already skipped OTAs last year which hurt the team. Get your fat ass to OTAs and do everything you can to show you do deserve a big contract. Holding out NEVER works out for the player. You just look like a jackass and lower your stock to other teams as well.
I say if he is stupid enough to hold out, trade his ass and go after Jared Gaither from the Ravens. I actually like Penn and would like to see him stay and get a long term contract, but if he is going to be selfish, greedy, and a distraction….then he needs to get the hell out of town.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Also, I love how next season is a wash…..four months before preseason. What a joke!
May 14th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Joe here,
Jdouble – Never against a player trying to get the most for himself. Penn is surely within the rules right now, even if he skips OTAs. That said, In Penn’s spot, Joe would cash the $3 million ticket (tenders are guaranteed) and pray he stays healthy.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:09 am
When your coming off a 3-13 season, OTAs are mandatory. If he doesn’t feel that way, then he can move on.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:30 am
I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone who has been offered
3 million dollars guaranteed to play a game.
Take the money A-hole and get your long term deal when the new CBA is reached.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:30 am
JDouble:
Joe’s confident the Bucs — not the sales or marketing people — would tell you they are building for the future, that this season is pretty much a 16-game video resume and training session. If they make a playoff run, that’s gravy.
That may not have been the case last year. This year, it’s pretty clear. At least the Bucs tried to improve themselves last year with the addition of Ward and Winslow and trying to get Facestomper Haynesworth.
Does Joe hope the Bucs make a playoff run? Of course!! That’s going to be one helluva uphill climb this season.
May 14th, 2010 at 9:41 am
I see both sides on this:
On one hand – Penn is well within his right to do this. He is also underpayed for an above average LT and is probably the best pass blocker on the team
On the other hand – he has had trouble staying in shape. The team won 3 games last year so he, and everyone else, should get to OTAs. He and his agent should also realize that until a CBA is reached, the Bucs would be stupid to sign anyone long term this year.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:16 am
The Bucs just need to sign the man! If they want to combat the perception they are CHEAP, then this is the perfect opportunity. They HAVE to have a LT to protect Freeman.
If you ask me, Penn’s position is pretty good — a lot better than Ruud was last year. First, the Bucs don’t have a viable alternative. LT is the 2nd most important position on the team. Freeman’s going to get killed without him. The Bucs have four choices if Penn holds out: 1) Sign him to a big contract (which would have been much less of a deal if they had done it last year); 2) trade him; 3) recind the RFA offer (won’t happen because he can sign anywhere — and will); 4) allow him to sit out (Bucs will trade him before they allow that to happen).
May 14th, 2010 at 10:26 am
As to the CBA issue, i understand one of the main issues is the huge rookie salaries, and then guys like Russel busting, laughing all the way to the bank.
On that issue it seems like the veteran players and the owners would be somewhat in agreement. Its got to disturb a guy like Penn when he sees Okung or Thomas hit the lottery when they havent played a down.
Since the vets are the ones voting on the CBA, you would think they wouldn’t mind seeing some of that huge rookie money “re-distributed” to them.
Then again maybe thats way to simplistic.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Donal Penn is in the best position of all the RFAs. Why? Because the Bucs didn’t draft any O-line man in the draft. They draft zero OT’s. I think Trueblood had leverage too for that reason.. but if he has a better year, maybe he’ll get more money.
This is Penn’s time to cash in. There aren’t many times where a player gets to take advantage of leverage… and this is his opportunity. Frankly, it’s not Penn, it’s the Bucs decision to make. The Bucs offered him nothing more than a 1 year tender.
If the Bucs don’t sign him, then they lose Freeman’s blindside protection. NFL teams draft starting caliber LOTs as high as top 5 picks in the draft and usually in the fist round. Not saying Penn is a first round OT… but he is a starter and it is very, very risky to go into a season without a starting LOT.
Penn should force Tampa’s hand to pay up. If Dom and the Glazers have the audacity to NOT sign Penn, their starting LOT, then they deserve to lose… big. Their WRs won’t develop because Freeman will get constant pressure with a back up LOT.
BTW, who the heck is our back up tackles????? R and L?
May 14th, 2010 at 10:48 am
@d-money: “I have a hard time feeling sorry for someone who has been offered 3 million dollars guaranteed to play a game.”
That’s funny. You seem to be very sympathetic to the billionaire Glazerhouse’s. They way you apologize for those guys, I figured you felt sorry for them. Those poor saps were taken advantage of by Gruden and Allen, right? Boo-hoo-hoo.
May 14th, 2010 at 10:51 am
If the Bucs don’t sign Penn then who will be his back up?
May 14th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Wow… the back ups are aweful.
http://www.buccaneers.com/team-and-stats/roster.html
And look how many WRs we have.
May 14th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hmmm… so next years needs will be:
Left and Right OTs, HB (Caddy will be gone, Graham old), Safety again, DE and CB.
