Former Buccaneers linebacker Barrett Ruud has returned to the NFC South via a trade with the New Orleans Saints. (Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE)

Former Buccaneers linebacker Barrett Ruud has returned — well t the NFC South that is, not to a Bucs uniform. The New Orleans Saints have acquired Ruud in a trade with the Seahawks, returning the one time Buccaneer to the only other division he’s ever called home.

Don’t get too excited however, as it’s unlikely that when the Bucs and Saints meet up on October 21st that Ruud will be out there. The Saints currently have Curtis Lofton and Lawrence Wilson playing ahead of Ruud on the depth chart, and he’s likely going to slide into the third string spot.

The plan for Ruud is to backup Lofton when he comes back, and in the meantime, he’ll start as his replacement.

New Orleans sent a draft pick, likely a seventh rounder, to the Seahawks. Apparently they didn’t want to pay him the massive contract he somehow thinks he deserves.

A second round pick by the Bucs in 2005, Ruud started 68 games for the Bucs, but never showed the flashes of the elite linebacker his agent apparently thought he was. He demanded top dollar and the Bucs laughed him out of town and to the Pacific Northwest after a short stint in Tennessee. He wasn’t a big part of the Seahawks during his stint and now that he’s back in the NFC South, he’ll try and salvage what’s left of his career.

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At this point, the Bucs need to re-sign Barrett Ruud.

Whether or not you like Barrett Ruud, when league business resumes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers absolutely need to re-sign him.

Now let me qualify that statement by saying that this isn’t a conversation about whether or not Ruud is a gifted athlete, a good fit for Tampa or a long-term part of the Bucs plans (at least it isn’t yet), this is a conversation about pragmatism. Right now the league is still locked out, and news on a resolution to a labor dispute isn’t good. In fact, some believe nothing will be done until around July 4th, but they have until mid-July before they have to start canceling preseason games and actually begin to lose money. The point is that the lockout probably won’t be over any time soon.

And that’s exactly why the Bucs need to bring back Barrett Ruud. There just simply isn’t enough time to get another player ready to do what Ruud does. For all his criticisms, you cannot take away from Ruud his football intellect. The man is a great football mind and he does a lot of little things better than anyone gives him credit for. Over the last two years he’s basically been responsible for making sure a very young, inexperienced defense gets lined up correctly and then makes the proper pre-snap adjustments. There’s more to playing linebacker than what happens after the snap, and it’s precisely for that reason, the pre-snap abilities, that the Bucs need to keep him.

It’s just absurd to think that any player could possibly come in a month before the season and grow so familiar with the Bucs defensive system and its personnel that he could ever hope to replace what Barrett Ruud does pre-snap. The Bucs will still be one of the youngest teams in the NFL next season too, so that kind of football intelligence will be important.

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