Elite teams re-sign their young guys…. only farm teams rely on all their young guys, live through the growing pains, only to watch them leave as free agents.
The Farm Team of the NFL is back!
May 14th, 2010 at 11:20 am
F*** Penn!
Time to move on. Time to show fans how great our 2009 draft really was. Time for X.Fulton to get on the field.
40+ pounds gained with some of that wieght gained DURING the season.
Penn needs to get his ass to practice. The only holdout he should be having is the one at the local buffett. If he keeps this crap up hes going to die of a heart attack. I hear hes lost a buch of wieght, why should I believe that? Let me see a photo. Better yet, let me see a photot of Penn standing on a scale.
May 14th, 2010 at 11:30 am
RahDomDaBest
What sense would it make to give Penn a contract, seriously. Not only is there a looming CBA. but it would hurt us more than help us.
You want to talk about a farm? How do you think it is going to look when other RFAs, who have already signed thier tenders, see fat-ass Penn come along and get some mega-contract? Then we will REALLY be a farm next year.
BTW – Im not sure why you think the Bucs are the only team signing thier young-studs to tender contracts. You think other young playmakers dont want fat contracts? Haha. Its called the CBA. This is a leauge-wide phenomenon.
May 14th, 2010 at 11:36 am
team NOT signing****
May 14th, 2010 at 11:42 am
You had me at X.Fulton.
May 14th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
“Hmmm… so next years needs will be:
Left and Right OTs, HB (Caddy will be gone, Graham old), Safety again, DE and CB.”
Add MLB to that list too.
May 14th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Every time the Glazers don’t do something it is always “neither is anybody else”.
I, for one, am getting a little tired of that excuse.
“Everybody else” wasn’t 3-13 and “everybody else” doesn’t have absolutely no other option to protect their franchise QB at Left Tackle.
May 14th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
The goof with the name MVPFreeman claims that X.Fulton will be just fine protecting Josh’s blindside. And he is a Freeman fan!
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 14th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Seems like the problem with caveing in to a hold out is the following year 6 or 7 players will do the same thing. Alot of good GM’s on wining teams take this approach.
May 14th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
For crying out loud, we have not signed ONE PLAYER to a real contract this offseason! It’s all this one year tender crap! Yeah, i understand this CBA issue, blah blah blah………. but I see other teams around the league re-signing their own players. And the Bucs have the most money among most of the other teams to spend. So I’m not letting them off the hook no matter what! I realize that we can’t give them all contracts in one offseason, but can we at least sign one?!?! Seriously, I have never seen so many damn question marks in all my time as a Buc fan!
Do you people realize that 17 of our players next year will be free agents? 17!
The list includes:
Tanard Jackson, Cadillac, Barrett Ruud, Donald Penn, Davin Joseph, Geno Hayes, Graham, White, and Barber. Those are all our key players and I highly doubt the Glazers are going to write that many contracts. I doubt they’ll even re-sign half of them.
And not only that, but next year is supposed to be a great free agency class with over 400 players available. We won’t be able to participate in that, because we’ll be busy just re-signing OUR key players! some of the players that should’ve received contracts long ago.
May 15th, 2010 at 1:37 am
penn is a fat piece of lard ass that needs to get his mickey dee’s munching malarchy talking machismo dew rag wearing noggin into team workouts as soon as possible…..this guy has talent and potential to be great if he just lays off the non stop crunch and munch….his big paycheck is about to come in…and if he does the right thing it will land in his fat butterfinger & kit kat holding pocket….then he can proceed in roundabout fashion thru the mickey dee’s drive thru in a non stop circular motion knocking off big snacks and little macs….the fat F*ck needs a tummy tuck and swift hard kick in that lard ass….so hard it will bounce his bubble but right into ota’s…………penn looks like a guy who flips flap jacks at a diner in iowa….in fact he very well could replace johnny cakes as the f*ggot flap jack flipper on the sopranos if he doesnt do the right thing…….he should know that if he rocks his spot this year he will hit the lotto in tampa or in some other flap jack flippin town….pull it together now penn-boy……adam from ny
May 15th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Patrick, you are 1,000 percent right buddy.
The Plan is not to JUST draft and start young guys… it’s most critical part is to RE-SIGN the young guys you just developed!!!
May 15th, 2010 at 10:10 am
One last thing…. it takes two to tango. If these players don’t want to sign and want to test the FA market then Mark failed again.
You piss the FAs off, and they’ll leave. All the teams, most all of them, that didnt evem attempt to re-sign their FAs are going to see a lot of them bolt for FA on principle. Failing to see this opportunity, means risking losing all your young guys you were supposed to be developing… forcing the fan base to sit through and watch this garbage with promises of devloping young players.
Farm Team Tampa Bay Succaneers 2.0